TTC and very Discouraged!

ane8903

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello everyone. I?m new to the website and I figured this a good place to vent! My hubby and I have been TTC for 2 years now. We are married 4 years now and once we got married I went off the BC pills. We both agreed that we weren?t going to try and until we bought a house and got settled in. But if in the meantime if it happened it happened.

Who knew how stressful this would be! I?m on my 2^nd fertility Dr. who seems so be very determined to get me pregnant. Of course the cost of all the different approaches we can take is a bit pricey, but were going to take it month by month. I just had an HSG done and my tubes were fine. My husband went for his sperm analysis and he passed with flying colors! (He now refers to himself as super sperm)

I know I don?t ovulate as I?m supposed to.  I was on Clomid for about 6 months which I ovulated 3 times. My problem is finding the right time to conceive. I?ve bought just about every OPK out. I can?t seem to differentiate the lines on these tests. I took a test yesterday and the 2 lines seemed to be the same color (and as the directions say if it?s the same color or darker you will ovulate within 24-48hrs) So I went and bought a digital test where it would be a blank circle or a smiley face and of course I got the blank circle.  

For anyone having fertility problems my heart goes out to you. It?s a long dark road and I?m just trying to find the light. My husband understands the stress I?m going through to a point, but doesn?t understand the emotional part of this. I am an emotional wreck every month and I try to hide this from him.

Anyone have any tips/ideas???

And Best of luck to all who are TTC!

moosegal

I've heard that Clomid and other medications can make it difficult to pick up your LH surge with OPKs. If you are on medications like Clomid, your DR should be monitoring you with mid-cycle ultrasounds to let you know when you are about to ovulate. If you are not being monitored, you should find a new doctor who will do that.

TheHensonWedding

So, you were put on clomid for 6 months before doing the HSG test? I have never heard of that. Sorry you have to be here, but hope your stay is short & sweet. GL! 

pulga131

Welcome and GL to you. I'm confused... so you went to a fertility dr (an RE I presume) who put you on Clomid for 6 months (which is the max by the way you can't take this drug anymore) and did not do u/s to watch for ovulation and follicle growth and did not test for any problems before hand?  If both tubes were blocked or if YH s/a was abnormal you would have been taking this medicine for nothing! Obviously that was not the case, but it is very irresponsible IMHO of a dr to prescribe this medicine w/o testing first.  Have you had your thyroid checked? Have you been checked out for PCOS?  From what I am reading it sounds like you have not been through the full battery of testing. You really need to be fully examined before taking any medications. I don't have PCOS but my understanding from reading on this board is that ladies with PCOS don't get good response from OPKs - they need to temp and have u/s to know when they are ovulating. 

ane8903

When I went to the 1st Fertility Doc all he was about was the Invitro and that was not even sending me for any tests. He did an internal and said I had PCOS. He then put me on the Clomid and that was it. I went to see him about 10 times and I hate bashing Drs. but this man had no bedside manner what so ever.And there was not one time I went there where he didn't talk about Invitro.

The new Doc I'm seeing now wants me to call her on day 1 of my cycle to start me on the Clomid, then come in on day 11 for an HCG shot and then an ultra sound.

3 people I know had the HSG done and got pregnant that month. I don't even know when to start trying. My cycle is so irregular I can't even begin to calculate when Im going to ovulate. 

 

 

 

pulga131

Oh boy. Never ever go back to that first dr. talk about a quack! As far as your new dr. does he/she know that you have already taken clomid 6 times? Sounds like new dr is more with it, but you still need to have testing done before starting clomid (lots of blood work is what it sounds like you haven't done yet). There are lots of girls with PCOS here, they can probably help you figure out what to do with ovulation timing. GL!

ane8903

The new Dr. is great! The 3 girls I know that went to her all got pregnant. She has been sending me for blood work and did say there will be a lot of blood work to follow. And yes the old Dr. was a waste of time and money!! 

I started on 50mg of Clomid for 3 months then it was increased to 100mg for the other 3 months. The new Dr. wants to put me on the max dose of 150mg being I did see some positive results with ovulation from the Clomid.

royal15

Welcome!  I have PCOS, and DH also termed his swimmers "super sperm", so I am in your boat.

First off, PCOS is a syndrome, and you need to have several characteristics for diagnosis.  There are a bunch of different panels, but generally they agree that you need 2 out of 3 of the following:

1. anovulation

2. signs and symptoms of excess androgens (like testosterone).  This is either done my drawing blood, or can be diagnosed if you have hirsutism (male pattern hair growth)

3. Polycystic ovaries on ultrasound.

You should make sure your RE does labs and ultrasounds to make sure this is your diagnosis.  Next, I highly recommend temping, even with medicated cycles.  I think the Clomid made my temps a little higher, but I can still see a pattern.  Click on the fertility friend ticker in my siggy for their website, they have loads of information.  I also recommend buying the digital OPKs.  Yes PCOS can affect OPKs, but they take out the interpreting aspect.  Your RE should also be doing labs/US to monitor you.  Good luck, and sorry for the long-winded response!

genmalone

Have you thought about taking your BBT every morning?  I know it sucks but OPKs don't work for me because of my PCOS.  My last RE told me not to temp but my new RE encouraged it for a few cycles until we figure my cycle out.  I like to know for sure that I'm not missing my O.

Good luck!

brookelynpaisley

pulga131:

Welcome and GL to you. I'm confused... so you went to a fertility dr (an RE I presume) who put you on Clomid for 6 months (which is the max by the way you can't take this drug anymore) and did not do u/s to watch for ovulation and follicle growth and did not test for any problems before hand?  If both tubes were blocked or if YH s/a was abnormal you would have been taking this medicine for nothing! Obviously that was not the case, but it is very irresponsible IMHO of a dr to prescribe this medicine w/o testing first.  Have you had your thyroid checked? Have you been checked out for PCOS?  From what I am reading it sounds like you have not been through the full battery of testing. You really need to be fully examined before taking any medications. I don't have PCOS but my understanding from reading on this board is that ladies with PCOS don't get good response from OPKs - they need to temp and have u/s to know when they are ovulating. 

These are all my thoughts exactly. The bolded parts concern me especially.

genmalone

Royal15,

Great post about PCOS.  I went to a PCOS seminar a few months ago and this is exactly how they broke it down.  I have the cystic ovaries and anovulation.  Good times! 

HotChocolate79

Have you tried digital OPK's?  Much better than trying to decode regular ones and well worth the extra few bucks they cost.  Also, I was told my RE's staff that OPK's are basically useless when you are on Clomid and the only way to do figure it out is to be monitored.  Good luck to you!

ane8903

Yes that is correct. He put me on Clomid before I went for any kind of blood work And my OBGYN did not see a problem with this. And I figured they were the Dr. they knew what they were doing. I have had my thyroid checked on numerous occasions. Before I started seeing this new Dr. I was the one who asked my FMD to send me to have it checked. The only testing I had done for the PCOS was an internal where I had cysts on my ovaries. That was his only finding.

Unfortunately I went to the 1st Dr. because he was the only one in my area and as I have said I was extremely unhappy with him. And obviously he has no idea what he's doing/supposed to be doing. And this is so upsetting to me because of all the time and money wasted with an idiot. 

 

royal15

Thanks!  I am a little OCD about stuff, so I wanted to know as much about my diagnosis as possible.

 Also being in the medical field helps

ane8903

As of right now I am not on any medicine except for pre-natal vitamins that I started taking on my own. I've also been off the Clomid for about 2 months.

My cycle started on 7/16 and I had my HSG done on 7/26. Now its just trying to figure out when I'm going to ovulate!!! So hard to pinpoint being my periods are so irregular!

 

ane8903

I just bought the digital OPK yesterday. The ones I have with the lines pretty much showed I was ready to ovulate, then I took the digital one when I got home and it came up negative

ane8903

Just went home on my lunch to take an ovulation test and it was negative

I know the worst thing to do is worry and stress about it, but some people just don't understand....especially knowing I don't ovulate all the time. So therefore I have to test myself all the time. I really wish I didn't have to and I could just sit back and relax, but I don't think that will ever happen! 

brookelynpaisley

ane8903:

As of right now I am not on any medicine except for pre-natal vitamins that I started taking on my own. I've also been off the Clomid for about 2 months.

My cycle started on 7/16 and I had my HSG done on 7/26. Now its just trying to figure out when I'm going to ovulate!!! So hard to pinpoint being my periods are so irregular!

 

it's helpful if you use the qupte button instead of reply so we know who (if anyone) you're addressing directly.

ane8903

Thank You! And I apologize for confusing everyone! I'm new to this website!

 

brookelynpaisley:

ane8903:

As of right now I am not on any medicine except for pre-natal vitamins that I started taking on my own. I've also been off the Clomid for about 2 months.

My cycle started on 7/16 and I had my HSG done on 7/26. Now its just trying to figure out when I'm going to ovulate!!! So hard to pinpoint being my periods are so irregular!

 

it's helpful if you use the qupte button instead of reply so we know who (if anyone) you're addressing directly.

ane8903

I have tried the BBT, but I didn't stick to it.  I'm going to have to start doing that again. I did it for 2 months and my temp was the same for those 2 months so I figured it wasn't working.

 

genmalone:

Have you thought about taking your BBT every morning?  I know it sucks but OPKs don't work for me because of my PCOS.  My last RE told me not to temp but my new RE encouraged it for a few cycles until we figure my cycle out.  I like to know for sure that I'm not missing my O.

Good luck!

ELF4321

ane8903:

I have tried the BBT, but I didn't stick to it.  I'm going to have to start doing that again. I did it for 2 months and my temp was the same for those 2 months so I figured it wasn't working.

There are some BBTs that have "favorite" temps that they give over and over again.  Try a different brand if you were having that problem with yours.  It really is the best way to know for sure if/when you O'd each cycle.  Good luck!