What to expect from letrozole treatment on the NHS

[MyPeppyLimeBear]

I have my appointment about letrozle Wednesday, could anyone tell me their experience of this treatment on the nhs start to finish please? Did they just prescribe you the drugs so you could go off and do it yourself? Did they do follicle tracking??

So far I have had a HSG, trans vaginal scan and AMH. My partner has also had 2 SA.

Thank you

What should happen is they explain when you take letrozole in your cycle. For me it was days 2-5 of my cycle. You should then have a follicle tracking scan to see if letrozole is working for you. This is roughly around cycle days 11-14. If you have a dominant follicle they’ll tell you to go away and have sex every other day for the next few days to catch it. If not, they may invite you back again for a repeat scan a couple of days later to check again. You may then have a progesterone blood test (this needs to be 7 days post ovulation to be accurate) to confirm ovulation and then you wait to 14 days post ovulation to test. That’s what should happen but I know people who haven’t had a follicle tracking scan and just get told to use ovulation sticks to track ovulation which IMO isn’t ideal.

Thank you for this really helpful. Can I ask did it work for you? If so how many rounds did you do please?

I had this treatment on the NHS 2020. Back then, we were prescribed the letrozole and told what days to take it. We then had scans on day 10, 12 and 14 (i think) to check progression. After day 14 we were cleared to have sex. Then we had a blood test around day 22 (i think?!) to confirm whether ovulation had taken place. We then had to report to the clinic whether I got my period or not. The first round didnt work and so they upped the dosage and repeated all the scans and blood tests. They also prescribed something to bring on a period so i didnt have to wait for that to happen naturally to try again (provera i think). The second round did lead to ovulation but I didnt fall pregnant. So for the third round, the dose stayed the same but we were allowed to just do it ourselves at home without the scans / blood tests. That round did work so the clinic organised a scan for 6w to confirm a heartbeat and after that I was discharged to refer myself to maternity.

@MyPeppyLimeBear no problem.

I have a bit of a long history with TTC.

DS: 10 cycles of clomid, 1 miscarriage and I finally conceived on the 10th cycle
DD: 6 cycles of letrozole (ovulated but no baby) 1 cycle of clomid (didn’t ovulate) and private IVF all didn’t work and then I conceived DD naturally while waiting to do our frozen embryo transfer.

wow bless you sounds like a long journey. I had my appt today and I’m not being offered any monitoring they just prescribed me the letrozole, added me to the IVF waiting list just in case then sent me on my way

This is really interesting thank you, I have just been prescribed in but have no monitoring was just given an appt for 3 months time to see if it has worked by then.