My fertility journey & now starting Clomid - Any advice or experience?

[Crazydoglady123]

I have a child who is 9 and fell pregnant easily. A year or so after I was diagnosed with PCOS after a scan. I suffered with an eating disorder and my periods stopped for 6 months. I then went onto various contraceptives (pill, depo) as my circumstances changed. I then tried the Mirena coil and everything seemed great on it till it disappeared and at the same time I started being in lots of pain so had a pelvic scan (to locate coil) and discovered I had a 6cm ovarian cyst which a few days later I ended up heavily bleeding so was admitted to hospital and had cyst removed. The consultant also removed my coil and upon waking from surgery told me that it'd started to embed in my uterus and it was that which caused the bleeding and pain.

Fast forward to more recent, I'd been on the depo again since (no probs). I stopped it two years ago to TTC with my partner (not my Childs dad) and finding it really, really difficult to conceive :( He has had two sperm evaluations as the first was low but the second was much higher (although slightly low morphology) but the doctors seem to be fine with him now and back looking at me. I've tried ovulation tests (which always showed a surge), I've had a Hycosy which everything was fine and just finished 3 cycles of Letrozole which was a high dose. My 21 day blood test showed my progesterone at 23 and it apparently needs to be over 30 to have ovulated. I'm not due to start tonight Clomiphene. He's prescribed me 100mg a day (day 2-6) so from what I've read again is another decent/high dose but I didn't get to speak to him properly and feel a bit anxious as hear lots of lovely side effects with these! Is it true they're better taken at night? Also online I read that there's a 10% chance of developing an ovarian cyst with these so I'm not sure if I should try and book a private scan after the first cycle to make sure I haven't got one again? I have two rounds of this then another blood test. If I ovulate on it then I'm allowed another 4 goes, if not on the sheet he gave me it said Gondatropins may tried after or keyhole surgery to make holes in my ovaries... Any experience or advice greatly appreciated!

@Crazydoglady123 scan is next Monday. Just hoping I ovulate before then.

@Suki2020 well either or you'll get some answers next Monday 😌

Hi how are you all doing?

Hey @Suki2020 I'm good thanks! How are you and any progress? AF came and meant it yesterday so start my Clomid again tonight and have my scan to check how I'm reacting to the Clomid Monday after next. Also had my AFC scan and AMH bloods with my IVF clinic Tuesday.

@Crazydoglady123 sorry af arrived for you. When do you get your results for that? I’m ok thanks, crazy cupcake making for Mother’s Day. Still not ovulated yet and on cd22.

@Suki2020 I knew it was going to come anyway but thank you. You have your scan Monday don't you? Owww is that what you do cake making?

@Crazydoglady123 I’m a hairdresser by trade but since the first lockdown I started making cakes for family and friends. I’ve always made by families birthday cakes but never had the time before to do more than that. Yeah scan on Monday already know she’s going to tell me I’ve not ovulated. Tried chasing my consultant yesterday as I have no follow up been booked like I got told I would. They told me yesterday it’s a 7 week wait for an appointment at the earliest so I went made yesterday saying I wasn’t waiting another 7 weeks to get my blood results especially if I need medication for my thyroid and do I carry on with 50mg or up it to 100mg or does it need changing. Sorry for the rant lol. What is an AFC scan your having?

@Suki2020 oh wow! I used to make life like birthday cakes as a hobby years ago for friends and family but spent so much time doing them it just became a chore so I stopped.
Omg! That's ridiculous! Did you get an appointment? Does your consultant not do your scans? All my NHS ones have been done with mine so we talk about the findings there and then and if I have any questions after I can call the infertility unit up and speak to a nurse.

The AFC scan was done with my private clinic and is an Antral follicle count where they look at how many follicles are on your ovaries. Once paired with an Anti Mullerian Hormone blood test they then get a good picture of what your remaining egg reserve is and also if you have more than you should it gives them a good indication of if you'd be at risk of OHSS.

@Crazydoglady123 so typically my OPK’s got darker today so hoping I’m going to ovulate in the next day or two. Should I still have my scan tomorrow or do I try and push it back a week as I have my day 21 bloods booked too.

@Suki2020 definitely have your scan tomorrow. They will confirm if you're definitely ovulating, how many follicles you're going to ovulate etc. Remember too for me last month I got an LH surge and peak but when I had my scan it showed i wasn't ovulating or going to, so at least you'll know for sure.

@Crazydoglady123 yeah that’s true, thanks hun. You ok?

@Suki2020 let me know how you get on! Tonight will be my third day of Clomid and had a headache the last couple of days. Don't seem to remember getting on last time on it but may just be hormones or something. My next scan to check what the Clomid is doing to me this time is next Monday.

Hey @Crazydoglady123 how are you doing? Any side effects this cycle from the clomid? So had my scan and bloods yesterday. My follicle size was 26.4 so pretty big, she said normally you ovulate with a follicle size anything from 21-25. She’s said I will ovulate anyway now. Had a bit of discomfort last night and I have a bit of a pressure feeling this morning. My lining of the womb was good and how it should be. I’m assuming my progesterone test is pretty pointless as not ovulated when it was taken. I’m going to ask if I can have another blood test next week to check that.

Hey @Suki2020 awww that's amazing news! Have you felt any more ovulation pain? Hopefully she gave it a little nudge to pop it 🤣 When I had my scan with my cysts the pain increased after the scan a lot more. Clomid so far has been okay. A few little hot flushes of an eve and a few headaches but feel like this could be the calm before the storm. My head however now is in an absolute scramble. I had my consult with the IVF consultant this morn. I'm low in Vit D so need to start taking some tablets. Couldn't quite understand what he said my AMH was but he said was really good. He wants us to do IVF ICSI due to MF morphology but if on the day the sample is okay we can do normal IVF. He couldn't understand why my consultant has put me back on Clomid 😐 He wants to do long protocol which I thought they'd do short because of how I responded to Clomid however he has given me the option to start off this cycle if we abstain. I'm on CD6 today and last day of Clomid. All he wants is for me to ovulate before down regs on CD21. Starting this month is better date wise than starting next cycle however my OH has made some changes for over a month now (no hot baths, Wellman). We have a Nhs scan with my consultant Monday to track how many follicles I have. If I have too many and he tells me to abstain I may see if he can trigger ovulation and deffo go off this cycle. If we don't have too many is it even worth trying this cycle on Clomid still when last time I released 5 and didn't get BFP. My OH has left it to me to decide...in an ideal world he'd love us to conceive naturally but he understands how much I'm suffering mentally month after month. The IVF clinic said I can let them know on Monday after the scan but at the minute I'm like 95% wanting to go off this cycle and 5% waiting. It's my OH 30th birthday in May and we have so many get togethers with friends and he won't be able to drink at them if we go off the next cycle either and the date I worked out that egg collection would be would fall on my DS weekend at his dads so I think there's more pros to not waiting and just scrapping this Clomid cycle

@Crazydoglady123 aww that’s good, I’d probably do this cycle too if I was you could be a 30th birthday present for your OH too. Glad your not having too many side effects from the clomid. Yeah I had quite bad cramps on Monday during the night and sex Monday evening I was tender. Had a really good temp rise this morning so I’ve defiantly ovulated now.

@Suki2020 I didn't think about it like that tbh. Fingers crossed! I'm already getting twinges in my ovaries so hoping I don't end up using too many follicles this cycle 😬 Oh wow that's really good!!! TWW now for you ☺️

@Crazydoglady123 hey have you decided if your going to go ahead with this cycle or next?

@Suki2020 I have 😬 I want to do this cycle so it's a massive scramble getting all of our appointments and screening done ASAP! It's less than 2 weeks till it starts 😳 I'm still going to go to my scan Monday to see how the Clomid did affect me this time and if I've ovulated or due too. I've had no more hot flushes which I hope is a good sign but my ovaries are still feeling a bit achy. How are you doing?

@Crazydoglady123 aww exciting times. Hope you get to try this cycle. Yeah I’m ok, just frustrated with the hospital. Had an appointment booked for next tues for results and what to do next and they cancelled it this morning and told me I couldn’t get another appointment until 2nd week of April. I told them that’s not good enough and I need an appointment next week as my period will be due either sun/mon of that week.

@Suki2020 I hope so as just paid for it 😬🤞 That's so rubbish! Can you not call the ward and ask to speak to a fertility nurse? I'm always calling the nurses at my gynae/infertility clinic...

@Crazydoglady123 just spoke to the fertility nurse and she gave me my blood results and said my thyroid is 6.58 so going to put me on thyroxine to lower that. Also she wants me to have another blood test next week to check my progesterone as last one was inconclusive. Depending on my progesterone levels she talking of putting the dose of clomid up to for next cycle to shorten it

@Suki2020 yay see that's better! A proper plan now! Did you just end up calling the ward?
I've just had my planning appointment for IVF. I start daily Buserelin injections for about 2 weeks on the 31st March. Then I start stims for about 2 weeks so looking at EC end of April and ET beginning of May. Baseline scan is booked on my birthday and ET could fall on OH birthday. My OH was useless on the call, he kept getting light headed when she was waving the injections about, showing me how to draw then 😂

@Crazydoglady123 hey sorry for the late reply I didn’t get a notification for your message. Yeah I rang the ward and asked to speak to a fertility nurse. Aww things are moving quickly for you now, that’s great. What cd are you on now?

Hey @Suki2020 that's okay. I'm CD12 and had my scan this morning and I've over stimulated on the Clomid again 😭 The nurse said she's never in all her experience seen anyone react like me to the Clomid. She said my scan looked like and ivf scan I had so many follicles. Here's a snapshot but waiting for the proper report to send over to my private clinic. Feel like a ticking time bomb waiting for ovulation if I get the pain/bloating/cysts again after 😢 I wish I hadn't listened to my consultant and not took it now 😣

@Crazydoglady123 oh wow! Hope you don’t get the pains that you had last time. What happens now?