No success on Clomid - what's next?

[moonmrs]

I have secondary infertility - I've been pregnant twice before but sadly miscarried both After the miscarriages, my body obviously had other ideas, and decided to stop ovulating. So a year and a half down the line since we first asked for help (after millions of tests on the s l o w nhs) I've just completed a 6 month course on Clomid. Blood tests show that it did indeed make me ovulate, but we have not managed to conceive yet.

We have a hospital appointment at the end of September to discuss where we go next. I just wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience, and what might be next? Last time they mentioned about some injections, but I assume that was if the Clomid hadnt made me ovulate? If the Clomid has worked, and its just that we havent managed to conceive, would they continue with the Clomid, or try another avenue?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom

Not sure entirely but for me after 6 months I then doubled the dose for 3 months with a trigger shot to force ovulation. I think you can have a lifetime exposure to clomid of 9 or 12 months treatment ( sorry don't recall which). No success for me on either dose. Went on to ivf and no joy there either.

I'm not convinced that clomid does anything in cases where the cause of lack of ovulation has not been identified. Some kind person on here sent me links to peer reviewed journals suggesting that whilst it is useful in cases of pcos the number of pregnancies observed to occur in women with undiagnosed infertility was no more than the control who received no treatment. Clomid is a cheap drug I fear it is used as a holding position to control the amount of ivf or placate women such as yourself who are unlikely to be covered for ivf on the nhs.

You could pay for an AMH test to give you an indication as to how many eggs you have left. Your nhs clinic should be able to do it though you have to pay. It is about £50 - £90 quid. It is not the be all and end all but it will guide your thinking on where you are and what to do next.

Do you actually have a diagnosis?.

Presumably as well they have tested your man also to see whether there are any male factor problems (this can often be a reason for cases of unexplained subfertility. Unexplained subfertility can often be given to couples as a reason as well when also not thorough enough testing on either of them have been done).

Clomid is usually only given for a maximum of six months after which other treatments are tried. I would have thought they will try injectible drugs to stimulate the ovaries further as a next step.

What you've had with clomid is actually not all that uncommon, it can make some women ovulate but not all women do become pregnant whilst on it.

Hello lozster and attila thank you both for your replies.

I agree that clomid is a cheap drug and I guess they see it as a quick fix to keep people like me quiet when they tried to fob me off for a year. Even if it makes you ovulate, theres no guarantee it will make you get pregnant any easier.

I havent heard of an amh test, I will look into that, thank you.

Yes my dh was tested right at the start, and there are no problems there. I've also had loads of blood tests for various things, swabs, and I had a hsg last year which showed my tubes to be clear. In the end they said I had 'low normal' levels of pregesterone which caused me to stop ovulating, and eventually put me on clomid. I'm not sure why I stopped ovulating or what caused the changes in progesterone, obviously everything worked ok before as we had no trouble conceiving our first two.

What sort of questions should be I asking when we have our next appointment and what treatments should I be pushing for?

i had 2 cycles of clomid with no success... i have low progesterone level.. i duno what cause it... and how to improve???

@lozster yep l agree with all this. I’m afraid cynically l think it’s a bit of a shut up drug, partly as it’s so cheap. I was prescribed it despite the fact NICE guidelines say it should be prescribed for those with unexplained infertility. Plus it was prescribed the lazy way with no scans to monitor me or trigger shot with it. Guess what -it didn’t work

Sorry l meant should NOT, not should!

Wow! This is a blast from the last! Bad news that clomid is still prescribed like this and without monitoring too. @EL8888 my good news is that I went on to conceive via ivf (and I think dhea played a part too) end of 2012. My son is now 6. good luck to all you ladies. Thanks for the reminder to be happy and grateful.

@lozster l didn’t realise this was a zombie thread! Thanks for the update, great news. Yeah my Clomid experience was a few months ago so very recent

EL8888 - good luck. I won’t say anything trite like be patient it will happen for you, but I wish you all the luck in the world.