Would anyone mind sharing their story?

Danielle0311

Hi ladies,

I'm visiting from the TTTC board and just wondered if anyone would mind sharing their experience with me...

First off, congrats on your bfp's!
I have had two losses and lost a tube (that's the short version of my
Situation) and I just started seeing an RE. He is doing a monitor cycle once I get my period and then wants to jump right into medicated iui's the following month if all looks good to proceed. Have any of you had success with this? How many attempts did it take? And if I need to jump to ivf (getting ahead of myself I know) I was also curious how many attempts it took you for that as well. Is there any advice you have for me with this course of action?

I know everyone's experiences are different, just looking for a little positivity today I supose thanks in advance for whoever read this and is willing to offer me some advice or share their story!

ttuprincess

Like you said, every one is different. 

I have both of my tubes but I only have one "good" side.  I have one ovary that refuses to cooperate after being damaged by endo and a blocked tube on the same side. 

I didn't do IUI's but I got my bfp after my first cycle of bcps + injects + trigger + TI.  We don't have any MFI issues so my RE was okay with us trying one cycle of TI with injects before moving onto IUI.  Luckily it worked. 

Good luck. 

CandaceC1020

Hi Danielle,

I recently moved from TTTC to PAIF.  My hubby and I were married in October 2012 and started trying in January 2013.  We didn't have any luck and finally in November 2013 I decided to see a RE and began testing.  Long story short, everything came back ok.  I had my first medicated IUI on March 22.  I am very, very, very lucky and very grateful because our first IUI took and I'm now almost 9 weeks pregnant.

My first cycle consisted of 100 mg of Clomid, Bravelle and Ovidrel trigger shot.  I responded well to the medicines and had three good follicles.  I also went a little wacky with timing my trigger shot and woke up at midnight on a Thursday night to trigger so my IUI would be 36 hours after trigger (ovulation normally occurs 36-48 hours after trigger). 

My best advice to you is to stay positive.   You're going to have good days and bad days, but try to stay positive.

liz4paws

I have a very different diagnosis but our story is located on my blog in case you want to click to read. Lots of twists and turns from a dire DOR diagnosis, MFI, two losses, and pregnant now with a little girl via embryo adoption. Wishing you luck. Try your best to stay positive but some days it's just impossible and that's okay too. Feel whatever you need to as it comes. There is definitely grief involved in the healing. IF has been harder than losing a parent to cancer and I know the pain of both. I hate that any of you deserving ladies still struggle. It sucks so bad.

https://www.wishingonasnowflake.com/p/about-me.html

 

 

Danielle0311

@candacec1020 congrats on such great success with your first iui! I am definitely trying to stay positive and trying to get excited that I am finally moving in the right direction with a new great doctor! Thanks so much for sharing

Danielle0311

ttuprincess said:

Like you said, every one is different. 

I have both of my tubes but I only have one "good" side.  I have one ovary that refuses to cooperate after being damaged by endo and a blocked tube on the same side. 

I didn't do IUI's but I got my bfp after my first cycle of bcps + injects + trigger + TI.  We don't have any MFI issues so my RE was okay with us trying one cycle of TI with injects before moving onto IUI.  Luckily it worked. 

Good luck. 

Thank you for sharing! I am wondering why my re doesn't want us to trying on our own with the meds first but I guess he has his reasons? I have my hsg coming up so I guess I won't really know for sure the course of action until the results.

@liz4paws thank you so much for your advice and kind words. I will definitely check out your blog!

orange1414

Hello,

I'm sorry your lost your tube. It's long, but here's our five-year story.

I was diagnosed with PCOS as a teenager, so we already knew we would have trouble when we started. DH is totally fine. Due to insurance requirements, we tried for a year on our own, during which time I ovulated only once. We then did one unsuccessful clomid/IUI cycle with our RE. We started another clomid/IUI cycle, but the clomid thinned out my lining so bad I was cancelled. We then did three unsuccessful IUI cycles with injectables. Each time I had strong ovulations from 2-3 follicles, but no success. 

With our first IVF, we retrieved 24 eggs, 20 of which were mature, and 16 of which fertilized with ICSI. We hadn't planned on doing ICSI, but on the day of the egg retrieval, the quality of my eggs was so visibly bad that they did it because they were afraid that otherwise none would fertilize. Of those 16, only 4 were still growing on day 5. We transferred one good, one fair blast and the other two did not make it to freeze. This cycle resulted in a chemical pregnancy, likely because the embryos from my eggs were never viable in the first place. I was diagnosed with poor egg quality and the RE felt that future cycles would have similar outcomes unless I was able to **maybe** improve my egg quality through weight loss of more than 100 pounds.

That didn't seem possible to me and there was no guarantee it would fix it, so DH and I moved on to adoption and spent two years focused on that. In the meantime, I had weight loss surgery and lost more than 180 pounds. Since we had been unsuccessful in adopting, we returned to fertility treatments. I had an egg retrieval in December, we retrieved 26 eggs but I ended up with OHSS and we were unable to complete the embryo transfer. But, my egg quality was dramatically improved, and we ended up with 16 frozen embryos, all of good or fair quality. 

We transferred the two best in early April, and I'm now pregnant with a singleton. For me, my weight and egg quality were closely tied. No IUI at that weight would have ever worked for me, but we didn't know it until we saw my eggs during the IVF. 

Good luck!

rox825

Hi.  I am unexplained IF and had success from meds/IUI.  The first pregnancy was from my 2nd IUI and that ended in a MC, and my current pregnancy was from my 5th IUI (3rd after MC).  For my last cycle we did back to back IUIs and it was also my first cycle on gonal-f and crinone.  Luckily it worked.  I think that in general, if IUI is going to work for you, it will work within 3-4 cycles.  There are some lucky couples who have success after more, but the success rate really declines after that.  Good luck!

ld08271

My diagnosis is Ovulatory Disorder/ Anovulation. I don't get periods...I don't ovulate. 

1. For our now 2 year DD: We did 5 cycles of Clomid and TI; 1st IUI with Clomid; and then had success on our 2nd IUI with Injectibles. 

2. For the baby I'm cooking now We did 5 IUIs with Injectibles (2 which ended in Chemical Pregnancies). We then moved to IVF and got pregnant on our first attempt. 

Advice: Be your own advocate! Don't feel bad about requesting treatments and second guessing medical advice. 

Best wishes! 

Danielle0311

Wow, you ladies are amazing. Thank you so so much for sharing your journey with me! I am so new to all of this and am grateful for the advice and the words of wisdom! Congrats from the bottom of my heart as well !

happygirl1013

Here's our story:

We got married in '09, immediately tried to start having kids, but we thought I was the problem because of my PCOS.  But because I was in my mid 20s at the time and my DH travels a lot, we just thought we were always missing our window and it was nothing to go to the dr about.  In early '12 i started getting crazy stomach pains, went to OBGYN and she said it was nothing.  After months of tests, she kept telling me I was overreacting.  Went and got a 2nd opinion in late '12 because the pain became debilitating--- to find out I had a cyst 16cm side growing THROUGH the wall of my left tube.  Immediately got lap surgery to remove, and sued my original OBGYN who told me (in emails) I was exaggerating my pain (and we settled for a good amount of money to cover IF costs).

After my lap surgery, we went to go see a RE for routine tests to get down to the bottom of what was up.  I came back normal and we got the SHOCK of our lives to find out DH had ZERO sperm.  Found out he had non-obstructive azoospermia due to hydrocele and varicocele.  Did surgery to correct, 6 months later, still no sperm.  Did an extraction surgery, froze sperm, and started first cycle of IVF.

On ER day of IVF #1, DC clinic called us and said there was no sperm from the extraction vials (we did IVF #1 at a different clinic that the urologist because we moved).  WHAT>!?!  IVF #1 cycle cancelled.  We felt like the embryologists at this clinic were total hacks and messed up the sperm, because the surgeon from the TESE surgery is at the #1 urology clinic in the country.

We took a few months to physically and emotionally heal, and planned IVF #2 at our original clinic in NY with day of ER extraction surgery for DH.  Just in case TESE didn't work, we had donor as backup.  TESE surgery didn't work because they said there was too much scar tissue from surgery #1 and #2, and we ended up using donor and are now preggo with one beautiful bean.

It was a CRAZY ride and I felt like we were never going to get to PAIF.  I'm glad we tried 3 surgeries with DH, because know we did everything we could, but we both love our little bean just as much as if it was DH's sperm.

Good luck!!!

Aurora1181

First- I am so fascinated by everyone's stories. Thanks for giving us a thread to share them all in one place.

Second- as for us- DH and I are technically "unexplained." Everything on paper looks fine- great sperm counts, I have plenty of antral follicles, hormone levels are fine. But we went through one year on our own, then 4 medicated IUIs, and then 2 IVFs, and finally one frozen transfer to get where we are today- pregnant with twin boys! It was a long, expensive, and really tough 3 years.  We spent close to $30,000 last year (that was for the 2 IVFs and 1 FET). No insurance coverage here.

I know that many girls do get their BFPs from IUIs, but in hindsight I really wish we had done fewer or none at all. Each IUI was costing us anywhere from $1000-$3000. And we did 4. We could have paid for another IVF cycle with what we spent on IUIs. I don't feel like they told us much either- I responded well to all of them, just like I did with IVF, and all of the SA were great, but nothing ever worked. I think if I could do it over again, I would have just done 2 and then moved on or started saving for IVF.

Best of luck to you.. keep your head up.. start seeing a therapist if you need to (it was a life changer for me).. and stay active on the bump to keep your sanity. We are all rooting for you!

Mrs.McIrish

Mine is a almost 4 year long story and a tough fight: We started TTC as soon as we got married. I just turned 37. After 5 months, I was tested and my FSH was high. We were given bad advice initially and ended up doing 4 IUIs. All bfn. My first IVF was a disaster: only 3 eggs retrieved and only 2 were mature. They transferred them back at 2days. Bfn. We went on to do a total of 4 IVFs with my eggs at 2 different clinics. We started traveling in 12/11 to a high FSH specialist. Ultimately, we were not getting anywhere with 1-2 eggs being retrieved. We decided to try donor eggs in the summer of 2012. Well, that was another disaster... First cycle was a batch of terrible quality embryos. The second was a chemical pg. we stopped treatment at that point for 7 mos and tried to move on with life. We revisited it all last fall a d decided to go to RBA in Atlanta where we could pay for a guarantee program. Sadly I had another chemical in 1/14. Somehow, against all odds, my15th and 16th embryo have stuck and I am 10 weeks with twins. We added in lovenox this last time did to having 2 copies of MTHFR. I'm still holding my breath each day that these will be my miracle babies. Everyone's experience will be different. Some get lucky on an IUI or a first IVF. Then there's the far extreme likes me where it took 8 rounds to stick. You never know where you will fall when you first start.

Danielle0311

You ladies are truly inspiring. I wasn't sure how this post would be received and if anyone would want to share their experiences. I am so moved by each of your stories. Thank you so much for your responses. I am going into this journey with an open mind and willing to do whatever I need to do to make this all work. I don't know much about what is ahead of me and having no insurance coverage for treatments is terrifying, but you are all giving me so much motivation today. Thank you!!!

formerwigirl

Love reading everyone's stories.

Here's mine-We got married 5/4/12 and knew right away that we didn't want to wait to have children. Months went by and nothing happened. It even got to the point where we BD so often in January that I got an infections called honeymooners something or other (basically a bad UTI). I waited out my year and went to the OB in June 2013. The OB was awful to me and I went to my primary doctor who gave me the referral to the RE. All of our initial testing showed nothing wrong. She offered up having a lap done because it could check for endo. My mom had it so she said it was possible but based on everything she was seeing she didn't think it was there. Surgery was a gamble but either way the course of treatment would be IUI. I took the gamble with the lap and the RE found stage 2 endo. She cleaned it all out and after waiting 6 weeks for AF we went right into IUI. I felt confident #1 or 2 would work but didn't. I was getting defeated and just going through the motions for #3 so we could move on to IVF. We got lucky on #3 and actually had our 1st ultrasound the day we were to have our IVF consult. I wasn't in the norm and was very vocal about our IF. I found out people I worked with went through treatments. One had IUI that worked and another who had IUI work for baby #1 and IVF for #2 & #3. These boards are a great support but knowing people around me had gone through the same thing gave me comfort. It wasn't easy being vocal though because I did get the comments that no one wants to hear.

My advice to you is to be your own advocate. I wasn't willing to do more then 3 IUI's and with the success rates was more than ready to move to IVF. You need to do what is best for you and your RE should support that. My RE kept telling me I will give you the options but you tell me how you want to proceed.

Good luck to you on your journey and hopefully we will see you back soon!

Siona1976

Great thread & I love reading all of these amazing stories!

Our story: We tried for a 9 months before I saw the Ob to get testing done. He was convinced there was nothing wrong and took forever to get all our tests . . . 5 months! First my HSG came back with a filling defect, with a hysterscopy turned out it was nothing, one small polyp was found. We were labeled unexplained for about 4 weeks. Then I had to have an emergency appendectomy and they found endo! I nearly fell off the examine table when my surgeon told me this on my follow up appointment 2 weeks later. We were in the process of moving so we took a little break from the doctors and I wanted to do my research because my plan was to skip the OB and go straight to a RE (made sure I picked the insurance that didn't require a referral for my new job). Found an amazing clinic, because of my age (AMA) they said they were going to be more aggressive. Although we had to do 2 rounds of medicated (clomid) TI. . bfn's. We moved to clomid + IUI, first one failed. Second clomid + IUI, doctor told me we had less than a 5% chance of it working and that the next round they would move us to injects. Mentally, I was already defeated when I heard that news and started thinking about how many IUI's should we try before moving onto IVF. Two weeks later I was shocked to find out the 2nd IUI worked!

I agree with pp be your own advocate and make sure you are comfortable with how aggressive/non-aggressive the docs are being. I wish I was more aggressive with my Ob with the testing; however, lurking on these boards when he suggested clomid with no monitoring I knew it was time to run a way (luckily we were moving). Everyone is different but these boards are a great source of information.

Best of luck with your future treatments!

brittneyandadam

I have a very different story, but here it is:

At 20, I was working at a local lab in the cytogenetics dept. They were doing proficiency exams and I volunteered to have blood drawn so they could do my karyotype. It came back showing that I had a rare chromosomal abnormality that would mean an increased risk of m/c in 1st tri and then a risk of different disorders depending on chromosomal arrangements.

Flash forward to 25, I was diagnosed with PCOS by my nutritionist and put on metformin as well as a diet/exercise program. I had been trying to lose weight before the nutritionist and ended up losing 85lbs total before my BFP.

When DH and I started trying in January 2013, I was getting positive OPK's, but I noticed that my luteal phase was only 5-9 days long in a 35-40 day cycle. After 6 months of trying, I decided that we needed to see an RE b/c something obviously wasn't right. The RE monitored me for a cycle and found that even though I was getting positive OPK's, I was not ovulating. My body just would not respond to hormones.

I started on Femara and we did a total of 5 IUI's. A few days after the 5th, we had a WTF appt. At my consult in the beginning, they had told me that they were super confident that the first IUI would work...and if it didn't then I was unlucky and the 2nd would def take. The doc thought that my chromosomal abnormality had a larger hand in the whole thing than they originally thought and wanted us to do IVF if #5 didn't work. We agreed to try injectables with IUI for #6 just to see how my body responded. Luckily, we didn't need to explore that ;-)

So, even after the BFP, DH and I weren't very excited. I still had an increased risk for m/c (30-50%) in 1st tri. We also had to schedule a CVS to make sure the baby had the right chromosomes. The worst case scenario was the chance that she would have a very hard time breathing on her own after birth and may only live a few days. In those cases, we had decided that we would terminate the pregnancy. We had the CVS at 11 weeks and were told at 15 weeks that everything looked perfect! Those were 4 weeks I would NEVER wish on anyone.

My advice is to be your own advocate. Ask questions, do your research, know your body. Also, keep an open line of communication with YH and know what you both are willing to do and how far you're willing to go. It takes a lot out of you; and even though the support from these boards is amazing, you'll def need support at home too. I cried for every single BFN, my self confidence dropped, my depression and anxiety returned...I was actually thinking of making an appt with a psychatrist for treatment. If we do have to go through this again for our next baby, I want to have a psychologist lined up to help me through it. 

Lastly, GL to you. *hugs*

Cutiecruz327

Good luck @Danielle0311‌. I'm sorry to hear about your tube.

We got married March 2010 and started right away. I was diagnosed PCOS, but I had a horrible doctor who told me it was my fault I couldn't get pregnant, because I had a tough time losing weight. This person devastated me & embarrassed me in front of another doctor during an exam while I was in my paper robe with his remarks. I left frying and never went back.
In August 2011 we tried an RE who came highly recommended. He was wonderful & explained why PCOS caused all my issues (including weight) and assured me this was not my fault. Unfortunately my husband & I stopped seeing him due to a stressful time we were having with our families. Between the stress of what was going on in our world and the sting of the original doctor I got depressed. We decided to take a break with the doctor. Try on our own as we got to a better place. In jan 2013, things were better with our families & i was was in a better place mentally so we decided to try again with a new doctor closer to my husbands work. We did 3 clomid cycles and TI. None worked. We went in for a consult & doc suggested clomid + injectables. My husband pushed for the IUI. If we were trying he wanted us to do what was going to have the best result. We did 3 of these cycles. Each time they it didnt take I cried my heart out. We decided after the 3rd IUI we would take a break for 3 cycles (I like 3s). The night before Valentines day I took a test to confirm I could have my sushi & wine. To my surprise I could not!! The 3rd IUI took! I was shocked, I would never have guessed it worked. Now I'm 16 weeks & so far everything is fantastic!

ajlmom

I wanna share my story too (it's long!)

DH and I got married in July 11 and started TTC in July 12. I've always had somewhat irregular periods but never paid attention to it as a teenager/ young adult. Deep down I always worried that I'll have trouble conceiving because of the GYN issues on my mom's side of the family. My mom had a terrible cyst in her uterus (causing excessive bleeding 22-25 days outta a month) when I was abt 10 and has a hysterectomy. A cousin on my mom's side had one of her tubes removed d/t issues that I'm still not sure at around 25.

We were TTC for about 6 months when I had an annual physical with my PCP. Although I was only 29 at that time she referred me to RE d/t history of irregular period. I started seeing my RE in Feb 13 and was found to have mild PCOS. One of my ovaries is clear but he found about 7 cysts around the other one. I was in disbelief because I showed no classic symptoms of PCOS. I'm thin, I don't have excess body hair, etc. We did 4 cycles of clomid + TI, then 1 Clomid IUI, then 2 Femara IUI, all BFN. RE said my best bet was IVF but most insurance requires 6 cycles of IUI. They made the request anyways and despite a very unsupportive NP at the practice, I got approved! My nurse said someone in the insurance company was probably not paying attention and approved me for 2 cycles of IVF despite the fact that I've only had 3 IUIs.

I had my retrieval in November 13 (also switched job in the middle of that cycle! What was I thinking?) I had very high estrogen level and transfer was cancelled d/t risk of OHSS. I had 5 embies that made their way to the freezer. 1st FET with two blasts ended up with a BFN/ chemical. 2nd FET did it and I'm now 8w3d prego with a singleton.

My advice for you will be, like pp said before, to be your own best advocate. For example, I insisted on switching to Femara from clomid because it thinned my lining while RE said I could continue with it (really? RE?). My NP tried to talked me into doing injectable IUI because she was convinced that my insurance wouldn't approve my request for IVF before I do 6 IUIs. I insisted that they try and I got my approval.

During this last FET cycle I also did sth on my own. My first FET my progesterone was > 60 before transfer and they ended up decreasing my PIO dose from 1ml/ day to 0.75ml/day post transfer. I couldn't find anything to back myself up but I know naturally your progesterone level gradually increases during your luteal phase. I later read a study that showed that increasing PIO dosage after FET showed better implantation rate. So for 2nd FET I took it upon myself and did 0.8ml/day pre-transfer then 1ml/day post transfer. I dunno if that was what made the difference but My progesterone level pre-transfer went down to 43, and I got my BFP this time! No matter how good your providers are nobody knows your body better than yourself. I swear by this.

Good luck to you. Thanks for letting us share our stories.

Danielle0311

I am so happy for all of you that after what you went through you are now expecting your little miracles! It really has given me so much hope to start this journey thank you all again times a million !

Kathy36799

I am currently 35 years old and 39 weeks pregnant with my first.

I have been married 10 years and tried for 5 years to get pregnant. We were officially diagnosed 4 years ago as "unexplained infertility" as all tests came back fine. We tried 1 medicated IUI, multiple rounds of clomid, injectibles, and after all that didn't work decided to start the foster adopt process as IVF and regular adoption would be too costly for us.

As a last ditch effort before adoption I signed up for 3 months of acupuncture with a fertility acupuncturist. It helped my cycles greatly (I have 28 day cycles but ovulate late-the acupuncture helped ovulation start earlier) and my body just felt more balanced. Still no pregnancy. But 3 months after my last treatment, I got pregnant! Naturally, for the first time in my life. I had never had a positive pregnancy test in 5 years. I was blown away.

Was it the acupuncture that finally did it? Was it my anxiety being let go as I knew we were moving to adoption? Was it a combo of things? Who knows. I am just grateful and feel blessed that we will be parents after all this time. NEVER give up and find the path that works for you.

The RE's I met with were for the most part nice, but remember it is a business. YOU have to advocate for your needs and wants. Don't let them convince you there is only one way.

Sk8terWoman

Here's our story, we got married in June 2010 and I went off of birth control in September.  My periods were always regular.  After about a year, I asked my husband to get a SA because I had a feeling something wasn't quite right.  Results came back that he had 0% motility, some morphology issues, and normal sperm count.  Fast forward 3 years, and we finally decided to get serious about having  a baby.  All of my tests were normal, and husband's motility was still 0%. After the first visit with the RE after all of my diagnostics tests, he mentioned that some men have a reaction to propecia (taken to prevent hair loss).   My husband stopped taking it, and the SA 3 months later showed motility at 20%.  We proceeded with umedicated IUI, as I used an ovulation predictor, and motility percentage was 20-30% and we did 3 IUIs.  Insurance covered 3 IUI procedures so we figured it was worth a shot.  When the IUIs failed, we moved forward with IVF.  First IVF cycle we retrieved 18 eggs, 14 mature and fertilized.  We transferred a single 5 day blast that resulted in BFN.  Second time, we did a 5 day FET, and that resulted in our BFP.  I'm now 25w3days and expecting a little boy in August.  We paid OOP for IVF and our RE offered different programs and we chose the program with 3 IVF cycles, but only needed to use one.  With medication costs, we paid around $21K.

As other's have mentioned, you need to be your own advocate.  Do research and ask lots of questions.  IF really sucks, and I've had plenty of breakdowns during the 3 years we were trying but I just kept on believing that we would see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The bump IF boards were a great support system and I'm so glad to have this outlet.  Best of luck in your journey!

Allison7

Hi! I love reading everyone's stories!

My cycles have always been short usually around 24 days...sometimes as short as 21 days and at best as long as 26. We had 3cp/early m/c before we saw the RE. The RE was not concerned at all with my short cycles. We did a eval cycle and my FSH was at the high end of normal and my AMH was just below the normal range, so we were classified as unexplained. We did a monitored cycle of clomid+TI. I had two follies, but we ended in BFN. Next came two rounds of clomid +IUI, but my RE did not do u/s monitoring because she wanted to keep the costs down - and this was something I should have pushed but I was going with the doctor knows best mentality. We went for a third clomid+IUI, but I failed to ever ovulate. The RE still didn't do an u/s, but just put me on provera to reset my cycle. The decision was to retest my numbers in the next cycle and to do this unmedicated+TI.

At my consult to review the new numbers I was diagnosed with DOR. My AMH had stayed exactly the same, but my FSH had skyrocketed to 15.5 in just 4 cycles. The RE who had never been concerned with my short cycles before, but suddenly this was a huge red flag of DOR. The RE had originally anticipated that I would go to injectables with IUI, but with FSH changing so quickly she wanted to go straight to IVF. I could not qualify for the shared cost IVF because of the DOR. We researched everywhere within a 3hour radius to do IVF, but they all had waiting periods and would want to retest. We were very scared that if we switched, my numbers would be even worse and we would lose the window to use my eggs, so despite our reservations with this RE we decided to stay with her because we could do IVF right away.

We were waiting for AF to order the meds and I decided to poas at 11dpo. This was the retesting cycle, so with DOR I wasn't expecting anything...so the BFP was a huge surprise. The RE was also shocked. We were very cautious for the whole first tri, but especially until we passed our loss milestones.

Like others have said, don't be afraid to advocate for yourself! I really wish I had done that myself. The clomid did not work well with my system and having so many unmonitored cycles was very dangerous. My first u/s showed cysts on both ovaries. Thankfully they disappeared during the course of this pregnancy. IF care is not very standardized, so once you get a diagnosis it is very helpful if you do your own research. My SIL's RE experience was very different - she had much more monitoring and hers was much more aggressive...and while we had different problems she had success much faster. If I had been monitored more closely, we would have realized the problems my body was having clomid and moved on. If you stay on top of it, I am sure you will have a good experience! GL!

indianaalum

Here's my story:

I got married later at life being 40 when I got married. We instantly started trying to get pregnant. Because I knew others with fertility issues, I had been well-versed in giving it only 6 months and then seeking help.  We did just that as I have been kinda paranoid that I might be going through menopause due to irratic periods. My mother also went through menopause earlier than normal). I actually went to the doctor a couple of years ago with symptoms of menopause and irratic periods- I was told there was nothing wrong

Anyway, I started seeing the RE right at 6 months, and every test came back normal. Husband's SA was normal. Doctor still wanted to be aggressive due to my age. He wanted to jump straight to IVF due to age, but insurance wouldn't allow it, so I did IUI first. Half way through that cycle, it was cancelled because I had over 20 mature follicles with very little medicine. My doctor was shocked at my response in light of my age. He said 40 year olds aren't supposed to respond like that. (I guess that was supposed to be good news?!?). Anyway, it meant my cycle was canceled and that I was a bad candidate for IUI due to risk of multiples. I asked doctor if I had PCOS since I had so many follicles, his answer basically was "yes, basically"...which seems vague to me, but I guess I have it?!? (it also explains the weird symptoms I complained about PREVIOUSLY to my other doctor) or at least my ovaries act like it. Doctor appealed straight to insurance company and they approved IVF, so we jumped right in.

We had 21 eggs retrieved

14 fertilized

4 transferred (due to my age)

and 2 implanted 

unfortunately, one only remained a yolk sac

so we are 11 weeks pregnant with one little bean!!

I admit I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop. It seemed to happen too easy (relatively speaking). It took everyone here so long, so i keep worrying I will miscarry because it happened so fast). Still praying that God just finally decided to cut me some slack for once in my life. I sure hope so