How many follicles did you produce during a letrozole/femara cycle?

[beansprout55]

How many follicles did you produce during a letrozole/femara cycle?

I took 7.5mg and got 3 follicles (1x17mm, 2x16mm).

Was your treatment a success or was that for IVF? And did you already ovulate?
Start my first cycle tomorrow! Nervous, excited and hopeful!x

It wasn't successful. I naturally ovulate anyway, and it made me ovulate a week later than normal. I used a trigger injection but think I would have ovulated naturally anyway as got an lh surge on the day of my trigger. We moved onto ivf the next cycle.
Good luck x

I’m in the middle of my first Letrozole cycle now. I probably don’t naturally ovulate, or at least not regularly, I have a high AMH because PCO but produced only one dominant follicle at 22mm for 5 days on 5mg per day. I had a few smaller 12mm ish ones but if they’d all grown I wouldn’t have been able to trigger so I’ll take the one!

🤞 For you @thislittlebird

Thanks @VenusStarr! You only did the one Letrozole cycle by the sounds of it? We only have time for one or two cycles before we start ivf.

Yes, we just did one cycle. We did an nhs funded ivf round and were able to get started on that quite quickly. I actually had my baseline scan at the end of the letrozole cycle, that's how I knew one follicle hadn't popped. I had a chemical pregnancy after my fresh ivf cycle but we luckily have 2 frozen embryos, so planning a FET now.

Hopefully you the letrozole is what you need 🙏

@VenusStarr oh, so one of the three didn’t pop out on the Letrozole cycle? Or am I misunderstanding? Glad you’ve got a couple frozen for a FET!

I really hope it works too, but DH has iffy sperm quality so need to keep the expectations low. On the plus side, I know we have ivf lined up in a few months if it doesn’t work.

Yes, only 2 follicles ovulated, they could see on the scan and then I just had a 16mm follicle, like it just stopped. They were a bit worried it could be a cyst but it had gone by the time I started my ivf cycle (had one in between the letrozole and starting ivf).

I felt the same, knowing you've got a plan definitely helps :)

@thislittlebird forgot to tag you

@VenusStarr I always wonder how they know if a woman actually ovulates on Letrozole etc because they don’t do a final scan. How did your ivf cycle go in terms of follicles out of curiosity? I think my 3/4 12mm follicles on the other side just stopped. Makes me a little nervous for how I’ll respond to IVF stims.

I've got low amh @thislittlebird so had 3 leading follicles but ended up with 7 eggs. Only 3 eggs fertilised but all 3 made it to day 5 - 5aa and 2x 3aa so we were happy with that outcome. Sadly my 5aa was the chemical pregnancy, but the other 2 are good quality so hoping they'll work out for us.

Do you know your ivf protocol yet? I did mild ivf, so not too heavy on the drugs

@VenusStarr mild must have been good for you though, it’s really good you have two decent frozen ones. When is your next FET?

Not sure exactly. I have high AMH and had 38 follicles this month on cd1. We were pursuing private and that doctor wanted to put me on medium/low stims (as did the other I saw before him) but then our nhs funding got approved so we decided to wait for the first round and then the nhs (trainee?) doctor wanted to put me on high doses of stims because of my age (38) and it freaked me out a bit. Maybe my 38 follicles don’t all contain eggs, who knows, but I don’t like the idea of high stim doses in case I get OHSS. I’d rather have a few decent eggs than lots of immature ones and get sick in the process. Anyway, I protested at this and she said she’d use a lower dose. I expected to get a letter on this topic but nothing has come through yet.

Obviously only had 4 growing to decent sizes on Letrozole and only one mature so it just made me a little nervous I won’t respond well. But then I have read that Letrozole only matures 1-3 normally anyway, hopefully it’s not too relevant to the ivf process.

@VenusStarr a shorter answer than the one above...I now know my nhs round protocol will be 150 Gonal F. I hope they’re willing to adjust if I don’t respond, it’s all so unpredictable.

Hello hope I’m ok to join I am on my second cycle of letrozole 2.5mg I don’t ovulate due to pcos. I had bleeding after my AF it’s stopped now, I don’t get a follicle scan this month so we just have to try and hope for the best. Good luck to everyone
It’s a frustrating journey at times

I have my first follicle scan ever on Friday! Excited and nervous. 5mg letrozole (1st cycle), and I already ovulate!
How many good follicles did you produce last cycle do you know?x

Well done on advocating for yourself @thislittlebird hopefully if you're not responding too well on the lower dose they'll increase lke you say. I used bemfola on my round. It is unpredictable. The best advice I can give is to try and give in to the process, I had to make a conscious decision to trust my clinic that they knew what they were doing and the only things I could control were doing my injections and turning up for scans. I actually found the letrozole cycle more stressful than ivf.

We're planning our FET for next month.

Good luck @beansprout55 and @HT1335

@VenusStarr thank you and good luck to you aswell! You’re right in what your saying.
@beansprout55 I only had a follicle scan on my first round of letrozole to check for OHSS I didn’t really get any large follicles, I’ve just finished the second round and don’t have a scan this month so we’ll just have to hope and try! I’m increasing my dose to 5mg next time if this round fails, I will have two rounds of 5mg and a ivf referral after that

@beansprout55 good luck with your scan on Friday! 🤞🏻

Thanks girls x
I'm quite new to this .. why do you suppose I haven't been given a trigger shot?
I haven't even had any scans or anything to see if there's something obviously wrong with me - just one appointment with a fertility specialist and he prescribed the letrozole for 6 months x

@beansprout55 probably because you ovulate naturally I would imagine, whereas they aren’t sure I do so I got given the trigger + progesterone to take.

It sounds like you might be nhs based on the six months thing? They don’t always offer scans or trigger shots. I’m doing this with a private clinic while we wait for our nhs round and they always do scans, they also make money of course.

@beansprout55 on the nhs they seem to work slightly different in each area of the country, I’m
Nhs under the fertility clinic I was given clomid first but it didn’t work and was giving me bleeding so we couldn’t even try to get pregnant! I’m not on letrozole and if no joy with that I will get a ivf referral.
I think they’re doing the right thing as youve started letrozole and then youve got your follicle scan as that also checks to make sure the letrozole hasn’t overly stimulated your ovaries which is OHSS so from that scan they’ll probably advise you what the rest of the letrozole cycles will look like for you. Hope that makes sense and is helpful x

Thanks so much, you've both been super helpful and have explained things well x

@beansprout55 good luck
Do keep us posted on how you’re getting along x

Hi just wanted to ask if anyone has suggestions , I’m on my third cycle of letrozole 5mg also have high amh and pcos . Cd 21 progesterone test confirmed Ovulation. Had first cycle monitored and triggered and second at home and blood test to confirm. AF just arrived and just started 3rd cycle wondering if anyone has any advice on anything extra to try it’s been a long 14 months and I’m only 26 so drs don’t seem to take me seriously and offer any advice on any tips that may work. Really want this cycle to work , will try anything at this point. Thank you in advance.xx