The “Hot Womb” Letdown: What No One Tells You About the Physical Crash After IVF

By Hilary Metcalfe

You’ve braved the injections and tracked every follicle like a hawk. You climbed the rollercoaster of hormones and hope. Then, in a blink, or rather, a groggy wake-up from anaesthesia, you’re done.

And suddenly, you feel it.

Not just dopey or sore. But heavy. Hot. Hollow. Like something enormous has happened, and left your body trying to catch up. Many women call it “the hot womb.” Others describe it as a wavelike collapse, a hormonal void, or even an out-of-body sadness they never expected.

Welcome to the physical letdown after egg retrieval or embryo transfer, one of the most under-discussed experiences in the IVF journey.

I know because it happened to me, and I had already survived endometriosis, misdiagnosis, chronic pain, fertility fears, hormonal chaos, and years of feeling like my body was a puzzle no one else could solve.

I lived in that territory long before IVF mapped new terrain over it, and I felt totally side-blinded, so I wrote this article to help other women understand it and navigate it better. 

Are you in or about to do an IVF cycle or sitting in the emotional aftermath wondering what happened? Then this article is for you. 

Xx,
Hilary 
The SABI Co-Founder, a wellness brand built from the inside out.

The Moment No One Prepares You For

Through my conversations with women navigating fertility treatment, and in my own experience, the hours following egg retrieval are often marked by sensations that feel hard to explain but impossible to ignore.

"Nobody warned me that I'd wake up after retrieval feeling like I was floating above my own body, weepy, and drenched in warmth that didn’t feel comforting - it felt wrong," says Jodie Kikelly, 34, after her second IVF round.

Many describe:

• A strange heat in the pelvic area, sometimes radiating through the torso

• A hormonal emptiness or sudden emotional crash

• Deep uterine soreness—even when no embryos have been transferred

• And above all, a grief-like heaviness, even in hopeful cycles

These aren’t just emotional responses. They’re physical, visceral, and rarely talked about. So what exactly is going on?

The Hormonal Cliff: Estradiol Withdrawal and the Endocrine Crash

During IVF, the ovaries are deliberately hyperstimulated. Estradiol (E2) levels rise far beyond natural cycle peaks. The body adapts to this environment — neurologically, vascularly, emotionally.

Then, almost overnight, the stimulation stops.

Eggs are removed.
Hormone signalling drops sharply.
Progesterone support may pause or shift.

What follows is not just a mood change — it’s a neuroendocrine withdrawal.

Estradiol plays a central role in:

• Thermoregulation (how your body perceives heat)

• Serotonin and dopamine signalling

• Blood vessel tone and circulation

• Emotional resilience and perception of safety

When estradiol levels fall abruptly, the hypothalamus - the brain’s regulatory centre - can misfire. Heat perception becomes distorted. Mood destabilises. Blood flow shifts.

This is why women report:

• feeling flushed or feverish without infection

• emotional emptiness or grief without a clear “reason”

• a sense of collapse rather than relief

Even though it has been described as “falling off a hormonal cliff your body had just learned to stand on”, you’re given a juice box, a discharge sheet, and sent home.

Anaesthesia and the Nervous System: Why the Body Feels Unprotected

Then there’s the anaesthesia.

Most IVF retrievals use light sedation or twilight anaesthesia. But even brief exposure can profoundly affect sensitive nervous systems.

Anaesthetic agents act on:

• GABA receptors (the brain’s calming pathways)

• Vagal tone (the parasympathetic nervous system)

• Blood pressure and circulation

For some women, this creates a rebound effect once consciousness returns: the nervous system feels stripped of its usual buffering mechanisms.

Blood vessels dilate. Circulation shifts toward the pelvis. Emotional defences feel lowered.

This helps explain the “hot womb” sensation — vasodilation combined with heightened pelvic awareness — as well as the emotional rawness many women describe.

“It felt like my womb was on fire,” one woman told me,
“but the rest of me felt cold and exposed.”

Emotional Letdown, Physical Grief

Beyond physiology, there’s something deeper.

In traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda or Chinese medicine, the womb is considered a seat of emotional memory. To undergo a procedure where something is removed — be it eggs, lining, or potential, may trigger what one practitioner called “an energetic hemorrhage.”

In Western terms? Unprocessed grief. A disconnect between the mind’s logic (“this is medical, this is hope”) and the body’s sensation (“something was taken, and I am not ok”).

Why We Need to Talk About This

Most IVF blogs focus on tips for success, self-injections, or dealing with the two-week wait. But the actual embodied experience of IVF is often sterilized, medically and emotionally.

And yet, more and more women are saying the same thing:

“I didn’t expect it to be so emotional.”

“Nobody warned me about the after.”

We need a language for this. Not just the hormone charts and retrieval counts, but the emotional anatomy of IVF.

How to Prepare (and Protect) Yourself

If you’re approaching egg retrieval or embryo transfer, consider preparing for the letdown as intentionally as you prep for injections.

Here’s what might help:

• Post-retrieval care kit: Warm compresses, grounding herbal teas (our best recommendations below), electrolyte drinks, and magnesium for muscle calm.
  

• Emotional debriefing: A therapist, doula, or trusted friend to hold space, not fix, just witness.
  

• Partner prep: if you have a partner, then let them read this article! Help them help you, hold space for you, acknowledge the tough part of this process, emotionally and physically. 
  

• Rest and warmth: Your womb is not just a site of procedure, it’s a site of meaning. Keep it warm. Let it feel safe again.
  

• Name it. Share it. The more we name this moment “the hot womb,” the hormonal void, the post-retrieval grief, the less isolating it becomes.

Born From What My Body Needed First

I didn’t set out to make blends. I set out to survive a body that felt unpredictable, painful, and often misunderstood. Every formula began as something I needed personally — something to calm my nervous system after years of endo, something to rebuild my minerals after IVF, something to help my womb find its rhythm again.

What started as my own rescue plan slowly became a body of work shaped alongside herbalists, naturopaths, and reproductive doctors. These blends were never theoretical; they were lived, tested, refined — in real moments of depletion, hope, recovery, and hormonal collapse.

Gentle Period Blend — For Cycle Regulation

One thing IVF never told me: medicated cycles often leave your body without a real period, or with a period that feels wrong, delayed, painful, emotionally charged, or barely present.

Gentle Period was the formula I created to help my endometris pain at first, and ended being the one to support my cycle come back online at a different time.

It blends herbs known for thousands of years to support:

1. Uterine Circulation + Flow

Raspberry leaf and hibiscus help bring warmth and movement back into a womb that’s been chemically overridden.
This is crucial for clearing residual hormones and restoring healthy flow.

2. Hormonal Detoxification

Nettle and red clover support liver pathways and estrogen clearance — vital after synthetic hormones.

3. Emotional + Nervous System Ease

Oat straw soften PMS irritability, soothe cramps, and help rebalance mood.

Safety & Use:

⚠️ Not recommended during IVF or implantation windows.

Gentle Period contains herbs that can stimulate uterine blood flow or contractions, which are beneficial when regulating cycles naturally but not during luteal or implantation phases.

✅ Can be used between rounds (if no embryo transfer is pending). It helps the body recalibrate between medicated cycles, clear residual hormones, and re-establish a balanced rhythm.

Acknowledging the Sacred in Science

IVF is a marvel of modern medicine. But the body is still ancient, still wise, still sacred.

And it deserves more than silence after surgery. It deserves space to process what it’s just been through, physically, emotionally, hormonally.

Whether or not you retrieve the number of eggs you hoped for, whether or not a baby comes from this cycle, you are still allowed to grieve. And you are still worthy of softness, safety, and support.

Because the womb is not just a factory. It is a feeling place.
And it remembers.

If you’re navigating IVF and want more real-talk support, here are a few other reads that might help:

• Do This Before IVF: The Checks That Change Everything
• The Emotional Side of IVF: Holding On When Hope Feels Fragile
• The Top 10 Supplements Before and During IVF: An Investigative Deep Dive
• Your IVF-Safe Skincare Blueprint: What to Keep, Ditch, and Switch

ABOUT HILARY METCALFE Hilary Metcalfe is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, whole foods chef, and women’s health product developer whose work is grounded in both science and lived experience. Before co-founding The SABI, she worked in sustainability and corporate strategy—experience that now informs the brand’s commitment to ethical sourcing, transparency, and long-term impact. Her own journey through fertility challenges, miscarriage, Adenomyosis fuels her mission to help women reconnect with their cycles, understand their hormones, and feel truly supported in their bodies. At The SABI, Hilary leads product development, formulating OB-GYN-approved rituals and hormone-conscious skincare rooted in nutrition, herbal wisdom, and clinical insight. Originally from Los Angeles and raised in Baja California, she lives in Todos Santos, Mexico, with her husband Kees, rescue dog Flint, and their rainbow babies, Paloma and Bea.

References

1. Sharara FI, et al. “Hormonal dynamics of ovarian stimulation for IVF and their impact on mood and well-being.” Fertility and Sterility, 2005.
   

2. Boivin J, et al. “Emotional distress in infertile women and men: a meta-analysis.” Human Reproduction Update, 2011.
   

3. Leslie K, et al. “Awareness during anesthesia: a prospective case study.” Anesthesia & Analgesia, 2000.
   

4. Charkoudian N. “Mechanisms of sympathetic vasoconstriction in human skin during normothermia and hyperthermia.” Journal of Applied Physiology, 2010.
   

5. Svoboda R. Ayurveda: Life, Health and Longevity. Penguin Books.
   

6. Kaptchuk TJ. The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine. McGraw-Hill Education.
   

7. Resolve.org. National Infertility Association. https://resolve.org
   

8. Reddit IVF Forum. r/IVF — Community narratives and support.
   

9. IVF Babble. https://ivfbabble.com
   

10. Briden L. Period Repair Manual. Pan Macmillan, 2017.
    

11. Gunter J. The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina—Separating the Myth from the Medicine. Kensington, 2019.

HORMONAL & PROUD

Created as a brand to help women navigate the toughest moments in pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum — and practically every stage of life, the SABI aims to change the narrative around our hormones from one of taboo, embarrassment and loneliness, to awareness and even pride. Much more than a wellness brand, SABI offers a carefully crafted line of products to carry you through your hormonal journey; a set of rituals, supportive tools, and ancient herbal remedies that have been tested time and again by women and now, backed by medicine. SABI is a blend of science and nature conceived by women who have experienced the joys and deep implications of bringing a child into the world, the pains of a heavy and difficult period, miscarriage and difficulty conceiving

Here is an invitation to get to know your body and its cycles better and to really understand what is going on inside. Learn to use your hormonal cycle to your advantage no matter your stage of life, and know that you can always support and balance your hormone levels. Look for the right sources of information, know that there is help, and know that you’re supported.

DISCLAIMER

The SABI blog and articles are not meant to instruct or advise on medical or health conditions, but to inform. The information and opinions presented here do not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals for your unique situation.