Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Zero

zlich...nothing!

that's the amount of HCG in my system...NONE.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me clomid+IUI info...I am soooooo nervous about doing this. I have made 2 follicles on my own twice in 3 cycles now and I am so scared as to what the clomid will do. RE mentioned at the initial consultation that my ovaries look like over acheivers...that they will respond very well to stimulation (I guess they have a lot of antral follicles) so thats why we avoided clomid, but after IUI#3 and one failed pregnancy...this is apparently the next step....any advice...please!

13 comments:

  1. So sorry about the beta results :(. Unfortunately, I have no advice to offer, but if your ovaries are ovulating well, why do they think clomid is the right way to go? Or is that just the next step in the process? (Can you tell I know nothing about this?)

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  2. Clomid didn't work too well for me. So I'm taking injectables and IUI. Second cycle we got BFP. Good luck!

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  3. I suppose its jut the next step before IVF. We did get pregnant on IUI alone, but we have to move on if its not working again I guess. I figure they are thinking more eggs=more chances and there is a study that shows clomid can help egg quality..so maybe thats a factor too.

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  4. I just failed a clomid/iui cycle last month w/ 2 follicles and am on to another on this month. Sorry I don't have a success story. Has your dr. ever given you a glucose tolerance test and checked you for insulin resistance? I see a note about having cystic looking ovaries on your side bar and metformin is often prescribed to women with PCOS and can greatly reduce m/c rates. I've even read about dr. prescribing it to women that don't show IR just to see if it helps.

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  5. I only used clomid once and, hopefully, never again. I dont respond well to it physically and prefer the Gonal-F injections. Which my body prefers too, since it doesnt produce enough estro or prog to work on its own (or with Clomid). I matured 2 follicles with Clomid and we conceived on our IUI. But I miscarried very soon afterwards, ala a chemical pregnancy. I have had successful conceptions with Gonal-F and swear by it, but Clomid... It left a bad taste in my mouth.

    But everyone is different and several blogger friends I know have used Clomid with great success. Typically, they've only matured one or two follicles, and have conceived one baby on the cycles where conception ocurred.

    Good luck!

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  6. Here from L&F.

    Have you done a clomid challenge? A friend didn't respond to clomid. I did. But they tried clomid IUIs before I went to IVF. I was more scared of the IUIs with injectibles than with clomid. They didn't monitor follicle growth, just blood tests and apparently there was nothing to worry about. we didn't pregnant on the IUIs. I know a few people that it's worked for though. Hope you're one of them!

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  7. I did my first Clomid + IUI cycle last month. It ended in a BFN, but I ended up tolerating the Clomid fine, no side effects to speak of (except a lot more pressure/pain and bloating around ovulation time).

    Feel free to email me if you want more detailed info at sangela71 at yahoo dot com.

    Our RE wouldn't let me go straight to injects; he wanted me to do at least 1-2 cycles of Clomid first to see how my ovaries would respond to stimulation.

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  8. I didn't have much luck with Clomid, but then I'm an underachiever so 2 eggs on a high-dose cycle with Clomid was exciting. Now I'm at step 3 (1=clomid/iui, 2=follistim/iui, 3=ivf) without even a chemical pregnancy to show for the process, so a little different story than yours.

    FYI: For me, the night sweats on Clomid were pure Evil.

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  9. I got pregnant on my third Clomid cycle with dIUI, and didn't find it too bad. One thing I would watch out for is how your lining responds - for me it wasn't great and I would have switched to Femara if that last cycle hadn't worked. I never had more than one follicle on Clomid either, even though I ovulated just fine on my own. My doc said they just go there because it controls the timing of things more precisely (basically for their convenience of scheduling things, I think.) I would say that if you do produce multiple follies on your own, to start with the lowest dosage and see how that goes - I think the standard place to start is 50mg per day. For me the Clomid wasn't too bad at all - I had hot flashes but really nothing else. Seems some people are fine on it and some really hate it, and I guess there's no way to find out except to try it. Wishing you much luck, and feel free to email if you have more questions.

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  10. Have you or your doctor thought about Femara (letrazole)?? MUCH easier on the system than clomid, and you usually don't make as many follies. Clomid CAN be very hard on the ovaries. It was hard on me, and can often be hard on people with PCOS. It also has a long half life in the body and can cause side effects (sometimes detrimental to achieving pregnancy) for quite a while.

    Have you also thought of doing IUI without clomid? Has your husband been tested? I would just go in to the RE with lots and lots of questions and possible avenues. He/she is your best source of info for your situation anyway. Maybe schedule another sit down with the RE. IUI isn't bad. It's similar to a pap except that they use a clamp around your cervix. It's uncomfortable, but not horrible or really even painful. Best wishes!

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  11. Thanks everyone.

    to answer a few questions:

    we have done IUI this last cycle was our 3rd IUI.
    I have thought about femara, but I think part of the clomid that makes me interested is the possible improvement to egg quality. As we have had 2 pregnancy losses now.
    We haven't done a clomid challenge, or GTT. I have PCOS in my family, but not an official PCOS diagnosis. I have a lot of antral follicles, so the RE suspected I would be an over achiever and twins would be likely.
    T's sperms are great...at least we have that going for us.

    Thank you for everyone's advice. I think my biggest fears were multiples and the lining...so I will bring those up with the RE when I see him. And I am relieved to see that many of you/friends have had one or two really good follicles rather than kajillions of follicles. :)

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  12. I'm so sorry about your negative beta, it really, really sucks.

    I'm right there with ya in having to figure out what's next and where to go from here. To address your ? on comid IUI info. check out my post about odds. There's a really cool chart i found where they break down the success rates for all types of ART. From what I've found an infertile couple has 1-2% chance. IUI brings you to 8-9%, IUI + clomid 10-14% chance, and the risk of multiples is not a huge jump from the normal population. The one with the best/worst chance of HOM (high order multiples) is injectibles + IUI. You are essentially using the same meds as IVF to stimulate.

    Anyway...good luck with your decision making process. Marvy and I are going to chill out on the beach on vacation while we mull over our next steps too. Let's all try to have some fun away from home, k?!

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  13. I had four losses under my belt by the time that I tried clomid with IUI. I have Type 1 diabetes (inculin dependent) so the insulin resistance (total lack) was also on my plate though that was not my issue.
    When I went to the RE we sort of threw a whole bunch of things in at one time, Metformin, high doses of folic acid, baby asprin, Clomid, IUI....I did it all in one cycle. To be truthful. I was on the Metformin for quite a while. The explanation that I understood was that the Clomid and Metformin would give me stronger, higher quality ovulation. I never had ovulation problems, I just kept miscarrying.
    I have no real advice as I got pregnant on the Clomid/IUI cycle with my daughter. I had a pretty healthy pregancy and I am thinking about #2 though deathly afraid to get on the roller coaster again.
    Good luck!

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