# did you have side effects on femara?



## foquita

hi girls :flower: 

i did three cycles of femara and still have three to go (i keep putting them off, so not ready for them :haha:), i see loads of people on here raving about how little side effects there are compared to clomid. i've never taken clomid but i DREAD to think what i would be like on it if it's supposed to be worse than femara :haha: 

i had 

- mood swings (especially during the days i was taking them, i turned into a complete and utter :witch:) 

- NO cm, never mind fertile cm! i have never been so dry :wacko: definitely not sperm friendly :spermy:

- the first month i had quite awful cramps and spotting between finishing the tablets on CD6 and having my ultrasound on CD12 

can't think of any more at the moment :lol: but did anyone else have side effects on femara? these were all side effects that i associated with clomid (from what i've seen from reading loads of threads on here) so i was quite surprised!


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## pinksprinkles

Hey hun. First off, I am so sorry you've had such bad luck with Femara. :hugs: I don't think that is usually the case, but I'm sure there are some ladies who get the worst of the side effects. That is how Clomid was for me. The doctor said I responded waaaay worse than most people do to Clomid. After two rounds of it, I just couldn't take anymore.

I had TERRIBLE side effects on Clomid. Nausea, vomiting, hot flashes, insomnia, severe depression, panic attacks, migraines, cramps, etc. It was the worst feeling I have known in my life. I was bed ridden by the third day of Clomid, and that would last all the way to O. I don't know how many times I called my DH into the room just to ask him if I was dying; I honestly believed I was.

Unlike Femara which leaves your system within 48 hours of your last pill, Clomid can stay in your system for MONTHS, so in my LP I was still getting side effects. Though not debilitating, they really were pretty nasty. Mainly hot flashes, migraines, and anxiety. Of course, my CM dried up and my lining thinned. Then last month I had to do two rounds of Clomid in one cycle to even O. My uterine lining was so thin AF practically went away! I went from AF being a week+ (usually 2 days spotting, 3-4 days flow, and another 2-3 days of spotting) to literally a 2.5 day AF with less than 24 hours of actual flow. It was terrible. 

Now, I'm on day 2 of my first Femara round now, and so far nothing side effect wise at all. I really don't think that anything could be as horrible as Clomid, so even if I do have a few side effects, I'll deal! I think my biggest joy is that even if I get really bad side effects, there is no way they can last as long as the Clomid side effects; it just isn't technically possible. Cramps are possible, spotting is possible, but the hot flashes, nausea, vomiting, etc, etc, etc, just should not happen.

I'm wish I could tell you how Femara is different, but I'm still just at the beginning of it. I'm probably not going to be much help with how my CM and lining respond differently since I'm still going to have Clomid floating around in me for another couple months, but if I note any kind of change, I'll let you know.


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## foquita

wow, i can't believe your side effects were so bad! :( it sounds awful, sorry you had to go through that :hugs: 

i'm glad femara is working out for you so far, compared to your clomid side effects my femara ones were nothing :haha: i just thought it was interesting that i hadn't seen anyone else having any notable side effects from femara and i was curious :D 

did you do anything to combat the dried up CM? i'm going to do another cycle of femara when AF comes i think, i have another three to go and i'd like to just get them over with! but i'll definitely have to try to do something to increase CM! we usually used conceive+ but i think now we will use preseed and put it in internally with the applicator! :) 

how thin was your lining? on my first cycle of femara my lining was 5.8mm on CD12 so the following cycle i drank two cups of raspberry leaf tea a day and it was 7.8mm on CD12, i was so pleased! :happydance:
let me know how you get on with the femara! :hugs:


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## pinksprinkles

My RE didn't tell me my lining measurement, just that it was quite a bit thinner than he likes to see. This last cycle, it was definitely less than a third of what it usually is just based on how AF was. 

For the CM issue, (TMI), we just added in lots of extra foreplay and that seemed to work well enough. We tried PreSeed in the past, but it gave me this weird burning feeling that made it so I couldn't BD, so that didn't work. I did pick up some Conceive+ last cycle, but then managed to misplace the bottle. :shrug: No idea where it went!

This month, we've decided to be as proactive as possible, so we're going to be doing a couple IUI's at home. (It turns out it's super easy and safe to do on our own as long as we get the sperm washed at the sperm bank.) That way we're just going to bypass the whole CM issue altogether. My DH also had his SA come back with borderline high viscosity (meaning the swimmers can get trapped in his stuff and can't make it out easily), so this will bypass that issue as well.


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## Kyla

Hi ladies, hope you don't me posting here.

I only took Femara for one cycle as it worked, but I found the side effects were different from when I took Clomid. I experienced headaches while I was taking the tablets (CD2-6) and then midcycle I hardly had any CM. I used PreSeed with the internal applicator, and didn't tell DH as I didn't want him to think about it :haha:

I ovulated late, on CD19 which is unusual for me, and I was depressed because I'd had a CD21 progesterone blood test which said I didn't ovulate but obviously this wasn't accurate as the progesterone levels didn't have a chance to rise enough after ovulation.

Good luck and lots of dust

:dust:


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## pinksprinkles

Checking in. Still not much in the way of Femara side effects. I had some very light hot flashes this evening- nothing like the insane Clomid ones, but enough that, after a few of them, I figured out what they were. I'll be starting on checking my CM in a few days and check back in after that. :flow:


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## foquita

pinksprinkles said:


> My RE didn't tell me my lining measurement, just that it was quite a bit thinner than he likes to see. This last cycle, it was definitely less than a third of what it usually is just based on how AF was.
> 
> For the CM issue, (TMI), we just added in lots of extra foreplay and that seemed to work well enough. We tried PreSeed in the past, but it gave me this weird burning feeling that made it so I couldn't BD, so that didn't work. I did pick up some Conceive+ last cycle, but then managed to misplace the bottle. :shrug: No idea where it went!
> 
> This month, we've decided to be as proactive as possible, so we're going to be doing a couple IUI's at home. (It turns out it's super easy and safe to do on our own as long as we get the sperm washed at the sperm bank.) That way we're just going to bypass the whole CM issue altogether. My DH also had his SA come back with borderline high viscosity (meaning the swimmers can get trapped in his stuff and can't make it out easily), so this will bypass that issue as well.

ooo how do you do IUIs at home? i didn't know you could, that's really cool :) does it cost money to have the sperm washed? 



Kyla said:


> Hi ladies, hope you don't me posting here.
> 
> I only took Femara for one cycle as it worked, but I found the side effects were different from when I took Clomid. I experienced headaches while I was taking the tablets (CD2-6) and then midcycle I hardly had any CM. I used PreSeed with the internal applicator, and didn't tell DH as I didn't want him to think about it :haha:
> 
> I ovulated late, on CD19 which is unusual for me, and I was depressed because I'd had a CD21 progesterone blood test which said I didn't ovulate but obviously this wasn't accurate as the progesterone levels didn't have a chance to rise enough after ovulation.
> 
> Good luck and lots of dust
> 
> :dust:

congratulations on your bfp kyla :D it makes me feel better that you didn't have any CM either, mine completely dries up on femara! all the way through my cycle and not just during the fertile period :dohh: 

i think they are triggering me too early :wacko: 



pinksprinkles said:


> Checking in. Still not much in the way of Femara side effects. I had some very light hot flashes this evening- nothing like the insane Clomid ones, but enough that, after a few of them, I figured out what they were. I'll be starting on checking my CM in a few days and check back in after that. :flow:


yay, glad you don't have many side effects! :) i don't think i had any hot flashes, i can't really remember :haha: 

i look forward to your CM update...how sad :rofl: TTC has turned me into a weirdo :rofl:


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## pinksprinkles

haha. I think we're all weirdos around here. :rofl: CM is seeming to be drier than it was when I O'd naturally. Femara does seem to be drying me out a bit. Thankfully, we're doing IUI this cycle, so I'm not worried about it, but I was hoping for signs that things were more "normal" this cycle. Saturday is CD12 u/s so I'll get to see how my lining is doing then. As for other symptoms, I'm still getting hot flashes. They got more intense the last couple days of Femara and then the couple days after. Now they are back to super mild. They never did get as bad as Clomid. Irritability seems to be fading quickly. Oh, and I became a royal b*tch for the last couple days of Femara and for two days after. Again, less so than on Clomid- at least I wasn't totally out of my head- but still, poor DH! Now I'm just dealing with some Metformin side effects. Still learning what not to eat on these pills.

As far as at-home IUI goes, we decided to go with it after I realized I was uncomfortable doing IUI at the RE's office. (I cancelled the IUI the day of trigger last cycle.) I just couldn't get past the loss of intimacy. I guess after having 8 different doctor's visits, blood draws, nurse conferences, etc, over the past two weeks, I just couldn't take them doing anymore. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get through the IUI without breaking down, so we cancelled. 

DH and I had talked about home IUI earlier last year, so we decided to look back into it. At the time it seemed like it would just be easier to have the RE do, but now that I knew that wasn't an option for me, we started doing a little more research. Turn out the IUI is super simple to do and it will save us $1500-$2500 a cycle to do it this way. Right now everything gets billed to insurance as "anovulation treatment" which is covered under our plan, but as soon as IUI is brought out, the billing code changes to infertility, which is not covered, so everything that is being payed for now would become OOP costs.

Procedure Stuff: I purchased all the supplies online and DH will do the insemination. The washes cost $100 each and we'll be doing to IUI's, one the day after trigger and another the next day. I called up the sperm bank and got all the details about when we need to call to set up wash appts (right after hCG trigger), how long we have to get them DH's sample (1 hr in a sterile sample cup, ordered off supply site), how long we have to get back to the house (IUI is best done within 1-1.5 hours though it can be done later as long as sperm are kept warm, we're 45 minutes from the lab, so we'll try to be quick), and what to do for IUI's on weekends or holidays (they have a special on-call person who can do the wash). I'm feeling really good about everything and am looking forward to my CD12 u/s on Saturday.

Here are the main links DH and I are using to get everything ready and do the procedure:
Procedure Supplies: https://shop.inseminationsupplies.com/main.sc
Sterile swabs to clean cervix: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o04_s00_i00
Sterile paper drapes to keep everything clean: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o06_s00_i00
Teaching DH to use the speculum: https://www.sisterzeus.com/usingspeculum.html
And so he knows what to look for: https://www.sisterzeus.com/cervob.htm
Best IUI instructions I've found: https://theivp.com/ladybusiness/
Local pricing on Colorado sperm wash: https://www.cryogam.com/AT-ReproductiveProcedures.html


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## KittyKatt

I am on CD15 of my second femara cycle. I haven't noticed any side effects at all. AF seemed to be a little less of a B this month though. I'm hoping for good news this month as we have been ttc for over 3 yrs now. This month I took the femara, used the instead soft cups, and started progesterone on CD14. Fingers crossed!!!


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## pinksprinkles

GL, KittyKatt! :flow:


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## Bluenpinkmom

i know this is an old thread but i just wanted to share my experience with femara.. im on 1st round of femara and i have very bad hormonal headaches (pms for me) and crazy high bbt.. but i would chose femara over clomid anyday in the matter of side effects..


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## pinksprinkles

So I went in for my CD12 u/s today and no real development, so onto more Femara. The good thing though? Last cycle the same thing happened with Clomid and had to do a second wound. After the second round my uterine lining was still only 4.?mm. Very not good. Today my lining was 6.8mm. RE was very happy. I am too. Thin lining was one of my main reasons for switching to Femara.

Can't tell much about CM yet,, but I'll let you know whenever I get close to O. 

Not digging the hot flashes, but they're not as bad as the ones from Clomid.


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## KittyKatt

My CM was excellent this month, best I've ever had. (well since I have known what to look for) AF was a little early last cycle and didnt last near as long. Its usually 6-7 days and this cycle was about 4.5... kinda threw me for a loop. I'm really hoping this is my cycle!!:flower:


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## pinksprinkles

Hey congrats, KittyKatt! I wish I could say something positive about my CM, but it seems to have dried up. Blah.


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## foquita

Bluenpinkmom said:


> i know this is an old thread but i just wanted to share my experience with femara.. im on 1st round of femara and i have very bad hormonal headaches (pms for me) and crazy high bbt.. but i would chose femara over clomid anyday in the matter of side effects..

it's not an old thread, i only made it last week or two weeks ago :haha: 

glad you don't have many side effects, have you finished taking them? :)



pinksprinkles said:


> So I went in for my CD12 u/s today and no real development, so onto more Femara. The good thing though? Last cycle the same thing happened with Clomid and had to do a second wound. After the second round my uterine lining was still only 4.?mm. Very not good. Today my lining was 6.8mm. RE was very happy. I am too. Thin lining was one of my main reasons for switching to Femara.
> 
> Can't tell much about CM yet,, but I'll let you know whenever I get close to O.
> 
> Not digging the hot flashes, but they're not as bad as the ones from Clomid.

do you do a second round mid-cycle? i've never heard of that before! how much femara did you take? and how much are you going to take? i'm sorry, i feel like i ask you a million questions about everything :rofl: 

fantastic news about your lining! :yipee: that's what mine was on CD12 of my second cycle :dance:



KittyKatt said:


> My CM was excellent this month, best I've ever had. (well since I have known what to look for) AF was a little early last cycle and didnt last near as long. Its usually 6-7 days and this cycle was about 4.5... kinda threw me for a loop. I'm really hoping this is my cycle!!:flower:

i've got my fingers and toes crossed for you kittykat :D i wonder if my CM would improve if they didn't trigger me so early :dohh:



pinksprinkles said:


> Hey congrats, KittyKatt! I wish I could say something positive about my CM, but it seems to have dried up. Blah.

that sucks pinksprinkles, mine was completely dry all through all of my femara cycles except for the third and last one where i had EWCM all through my LP :wacko: :shrug: at least you are doing home IUI so it doesn't matter too much :)


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## pinksprinkles

Hey lady. Yeah, we're doing more Femara now. Doing Clomid or Femara twice in one round is called the stair-step protocol. Had to do it to O on Clomid, too. I took 5mg/day for days 3-7, and now we're doing 5 days of 7.5mg/day. Next u/s is on Friday! Next month I'll be adding in Follistim. Insurance may cover it since it's anovulation treatment and not infertility treatment per se. (Thank god I'm doing the IUI at home or none of this would be covered.)


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## foquita

pinksprinkles said:


> Hey lady. Yeah, we're doing more Femara now. Doing Clomid or Femara twice in one round is called the stair-step protocol. Had to do it to O on Clomid, too. I took 5mg/day for days 3-7, and now we're doing 5 days of 7.5mg/day. Next u/s is on Friday! Next month I'll be adding in Follistim. Insurance may cover it since it's anovulation treatment and not infertility treatment per se. (Thank god I'm doing the IUI at home or none of this would be covered.)

amazing, i have learned so much from you :) i have heard great things about follitism :) 

it's your appointment tomorrow, woohoo :dance:


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## pinksprinkles

Hey thanks hun!! I'll let you know how it goes after. :) 
CM is finally coming back in. Creamy-ish, maybe a little clear, too. Hope this mean O is coming! 
If there are good follicles tomorrow, we'll be triggering then, otherwise, I might see if I can get some Follistim _now_!


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