Letrozole cycle but no hcg trigger ?

[Thewaitingseason]

Has anyone had letrozole with no trigger ?! I’ve been told to do ovulation tests from day 8 and that it’s fine with no trigger ? I’ve been reading a lot and it seems most people do have a trigger ?

Has anyone done letrozole alone and it worked

I did letrozole with no trigger. First cycle no ovulation, increased dose for second cycle which resulted in ovulation but no pregnancy, third cycle at the same dose as 2nd resulted in DD1 (3.5yo). Are you being scanned? I think most people do end up increasing their dose - are starting on 2.5mg or 5mg?

2.5 and they’ve said I need a scan on day 10 to see the response and then possibly a week later ?

I think i had scans every other day from day 10 but obviously it was a while ago now. At the time, the hospital's protocol was to do trigger shots only if the first few cycles didn't result in ovulation. Maybe yours is the same? Hopefully your scan will show a lovely big follicle developing!

I hope so , I do sometimes ovulate on my own but a lot of my cycles I don’t so I’m hoping this will just mean that ovulate each month while I’m taking it as it’s so sporadic otherwise. My cycles are 28 days and regular though which confuses me !!!

I did four cycles with letrozole only (one on 2.5mg and the rest on 5). I ovulated without the trigger, but it was still considered "weak/poor" ovulation, so my doctor added the trigger.

Without the trigger it would always take about a week from seeing a mature follicle on a scan (~18mm) to finally getting an LH spike. No with the trigger it is much faster.

Unfortunately no success stories this side though (with or without the trigger).

Good luck! I hope it works for you.

Hi @Thewaitingseason just stumbled across this post hope you don’t mind me joining. I wondered if you had any updates ? I am on my first cycle on CD 20 and I was offered trigger shots and scans but I went private.

@JJB92 i have been testing with ovulation strips and I got a peak on CD 15/16 but can this have been a false positive due to the trigger shot or did I actually have a peak those days? I am just interested to know how you found your peak with trigger shots please :)

@BDismakingmeexhausted I only tested with ovulation strips after a trigger this first month I took a trigger. That month I got a super strong positive (by far the strongest I've seen) the morning after the trigger.

According to my clinic you ovulate 36 hours after the trigger, so I've just been working with that. I have had a few months where I could feel a sharp pain around 42 hours after trigger, so I think I might be a bit slower than the 36h, but still very much in that ballpark.

On which CD did you trigger?

Hey @JJB92 thank you for replying 💕. I took my trigger shot on CD 14 and then just like you my ovulation strips showed a strong peak the following day CD 15 and 16. Since then the ovulation tests have been going lighter which makes sense. What cycle are you on now and what dosage are you taking if you don’t mind me asking?

I think you can trust that peak then :)

I've done 10 cycles now. First one was 2.5mg, and all the rest 5mg. I've consistently been getting 1-2 good follicles a month with the 5mg, but no luck getting pregnant so we are starting ivf next cycle. All the best for you! I hope the letrozole works.

@JJB92 thanks for the quick reply. Yes hoping that was my peak and somewhere somehow something is working 😅

Was there any reason why they never increased you to 7.5?Best of luck with your IVF. Thank you 💕

Hey! I did 6 rounds of 2.5mg Letrozole without a trigger but always had 1 good follicle, I was insistent I needed a trigger but dr said no I didn’t need it, no success at all those 6 months. We then moved on to IUI on the 7th month with 5mg of Letrozole (2 follicles) and a trigger and I got pregnant but ended in MMC at 9 weeks. I did an 8th round of 5mg Letrozole (1 follicle) with a trigger last month and had a chemical pregnancy, just on my 9th round this month with my trigger this morning so I’ll keep you posted in 2 weeks 😅

I don’t know why but I really thought I always needed the trigger and the two times I’ve had it it’s worked for me, tbc on the third..

My doctor said there’s no such thing as ‘weak ovulation’ I’m not an expert of course but something about the trigger seems to be working for me!

@BDismakingmeexhausted thank you!

I think upping the dose would've increased the chance of multiples

I’m not sure if this is helpful to anyone but I was prescribed three rounds of Letrozole 7.5mg plus progesterone and conceive first month, with no trigger. I ovulated on day 13 instead of my usual day 20. It was really effective for me. I assume higher dose was my age - 38, and TTC 18 months?
Currently 8 weeks pregnant - just one baby on the scan - and still in awe at how quickly this worked for us.

@MyEdgyBlueLurker aww hun so sorry to hear about the loss. It’s good to know the letro is working for you though. Sending lots of love and baby dust for this cycle and yes please keep us updated. Hoping it’s a positive one for u 💕

@Mumontherunn congratulations that sounds amazing. Hoping you have a safe and healthy pregnancy 💕 if u don’t mind me asking how did you know if you ovulated and did you go for any follicle scans or just the letro+trigger? Out of interest do u know why they prescribed u progesterone? I’ve seen a lot of ladies take this while taking letrozole and wondered if I needed to perhaps speak about it with my consul.

@BDismakingmeexhausted I use ovulation sticks when TTC and track on Flo. I had a very strong positive on day 13.

And I don’t know about the progesterone! The private consultant just said he wanted to, and tbh I didn’t question it. I had the treatment on the nhs in the end as my referral came through before I’d started. I asked the dr if I could follow the same treatment plan and he agreed and we were so lucky it worked first cycle. Wishing you lots of luck x