Clomid Buddies (moved from TTC board)

[OnErth&InHvn]

I never had issues with OPk on Clomid or FE.

DD1 is OK. People are minimizing it. " She just had her tire clipped and she jumped right up"... umm, no she didnt.

She was crossing the street on her bike, about 3/4th of the way across and the guy turned right and then dragged her. She blacked out on impact and somehow made her way to the sidewalk. He kept driving with her bike under him about 25ft. Then stopped. Ankle cast, elbow brace, bruises, bumps, nightmares, scared to go out.... but no, just a clip and done.

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I hope everyone is doing well. i do at least read, even if i dont post!

 

[Ask4joy]

Earth - that's awful! Thank god nothing worse happened. Poor girl. I can imagine how terrified she is (and you, momma)!

LAR - so good to hear from you! Sounds like life has been busy! I'm sorry you have to wait until February to try again - frustrating. Are you thinking of moving on to IVF in Feb?

I got my kidney results back and my kidneys are normal - yay! Heart, thyroid, kidneys normal! (Abnormal heart, thyroid and kidneys are markers of Turner Syndrome). My saline sonogram this morning hurt worse than my HSG (read: very painful!) but the good news is my uterus is normal too!

 

[LAR83]

Hi ask! I'm really glad to hear you have been getting back some good test results-- it seems like you are definitely making some progress toward the goal of getting and staying pregnant. I hope to hear an announcement sometime soon! I have a really good feeling for you

I am not sure if we will go straight to IVF. Part of me says yes, and the other part of me says maybe we should try naturally for a bit longer, especially now that I am in school and things will be super duper hectic if I have a baby while I am in school. But then again, I am definitely not getting any younger, so maybe we'll start IVF as soon as we can. February seems so far off right now, so I haven't really talked to DH about it yet, but I should bring it up.

 

[BelleNuit]

Earth I'm so sorry about your daughter. That sounds pretty horrific.

LAR good to see you back again! That really sucks that you have to wait 6 months. On the other hand, I can see why the break would be nice too! I ended up taking a break for August and half of September. You and I might end up doing IVF around the same time. I'm thinking April, but who knows, might be later. We'll do our last IUI in November. I can relate to where you're at though, its hard to know what to do sometimes!

Ask I'm sorry your procedure was so painful! It does seem though like things are going in the right direction for you. I think you'll have the next sticky bfp in this group!

 

[Pinkee]

Hey girls, Alliah here.

was an avid poster in one of the older clomid threads. Not ready to start ttc yet but already have my clomid prescription on standby.
More comfortable with the LTTC'ers as it took us 4 years to conceive our first.

 

[Ask4joy]

Welcome Pinkee (Alliah)! This is a great thread of amazing and supportive women who I wouldn't have gotten through all of this LTTTC stuff without!

 

[BelleNuit]

Welcome Alliah, we are always happy to have new ladies join us here Thats great that you already have your clomid prescription ready to go! Any idea on when you might be starting again?

 

[smurphy90]

Hi ladies,

Just a quick check-in:
Thus far, my side-effects from Clomid have stayed mild. The hot flashes are getting more intense each time, and a bit more frequent, but they're still a good 4-5 hours apart and only last 1-2 minutes at a time so it's totally fine. I got pretty irritable on CD 10 and a bit depressed on CD 9-10, but I think that may have had more to do with my weight than the Clomid.

Today I had my first follicle scan, CD12. I was obviously hoping that they'd already be a decent size, but thus far I have two 9mm follicles, one on each side. I go back in on Monday, CD15, for another scan to see if we're any closer to being able to trigger. As it's my first month, I really don't know how "good" 9mm is for CD 12. At least there are two, so hopefully one (if not both) beefs up in the next few days! Mostly I'm just hoping to ovulate before Sept 25th, as my mom will be visiting for two weeks and we won't be able to BD for the first week as we're going on a road-trip to Bavaria and are sharing a hotel room.

I still haven't decided on the OPKs. I might start doing them tomorrow just for the heck of it. I have a ton of ICs, so why not? Not focusing on temping much, but if I think about it I take it.

 

[BelleNuit]

That's great that you have 2 follicles! Some women just need a little more time to grow their follicles. Depending on how this cycle goes they might decide to increase your dose for next cycle.

By day 12 my follicles are usually in the 17mm range but my body always seems to O early.

I think that's great that your SE have stayed mild. I'm probably just a whiner haha.

AFM day 6. AF should theoretically be finished by today so I'll start taking Vit E for the next few days to hopefully boost my lining. If anyone is interested right now I'm taking a mix of Chinese herbs including vitex and myo-inositol, B50, 800 mg coq10, folic acid, multi-vitamin and now adding the vit E.

 

[smurphy90]

Belle - Glad your almost through with AF. Your vitamin routine sounds good. How's it been working so far?

As far as s/e, it probably helps a lot that I'm on mood stabilizers. That combined with being used to really extreme bipolar-related mood swings probably just makes any from Clomid less noticeable. Clomid also made me very tired, which actually helped my insomnia which always directly impacts my mood swings, so that probably helped too.

Oh, speaking of meds: My psych actually gave me a prescription for Zoloft yesterday. We had discussed it and I was going to wait until depression/anxiety symptoms got worse, but after discussing it with DH we both feel like it might be best just just start it now, and hope for a better base-line. It means I can drop my current anxiety med (which has had much less research done about it's safety during pregnancy), so at least I'm dropping one as well. I guess we'll see how I get on with that in the future.

 

[BelleNuit]

I've done the vitamin routine off and on for for over a year now. Its tough to say if its really helped with anything. The chinese herbs are new though. My AF was a bit longer (5 days for a natural cycle is pretty decent for me, usually to get to 5 days I'm needing acupuncture or femara to get an AF that heavy). But I also had heavier spotting. We'll see what happens around O time. I always get really good ewcm, so I don't expect there will be any changes there. Hopefully I get at least a 26 day cycle (I always hope for longer).

It sounds like your med switch will be a good one for you. My brother has bi-polar so I know what its like from a family member's perspective. His meds have really helped him to stabilize. This is the most stable I've ever seen him in his entire life. Also helps that he's taking his meds correctly (he always used to try to skip doses, never really believing that he needed them).

Glad to hear you are sleeping better with the clomid. Thats an unexpected bonus!

 

[jwilly]

Hi ladies,

Do you mind if I join you? We are in the middle of our first IUI cycle and first cycle on Femara. We are back for another scan tomorrow on CD 13, and should be triggering in the next day or two. This cycle seems to be doomed from the beginning, but we are going to go ahead with it anyways.I'm not holding out much hope, but we have to start somewhere!

 

[Ask4joy]

Welcome jwilly! FX for a successful cycle! Why do you say it seemed doomed from the beginning? Are you doing Femara + IUI for unexplained, MFI, PCOS, something else?

 

[jwilly]

Thanks Ask4joy! We have been diagnosed with unexplained, but I am pretty positive that I have endo. We haven't done a lap yet (my dr. seems to think it would be "useless") but my HSG from earlier this year showed one blocked tube. At my scan last week they said the blocked tube was a hydrosalpinx, which means (from what I understand) the tube will likely have to come out in order for us to have a successful pregnancy. Not only that, but my mature follie this cycle is on the left (blocked) tube. We were told that about 40% of the time the egg will be picked up by the other side, but it just seems really unlikely to me.

My RE doesn't seem concerned about anything, but after this cycle I am going to push to have the hydro tube removed. I know we should probably should cancel this cycle, but I really think I need to see it fail to move on.

 

[Ask4joy]

I'm sorry to hear about the blocked tube. Another member on the forum is having surgery to have her hydrosalpinx tube removed next week I think before her next embryo transfer (FET).

I think the success rates of laparoscopy for endo, especially if it is mild, is debated. My old RE who specializes in endo said something of the sort, but I've also heard anecdotal stories to the contrary.

Do you think you will elect to have the tube removed if the first IUI fails? I've also heard the fluid can reduce pregnancy rates in IVF. Do you think you'll move onto IVF? Sorry for all the questions!

I was unexplained until I recently found out about my chromosome abnormality. I start my IVF meds late this week/early next week. I did 6 rounds of clomid and 1 IUI. I've had 3 CPs (2 on natural cycles and 1 on a clomid cycle) so it's most likely an egg quality issue. My HSG and saline sonogram were all clear. They will biopsy and test our embryos before transfer.

 

[jwilly]

I don't mind the questions at all! Yes, I think our next step will be getting that tube removed. If that is what is causing problems then I am totally ready to part with it. The IVF waiting list at our clinic is booked out until next aug, so I think we will try a few more IUIs with the one tube while on the waiting list, then do IVF when we can.

So sorry for your losses. Unexplained can be so difficult, its nice (in kind of a backwards way I guess) that they were able to figure out what was going on. Will this be your first IVF cycle?

 

[Ask4joy]

Sounds like a good plan!

This is my first (and hopefully only) IVF! My RE is expecting a good response based on my AMH / FSH levels. FX we will get some good embryos!

 

[smurphy90]

So my second ultrasound was crappy. CD 12s u/s had two 9mm follicles, one on each side. Today (CD15) we saw basically no growth. The left follicle stayed 9mm and the right only grew to 10. She's operating under the assumption that I'm Clomid resistant, since I also have PCOS, insulin resistance, and a high BMI. We have an appointment for Thursday and if we don't see any progress, we are going to begin daily injectionables.

Sorry for no personals. Really freaking bummed out right now.

 

[Ask4joy]

So sorry Sara. That's a huge bummer. Have you tried Femara? Any chance you might respond better to it?

I start injections sometime in the next week (go in for my ultrasound tomorrow and will hopefully get the green light). I hear they aren't as bad as you anticipate...hope that's true!

 

[OnErth&InHvn]

Light brown spotting since CD14...