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!

@Suki2020 no was so quick! Within a couple of months coming off birth control

Tested this morn with FRER and Easy@Home strip and both BFN. So fed up now 😩🤯 I'm CD34 now, 4 days late according to my app (although my cycles have been around 28 days since I've been on Letrozole/Clomid)

@Crazydoglady123 that sucks I'm sorry. The days are going so slowly.

I've booked my progesterone blood test for tomo (cd28). EWCM stopped a few days ago so I feel ovulation happened or not going to happen this time.

On a plus the back ache has stopped, about the same time EWCM did

@Ronnii good signs the Clomid is working for you!

Finally CD1 today! Weird as I always spot for 4/5 days and woke up this morning to full flow on wiping. Guess maybe the Clomids changed things

@Crazydoglady123 glad you've got your answer! Back in control again.

It's only recently I've experienced spotting before AF, before was normal for full flow straight away, thankfully mostly began on the toilet in the mornings.

I've got about two weeks left of my conception vitamins, they are usually 3 for 2 as in buy 3 months at once, and I always think it's a waste cos I will be pregnant next cycle lol. Gonna hold out and maybe it will be perfect timing

@Suki2020 sorry for late reply! I’m good thank you. Went and had my flu jab today .. bit of a sore subject as I was due to have it in November with the last pregnancy and started to miscarry on the same day 😞

Regarding the dogs, I have a Doberman and a Romanian street dog with half his ear missing .. no idea what happened to him, but he’s extra cute!

@Crazydoglady123 sucks that you’re back to CD1, but at least you’re not left wondering .. I imagine that was torture! Are the cysts still giving you any trouble, or are you feeling better? What’s you next steps now?

I took a Clearblue digital today, hoping it would say 3+ weeks as I’m 5 weeks now .. it still says 2-3. I’ve decided I’m not going to buy more and obsess over it .. if I keep getting 2-3 weeks I’ll worry that something is wrong, and if I get 3+ I’ll still worry that something could go wrong after that. HCG can vary so much from woman to woman, so I’m not going to let myself get stressed out over it. Hopefully I can relax a bit after the scan on 17th 🙂

@Ronnii I have everything crossed for you!

@HT1507 I know it's hard but try not to worry. I'm sure everything's fine. I get it's easier said than done!

Filling my medical history forms out for the IVF clinic currently and can book my assessments tomorrow 🙌

@Crazydoglady123 sorry AF arrived for you.
@HT1507 cute, I have a Spanish rescue, not quite sure what he is though, think a mix between golden lab and lurcher maybe.

@HT1507 sending you good vibes. A good idea to stop the testing.

@Crazydoglady123 good that your making steps for IVF, the open day was good? You still doing clomid this cycle though? First dose today? I think next cycle I will take in the evening as I did the morning this time around.

I poas this morning, negative lol. Convinced myself d21 progesterone of 4 meant I could have ovulated the day before making me DPO9. I had an upset tummy and got real moody and let myself spiral into symptom spotting. Waiting for d28 results and I need to keep myself busy 😅

@Ronnii it's hard not to symptom spot! The TWW is the worst! No Clomid for me this cycle. Scan with NHS consultant now booked for two weeks today. AMH scan and bloods booked for 9th March however I'm trying to push for a cancellation.

Girls I'm in bits writing this and I don't know if I'm just being overly emotional or reading into things too much but I just changed tampon and wiped and had two big clumps of tissue on the toilet paper 😢 I've passed the occasional largish clot but these are much bigger purple masses and different looking...

@Crazydoglady123 aww hun, I’m not sure if that is anything or not but sending virtual hugs anyway. I never get clots on my period so I’m not a good judge but your test was negative so I would say it’s maybe just blood clots and nothing else.

@Crazydoglady123 I’ve just googled it and it says that it might be that you have too much estrogen, it’s says to eat more fibre to correct it. Hope this helps a little x

@Crazydoglady123 I'm not sure. I've had clots and blobs before and not too phased by it. I use pads and tend to bleed into the toilet when going for a wee so I dnt see it all if you know what I mean.

Does everything else feel normal for a period?

I dnt know how to help ☹️ if you really dnt want to give it time maybe call the doctors. Such an emotional time xx

Thanks ladies. I'm used to passing red clots etc just never had big purple lumps. I took a photo but can't figure out how to upload it and tbh I don't think I'd want to gross our thread out with the pic 😂 I just spoke to the nurse at the hospital and asked her and she said hormones can change the colour and it is normal to loose bits of tissue so to just keep an eye on it. She said don't worry too much, they'll have a good look at what's going on when I have my scan

@Crazydoglady123 that's reassuring. And interesting about the hormones.

Another clomid side affect maybe. Ive seen this wording from another thread but maybe this is what they call a 'meaty period'

Was given clomid decades ago, no monitoring of dosage, just left to take it. No side effects. Conceived after three months, conceived naturally 1 Year after dc1 born. Two adult children.

@Ronnii yep it definitely looked like a bumpy bit of liver you'd find in the meat aisle in Tescos! 🤢

@angstridden2 wow! That's really good!

I can't decide whether to try and DTD this cycle. Much to my OH disgust we haven't DTD since my scan (obv been in too much pain too!) however now the pain has settled, once AF done do we try again? I forgot to ask the nurse but she said no Clomid until after my scan and I know they say Clomid can keep working for a long time after you stop taking it so not sure if I'm at a risk of releasing multiple eggs again but I didn't get pregnant this cycle when I released 5 so surely got to be worth trying? Surely the nurse would have said too to use protection or something if the didn't want me to? My scan is booked for CD15

@Crazydoglady123 to check my AMH it was a blood test, not sure what the scan would be.

For my hycosy when they check the tubes it was no dtd before, I think that's because it's invasive to the uterus and tubes. It was made clear not to dtd and they asked on the day before they did it.

If your scan is not going past your cervix I would say dtd is fine, I dnt like to waste a cycle. But I haven't had this scan before

I got some good news thats I ovulated 🙂 d28 progesterone was 34, so I'm now officially TWW

@angstridden2 no side affects! That would be nice. Glad it worked for you though

@Ronnii it's just an internal this one in two weeks to check my cysts and ovaries again.

My AMH blood test and AFC scan with the IVF clinic is on 9th March so a couple of weeks later.

Yeah they said the same with my HyCosy.

Eeek! So pleased for you! Everything crossed! What day you on today?

@Crazydoglady123 thanks ☺️ I'm D29 and guessing myself at 9DPO. I've got a load of sticks from a bulk order so probs gonna do one each morning, not even gonna try to wait 😅