Hello ladies, thank you all of the warm welcome! It is sad that we had to find each other on this thread because of our condition, but its somewhat comforting to know were not alone. Having so many other ladies dealing with the same problem somehow makes me feel normal. I like how expatttc put it: we're in good company and have that most important quality - hope. I hope our BFPs are just around the corner!
The doctors appointment went better than anticipated and she too gave me some boost of hope. I liked the doctor, because she was answering my questions before I even had a chance to ask and started working on detecting the problem right away. When she heard about irregular periods, she said thats no good. When she heard about spotting, she said thats no good either. What a relief it was. It's ironic how the words 'no good' actually can make you feel good. She acknowledges there's a problem and wants to fix it. I was ready to hear, Its all normal, honey, just keep trying. In fact, she didnt once ask for how long exactly weve been trying. She asked me loads of other questions though, carefully listened to me and then said, "Houston, we have a problem. Let's fix it."
I was lucky enough to have this appointment on CD3 and when she heard that, she immediately asked the nurse to draw my blood to check my FSH, LH, Estradiol, Prolactin and TSH levels. She was cautious though to take my words for granted. She asked, How do you know that this is CD3 if you bleed for so long before that? Im sure you, girls, all can tell the difference: the cramps, the flow, the color, the texture everything is different when AF arrives. Thats what I told her and she said she'd trust my judgement and wed draw the blood anyways, but if everything failed wed have to make it CD3 with the aid of meds and retest again. After drawing my blood, she told me to get ready for the physical exam and an ultrasound. Now, when I was living back in Europe, my Ob/Gyn wouldnt even get close to me during my period. I dont know if it had something to do with him being male, but whenever Id call to schedule an appointment, the first question would be: Are you bleeding? If yes, call when youre done. Well, thats kind of hard to do when your bleeding is irregular and lasts for half a month
But I got used to it and assumed that was standard practice everywhere. Thats why I was very surprised when my new doctor told me to get ready for a physical, I didnt expect that at all. I told her about my period and she said. Honey, Im not gonna see anything I havent seen before, so dont worry, relax and let me find out whats wrong with you. I liked her even better now. The ultrasound didnt show any abnormalities, except a small fibroid, which she said was nothing to write home about. Its small, far from my ovaries and shouldnt have any effect on my fertility, according to her. However, it did show something else more important - there were no signs of ovulation whatsoever on my ultrasound. My OPK must've picked up an LH surge on CD7, but ovulation never happened. Dreaminhoping, to answer you question, I tested twice a day, it was positive on CD7 at 12:30 pm and negative when I tested again at 7pm the same day. I kept testing twice a day for another 10 days and never saw a positive again. Well, now I know I didn't even ovulate at all. My system is definitely out of whack.
At the end, she told me she couldnt tell right away whats causing my spotting. She said it could be endometriosis, but she didnt see any endo cysts. It could be hormonal, which would also explain irregular periods, but well have to wait for the test results to come in. Meanwhile, she said, what we know is that last month I did not ovulate and we could try 50mg of Clomid to stimulate ovulation and I'd come back next week for another ultrasound to see if any follicles are even developing. She said we could wait for the test results to come in first before starting Clomid, but also assured me that therere no risks with giving it a try. She also warned me theres a very slight possibility it may cause more than one egg to mature and result in multiple pregnancies, but the possibility is low and I don't really care if I have multiples, just get me pregnant! After giving it some thought, I decided to give it a shot. To me its a luxury to be able to get a drug to stimulate the growth of follicles and then come back and see what exactly is happening with my ovaries. Maybe I simply do not ovulate and thats my problem in the first place. So I started Clomid that same day, no side effects yet, and I will be going to see my doctor again next week to talk about my test results and getting another ultrasound. It feels good to actually start getting some answers. I'm full of hope.
Sorry for a long post, girls, but I wanted to describe my experience in detail, because reading your detailed descriptions helped me. I will keep you updated on what else she finds out and whether she detects what's causing my spotting. I'm crossing my fingers for all of us, fellow spotters!
Thanks for sharing your story, your FS sounds excellent! I am curious to know though how they know you didn't ovulate? I thought only a progesterone test or follicle scans could tell this?? FXd the clomid works for you hun.
x
