It's 1am and your stomach looks five months pregnant.
The clinic nurse just told you to drink water and take Tylenol.
You're scared, alone, and wondering if you're overreacting.
Another donor heard the same reassurance.
She got cleared to fly home anyway.
Ten days later she was still in a hospital bed after a stroke.
Here are the five signs her clinic waved off, and what they mean for you tonight.
1. The abdomen that looked "five months pregnant" and got no exam
One donor described her stomach this way.
"My stomach looked five months pregnant and hurt when I touched it," she said.
She also had trouble urinating.
Another donor said the swelling made her look "six months pregnant."
A local clinic exam later found her ovaries were swollen enough to touch each other.
Some donors report ovaries swelling "to the size of grapefruits."
None of that gets caught over the phone.
A nurse who tells you to drink water can't see your abdomen.
She can't feel whether your ovaries have doubled in size.
If your stomach has grown enough that people ask if you're pregnant, that's not normal recovery.
That's a body under real strain, and it needs eyes on it, not a phone script.
A first-time donor reading this might wonder if her clinic rounded its risk number down to keep her from getting scared off.
That question is fair, and it's part of why the exam matters more than the phone call.
2. Breathing that turns into "bubbles around my collarbone"
One donor described feeling "bubbles around my collarbone" and struggling to breathe.
That's fluid pressing where it shouldn't be.
Another donor developed chest pains, pleural effusion, and pulmonary edema.
She needed the ER the day after her retrieval.
A different donor had to sleep propped up because fluid was pressing on her abdomen.
Clinicians in at least one case considered the breathing trouble life-threatening within a day.
None of these women were warned that breathing could become the emergency.
They were warned about bloating.
Nobody said watch your lungs.
If you feel short of breath lying flat, or feel bubbling near your collarbone, that's not recovery.
That's fluid somewhere it doesn't belong, and it's when to call 911.
3. A number nobody explained until the symptoms did
Most donors don't learn their egg count until after retrieval.
One donor retrieved 63 eggs and was shocked to hear the number only once severe symptoms started.
Another had 53 eggs retrieved and ended up in a medical coma in the ICU for four days.
A third had 43 eggs retrieved and needed the ER the very next day.
ASRM puts severe OHSS at 1 to 2 percent.
That figure is usually counted per cycle, not per donor.
HFEA says about a third of donors get mild OHSS.
Those are two different questions with two different answers.
A skeptical reader who fact-checks these numbers will notice neither side is wrong.
They are just measuring different things, and nobody has lined the two up for donors.
Repeat donors say their dose went up on a second cycle with little explanation of why.
A high yield doesn't guarantee a bad reaction.
The pattern across these cases is still hard to miss.
Nobody sat these donors down beforehand and said your number is high, watch closely.
They found out the number mattered after their bodies had already told them.
4. Take painkillers and drink water, said like she'd heard it before
This is the advice Brittany got.
It's the advice donors get when they call in pain.
One donor, a nurse herself, called her own OHSS "terrifying" and "near-fatal" after donating to a friend.
She knew what a medical emergency sounded like.
She still almost didn't get taken seriously in time.
If a nurse who's also donated can get waved off, a first-time donor stands even less chance.
Advocates argue that flat, unsurprised tone isn't an accident.
It's what happens when a low number gets repeated so often that staff stop hearing it as a warning.
An advocate who has lived through a near-fatal episode might ask if speaking up changes anything at all.
She wonders if the next intake packet will still just say under 2 percent and move on.
That doubt is fair, and it is exactly why the checklist below exists.
The voice on the phone that isn't surprised by your symptoms already knows something you don't.
You are not overreacting by asking for more.
5. Cleared to fly while the body was still escalating
One donor was cleared to fly home while severely ill.
Days later she suffered a massive stroke.
She spent 10 days in the hospital.
Another donor was hospitalized for an entire month, and became so weak she "forgot how to walk."
A third was home alone in a hotel room when fluid began pressing on her lungs and her heart.
Clearance to travel is not the same as being fine.
It often means a box got checked, not that the swelling had actually resolved.
A repeat donor whose dose went up between cycles might wonder what else wasn't explained to her.
That question matters just as much before a second retrieval as it does after one.
If you're told you're okay to fly, drive, or go back to work while your abdomen is still growing, ask what changed since yesterday.
If the answer is nothing, that clearance is a guess, not a diagnosis.
You might worry that going to the ER means a bill nobody warned you about.
You might worry you'll feel stupid if it turns out to be nothing.
A swollen abdomen, breathing trouble, or a sudden headache are not embarrassing symptoms.
They're the same signs doctors use to catch OHSS before it turns into a stroke.
Here's a symptom checklist to keep by your phone tonight.
Call 911 for chest pain, trouble breathing, or sudden confusion.
Go to the ER for rapid weight gain, severe pain, or a stomach that keeps growing.
Wait and watch only applies to mild bloating that isn't getting worse.
Ask the clinic in writing, before you sign anything, whether they cover ER costs from retrieval complications.
If they won't answer clearly, that's information too.