First Round Letrozole - Long Term TTC

[nikinabox]

Hi Everyone,

I used to post relatively frequently in one of the symptom spotter threads, but as I'm sure all of you can agree, that can become taxing after seeing BFN month after month after month while everyone gets their BFPs while barely even trying.

DH and I have been TTC for about a year now, and we decided to get tested to see what's up and hopefully have some peace of mind. We seem to be in perfect health, I ovulate, and everything is going well, with the exception of a minor (barely there) morphology issue with DH that our dr. isn't at all concerned about.

My Dr. suggested we try IUI with clomid or letrozole, but since my insurance doesn't cover it, she suggested that we try a round of Letrozole (3 pills - for 5 days) and THEN we will try IUI next month in case this doesn't work. She said that it will create a better, healthier ovulation for me (as I already ovulate regularly).

Do any of you have any experience with Letrozole/Femara? Any success stories? I guess I'm looking for any sort of support since I feel like I'm at my wit's end with this TTC business. I'm sure I don't have to explain to you all how exhausting it is. Seeing everyone around you, every other day, announcing their pregnancies to the world. Hopefully someday soon, that will be us. I try to stay positive but each month it gets increasingly more difficult.

Wishing baby dust to all of you

 

[rocko]

I hope this treatment works for you! I start my first round this week if my period decides to start... My husband is in the same boat as yours, low end of normal. I've got endometriosis and poor ovulations (It happens late and my blood shows hormone levels are off). The DR is hoping we can raise my chances by improving ovulation & lowering estrogen (I have too much with endo and all) and then with ovidrel and the IUI we can catch the egg(s?)

Hopefully some more experienced ladies can share there knowledge!

 

[messica]

I did many rounds of both. The Clomid thinned my lining and caused terrible side effects for me so my doc switched me to Femara. From what I understood, if ovulation isn't an issue (it wasn't for me, ours is mfi), then the Femara is more to induce "super ovulation" of sorts. The idea being to create more targets (follies) for his swimmers to find.

I hear women all the time here mentioning starting drugs like Clomid and Femara unmonitored. If you're already ovulating fine and swimmers are pretty well normal I'd absolutely advise you proceed monitored. Ovulating fine and then put on Clomid I produced 3-4 mature follies each time. That paired with good swimmers we would have been looking at the potential for multiples.....not just talking twins, but even more. On Femara my response averaged 2-3 follies each cycle so that wasn't quite as scary.

If you move forward with your first cycle of Femara and are waiting a cycle to do an IUI I'd insist on doing a follicle study if doc wasn't planning to already. It's so hard to know exactly how you're going to respond to a new drug, with off label use no less, you know? Better safe, than try to deal with the fall out of you maturing 10 follies and getting pregnant with a half dozen. I know the goal for us all is to get pregnant, but most aren't shooting for THAT pregnant lol


If you both seem to be on track your odds are really good! Best of luck!

 

[CallMeAL1982]

I'm also LTTTC, since December of 2012. I have PCOS and don't ovulate regularly on my own... I had an MC in September of 2013 and two somewhat more regular cycles (40 days-ish) thereafter, now I'm on CD 85. Hard to get pregnant again when you don't ovulate. I went to the doc last week and he said it looked like I MIGHT be ovulating, so I'm getting bloods re-drawn Saturday. If I've ovulated, great, I start Femara on day 3 of my period (unless of course I'm pregnant). If not, he's giving me 10 days of Prometrium and then starting Femara. I haven't had any testing aside from this bloodwork (FSH and LH, Estradiol, and Progesterone) and no monitoring. I was originally diagnosed with PCOS in college 10 years ago. My doctor says he doesn't need to re-test me at this point. I'm worried that I'm in premature menopause. I'm also worried that he doesn't seem to plan to monitor me while I'm on Femara.

 

[nikinabox]

Hi Messica!

Thanks for your kind words - I actually just found out today during my check-in (I'm being monitored) that my Dr. saw 2 mature follies on each ovary - so 4 all together. She seemed very excited about that, and reassured me that my chances of multiples is low, and that this is normal, so fingers crossed there... I would never take the meds without being monitored - the thought of it even scares me.

Today I actually found out that my blood test results from my last visit showed low FSH levels. I've tried to do some research on this, but most people seem to have high FSH levels (I see from your sig that you do as well), so I'm not sure how to handle this information. She didn't seem TOO concerned about it, but she said it's something to note, and could be the reason for this unexplained infertility. I'm hoping for the best!

 

[nikinabox]

I'm also worried that he doesn't seem to plan to monitor me while I'm on Femara.

Hi Call Me Al - I hope that he monitors you! You should give the office a call and ask to make sure. Let me know how it works out for you!

 

[Nightnurse]

Just wanted to say good luck ladies

 

[nikinabox]

Just wanted to say good luck ladies

Thanks! Good luck to you as well. I'm not sure of your situation, but I'm guessing since you're posting in LTTTC, that you're in the same boat as the rest of us.

 

[rocko]

How did you handle the Femara? I didn't notice any symptoms while I was taking it. Hope you're two ww flies by!

 

[Molly123456]

I did my first round of letrozole this month...triggering with Ovidrel tonight, and going in Wednesday for IUI. Today I had an ultrasound and it looks like the lezrozole is working better than clomid did for me. I had a total of 3 good sized follices (and one smaller one). And my lining was thicker than it was with the clomid. So fingers crossed for everyone! Hopefully the letrozole will work for all of us!!