can I pick your brains? (long, sorry)

halfnhalf

Hi ladies.  I recognize a ton of you from the IF board - congrats on "graduating" to PAIF   I'm wondering if I can pick your brains, as I feel so "stuck". 

Me in a nutshell: PCOS, annovulatory, no other known issues. No MFI.  After many, many months, I have finally had successful ovulation with 3 cycles of femara and 3 cycles of injectables, with one injectable cycle ending in a c/p and the rest BFN.  We've done IUI most of those cycles, w/ 1 follie.

I sort of feel like the last 6 cycles have really been a bit of a victory, and my only true chances at getting pg... and if I were a fertile non-PCOS girl, it wouldn't be too alarming to not be pg in 6 cycles (well 5, if you count my c/p as a bfp).  So that makes me think maybe we should continue w/the injectables and give it a few (2-3) more tries before jumping to IVF?  But another part of me wonders if that would be just a regret later.  Maybe I'm just scared to do IVF and I'm convincing myself I may not have to, idk.

If you've been in my shoes... especially those with PCOS, no MFI, ovulation issues, and some response to drugs but still BFPs.... do you think IVF is inevitable for me?  If you were me, would you just bite the bullet and do IVF? 

TIA.  I have so much mental and emotional turmoil this week.  IF sucks.

halfnhalf

Quick addendum:

I like our RE, but she doesn't really say what she thinks we should do, she just gives us options.  We are having a consult w/her next month to discuss it, but she won't lay it on the line and say "this is what you should do". 

I should also add that we do have some IF coverage... IVF, however, would be completely OOP.  I'm not afraid to spend the money, but I am afraid we'll look back and go "well jeez, we sure rushed into that."

DH thinks we should just do IVF.  I think IF is really starting to have a toll on him, whereas for a while, it was mostly me who was miserable and him who was feeling positive and hopeful. 

Sorry... so much for "quick".  :-/

LTF525

With your previous 6 cycles were you doing IUIs or TI?

halfnhalf

IUI most cycles, but once or twice we had scheduling conflicts (travel plans etc) and did TI.

schoolsoutbride

Have you done anything for the PCOS like metformin or the PCOS diet?  Just wondered if it might help you O.

What's your insurance coverage like?

I think if you've only O'd 6 times or so, I'd give it another cycle or two if you have coverage for it.  8 cycles with O and good timing is a pretty good shot, though. I don't think I'd mess around much longer than that.

halfnhalf

Metformin, but haven't done the PCOS diet.  I do O consistently nowadays, at least with follistim or femara.  My insurance does cover a portion of IUI and meds, but not IVF.

Dragonfly1226

My RE believes in moving on after three tries at any treatment cycle. (We did two Clomid cycles, but we elected to move on after that.) So we did three injectable IUI cycles before moving to IVF.

I am glad we moved on to IVF when we did. It ended up taking us two IVF cycles to get this far. IVF cycles are long, and since my first IVF resulted in a m/c we had to wait even longer between cycles. We decided to move to IVF in October of 2009, and I got a BFP from this cycle at the end of June 2010 so it was almost 9 months between the time we decided to move to IVF and the time we got (what I hope is) a sticky BFP.

However, in the end you have to do what you feel is right. If you're unsure about moving to IVF, I don't think it will hurt to do another IUI cycle. IVF is more involved and harder than an IUI cycle so unless you really feel ready for it I wouldn't start.

Good luck! 

cara-n-steve

If it were me, I think I would try one more IUI with injectables and then move on to IVF if I didn't get my BFP. You need to choose whatever your comfortable with .  The worst feeling in the world is wondering "What if."

If we didn't get PG with this last IUI, we were going to try one more and then move onto IVF.  IUI is so much easier on the body, I wanted to give it a shot before IVF, even though our RE told us she thought the only way we would get pg is via IVF.  You just never know.....You and your DH need to figure out what's best for you guys!

 GL!!!

 

LVBlvd

You know, I was in the exact same boat, however I never had a m/c.  I think I had around 13 medicated cycles (ranging from met with trigger only, clomid and trigger, clomid and injectables and trigger, injectables only) but never had a positive HPT.  We only did 1 IUI because we had no MF.  No reason for not getting pregnant with the exception of my PCOS.

We thought my PCOS only caused me to be annovulatory.  But my RE suspected we had a fert problem due to the fact that I was never even a day late after all those medicated cycles.  

I think I would try a few more cycles (with our without IUI), then move to IVF.  Sometimes, PCOS can cause an egg quality problem, and IVF is the best way to go.  WIth DD, we got 18 eggs and only had 2 left on day 3.  So there were some other issues there - probably caused from the PCOS.

Good luck to you! 

perry7285

well, for me i just wanted to cut to the chase and get pregnant, so i actually skipped to IVF sooner than most people would have. two failed clomid cycles were enough for me! (we also had financial reasons to skip to IVF, but it's a really long story.)

i was very happy with my IVF experience (i fortunately was able to get pregnant on my first IVF), so i tend to recommend it to people. for me it was worth it to do a more invasive procedure to get pregnant sooner rather than later. for me, i found the failed clomid cycles really emotionally taxing. but i don't think that either option you've presented (doing a couple more IUI/TI cycles, or just doing IVF right now) is at all unreasonable. maybe you and DH could compromise and just do one more IUI before doing IVF?

best of luck with whatever you decide!

 

halfnhalf

Thank you all for the insight, I read everyone's responses and I really appreciate the thoughts.  It sounds like I'm not crazy to think that maybe another injects/IUI cycle might be smart, but to start mentally prepping for IVF.  That's probably what we'll do. 

I wish you all the best of luck with the remainder of your pregnancies!!!!

Thanks again!