Three separate LH surges (so far)???

PrettyPalomino

Hello ladies! I’m not new here (partook in the TTC boards for 6 months in 2015) but as a secondary IF person, I’m always so hesitant to participate in this board and there’s virtually no activity in the Secondary IF board. We are going on 4 years of negatives. We were diagnosed with male factor (oligospermia) a year and a half ago. DH had a varicocelle embolization done in the winter which actually brought him up to low normal! So with somewhat improved sperm count and motility, we tried IUI in July, which was unsuccessful and so are now attempting IVF. Our consent appointment is on Wednesday. Last cycle was monitoring. 

I’m thinking the cycle they monitored me at over a year ago was a good “normal” cycle, as I’m starting to have some issues. I have polycystic ovaries but not the syndrome (AFC last cycle was 34). This cycle has been WEIRD. I have had three separate LH surges. CD 12, 16, and 21 (so far). Unfortunately I haven’t taken BBT in years, as I’m usually regular. Fertile CM really only showed up on the last surge, which on CD 23 is still a raging positive. 

I’ve googled the crap out of LH surge frequency and can only find info on “biphasic”, i.e. two surges, nothing on more than two. Has anyone experienced this before? Might this be a sign that I’m slipping more towards PCOS? I have no idea when to expect day 1 for our very first IVF treatment  
TIA!!

[Deleted User]

Welcome back!  I'm sorry you find yourself here...  While I don't have experience with that specifically, I know your doctor will tailor your protocol to your individual needs.  Sometimes they use drugs to suppress everything prior to starting the retrieval cycle, such as lupron.  Everyone is different, and every cycle is different, too. 🤷 All you can do sometimes is take a deep breath and try to enjoy the ride. ❤️ Have they talked to you yet about what type of protocol they might recommend?  You will usually stim for +/- a week or so with monitoring, then trigger, and have retrieval 48 hours later.  Most likely, you will wait for fertilization and freeze results, and then anticipate FET the following cycle.  Hope that helps at least a little!

PrettyPalomino

BusinessWife said:

Welcome back!  I'm sorry you find yourself here...  While I don't have experience with that specifically...

Thank you! It’s good to see a familiar name! We find out our protocol during our consent appointment this Wednesday. For IUI, we did lowest dose of stims (50 I.U.’s of Gonal F) to avoid OHSS, with trigger (Ovidrel) and progesterone suppositories during tww. I’m sure it’ll be similar but perhaps higher dose of stims for the retrieval... My only real fear is needing intramuscular progesterone. My SIL needed it for the entire first trimester after successful FET. That would be awful, esp since I never even worked up the courage to stab myself with the tiny subcutaneous guys last treatment cycle. So grateful for a non-squeamish hubby! Fingers crossed this goes decently smoothly and Covid doesn’t shut us down mid-treatment... 

[Deleted User]

You never know, I ended up doing a natural cycle without PIO, so it's possible.  But if it works, even the PIO is a small sacrifice for baby! 😁 I ended up having to do a number of them myself even, and I survived. Lol One step at a time...

PrettyPalomino

Update:
The cycle with all the LH surges turned out to be 35 days long. I was positive or near positive on OPKs from CD 12 all the way to CD 30... finally, the LH test line started to get faint at CD30 and I got AF a few days later. The IVF clinic took my bloodwork on CD 35, which showed elevated LH levels, but a drop in progesterone and so she thought maybe it was anovulatory but that I’d get AF soon and she was right, it arrived next day. 

Now I’m on CD 8. I had an incredibly heavy AF which was horrible. I’m back to testing near positive on OPKs already. 

Our protocol was supposed to be estrogen patch week before AF due, but now we are back to drawing board... gotta go in for bloodwork.

I suspect PCOS has struck. Anyone have experience with late onset PCOS? I’m 33 with secondary IF. TIA