KBrain3377
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HI Ttcbaby - your situation is actually very similar to mine. I also had a problem with developing a lead follicle. Essentially, when one follicle starts growing much faster then the rest, it will stunt the growth of other follicles who may be trying to catch up, since the lead follicle signals your body "hey we got one, we don't need any more for now". This is because your body naturally only aims for one follicle per month. When I did my two IUIs with Femara and injectibles it was because I had just come to my RE having done six month of Chlomid with no bfp, and he didn't think that Femara alone would give me enough "umph" and wanted to break out the big guns. First month I had 3 follicles that were mature, so that was a success (but bfn) but then the second month I only had one... he called this a wasted month since you get one follicle "for free from mother nature", so no use spending $500 of meds on it. Third month same thing, another wasted month with only one follicle, so we cancelled the IUI (and that was on ALL injectibles). To be honest, I think that injectibles did nothing for helping my lead follicle problem, and increasing the dosage as we did in the third month did not get us any better result. What got me my bfp was estrogen priming before Femara, something that my RE did not think was worth doing so I ended up freelancing it, while he was pushing me into IVF in a hurry. I took estrodial from day 21 the previous cycle (2 mg twice a day) to day 3 of the new cycle; then Femara day 3 to day 8. As much as he did not think this was gonna work, I'm pregnant now, and I also did extensive research on EP (estrogen priming); its used very successfully for IVF especially in patients with diminished ovarian reserve. Basically, it starts to hold back your follicles from developing a lead in the luteal phase of the previous cycle and at the very beginning of the current cycle, to allow you to grow multiple follicles that are close in size and therefore would not stunt each other's growth. Does that make sense? My ovulation that month was later than normal (which is also good as it makes for mature eggs) on CD 19 and also it was the STRONGEST I have ever seen it on an opk - it came up wayyyy before the control like and was almost black. We bded naturally, no IUI, since we did not have any male factor to begin with. Sorry for the long post, let me know if you have any questions. Also, my RE called me yesterday and admitted that he will try this protocol with another two of his IUI patients since it worked for me. I joked that he should name it after me.
(But really..... he should
OK, so today is my second IUI and I am really not happy that once again I only have one follice. However I don't got one on my own so doc doesn't see this as a problem. I was going to ask about injectables, but do you think maybe I should ask about estrogen priming first?
Hi Karen - I don't see how estrogen priming can hurt, and you can also do it with injectibles as well (this is what it's primarily used for - with injectibles in IVF). Not that many doctors are in the loop about it yet, and most know it only as an IVF protocol (there are a dozen different protocols in IVF and this is one of them, called epp, short for estrogen priming protocol). Let me know what your doc says. I can send you links to some studies regarding epp when I get home tonight, but most of them are for IVF, not IUIs.
IB can happen anywhere from 6-12dpo so it could have been that last night. Or it could have just been some break through bleeding. 
