Can anyone share their hybrid (oral meds + injects) cycle stories?

sarahtoledo · April 2011

I am guessing this kind of thing is somewhat uncommon... We'll soon be doing Femara from CD3-7 and stims from CD7-11, then trigger. In previous cycles, I ovulated with Femara alone, but at my age, the doctor wants to see more follies and/or larger ones or we could be at it a long time.

I wondered if anyone here has tried this and how it worked (or didn't work) for you? If you don't mind sharing? Specifically, I wondered how many mature follies you ended up with.

TIA

(Edited for clarity.)

itsmevkb · April 2011

I always ovulate on my own so I was using Femara in the hopes of having better and multiple follicles. My first cycle I used only Femara at a very high dose, 12.5 per day, and I produced one follicle. My RE used that high of a dose because I'm traditionally not a great responder (massive doses during my IVF cycle and I ended up with six eggs) and because of my age (I'm 39).

The second cycle I took the same dose of Femara on cd3-7 and then added in Follistim (I believe it was 150 per day) on cd7-10. That cycle I had at least two mature follicles, and possibly a third, at the time of our IUI. There was a fourth that was quite a bit smaller. I got pregnant that cycle.

Best of luck to you.

alhal · April 2011

Last cycle I did my first IUI w/ Clomid only. I had 3 mature follies but BFN. This cycle was my first combo IUI cycle. I took Clomid from CD 3-7 and Follistim injects from CD 5-10. On the morning of CD11, my ultrasound showed follies at 15, 16, 17, 18 and 21. The RE had me trigger that night and I had the IUI 36 hours later at CD13. So, obviously I had more follies with the Clomid + injects.

My beta draw isn't until Friday morning, so I don't have a verdict for you. But I thought I'd at least respond and tell you the difference in my follicle sizes between the two IUI cycles. good luck!

kthappy76 · April 2011

I attempted one of these last May, but I had a violent reaction to Clomid 100, so we ended up just doing the low dose Follistim. The play by play is on my blog. I think I had one follie, but it ended as a BFN. Best of luck!