CLOMID GANG - the newER thread!!

[coggy]

Can't do links...if anyone can link from the last thread to this one it would be fab!!

I am so rubbish!!

Artoo....still thinking about you.
Hope it has all gone well.
X

Hi all - I've not been on for a little while, well I have but haven't posted. This is my second month of Clomid. My af was due Tuesday and didn't happen. Did a test Wed but so faint I didn't believe it. Anyway Just done one now, as woke up feeling sickly?!, and it's a BFP I am in total shock. I didn't even dare tell you lot in the week incase it disappeared. Now I feel really happy but still scared it will go!!!! You are the first to know!!!!! Shame I'm the only one in the world that's up!

Fantastic news CCPink

Oh ccpink, congratulations! I'm so pleased

My week went very well - had 11 eggs collected, 9 fertilised, I now have two back in and 6 in the freezer for further attempts. The last one was a slow developer, so I'm waiting to see whether it will be able to be frozen or not. So I'm now into the 2ww before I can test, and trying not to think about it too much!

Hugs,
Artoo.

Fantastic news ccpink.....well done you.

Artoo.....well done you too! Nine out of eleven fertilised.....that's excellent!!
Toe and finger tapping time now then for the next 14 days.

I'm delighted for you ccpink - hope you are taking very good care of yourself.

Artoo - 9 fertilised eggs sounds very good - fingers crossed for you.

I had a bit of a weird experience at the hospital - freaked me out a bit. This is a bit long winded - thanks for anyone who can be bothered to read- I need to get it off my chest.
On Wed I had the first scan for follicle monitoring (2nd clomid cycle) - the doc said I needn't come back because the lead follicle is 18mm, though my lining looked too thin and she wanted to talk to my consultant about my next cycle. My DH (thank god) asked why they don't do another scan to find out if the lining is improving - so I went back yesterday. The scan was done and the doctor said "I'll be back in a minute". Great. That's exactly how to put the fear of god into me.
On return he explained I had not yet ov'd and had a risk of 4 follicles maturing (they were 22, 18 16 & 13 mm?. plus a number of 11s).
So - my options were to use barrier method / abstain for the rest of this cycle or to immediately have the injection "ovitrelle" to bring on ov asap. The risk of a multiple pg is high and dangerous for me and potential babes.

Of course the problem is we have already started trying this month - and given sperm can live upto 5 days - the risk was already high.

SO... I went for the injection. I still don't know if this was the right decision - and (if you've got this far!!) I'd really appreciate some wise words. HELP.

Artoo - what a result, wishing the next two weeks fly by for you and then you get some good news. Are you trying for your first baby? How long have you been trying?

Izzy - no words of wisdom from me but i would have probably done the same thing. x

Hi there,

On my second day after the night before of Clomid. 50mg. Been away to Granada recently and drank galleons of wine. Now rather miserable at the prospect of not having my half bottle to look forward to in the evening. Can feel my ovaries doing something. I've waited so long for this and I'm frightened of not succeeding. Anyone know what I mean?

Sorry!! Please carry on. I realize that I am a bit out of sync. They do say you can get a bit low on Clomid.
xx

Izzy - I had the same problem in 2004 when I first took clomid - I had 5 large follicles and they said not to continue with that cycle, but we decided to anyway because we really wanted a baby - and it worked!

I can't believe it - I did a preg. test last week on day 27 and it was negative, then I had spotting so I thought it was AF, then we had an appointment with another consultant yesterday and I wanted to be sure before the appt so I did a test yesterday morning (day 31) and there was a very faint line. He said it means you are pregnant but I couldn't believe it. I just don't want it to go now and keep dreading that I will start bleeding. It is weird because it happened the first month I stopped taking clomid - I was just taking metformin.

Artoo - I hope the two week wait is going ok, I guess try and keep busy to take your mind off it!

The 2ww has been horrible, I've been on tenterhooks the whole time. Today is my test day, and DH and I were both surprised and thrilled to see a BFP!!

I don't feel at all pregnant, no symptoms of any kind. And I guess I have to start reading the pregnancy books now eh?

Hugs,
Artoo.

Fantastic News Artoo

Really pleased for you and your DP.

Can you remind me again of how long you had been trying etc, the reason docs gave for it not happening and if you went NHS or private. Thanks youhave given me faith again. xxxx

Congrats to Jules too

Has been ages since we had BFP's on this thread. xx

Well done Artoo!

Thanks for your comments. The 2 week wait started yesterday. As I work at home, I think I'll start making plans to structure my day - so not too much time lying on my bed and dreaming, hoping, fearing. Just read a fantastic book, which is famous, Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not feel good but profound.

I see a fantastic reflexologist for some extra help. It really seems to be doing something. Hormones having parties! When she knew it was my time for BD she asked me whether we would be eating oysters. I explained that my dh has shellfish allergy and that we would treat ourselves to fillet steak!

Probably enough for now. Though I'm terrible in that I can blather for ages.

Take care fellows! Mollyxx

Artoo....I have a MASSIVE lump in my throat.....that is such WONDERFUL news
I have prayed really hard for you this month and now that is 2 out of 5 people on my list with BFPs.
Congratulations and massive amount of (((((hugs))))).
X

Thanks for the kind comments ladies, I'm still struggling to believe it

Natty - I'll happily recap my story for you. We've been trying almost 2 years. I started temperature charting almost right away, and noticed I seemed to have a very short luteal phase of 7 days. We saw the doctor, who referred me for a cd21 blood test, which showed low progesterone, and we were referred to a specialist. DH had a sperm count done, which came back very low, but he had been quite ill at the time it was done, so that might have affected it. He was re-tested 3 months later, and the count had improved significantly. I had a mid cycle scan which showed I was not ovulating, so we were prescribed clomid. The consultant said he thought I'd never ovulated, and was very dismissive of my temp charts, but I still reckon I was ovulating, and the non-ovulatory cycle that month was due to the fact I was taking a high dose of Ibuprofen for back pain. All the scans showed I was responding fine to the clomid, but still nothing happened. After 6 months on clomid, I paid for a private consultation with our specialist, which was a real eye-opener. We discovered that the NHS options for our treatment would be slow, and limited. And we were told for the first time the actual numbers of all our tests. And I was still not happy with DH's sperm results (although it meets WHO minimums, 13% motility didn't sound good to me). So I persuaded the specialist that with my next clomid cycle we should try an IUI, which would give us another chance to look at DH's sperm. We did this, and the procedure went fine, but it also revealed DH's sperm was doen again (2% motility and low morphology), and at that point the specialist told us our only chance to have children was to move straight to ICSI. Being private patients we only had to wait a few months before we could do this, and we have been so lucky in that everything has gone really well every step of the way, and we now have our BFP from our first ICSI cycle, and another 6 embryos in the freezer!

Sorry that was a bit long.

Jules - how are you doing? Is that line getting any darker? I'm really crossing my fingers for you

Coggy - thanks for the kind words, I'm hoping you'll get your BFP soon too!

Hugs,
Artoo.

Thanks Artoo and Coggy - I am really pleased for you Artoo, what is your due date? Mine is 6 Oct but we're not going to tell people until 12 weeks. I'm having HCG and progesterone measured every 2 days to make sure they are going up as the progesterone was low so I've been given cyclogest.

For me I had polycystic ovaries although was told not full PCOS. I wasn't ovulating so took clomid for 4 months. It made me ovulate but not get pregnant. We did IUI too but that didn't work. I then went on metformin which can help with PCO and it did make me ovulate and the first month on the full dose I got a BFP.

Congratulations to CC Pink too - how are you getting on?

Coggy - I really hope it works for you soon, how many more months of clomid have you got before the lap? x

Jules- think your preg brain has kicked in early.

I have one month of clomid left due to start again next tues/weds then lap & dye + ov drilling 9th march, followed by consultant appointment 23rd April so i will have about 6 weeks without any drugs so it might be a nice break for my body.

Going to book my holiday tomorrow so that we go away in May and then depending on how the consultant appointment goes start treatment or next step in June.

Hope your levels improve. xx

LOL Natty!

And I have no months of clomid left and I'm waiting to start IUI (hopefully this month).

I'm so sorry Natty - I think it must be the hormones, I keep getting Natty and Coggy confused!

Natty - do you have pco? if so you might want to ask your doctor about metformin.

Coggy - I hope the IUI goes well, are you doing it with injectables?

The progesterone and hcg levels have gone up so that is good, I'm still going to carry on the blood tests at least until next Friday though when they do the scan.

Artoo - how are you getting on? x

Good news jules

Don't worry it is fine, it is so easy to get people mixed up on here.

Yeah i have slight PCOS consultant did mention metoformin in my first appointment so maybe i will be put on that next. What is the difference between that and clomid?

PCOS can lead to a resistance to insulin, causing the body to produce excessively high levels of insulin in an attempt to compensate. This higher level of insulin is known to cause abnormal cholesterol and lipid levels, obesity, irregular periods, higher levels of androgens, infertility due to disturbance of ovulation and an increased likelihood of diabetes.

To help combat these problems, women with PCOS may be prescribed Metformin. Metformin is a type of drug known as an 'insulin-sensitising agent', which lowers the blood sugar level, in turn reducing the excessively high insulin.

There are actually very few studies that have been carried out and published concerning the use of insulin sensitising drugs as a treatment for PCOS. These suggest that it may well be useful in several areas: helping weight reduction, improving irregular periods (70%), normalising blood cholesterol and leading to ovulation.

One study looking at ovulation in particular found that, compared to no treatment, 34% of women ovulated taking metformin (compared to 4% who did not receive it) and when this was combined with clomifene it was as high as 90% (as compared to 8% in those who only received clomifene). These studies contained overweight women with PCOS - its role in treating women of normal weight has not been investigated. The most common side effects during treatment are diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal bloating.

Have you actually had any tests done to determine whether you are insulin resistant or not?. I ask this as some PCOS patients are not insulin resistant.

Would say that clomid should be given with a degree of caution to many PCOS patients. You certainly should be monitored whilst on clomid as it can affect hormone levels markedly. Clomid encourages the ovaries to work harder.

Thanks for the info. No idea if i have been tested for insulin levels? Would this have been on my first blood tests i have with gp? testing lh levels, fsh levels and progestrone?

natty 1806 i have pcos and keep getting told not typical textbook case im not overweight or anything. im on metformin and clomid but still no follicles biggest i got was 11mm so just started injections and synarel spray which i hate but keep thinking it will be worth it in long run. in my initial blood tests m insulin levels where not tested just lh fsh testosterone etc however at our hospital hey put all pcos women on metformin as their view is prevention is better than cure. personally i would rather have been tested but they said not. research has showed that it is meant to greatly improve the chances of clomid working though.

jules123 what does of metformin are you on and do you have to continue through pregnancy last time i was told to stop and i miscarried and i cant help but think i should have continued throughout pregnancy. i think if you are taking something and then you just take it away from the baby it cant be good.

anyway good luck to all and any advice about injections, etc will be greatly appreciated. got follicle tracking scan on tuesday so fingers crossed.

Yeah the only text book thing i have are the cysts. weight is okay (personally i would liek to be slimmer but BMI is fine) no unwanted hair, do have a few spots but they are to do with my period i think.

Will have to wait and see when i next see consultant (23.04.07)