Femara Friends!

[Mrs.Stinski]

@MrsCompass - Did you test out your trigger? My Dr recommended me to start testing today and take pics each day so I can see how long it takes it to get out of my system. So, I did as told and took my first test today, which is positive, but not the blaring positive I assumed I would get. Its there, no doubt, but I honestly thought it was going to be almost as dark as the control line and thats just not the case.

 

[MrsCompass]

@chiles: you have a good point! All of our meds are covered by insurance, too. Doctor fees are covered by our province. We did have to pay for IUI. But the same day of our IUI, dh was requested to come in over the weekend for some overtime. That never happens! So, that covered the IUI. such a blessing!

@mrsstinski, doc doesn't recommend that I test. I would love to Poas right now. Just to see those two lines but I know I would just be teasing myself. Good luck! So exciting, eh? So, when do you find out for sure?

 

[Mrs.Stinski]

@chiles: you have a good point! All of our meds are covered by insurance, too. Doctor fees are covered by our province. We did have to pay for IUI. But the same day of our IUI, dh was requested to come in over the weekend for some overtime. That never happens! So, that covered the IUI. such a blessing!

@mrsstinski, doc doesn't recommend that I test. I would love to Poas right now. Just to see those two lines but I know I would just be teasing myself. Good luck! So exciting, eh? So, when do you find out for sure?

He said to test for 14 days or until I get a negative test so we will see how long that takes. He said that I should take my "real" test Feb 22nd because that is when I would be due AF. He said if I dont get a new cycle within a few days to call and get some bloodwork done because we need to catch any possible pregnancy early to see where my progesterone is and all that good stuff. You guys are so lucky that your insurance pays...mine wont pay for fertility so every visit its between $170-$230...yay lol

 

[Chiles]

@Mrscompass, yea we had to pay for iui too. And if we do ivf we have to pay for that too.

@Mrsstinski I tested out my trigger it was gone a 11dptrigger, everyone is different though

 

[LolaM]

@chiles: you have a good point! All of our meds are covered by insurance, too. Doctor fees are covered by our province. We did have to pay for IUI. But the same day of our IUI, dh was requested to come in over the weekend for some overtime. That never happens! So, that covered the IUI. such a blessing!

@mrsstinski, doc doesn't recommend that I test. I would love to Poas right now. Just to see those two lines but I know I would just be teasing myself. Good luck! So exciting, eh? So, when do you find out for sure?

He said to test for 14 days or until I get a negative test so we will see how long that takes. He said that I should take my "real" test Feb 22nd because that is when I would be due AF. He said if I dont get a new cycle within a few days to call and get some bloodwork done because we need to catch any possible pregnancy early to see where my progesterone is and all that good stuff. You guys are so lucky that your insurance pays...mine wont pay for fertility so every visit its between $170-$230...yay lol

My insurance doesnt pay for anything with the "infertility" label on it, nothing..not a prescription, not even a poke in the eye if its infertility related. And with all the procedures I've had Im in for about $5000 and my hubs is in for about $250

 

[drsquid]

yup. i went out of network for mine because my insurance doenst cover anything and it was more expensive to stay at kaiser and do it. luckily i could get the labs done at kaiser (just emailed a photo of the order sheet to my gyn). i think the iui was 200-300., us is 240, , femara $92, hcg trigger $100. it is adding up. oh and sperm

 

[Chiles]

Infertility is expensive. Very expensive!!! What pains me the most is the costs. If I had no coverage I would have went straight IVF. The drugs that I am currently using are used for IVF and they are sooooo expensive, even though I am not paying nothing but a $12 or 5 co pay still I am sticker shocked that ppl can pay so much with such high hopes and the (excuse my language) $hit don't even work.

I am done venting. Lol. So ladies I have a question. Where do you draw the line with TTC? I know if you are like me I don't have $13,000 I can pull out my a$$ lol.

AFM: I think we will do 2 more cycles, and then consider IVF end of this year since I have found a reasonable price that is under $6000 for military. That's where I am drawing the line for us, anyone else care to share?

 

[LolaM]

yup. i went out of network for mine because my insurance doenst cover anything and it was more expensive to stay at kaiser and do it. luckily i could get the labs done at kaiser (just emailed a photo of the order sheet to my gyn). i think the iui was 200-300., us is 240, , femara $92, hcg trigger $100. it is adding up. oh and sperm

actually--i had forgetten, my metformin IS covered because its a diabetic medication, so get that one at least and my dr isnt charging me for the consultation visits and he is letting me make payments, which i will be making for the rest of my LIFE!

 

[LolaM]

Infertility is expensive. Very expensive!!! What pains me the most is the costs. If I had no coverage I would have went straight IVF. The drugs that I am currently using are used for IVF and they are sooooo expensive, even though I am not paying nothing but a $12 or 5 co pay still I am sticker shocked that ppl can pay so much with such high hopes and the (excuse my language) $hit don't even work.

I am done venting. Lol. So ladies I have a question. Where do you draw the line with TTC? I know if you are like me I don't have $13,000 I can pull out my a$$ lol.

AFM: I think we will do 2 more cycles, and then consider IVF end of this year since I have found a reasonable price that is under $6000 for military. That's where I am drawing the line for us, anyone else care to share?

We have drawn the line. With the bills we have, there is no more. We will not do IVF, its $$$, invasive and the success rates are low. We found a state adoption agency. Hubs wants to clean up his credit a bit and End of the school year we will begin the adoption process, which we had wanted to do anyways so i guess we will just start sooner than planned.
Its kind of a trap, and some days i feel like Forrest Gump-"well, since I've run this far, I might just as well keep going" but at some point, it has to stop, and just like that, i was done runninG!

 

[Ms. Shortie]

Hi! Sorry to hijack this thread. I was so excited to find it. I was hoping to get some wisdoms from some fellow Femara takers.

I am 35 and TTC #2. First one was the first month off OCP. I had never had regular periods and was taking OCP for that. Then when were were ready for #2 I somehow thought it was going to happen right away again but I was wrong. This is month 7 of trying and have only ovulated twice. So went to RE who diagnosed me with PCOS based on history and blood work. Started Femara for the first time this month. I am CD9 and went in for u/s and no dominant follicle seen... largest was 7 mm and the stripe was only 3.5 mm. The 2 times I ovulated was right after stopping OCPs (restarted them to bring on a period after a long time w/o) which my doctor thought was due to rebound effect and I O'd CD 19 both times. I know it might be too early but RE thought that Femara would shorten the time to O. Anyone else with this problem? She doesn't want to do anything but wait for u/s at CD 11 to see how things are going. My question is if there is still nothing at CD 11 do I have to call this cycle a bust and wait another month?

Thanks!

 

[Chiles]

@ Lola- I. Agree with you on that, IVF is very expensive and I had read the forums where women have like 4 failed Fresh IVF:/ I can't deal with all that. I think I can give it 1 shot and that's it. We were going to go head and move forward with adoption, we had scheduled orientation and all and then we finally got some good news that I was starting to respond to the meds. So we are holding off for now. But the line has to be drawn some where. Lots of women get pregnant right after they stop fertility treatments etc. But I am too interested in adoption.

 

[Cridge]

Ms. Shortie - welcome! Last cycle I was on 10mg femara (that's a lot!) days 3-7. On CD12 I had no follies (except my typical pcos ones) and my estradiol was at 20 (really low). I took an additional 12.5mg femara on CD12 and 13 and I ovulated 9 days later. So don't give up yet.

Chiles - sorry af found you, but you have a great attitude! DH and I always drew the line at IVF - meaning, we would never go there. Over the years we've done more clomid here and there, but now that we're giving ttc one last shot, we're drawing the line at the end of 3 gonal-f cycles. Partly because that's what insurance will cover, although our deductible is so high that we're paying for everything out of pocket at this point. And really, the way my doc does it, I could easily get away with as many gonal-f cycles as I wanted, probably. But, it's just too much. I'm too tired and ready to be done with it all. We did try the adoption route, but after 3 years of waiting we decided it wasn't for us, and we've felt good with that decision.

 

[sugarpuff]

CD1 again and I have an urgent internal ultrasound today, great timing. Ugh I'm getting so bored of this already. Think I'm all ready to throw in the towel soon

 

[flybaby]

We have a small amount to use on infertility in a lifetime a very small amount I think it maybe might cover a one trip of IUI so pretty much if we get to the point that we need an IUI that'd be our 1st and last try...

 

[Ms. Shortie]

My insurance also does 't cover anything infertility related so we had the FP do the bloodwork & Costco has letrozole for $6 for 5 pills of the 2.5mg. I had to call around because the prices varied a lot!

 

[Ms. Shortie]

@Cridge. Thanks for the welcome. Your story gives me hope. I guess I will try to be patient & hope thurday's ultrasound has some growing follies.

 

[drsquid]

ms shortie- wow i shoulda called around. walgreens charged me $92 for 10 pills of 2.5 and that was with their ripoff card

 

[MKHewson]

I wish I could send you ladies my leftovers, our insurance combine with ontario health coverage I was lucky not have to spend any money.

 

[Mrs.Stinski]

Hi! Sorry to hijack this thread. I was so excited to find it. I was hoping to get some wisdoms from some fellow Femara takers.

I am 35 and TTC #2. First one was the first month off OCP. I had never had regular periods and was taking OCP for that. Then when were were ready for #2 I somehow thought it was going to happen right away again but I was wrong. This is month 7 of trying and have only ovulated twice. So went to RE who diagnosed me with PCOS based on history and blood work. Started Femara for the first time this month. I am CD9 and went in for u/s and no dominant follicle seen... largest was 7 mm and the stripe was only 3.5 mm. The 2 times I ovulated was right after stopping OCPs (restarted them to bring on a period after a long time w/o) which my doctor thought was due to rebound effect and I O'd CD 19 both times. I know it might be too early but RE thought that Femara would shorten the time to O. Anyone else with this problem? She doesn't want to do anything but wait for u/s at CD 11 to see how things are going. My question is if there is still nothing at CD 11 do I have to call this cycle a bust and wait another month?

Thanks!

This is my first cycle on Femara and I had a scan done on day 12, follies were still small. Had another on CD 16, still not there yet so my Dr gave me another round of Femara and then I had one more scan on CD 20 and finally had them big enough for a trigger. At least if this cycle doesnt work now the dr knows that I need more than the usual dose so you may just be the same way

 

[Cridge]

Mrs Stinski - so your follies grew from small to trigger size in 4 days?! Do you know how small they were on cd16?