Clomid for the first time.....questions, questions, questions...oh and pcos for good measure!

[pussycatmomma]

Right ladies, I am not the sort to start new threads very often, and I am a bit of a old timer when it comes to the ttc boards.
The reason I need a bright, spangly new thread is that I have just been prescribed 6mths worth of clomid.
Kind of Hurray, but also kind of sad, cause I so wanted to do this "on my own" as it were. But heyho, this is evidently not to be. I was diagnosed with having pcos, and also had ovarian drilling 6mths ago. My gyny appt today has confirmed that we need to move on to the next stage as it is unlikely now that I will fall prg without a bit of help. I am currently on cd45, with no sign of af but 2 neg tests behind me so far this cycle.
I need support! I need advice! I need all my lovely ttc friends (and some new ones I hope!) to come out of the woodwork, and help me work on my positivity!!
I need to tell myself this is a wonderful opportunity, that it may well work, and that hopefully I wont have to go down IUI/IVF roads.
I also need other clomid ladies, to tell me exactly what cd to start, as the handout from the gyny states day 2 onwards for 5 days (day 2-6) but the leaflet inside the box says start on day 1 for 5 days. So am a bit unsure.
Also , does it matter what time of day you take it? Does it have to be same time each day?
And lastly a bit of tech question, hopefully someone can answer....gyny is dead against temping, advised me to have a ceremonial burning of the thermometer , so I am going with his view and ditching the temping. I have not used ov pred kits since i was diagnosed with the pcos because an expert on here advised me they were really unreliable to use with unstable hormone levels.
But,,,,, what should i do now i am going to be using the clomid??? I feel i have to have some way of knowing what is happening. The gyny has only asked for a 21 day blood test for first month, nothing else yet. I asked him about scanning and checking for impending ovulation that way and he said that wasnt available.
So sorry for long post.
Just feeling sad/scared/excited/nervous and every other emotion we get on the ttc rollercoaster.
xxxx

hi, just got in from seeing nieces dancing show am thrilled with all this info.
Bigknockersbigknickers, sorry, i didnt read your name properly , there is another poster called normsbigknockers or something like that and i wrongly thought you were her. Sorry.
Atilla.....my guiding angel, so glad you posted.
I asked gyny if he would do tracking in form of scans, it was a question i had on my list, and he said no, was not available at present.
I cant think why i will not be tracked sufficiently. Is it the lh they check on the 21day? Also, if my "cycle" is so irregular, I fail to see how 1 check on day 21 will help
I am going to try and stay positive with what i have though. If the cd21 test shows ovulation, i think it is unlikely that it will, then i will phone gyny to check things out further. If it does show ov then all well and good, but if not, like someone else said, no point feeding myself drugs if they are not doing what they are sposed to be doing.
If the clomid does not work, he suggested i may have ivf if we wished to go down that route (we will). He mentioned we will be funded by the trust, but he didnt mention how many cycles if more than 1 , and if first cycle is unsuccessful. He only mentioned iui when i asked him if this may be a possiblility. He said yes, possibly, but he would discuss this further with us if the need arose (eg after 6mths clomid).
Atilla......your question about going straight for drilling is something i have been wondering and musing over for a long while also. Nearly everyone i have come across on mn or verity has been offered clomid, and drilling as a second option. As far as i am aware i am in the minority having had it as a first treatment option. He did say today that he believed it to be the best treatment option, although sadly, now my cycle length is increasing to silly times, he says the effects of the drilling may be reducing.
I figure that comment, along with me obviously not being preg means it has not worked.
I do feel very sad about this. All of it I mean. I know there are some hopeful stories on here, and thankyou, i do appreciate it, but i do feel like its all a bit bleak to be honest.
Basically, temping is a bit scatty with pcos and not a good indication, and hormones all over the place/ high LH mean opks almost useless. On top of that i feel destined to struggle with my weight, try and lose some and get totally paranoid and upset and all Body Conscious again which after an eating disorder in my teens i swore i would never allow to happen again. All the while im in my 20's thinking "this is ok, you are healthy, it is ok not to be a size 10 "(im a size 12-14) and really my body is tricking me and it actually turns out i have pcos and now fertility hell as well.

I started this thread being quite positive, we had just got back from hosp, and i thought it would all be ok. I think i am coming down to earth with a bump.
But i do thank God for mn because no one else actually tells you how it is and gives such good straightforward guidance.
Thanks everyone x x x x
i will keep you all posted.

Do you trust your obs? I'm not sure from your post whehter you do or not. Can you maybe ask for a 2nd opinion. (I am not casting doubts on his abilities as he is the specialist but I do know you have to be comfortable)

I didn't have any scans booked on clomid because I was on a low dosage .. if you are on a high dosage then I thought it was a good idea to be checked in case of hyper-stimulation

Also as one is only allowed to take clomid for 12 months, personally I'd want some kind of monitoring to see whether dosage should be increased

Twig, I may be the confused one here. I thought that the monitoring scans etc were to help you to know if you if and wen you ovulated, I didnt realise they were just if you were at risk of ov hyper stim.
It isnt that i dont trust the gyny. I think maybe what it is, that we can learn so much from internet/books these days that I may have too much info and not enough expertise to go with it maybe? It can all get terribly confusing in ones head, especially with the nature of this forum when people wil post to discuss their difficulties rather than posting to discuss their success. iykwim.
Also my sister has been going through (different cause) fertility problems and has been unsuccessful with ivf many times over. She is still struggleing to concieve. I also have several friends in rl who have had problems ttc and several who have no children because of this.
It is difficult to find a balance of positivity when you probably know a bit too much really.
Coggy, Trace, Wannabe..............are you there?????????

Sorry pussycat, I'm going off the subject but did your gyny say why he's so against temping? Just intrigued...

Another PCOSer mum here.

I guess the surprise re ovarian drilling is that it is fairly invasive, when compared with clomid. On the other hand if it was done during a diagnostic lap and dye say then it is at least efficient.

The problem with PCOS is that it is very unlikely to affect any 2 women in exactly the same way. Most of the time I am completely anovulatory, whereas for other women it results in a slightly irregular cycle or totally different symptoms (and may not even affect fertility.

In my circs it would be pointless giving me clomid and then not scanning, but if you are already ovulating each month, then the consultant may have a different view.

Sorry that you've got disheartened, but bear in mind that there are a lot of clomid success stories on here. My hospital estimated that 50% of women attending their fertility clinic conceived when using Clomid for 3-6 months.

I had ovarian diathermy when it was decided by the cons that I would not be suitable to take clomid at all (sky high LH levels) and as a stop gap before doing the injectible drugs (the hospital had to wait six months for the funding for this to come through). I was also seen very regularly by the hospital before this was mooted for both blood tests and ultrasound scans. I was most fortunate that I conceived as a direct result of diathermy (was also glad of the op as endometriosis was found at the same time and diathermised out). It is very different from laparoscopy which is more diagnostic than a treatment in its own right. BTW a lap is the gold standard op done to detect endometriosis.

I would certainly agree with Ladymuck that PCOS is a very individualistic disorder and affects each woman with it very differently. I was diagnosed with it on the basis of my highly irregular periods and bloodwork which in my case showed the LH/FSH imbalance. My problems were irregular periods and a few stray hairs.

Another problem (and thats an understatement) with PCOS is that there is no one therapy or treatment that will completely eradicate it (the cystic follicles associated with the condition do return eventually). The causes of this are not fully understood either though understanding has vastly improved over the past decade or so.

Clomid is actually quite powerful stuff and monitoring should happen whilst on it. Without monitoring you have no sure fire way of knowing whether its working or not.

PCM - will hold you hand from afar!.