I went in today to recheck the progress of my follicles and the verdict is in: it's a no-go for this month, we're going to cancel the cycle. :( Some bad news, some good news from it though. Bad news is that none of my many follies are over 10mm and usually by this day of my cycle they're around 20 or 22mm. It's like they're in limbo or something. They're just not maturing and popping to the surface like they should and rather than have me keep coming back and spending money to keep checking, my nurse said we should just cancel and start over next month. The good news is that the ultrasound tech couldn't find any traces of a cyst, (and I also came right out and asked the tech if my ovaries look polycystic and she said with some women you can just tell and she's not getting that from mine at all---so that's cool!) and when I told my nurse that I've been bleeding again since Tuesday (even though my period has been over for several days), she thinks the cyst resolved itself and is sloughing and that's why I'm bleeding. Good enough for me. Other good news is that my lining is well over 6mm, so she's pleased with that and so am I. Much better than my wimpy 4 while on the Clomid!
Back to somewhat bad news: I have a tough decision to make for next month. My nurse said it's up to me but she was kind of steering me towards increasing my dosage of Femara to see if that will help the follies mature instead of returning to the Clomid, which we know works for me, but not well enough because I haven't gotten pregnant on it. Clearly, I don't have a problem making tons of follies while on drugs (which astounds me because I thought for sure I would), it's just that my body's being stubborn with the low dose of Femara and only half-assing it this time around. She kept saying, "It's your decision but your lining on the Femara looks great", which is equally as important. No point in having chubby follies if the blankie isn't thick enough to wrap around a baby and keep it there for 9 months! So I don't really know what I'm going to do at this point. I have a couple weeks to figure it out and do some research. I don't see why doubling the dose wouldn't help, it's not like I wasn't producing at all. And like I said, yeah Clomid worked but only in a sense because I didn't get pregnant while on it, so something was still off. Could've been the lining issue, who knows.
I also brought up the fact that some people do back to back IUIs to ensure that the timing is better and does she think maybe our timing was just off a bit and she didn't really express one way or the other if they would even consider that, and I know they only do IUIs in the morning, and back to back would require one in afternoon/evening and one the following morning. What the heck...just use up the last two vials in one month! See what happens!! So yeah, not sure if that will happen but we'll see.
So, any feedback from my followers who've had experience with this whole trial-and-error process of seeing what meds do what??
Fetal Doppler keeping me sane
12 years ago
5 comments:
In my experience, I responded to Femara (the second time) the same way as you. I had a few follicles, and then they didn't mature, in fact we kept monitoring them and by my last appointment they were gone. We moved to injectables, and I've had similar problems with them not growing as much. He said this is because of my brain not sending the right signals to "grow" the follicles. It's trial and error, every cycle is different. I'd say it's worth it to try Femara one more time. If it doesn't work move to injectables. I'd also have your AMH tested to see what your egg quality is like. A slow response is sometimes indicative of poor egg quality. I have no problem producing a ton of eggs, it's just getting them to mature that;s the problem.
Hope this helps!
Steph I know how it is, I didn't have any mature follicles on clomid. It was a similar situation, my lining grew beautifully but still on CD16 there was no growth. I didn't have the option on increasing the dosage though, they said I was already on the highest that they prescribe.
If I were you, I'd consider just taking the plunge to follistim or menopur. I bawled when I found out that was my best option, can my body really hate me that much? But in the end I realized what the heck, why not. I'd have to do all that and more if I did IVF anyway, so why not start now?
Have they considered doing clomid+endometrium for your lining? I know that clomid worked for me, but in addition to thinning my lining I was an insane crazy person that didn't even want to be around myself, lol, so I stopped it. But you don't have the crazy factor, so maybe that would help?
If not, I'm voting for injectables, TBH. I just wouldn't want to risk another cycle failing with the femara. Especially if you choose to do back to back IUI's.
Oh- about those! My doctor really only does his IUI's in the morning as well. So what we did was trigger Monday night at 11 pm, insemmed at 11 am the next morning for 12 hours past trigger, and again the next morning at 11 am for 36 hours past trigger. The 36 was the one I was really aiming for, but I thought that 12 hours was also a good time. That was I was covered if I ovulated at 24 hours past trigger. My doctor also claims that the frozen sperm lives longer than 12 hours, but who the heck knows, lol.
I asked to do back to back IUIs too and my RE said it was unnecessary... grrr. Hopefully yours is more reasonable. Good luck!
What dose of Femara did you take this month? Did you take it on CD 3-7 or 5-9? I took 5 mg for 5 days on cd 3-7 and ended up with two wonderfully sized follicles.
I would consider doubling the dose, and possibly supplementing with injectables? Maybe they can check to see if doubling the dose resolved the lack of growth and prescribe injectables if you need some more help?
Oh - and my RE doesn't do back to back IUI's she says its no more effective than a single well-timed IUI. I wondered about this at first but after doing a little internet research I found out she was right.
Good Luck!
Mama, I was on 2.5mg CD 3-7. As for the back to back IUIs...I just want to get rid of my vials so I can move on faster...kinda messed up, huh?! lol I also don't think they're more effective, just so long as you're not late on it and even then, there's still a chance.
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