Clomid and irregular periods

[tiggerkid]

Hi everyone,

I have a question to all ladies, who have irregular periods and tried clomid. We've been TTC on and off for the last 4 years before finally deciding that something wasn't quite right, so went to see the doc and, after months of various tests, I was advised to take Clomid.

I have little confidence in my consultant, especially because it's never the same person, so there is no sense of continuity of care, so to speak. So I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has or had the same experience.

The doctor told me to start taking Clomid on days 2-5 of my cycle. This seems to be fairly standard. However, given the fact that my cycle isn't regular, should it still be days 2-5? I know some of you are probably wondering why I didn't ask the consultant and I am planning to but, unfortunately, the thought didn't occur to me when I saw him last :(

I understand that while on Clomid, ovulation should occur within a certain timeframe irrespective of whether you are regular or not. So far I've only had 1 cycle on Clomid and fertility test showed that days 14 and 15 were fertile. Strangely I started having PMS type symptoms from about day 16, which still continue and today is day 25.

Is it possible that over-the-counter ovulation kits can give false positives when you are on clomid? And can anyone with irregular periods on clomid share their stories please?

Many thanks, everyone.

"I understand that while on Clomid, ovulation should occur within a certain timeframe irrespective of whether you are regular or not"

No. Clomid's main job is to actually make the ovaries work harder. Its usually taken on days 2-5 as well.

Do you actually have a diagnosis of the underlying problem and do you feel that both of you as a couple have been adequately investigated to date?. If not I would seek a second opinion from another fertility unit, it can be all too easy to be fobbed off and or not receive enough information.

Clomid can increase levels of LH. OPKs and such like can and do give false positives whilst on clomid because the kit reads this increased level of LH. To know properly whether clomid is working or not, you should be monitored by the hospital regularly and preferably with both blood tests and ultrasounds to check that an egg is actually leaving the ovary.

If that is not happening I would be asking questions of them as to why that is.

Thanks for your reply. We have had several tests to date and nothing wrong came up. I think it's one of those so called unexplained infertilities, so the doc decided clomid should be the starting point.

I thought Clomid can only give false positives on OPKs if OPK is used within 3 days of last Clomid dose but may be not?

Unexplained infertility though is no diagnosis at all; what this means is that they have failed to find out what is wrong. Sometimes it is a "diagnosis" given to couples when they have not been adequately investigated.

What tests have you both had done to date?. Apart from anything else both of you need up to date test results; anything done over six months ago should be discounted.

Are you being monitored whilst on clomid?. Giving you this without a diagnosis is not best practice; it sounds like they do not know what to do with you.

"I thought Clomid can only give false positives on OPKs if OPK is used within 3 days of last Clomid dose but may be not?"

Indeed because you can get more than one LH rise throughout the month in any case. OPKs work on the misleading principles that there is only one rise in LH every month and that such a rise is followed by ovulation. Both are simply not true.

I'm a little different. Days 3-7 with irregular periods.

AttilaTheMeerkat, thank you for your reply. I am not sure what the scientific names of the tests are but essentially the doc tested various hormone levels, did X-Rays to make sure that the tubes aren't blocked, DH also had sperm tested, smear test was also performed to exclude certain things. I think that's all.

Blood tests for hormone levels suggest that my progesterone is very low. This, according to the consultant, is the cause of our troubles so to speak. When I said it's unexplained infertility, I mean that the consultant said he doesn't know why my progesterone is low but I suppose the infertility itself is explained: it seems to be due to low progesterone.

I had no idea that we can have multiple LH peaks during our cycle, so thank you for that information. This cycle I tested only twice and both days showed peak, so it never occurred to me to test again because these tests say that ovulation will occur within 24-36 hours after positive LH test with 99.9% accuracy! Perhaps, this applies to people without fertility issues.

To answer your other question, no I am not being monitored while taking clomid as such but the consultant did say that I need to do a day 21 test to check progesterone level while on clomid. At this point in time, I am not even sure whether it should be a day 21 test as it is evident to me that this may also be inaccurate!