May IUI

kristimh80

@Labluver2 That's awesome...I wish I was as disiplined as you! I use to never drink sodas, so hopefully doing this will kick the habit again! I def don't feel as bloated on this injectable cycle without it. 

@Funnygirl34 yay good luck!! You ae right behind me...hoping for IUI the end of next week  

MommaWalla

@greenhillgirl Welcome! That's great news about you're husband's SA improvement and being able to do IUI. How was he able to improve everything?

We're dealing with MFI ...morphology specifically. I have DH on several different supplements, he's very fit, eats healthy doesn't smoke or drink but for some reason has very low morphology. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

I just finished my 1st medicated IUI cycle, my beta is scheduled on the 22nd. It wasn't as bad as I thought, aside from bloating and ovarian pain I really didn't have any bad side effects.

Best of luck to you! FX! 

JaeJayStark

k854k welcome and thanks for the words of encouragement for the HSG!

The HSG was easy peasy. I know it's different for everyone but I had no pain at all, only a little pressure here and there. I took two ibuprofen and she applied some numbing medication. 

My tubes are open and my uterus is only slightly heart shaped. She isn't worried about that though. 

My ultrasound didn't show any follicles yet (I'm on CD 12) but it's a bit early and I am hard to image. So I go back on Monday for another ultrasound.

Talked to the RE about next steps. If this IUI doesn't work then we are switching to IVF next cycle. 

20baby17

Hi Ladies quick question for you. My doc originally scheduled me for sat for my progesterone check 1 week after IUI and I asked if I could come on Friday so I wouldn't need to drive an hour to the only location open on the weekend. The nurse said as long as it's 7 days after IUI so she said she counted and Friday was fine to come. But she counted wrong and tomorrow morn (fri) is really only 6 days after IUI. What would u do? Would u just go tomorrow at the 6 day mark or wait til 7?

Labluver2

Is there a way you could call and check before you go tomorrow?

20baby17

No they don't answer the phones until 8:30 and if have to be there before 7:30

k854k

@JaeJayStark So glad to hear that you had a good HSG experience! Good luck to you!

Ilky

@Irisheyes81 I asked my doctor last time to see if they can reduce the dose of the progesterone. They said no! This is the standard protocol blah blah. I think none of you use this high progesterone suppositories (800mg a day!). I'm 5 days late and the witch is no where in sight. I told my husband next time I'll insist on taking lower dose and he argued with me saying doctor knows the best and left my own devices we were not successful for years. So, I should do whatever they say. His lack of support even further upset me and now I'm not talking to him (still traveling for work)...:(

kristimh80

@Ilky Hate to hear that! I'm only on 100mg progesterone and have done 200mg oral before, so I can't imagine 800mg unless they are worried about your lining. I know some say Clomid can thin it, so maybe that's why? Wish you lived closer, I'd say come to my dr's office. Maybe AF will delay so will be perfect timing for when you're in town. 

Labluver2

The ones I have are 400mg I went today for be waiting for them to call me to see if I need to take them.

kristimh80

Went in for for my 2nd follicle check today. CD7, so far have 2 bigger ones at 10mm and a lot of smaller ones. Really hoping on Monday's ultrasound there are a couple more larger ones coming along, but still hopeful since I've only done injections at a low dose for 3 days so far. 

Labluver2

@ Kristimh80 that looks promising hoping they keep growing for you.

AFM my progesterone level was 26 which they said was really good so no supplements next is the pregnancy test next Friday. One day at a time.

JaeJayStark

@kristimh80  do you have so many ultrasounds because you are on follistim? 

kristimh80

@JaeJayStark Yes, doing only follistim this cycle, so they monitor you more so you don't over-stim. At this point, I want to tell them...the more the merrier! 

JaeJayStark

Ha! I know that feeling. I'm nervous because we didn't see anything but I am glad I can look back at my first round of clomid and know that the right follicle didn't show anything until CD 16. 

kristimh80

@JaeJayStark Keep positive! Good you know maybe you're just a slow grower I was when just on femara alone, so I really didn't expect to see anything today to be honest. What CD are you on?

JaeJayStark

CD 13 here. Hopefully on Monday there are some big ones hiding on the right. 

kristimh80

@JaeJayStark FX for you! I'm sure Monday will be a good day 

Funnygirl34

I'm out for May.  I had my baseline ultrasound today and have 3 very large cysts.  Will be taking birth control for 2.5 weeks.  I'm 2/2 with cysts after Menopur cycles.

Wishing y'all the best of luck!!!

kristimh80

Awe I'm so sorry @Funnygirl34! I hope they can take you off Menopur and try something else that maybe won't give you cysts. 

Irisheyes81

@kristimh80 that's great!! Seems like the meds are working. May is already better. 

@Funnygirl34 so sorry!! 

Irisheyes81

@Labluver2 I have progesterone envy

mockingjay1

@Ilky - Can the office do your baseline ultrasound later than CD 3? You wouldn't think 1-2 days would make a difference. I hope you can at least do an unmedicated IUI if you want. 800mg of progesterone seems really high. I'm new, but my RE has me take 100mg and that was enough to prolong AF until I stopped taking it.

@JaeJayStark - I'm glad your HSG went well! I really hope this IUI is successful for you.

@kjeann - I see where you said you work 12 hour shifts. Are you a nurse? 

@rebailey7842 - I have no advice for the TWW besides stay as busy as you can. Fx for great betas in a few days! 

@Funnygirl34 - I'm sorry you're out this cycle. I hope the cysts shrink/disappear and you can start maybe a new med next month. 

@kristimh80 - hope your u/s Monday shows a couple good sized follicles! 

I had my IUI today. My hopes were up so so high last month, so I'm going to try really hard to focus on other things the next 10-14 days. If this isn't our month, I think I am going to ask about an HSG. It was offered to me initially, but the RE said it was up to me and I had read such horror stories I didn't want to do it. 

Is it pretty routine for REs to have you take progesterone without testing your levels? I took the suppositories last month and they burned for at least 20-30 min every single night (bad enough it kept me from falling asleep). I told the nurse that and asked if they could just text my levels and she said that was fine. The nurse today (a different one) asked if I thought it was the actual med or maybe what they used to keep it together (glycerin or something else I don't remember) that caused the issue. I assume the latter, so she gave me some endometrin suppositories to try.

kristimh80

@dmo1371How exciting!! I was the same way last month, so decided after this one, I was going to try and not obsess as much during the TWW. My RE always has progesterone on my RX. She has me take some special compounded ones, and never had issues with them burning. Think she does them as a precaution. My HSG wasn't too bad, I think if they would have told me to take a pain reliever, it would have been a breeze. Main thing I remb was I felt it gave me PMS and lightheaded, then it went away shortly after,.

Labluver2

@Irisheyes81 I didnt expect it at all to be that high sending you progesterone vibes your way.

greenhillgirl

@MommaWalla

 I'm sorry you're struggling with MFI. I would advise finding a good urologist that specializes in male infertility if you are able. It's good your husband is healthy but severe MFI is actually not that related to health according to his doctor. Those things like losing some weight or quitting social smoking or eating more kale are not going to make big difference when you're talking about tens or hundreds of millions or huge percentages difference.  

The biggest thing was that he hadn't gotten clear instructions on the first SA and abstained way too long. So doing it properly brought the numbers way up. That probably isn't helpful to you. The other thing he did simultaneously is to take Fertilaid. There are three products you could check out and one specialized for motility and one for morphology.  

According to his doctor who is like a top male fertility urologist in the world apparently some men just have this and there's not a lot you can do to fix it. It's good to have the urologist cause the RE and fertility clinics seem to focus on the women so heavily. 

Best of luck to you! Keep us posted!

mockingjay1

More questions... do you guys still chart? I know the progesterone will make my bbt higher, but I like to see a rise before I start it (they have me start it 2 days after IUI which would be today). Last month I saw an obvious temp shift, and my CM dried up the day after my IUI. My IUI was Friday and today was the first day I haven't noticed EWCM and I had a lot of pain on my L side while we were at the zoo this morning. My chart is a mess (doesn't show ovulation yet, but looks like it might guess it was Thursday if I have another higher temp), but I'm nervous I just ovulated today or maybe haven't yet at all. I wish I could skip the progesterone so they could verify that I ovulated. Such a frustrating process, and I don't want to be wasting my time and money for nothing. 

kristimh80

@dmo1371 I use to chart during medicated cycles, but found my chart was so all over the place and not reliable. I decided to stop this time around, figured it was one less thing to stress / obsess over. I understand the progesterone deal, I'm always weary if I want to start right away, as I've seen some that wait til 3 days after to start it. Either way, IMO I don't think you can go wrong Just remember, on medicated cycles...charts / calendars aren't always reliable. If you were monitored well, your doctor probably has it all timed right. 

mockingjay1

kristimh80 said:

@dmo1371 I use to chart during medicated cycles, but found my chart was so all over the place and not reliable. I decided to stop this time around, figured it was one less thing to stress / obsess over. I understand the progesterone deal, I'm always weary if I want to start right away, as I've seen some that wait til 3 days after to start it. Either way, IMO I don't think you can go wrong Just remember, on medicated cycles...charts / calendars aren't always reliable. If you were monitored well, your doctor probably has it all timed right. 

Thanks @kristimh80. I went in 5/4 for my first ultrasound (cd 12) and had an 11mm on my R side and they couldn't see my L side due to bowel they said. On 5/9 my ultrasound showed an 8mm on my R side (so it shrunk) and a 15mm on my L. They had me trigger 5/11 without another ultrasound. If they get to 15mm do they usually not shrink then? My wacky chart isn't stressing me out as much as having EWCM until today and having the sharp pain for 5-10 min this morning on the L side. I don't even care if my IUI timing is off (DH's sperm is fine), I just want to be 100% sure I ovulate before I take the progesterone. I guess I'll take it and hope for the best. 

kristimh80

I haven't known mine to shrink, but we always laugh because some times it seems like the largest one looks like it takes over the smaller one next to it. My DH says its like Pacman. lol Some times with ultrasounds, unless they get the picture lines up to the biggest angle of the follicle, I can see where it could be off a little maybe. If worried, waiting a day I don't think could hurt anything like I said before. There are a lot on here that don't even take progestrone until pregnancy is confirmed. I believe my Dr does it as a precaution. 

Bababatty

@dmo1371 I also don't chart anymore.  I did my first three IUI cycles and it just stressed me out, so I stopped.  I have heard (and by heard I mean I did a quick google search a few weeks ago, so take that as you will) that follicles can rise and fall in size for a bit until they fully mature, or something like that.  I have no idea why, though.  Nor did I ever actually confirm that with a real doctor.  If you're worried, I'd ask you RE next time how they know for sure that their suggested IUI timing is correct.  If you're not satisfied with the answer, ask if there are other tests you can do to give you peace of mind.  That is, assuming you have to do another IUI, which I hope you don't!

Update for me: I was supposed to go in for my follow-up u/s today, but I got multiple positives all day on my Wondfo OPKs yesterday.  This confused me a lot since it's very early for me (only CD12), so I attempted to cross-check with a digital OPK (Walgreens brand because I'm cheap), which was negative.  More confusion.  So I went in this morning thinking we might have to do an IUI, but alas.  We did do the ultrasound and it showed a good lining (8.8), but no dominant follicles on either side (multiple on both sides under 10).  That's shocking since I've always had at least one dominant mature follicle by my follow-up u/s.  The RE said it could have been a false positive or I could have ovulated already.  He had me do a blood test to test LH and progesterone levels, and I'm waiting to hear back from the nurse.  If those are negative, I'll go back in on Friday for another u/s.  Must remember to ask the nurse if the doctor is concerned about my lack of growing follicles.... And now I'm wondering if I got a bad batch of Wondfos and should just switch to the more expensive Clearblues.  

mockingjay1

@Bababatty - Thanks, I will try not to worry about it, and if this isn't our cycle then I will definitely ask for more confirmation of ovulation next time. I don't think we'll do more than 3 IUIs, so I really want to make sure we're doing things right when we do them. 

I hope if you already ovulated this is your cycle, and if not I hope you have a nice sized follicle Friday. This is only my second IUI, but my first time I had a 19mm follicle on cd 12, and this time I didn't have a 15mm follicle until CD 17 with the same dose of femara. I don't think taking longer is anything to worry about. Do you have PCOS? I know I get a lot of false positives on the wond fo opks with my PCOS (I always double check a positive wond fo with a clear blue opk). I've had LH surges that turned the clear blue positive too even though I didn't ovulate. 

kristimh80

Update: CD 10 ultrasound was good, have 4 follicles (16-15-14-12) for possible IUI this Thursday / Friday. Hopefully Wednesday ultrasound will show a lot more progress all around. I'm a little excited since when was on femara combo cycle there was always just 1 main follicle.

Bababatty

@dmo1371 Thanks! I actually just heard back from the nurse and it turns out I'm ovulating as we speak.   So the wondfos were right and the walgreens digital was wrong, which is probably my fault because maybe the digital needed some kind of baseline? I have no idea. Anyway, my RE wants me to come in for the IUI tomorrow but since nothing can ever be easy, that doesn't work with DH's schedule. Sigh. I told him he needed to sort the collection out with them himself because it made no sense for me to be the go-between. I'd say there's a 75% chance we end up with TI. 

ETA @kristimh80 Hooray for four follies? What wonderful news! Good luck this week!

kristimh80

@Bababatty How exciting!! FX everything works out for the timing with your hubby! Maybe they can do the IUI really early so it would work out

Irisheyes81

@kristimh80 Yay!! That's amazing.  I have my US tomorrow.  Maybe we will be together on thursday or friday

JaeJayStark

Hey Ladies! Just catching up since I don't usually Bump on the weekends. 

@Funnygirl34 I am so sorry about the cysts. That is awful! I hope the cysts disapear quickly!

@dmo1371 Thanks for the well wishes! Congrats on your IUI! I was very nervous about the HSG but for me it really was nothing to be afraid of. I am glad to know the shape of my uterus is normal and that my tubes are open. My coworker's wife did like 3 IUIs then did an HSG. Turns out her tubes were blocked and an IUI would have never worked. Sometimes it's good to know! My RE only does progesterone for an IUI if you have low results. They said that the science is questionable whether progesterone suppositories really help like they are supposed to so they only give it if they really feel they need to. Since you had a trigger, it seems pretty certain you ovulated but I don't know all the ins and outs for PCOS. 

I do not chart. I keep notes on my period app on noticeable changes, symptoms, and OPK results but I've never taken my temp. It's all too much! 

My follicles were weird this month in comparison to previous months. I'll put that in my update below. I haven't seen a follie shrink but I am sure it can stop growing and others take over, like pacman . 

@Bababatty  How weird that you ovulated early! It seems like you should do TI asap if you already ovulated. I'm surprised that they don't think it's too late to do the IUI tomorrow. Maybe they will have you come in earlier next time or start your meds later in the cycle? I think there is something they can do to make sure you don't ovulate too early. 

@kristimh80 OOOH! So exciting for your follicles! How was your lining looking? I'm excited for you!

AFM: Went in for my second US today. I told the sonographer that last Thursday the doctor said he didn't see any follicles. She said he noted in my chart that I had an 11mm. I told her I was all worried since we usually see something and she apologized for him not telling me about the 11mm. UGH! I was all stressed out. So the good news is, I have 11mm lining and 2 dominant follicles, 24mm and 27mm. I triggered right after my appointment and I have my IUI tomorrow. I'm hopeful. 

mockingjay1

@kristimh80 - 4 follicles is great! FX at least a couple have grown big enough Wednesday for you to have your IUI Thurs/Fri.

@Bababatty - yay for ovulation!! Is your infertility male factor or do you have a diagnosis? Either way at this point I think I'd probably TI too. Everything I've read says the egg only lives 12ish hours once released, so I'd be hesitant to do an IUI tomorrow. Obviously your doctor knows better than I do! 

@Irisheyes81 - Hope your ultrasound goes well tomorrow! 

@JaeJayStark - Yes, I am definitely asking for the HSG if this isn't our month. I did have an SHG done prior to my IUIs. I guess I have a hard time trusting my doc/clinic 100% because some things they have said don't seem quite right. The nurse told me taking progesterone in the 2WW shouldn't prolong getting my period (which it did). My clinic does progesterone on all patients in the 2WW. One nurse seemed fine with me not taking it and coming in for a 7 dpo progesterone level, while the nurse that did my IUI didn't seem on board and had nothing on record that I had that conversation with another nurse. 

Yay for your ultrasound today! What great lining and nice sized follicles! Good luck with your IUI tomorrow! 

kristimh80

@Irisheyes81 Yay!!! I hope so! Good luck tomorrow


@JaeJayStark Thank you!! Lining looked good...looked like right at a 9 right now. I know having 4 follicles in the grand sceme of things doesn't always mean anything...figure its a glimmer of some kind of hope for now. After the Debbie downer week after the BFN, I think I'm over being miserable.

@dmo1371 True...they are hoping with my meds the 14 and 12 will jump up there, so leaning more towards Friday. I almost want to up my shot dosage this week, though I know better lol

JaeJayStark

@dmo1371 did your SHG show any concerning results? I guess you would just need to know about your tubes then. If the SHG wasn't painful, I'd assume the HSG wouldn't be either. Thanks for the good luck!!

@kristimh80 Be excited! Sure 4 isn't for certain but having more than one increases some odds. We need to celebrate every win we get otherwise this is the most miserable place to be!