Well, I'm kind of going through it at the moment. I'm working a 40 hour week in a high stress job (for Queensland Health, so also in the media a lot lately, and lots of internal pressures resulting from that), and also studying part-time via correspondance.

With work, when I first started down the IVF route, I was acting-up in my boss's position, which involved managing 160+ staff, and had a whole extra team added to it while I was there, so busier than it had been while she had been doing the job. I eventually found it so stressful doing the job + study + IVF/fertility treatments that I lost the plot completely - went to my GP who prescribed 1 1/2 weeks off work completely, following by stepping down from my boss's position and returning to my substantive position, which I did. I told my line manager that I needed to put my emotional energy into TTC, not work, and she was very understanding, thank goodness. I still manage about 20 staff, and have a clinical caseload, so I still find it quite stressful, particularly given the current health environment, but definitely much more manageable.

Thankfully I do get paid sick leave, and had heaps accrued,so it hasn't been much of problem taking time off for blood tests, scans, and my EPU yesterday. I also work a 9-day fortnight, which means I work 40 hours in 9 days, and get every second Monday off. I actually managed to schedule most of my appts for every second Monday, and some which needed exact timing (like my embryo transfer this coming Monday) have luckily fallen on my day off anyway.

The study ... well I actually haven't done any since I started this IVF cycle, but got a phone call from the College a few days ago, so I'll really have to knuckle down and finish my last 2 subjects. To be totally honest, my studying really did suffer quite a bit. I was due to finish my Cert IV in February (well, actually November last year, but they gave me a little extension) and I'm still not finished yet.

As a lot of other people have said, I think it depends on the individual. For myself, if I have to do it again, I wouldn't do study at the same time. Have you spoken to your employer to see how flexible they are going to be when you need time off (sometimes it's only an hour or two in the morning for a scan, sometimes, like after your EPU, maybe a few days).