Starting Femara, any advice please...

[bellyfever]

Hi girls, so short and sweet back sorry. DH and I have been ttc for 15 myths now with not a bit of luck. I have had all lab work up and HSG, which everything looked great. DH had had SA and that looked good for the most part too. Went to see new OB today and and she said we could try femara which she explained to me was similar to clomid just with less side effects. I'm super stoked about it and so ready for next cycle to get it going! I just started a new cycle and on CD 7 do have a little time to wait. Think we're just going to try and relax this month and see if that might help to before starting it. Anyways was wondering if any of you have any insight to this drug or if you have had any success. Was reading a little about it on internet and came across some things that said it can increase chances of birth defects but there is no study to supports it?? Thanks for any help.

 

[Renaendel]

Femara was very low side effect for me. I was on 5mg cd 3-7 for six cycles. I had better follicle results when I took the pills on a strict schedule. So I would set a second alarm for 8am every morning and take the pills then with 16oz of water.

The months I was good about my pill time and water intake were the months I had 2-3 follicles. I did get pregnant on it, but lost it due to my tubes not transporting the egg. Not femaras fault.

The first month I had one day of slightly blurred vision and when I had three follicles it was uncomfortable. Totally worth it!

A lot of doctors start people on 2.5mg to test their ovarian response. What do you start at? I also charted and logged everything about my cycles so feel free to throw any questions my way.

 

[waitingongod1]

I took femera for 3 months. One Month for an iui. I didn't have success of it but had a lot less side effects on it then clomid. I only produced 1 follicule each time on it. Rather clomid I produced a lot more. Just have to find what works. My best advice is don't do anything longer than 3 month. Switch to clomid or go to iui. Or do something different after 3 months of no success. Everyone is different though! Hope femera works out for you!

 

[Renaendel]

There was one study on that and Femara and it was thrown out for falsification of data. There have been follow up studies and there is no link between Femara and increased mc.

It is clomid not Femara that has a recorded miscarriage rate. The reason is that Femara is out of your system in 48 hours, well before you even ovulate. Clomid stays in your system for weeks, so it is still in your body while you are pregnant.

 

[Pruili01]

I did clomid for 2 cycles, but only grew follicles the first cycle, so my RE switched me to femara. I have now done femara for 2 cycles and am on my third cycle currently. I feel sooo much better on femara than I did on clomid. I was an emotional mess on clomid, but I feel normal with femara. It also doesn't affect the lining like clomid does. Obviously I can't say anything about the success rate because I've had all BFNs, but hopefully it will work well for you!

 

[Mrs. and Mrs.]

I'm on my third round of femara right now!

My first round was at 2.5 mg days 5-9 and produced a 19mm follicle, so that was great! Unfortunately they found a tumor on my ovary, so my cycle got canceled to I could have surgery. Tumor was benign, fwew!

Second round was at 2.5 days 5-9 since it worked well the first time. No dominate follicle detected. Still did a trigger shot because the frozen sperm had arrived and needed to be used. BFN.

Third round (with a new dr) is 5mg days 3-7. I had one 21mm follicle and had my IUI five days ago. Hopefully it'll be a BFP!

I don't really have any side effects on the femara. Very mild if anything.

Good luck to you!

 

[bellyfever]

Wow girls thanks so much for your responses!! I'm getting more excited by the day to start it next month! My Dr put me on 2.5mg CD 3-7 but we're not checking follicle growth? I have an appt to follow up with her after the first cycle trying it. She said we will only do it for 3 months then discuss our next options if no success. So do all of you have problems with ovulating or are you/did you take it because of unexplained infertility?? Curious because I don't have a problem with ovulating every cycle, so wondering if it is going to increase my chances to release more eggs at once and wonder if that would put me at a increased risk for multiples??

I just ovulated yesterday for this cycle with nothing to help except musinex and preseed, so only two more weeks and we get to try it. Unless by some miracle it happens this month. I have my fingers crossed for all of you lovely ladies!!

 

[Renaendel]

I ovulate on my own but only have one tube. She put me on it so I would have a better chance of ovulating on the correct side. At 36 yrs old my chance of multiples from 2-3 follicles was pretty low.

 

[messica]

Wow girls thanks so much for your responses!! I'm getting more excited by the day to start it next month! My Dr put me on 2.5mg CD 3-7 but we're not checking follicle growth? I have an appt to follow up with her after the first cycle trying it. She said we will only do it for 3 months then discuss our next options if no success. So do all of you have problems with ovulating or are you/did you take it because of unexplained infertility?? Curious because I don't have a problem with ovulating every cycle, so wondering if it is going to increase my chances to release more eggs at once and wonder if that would put me at a increased risk for multiples??

I just ovulated yesterday for this cycle with nothing to help except musinex and preseed, so only two more weeks and we get to try it. Unless by some miracle it happens this month. I have my fingers crossed for all of you lovely ladies!!

This is a pretty dangerous approach, but unfortunately it's also somewhat common. Doc's not at all educated in regards to infertility will frequently hand out hyper ovulation meds like candy and not do any kind of monitoring. The danger in that is the increased risk of high order multiples (not just talking twins here, but a situation like Jon and Kate + 8.....her 6 were not conceived via IVF but rather unmonitored medicated cycles just like you're describing). Did your doctor discuss that scenario with you? Would you be comfortable doing selective reduction?

If I were you I'd either insist on monitoring (called follicle studies) and if she declines or downplays their importance I'd switch doctors. If you are ovulating already it's especially concerning that she doesn't at all seem to understand the risks.

 

[Renaendel]

She was on Clomid, not Femara and while possible she did only have 3 follicles in the ultrasound. Quite a lightning strike to get identicles plus the extra follies.

Luckily your dose of femara isn't really used for multiple follicles. It is used for one, maybe two follicles, but better for use ovulating on time. So while higher order multiples could happen if you had two follies and they split into identical twins, the chances aren't as high as if you were on a higher dose or on clomid 50. Still my doctor would not prescribe it without a follicle study. I was on 5mg. Sometimes had 1 sometimes 3, but most often two follicles.