Anyone TTC #1 and 30 or older?

[MrsRose168]

Thanks girls but I'm pretty sure it's bfn. Same barely there line on a FRER this morning but a clearer one on an IC *sigh* fed up of this, why am I getting stupid faint lines?! I'm clearly not pregnant because the FRER would be loads clearer by now.

Don't give up yet! It can take a couple days for the line to darken up noticeably.

 

[mrs unicorn]

Thanks Mrs R but I've given up now. Still getting faints on ICs but not really anything with colour on the FRERs. Af due in 4-5 days so I won't bother testing again. X

 

[Angel5000]

My temp took a huge drop today. Test was BFN. I have a strong feeling that AF is going to show tomorrow or Monday. Getting pink when checked cervix this morning, as is normal about a day or two before AF. I don't know whether to be relieved that she'll show soon enough that I can possibly schedule at least one (maybe two) of my appointments for testing during my spring break and not have to miss a ton of work, or whether to be sad that it's not my cycle.


MrsUnicorn - It is possible that it was late implantation, and tha'ts why the lines are so faint. That's what I'm hoping for. You can always wait until AF is due and test again if she doesn't show.

 

[mrs unicorn]

Angel - if you can take any kind of positive from a bfn cycle I'd go with that! It's good that you can sort your appointments out whilst you're not working. Hopefully it'll be several steps forward for you.

Hmmm yeah you never know I guess. I might do an IC in a few days just to be sure as af may well be late anyway. Mc can mess with your lp apparently.

 

[star_e]

i need to catch up on the last few pages. i had my us yesterday and i over stimulated. the doc said i went from rags to riches and tried to convince me to convert to IVF. the doc i saw this time was a different one because mine was not there. its a very small clinic though and there are only two docs. anyway, he knows that we are not interested in doing IVF right now as our insurance only covers IUI and he still kept pushing it. even the nurse was like you have come all this way and you are going to cancel the cycle? i mean, there is a huge cost difference. our insurance gives us great coverage on the IUI, i don't have to pay for the injections at all. the entire appointment was very discouraging b/c the doc made it sound like b/c i have pcos that we will end up here every time. he said that he does not think iui is possible for me b/c of the lack of response to clomid and the need to use injectables. he said that what will happen is the follies will be dormant and then all of sudden too many of them wake up. i cried a lot this morning b/c i was in serious pain yesterday and in pain today from being overstimulated. it was so uncomfortable and am also sad b/c he made it sound like ivf was the only way. maybe im being paranoid, but i could not help but think, is he saying that just b/c he wants to make more money? or is he just being frank with me and saying he really thinks i can't ever have an IUI b/c i'll always overstimulate. i dont know. im just so sad. i go in on monday for another us b/c we stopped the meds and they want to see if the bigger one kept growing, if so, perhaps i have a shot, but he was very pessimistic and said its unlikely. then he pushed for ivf again.

 

[star_e]

My temp took a huge drop today. Test was BFN. I have a strong feeling that AF is going to show tomorrow or Monday. Getting pink when checked cervix this morning, as is normal about a day or two before AF. I don't know whether to be relieved that she'll show soon enough that I can possibly schedule at least one (maybe two) of my appointments for testing during my spring break and not have to miss a ton of work, or whether to be sad that it's not my cycle.


MrsUnicorn - It is possible that it was late implantation, and tha'ts why the lines are so faint. That's what I'm hoping for. You can always wait until AF is due and test again if she doesn't show.

Angel, so sorry about the test. I very much hope that AF does not show for you, but if it does i am glad you will have less scheduling stress. going to appointments is definitely stressful. fx for you.

 

[star_e]

Thanks Mrs R but I've given up now. Still getting faints on ICs but not really anything with colour on the FRERs. Af due in 4-5 days so I won't bother testing again. X

so sorry mrs. unicorn. i wish you the best of luck in the next cycle. sorry if you have already mentioned this, but are you doing clomid or anything else with your cycles?

 

[drjo718]

Star- I really think you should ask for femara. It works for a lot of people who don't respond to clomid. My fertility doc had told me he rarely does injectables with iui for people like you and me with pcos because of the exact problem you're having...we produce too many follies for iui. Anyway, ask for femara. I'm surprised they didn't give it to you before jumping straight to injections anyway. Can you still try naturally this cycle or us there a sperm issue? They probably would advise against it due to risk of multiples I suppose.

 

[star_e]

Star- I really think you should ask for femara. It works for a lot of people who don't respond to clomid. My fertility doc had told me he rarely does injectables with iui for people like you and me with pcos because of the exact problem you're having...we produce too many follies for iui. Anyway, ask for femara. I'm surprised they didn't give it to you before jumping straight to injections anyway. Can you still try naturally this cycle or us there a sperm issue? They probably would advise against it due to risk of multiples I suppose.

thank you for the advice. will definitely ask about it.

is it possible to do femera with IUI? see the problem is and maybe it's that I'm paranoid is that I think they really want IVF bc of $$$. I mean they never even suggested femera. I am definitely going to ask about it in Monday. but the annoying thing is I'm still going to see this same man who is very discouraging and negative on Monday bc the re I have been seeing is not there right now. so who Knows what he will say to my suggestion.

we actually just BDed. no sperm issue with DH and on Friday I had one follie at 15 another two at 13 and like 7 between 11-12. so none of them were actually mature but if we continued to do the injections the. we have the problem of too many of them growing.

it just really bothers me at how negative the doc was. is your doc negative? do they push IUI? what dose of femara has worked with you? so your doc doesn't do injectables with pcos either- if femara does not work what is his or her suggestion for people with pcos?

 

[star_e]

Star- I really think you should ask for femara. It works for a lot of people who don't respond to clomid. My fertility doc had told me he rarely does injectables with iui for people like you and me with pcos because of the exact problem you're having...we produce too many follies for iui. Anyway, ask for femara. I'm surprised they didn't give it to you before jumping straight to injections anyway. Can you still try naturally this cycle or us there a sperm issue? They probably would advise against it due to risk of multiples I suppose.

thank you for the advice. will definitely ask about it.

is it possible to do femera with IUI? see the problem is and maybe it's that I'm paranoid is that I think they really want IVF bc of $$$. I mean they never even suggested femera. I am definitely going to ask about it in Monday. but the annoying thing is I'm still going to see this same man who is very discouraging and negative on Monday bc the re I have been seeing is not there right now. so who Knows what he will say to my suggestion.

we actually just BDed. no sperm issue with DH and on Friday I had one follie at 15 another two at 13 and like 7 between 11-12. so none of them were actually mature but if we continued to do the injections the. we have the problem of too many of them growing.

it just really bothers me at how negative the doc was. is your doc negative? do they push IUI? what dose of femara has worked with you? so your doc doesn't do injectables with pcos either- if femara does not work what is his or her suggestion for people with pcos?

I meant to say push IVF

 

[crystal8]

I did not react well to clomid. Femara was much better. The cycle that worked for me prior to this pregnancy (it ended in a loss but for totally unrelated reasons), was a combo of femara 5 mg overlapped with low dose injections starting at cd 7. That usually got me 2-3 good sized follicles. My RE did not start suggesting ivf until after 3 unsuccessful IUI. In my case the main issue was sperm related so moving on to ivf made sense at that point. When we started to get too many follies one time for an IUI, she backed off on the injections and the smaller ones started to shrink. I was very carefully monitored. While it's true the success rates are a lot lower for IUI, I felt it was worth trying before moving on to the really expensive stuff. At no point did I feel pressured to do so.

I have also found in this area of medicine there are doctors with your best interest in mind, and doctors in it to make money. If you're not comfortable with your RE, I would suggest finding another one. Especially if you are not ready to move on to ivf at this point.

 

[Angel5000]

I don't know anything about IVF and IUI since I am just starting down the process of fertilty testing. I know that with my RE anyway, he is very much about sticking with things that my insurance will pay for and what we can afford. Your RE may be trying to make more money, or he may simply be trying to rush the process because he doesn't want to take the time to spend on IUI if he doesn't think it will work or if he has had more success with IVF before. I have heard of some RE's being very impatient and want to jump straight to IVF because it tends to have a higher success rate (I think, I'm not 100% sure on that) and then they don't have to spend as much time trying to figure out what would work for the patient.

If you aren't comfortable with your RE, I agree with crystal, and you should find a new one. You need to be comfortable with your doctor.


On a positive note: when you went in you were worried they wouldn't even grow with the injectibles. I know that you had a bad experience, but it's a positive thing that they were at least able to grow, even if they were overstimulated. Try to find some positive in this (that your follicles can grow!) and hopefully you can go from there.

My next question is this: do you need IUI/IVF? Or do you just need something to stimulate you to ovulate? Because I was under the impression if everything is good with DH"s sperm, you could just get something to make you ovulate (if Clomid wasn't workin then another drug, as the other ladies have suggested) and then try naturally to BD with DH. Why the need for IUI if his sperm can get there anyway?

 

[star_e]

I did not react well to clomid. Femara was much better. The cycle that worked for me prior to this pregnancy (it ended in a loss but for totally unrelated reasons), was a combo of femara 5 mg overlapped with low dose injections starting at cd 7. That usually got me 2-3 good sized follicles. My RE did not start suggesting ivf until after 3 unsuccessful IUI. In my case the main issue was sperm related so moving on to ivf made sense at that point. When we started to get too many follies one time for an IUI, she backed off on the injections and the smaller ones started to shrink. I was very carefully monitored. While it's true the success rates are a lot lower for IUI, I felt it was worth trying before moving on to the really expensive stuff. At no point did I feel pressured to do so.

I have also found in this area of medicine there are doctors with your best interest in mind, and doctors in it to make money. If you're not comfortable with your RE, I would suggest finding another one. Especially if you are not ready to move on to ivf at this point.

thank you so much for sharing your story. may I ask what dose you were on for the injectables? and when she backed off on the injectables mid cycle were you able to do the IUI that cycle? I am going to inquire about a combo treatment. after hearing that IVF was not an option for us, wish the doc would have been more positive about other options.

was your doc positive about other options?

 

[crystal8]

I was on femara cd 3-7 and 75iu gonal f cd 7 - usually cd 12 or 13. Trigger shot of ovidrell and then a single iui after that. I never had a cycle cancelled (except for the one where I had a cyst left over from a previous cycle). The one she backed off for, I had 5 follicles growing, but 2 leads. She held back the one injection and I went in for another u/s and others had shrunk a bit but the leads continued to grow. We went ahead with the iui a couple days later.

I would try femara alone first and see if it helps you. I had almost no side effects on it and I only ever go 1 or 2 big follicles with it. I needed the injections to ensure I got 2-3 follicles but that was because of dh's sperm issues. I have pcos tendencies, but not actual pcos. Then weirdly I am easily over suppressed and get no action at all when I do bcp before a cycle. The iui's gave us lots of data before doing the ivf because we knew bcp would be bad and we knew what dosage of gonal f would get us the number of follies we wanted. IVF does get you much higher success rates but IUI has decent ones if you persist with multiple attempts. Usually RE's will want to move on after 3-4 iuis because the success rates drop after that.

 

[DBZ34]

I've also done clomid and injectibles, just femara, and then femara and injectibles for my IUIs. On the Clomid and injectibles cycle, we had to back off the injectibles because I was close to having too many eggs. I got to go through with my IUI anyway because I was just under the threshold of too many eggs.

Star - Definitely don't let them push you into IVF. That sounds like he just wanted to make more money at that point. I feel like there's so much prep that goes into IVF, it sounds so sudden to think he wanted you to move to IVF this cycle.

Asking for Femara is a great idea. So many ladies on the board who don't respond to Clomid often respond to Femara. The injectibles can be good when you start them at the right time and at the right dose. But, I would start with femara or move to femara plus injectibles.

 

[mrs unicorn]

Thanks Mrs R but I've given up now. Still getting faints on ICs but not really anything with colour on the FRERs. Af due in 4-5 days so I won't bother testing again. X

so sorry mrs. unicorn. i wish you the best of luck in the next cycle. sorry if you have already mentioned this, but are you doing clomid or anything else with your cycles?

Thanks star. But it's ok, this is still my post MMC cycle so I wasn't hopeful anyway. First af is due on Thursday ish. Just frustrating that the test wasn't exactly clear. No I'm not on any fertility meds. It was our 3rd cycle TTC when I got my bfp so fx all is ok and the MMC was 'one of those things'. Anyone else find those kind of things infuriating and impossible to accept / believe?

I'm sorry I don't know anything about what you are going through so can't offer any advice. I'm kind of learning as I read through your posts. It sounds so very stressful, the last thing you need right now is a doc pressuring you into something you are not sure of. I'd say give IUI a chance, it sounds like it may take a few attempts to get the right balance of things but hopefully you'll get there. X

 

[KatO79]

Angel you are correct that IVF has a higher success rate. I think IUI is around 20% and IVF is closer to 40% each round. I will say that IVF does involve some trial and error like IUI does. The hospital I went to guessed I should be on a long protocol first time based on my AMH and age which technically worked but I only got 3 eggs (that went on to be 3 embies). Thinking I may make more eggs since they felt maybe the down regulation suppressed me too much, they put me on short protocol which also gave me 3 eggs but they could only get 2 of them out (the 3rd wouldn't come out within the first 3 attempts and was deemed bad quality). So yes the RE would still be attempting to figure out what works for each patient with IVF just like with IUI. As to needing IUI/IVF, I don't know about women with PCOS but some do need to take this step even if their DH's sperm quality is fine. My DH is within the norm (albeit on the lower end) and we needed to go for IUI (at first) even with me Oing normally (which is why they didn't bother trying giving me Clomid I think). IUIs didn't work as there's an underlying unknown issue and we therefore needed to move onto IVF after 6 unsuccessful IUIs. Also it's not always about the sperm being able to get there, there can be unknown reasons for why sperm and egg aren't meeting up which I think has been our main issue since during both IVFs my fertilisation rate was 100% both times (3 embies and then 2 embies).

star I'm sorry that your cycle isn't going well and you've been overstimulated I admit I don't have much knowledge about PCOS or what medications and protocols would work for you. If you're uncomfortable with your RE, it may be worth looking into finding a new one. I'd shop around, find RE's with good reviews on the net and then try interviewing 3-4 different ones to see what they would suggest for you and find one you feel comfortable with and that you feel is giving you good ideas for what they want to try based on your history. It's very important that you feel your RE is listening to you and doing the best for you. I lucked out both with the clinic I did my IUIs at and with the hospital I did my IVFs at because the REs/nurses at both places were so amazing and really nice and it made the whole thing a bit easier.

 

[star_e]

I've also done clomid and injectibles, just femara, and then femara and injectibles for my IUIs. On the Clomid and injectibles cycle, we had to back off the injectibles because I was close to having too many eggs. I got to go through with my IUI anyway because I was just under the threshold of too many eggs.

Star - Definitely don't let them push you into IVF. That sounds like he just wanted to make more money at that point. I feel like there's so much prep that goes into IVF, it sounds so sudden to think he wanted you to move to IVF this cycle.

Asking for Femara is a great idea. So many ladies on the board who don't respond to Clomid often respond to Femara. The injectibles can be good when you start them at the right time and at the right dose. But, I would start with femara or move to femara plus injectibles.

thank you for the suggestions!

yea what really bothered me is that he wanted to convert the cycle and have me decide about IVF that day. on the spot!! bc it was either continue the injections for IVF or stop taking them entirely and see whether the big follicle grew on its own by monday(tomorrow). that is a big decision and one DH and I cannot make right now. he was just very negative about my prospects and while maybe in the end his words will ring true, for DH and I, it does not make sense to give up after one failed cycle. it just seems odd to push for IVF so quickly when he knows IUI is covered by our insurance. they will still make money off it. sure not as much but that's a service they offer. we have not lost faith in iui yet bc we haven't tried femara or adjusting the dose. we want to give it a good faith effort. tomorrow I'll ask about femara and hopefully I'll report that he was more receptive to what I am saying.

 

[star_e]

I was on femara cd 3-7 and 75iu gonal f cd 7 - usually cd 12 or 13. Trigger shot of ovidrell and then a single iui after that. I never had a cycle cancelled (except for the one where I had a cyst left over from a previous cycle). The one she backed off for, I had 5 follicles growing, but 2 leads. She held back the one injection and I went in for another u/s and others had shrunk a bit but the leads continued to grow. We went ahead with the iui a couple days later.

I would try femara alone first and see if it helps you. I had almost no side effects on it and I only ever go 1 or 2 big follicles with it. I needed the injections to ensure I got 2-3 follicles but that was because of dh's sperm issues. I have pcos tendencies, but not actual pcos. Then weirdly I am easily over suppressed and get no action at all when I do bcp before a cycle. The iui's gave us lots of data before doing the ivf because we knew bcp would be bad and we knew what dosage of gonal f would get us the number of follies we wanted. IVF does get you much higher success rates but IUI has decent ones if you persist with multiple attempts. Usually RE's will want to move on after 3-4 iuis because the success rates drop after that.

thank you so much for this info. it's very helpful. hopefully next cycle will go better. its sounds like even with hindsight you liked the protocol your doc followed. that's great. i just want to feel like whatever we do the docs are in to trying to help us. not just waiting for us to say yes to something else.

 

[Angel5000]

Morning ladies.

Today's temp dropped pretty far but I temped an hour early. Stark white bfn so I'm just waiting for AF to show. My LP is usually 11 days though I've had a couple random months where it was longer so FF thinks she isn't due for another day or so. I should see her today but I feel like she's going to be late just to mess with me