Intro and questionwarning long post sorry!

grube067 · June 2013

Hi everyone!

I have spent the past couple months "lurking" on various boards and have finally decided to join. I have already read the newbie info...so heres to not making any glaring mistakes!

From what I can tell, it is typical to start with an intro.

I am 25 and a RN. My DH is also 25. I have been off birth control since June 2012. I have a hx of not ovulating/menstruating when not on birth control, so I always figured I would have trouble TTC. Since June 2012 I have not had AF on my own. Every few months I have been taking provera to try and "jump start" my periods. Now after a year, we have decided to try clomid to induce ovulation.

As I am a RN, I am very familiar with the medical side of things. I have educated my self fully on taking clomid, including the risks and benefits of this medication. That being said I would appreciate it if I did not get any comments regarding the horrors of doing "unmonitored" clomid cycles. Again, I have educated myself fully and I am very comfortable with my decision to proceed with my obgyn's treatment plan. That being said I will continue with my intro.

I am currently working with an ob, who has completed initial blood work-all negative and I have had a abdominal and transvaginal u/s to check anatomy-both normal. My ob doesn't feel it's necessary to check an SA at this time, since I am not ovulating. Once ovulation starts and if there is no success after a few (2-3) cycles, we will be doing further testing. Now, June 2013 I have started my first round of clomid 50 mg days 3-7 after using Provera for 10 days. Currently I am on CD 20 struggling with the 2WW! My hopes with joining this group is to hopefully be able to ask for opinions and get tips and tricks from ladies who have been there. This leads to my questions.

I am currently using OPKs to check for my surge. I thought I would be able to decipher the Walgreens version since they were cheaper than the digital...but I think I was way too confident. So I wanted to post a pic and see what you all thought about my 1st positive?? I am hoping I am not compeletly off with my decision to call this a positive. I got it on CD 15. Sorry if the pic is huge. I am using an iPad and don't quite have the hang of posting.

Finally, my second question is about temping. I have tried several months to temp with no success. I work night shift and my whole life schedule/sleeping habits are so random. Every day I get such varying temps I can't find a trend. Has anyone else dealt with this? I have pretty much given up temping, which is so frustrating since I know you can have a Lh surge with no O.

Sorry for the long post but TIA for any advice or suggestions!

sueann911 · June 2013

Here's the answer to all of your questions: Get monitored.

I don't care if you're an RN, a doctor or my sister. Taking Clomid unmonitored is dangerous. As a medical professional, you should know better.

Secondly, your doctor is stupid for not testing your husband as well. As much as 10% of IF is a combination of male and female factors together. You impatience to begin treatment could mean that you are wasting your time, money and hopes when all it would take is a simple $200 test and a few minutes of jerking off to find out if there is a problem.

I'm glad that you know the health risks of taking Clomid unmonitored. That's great that you want to be ignorant towards your own health. But don't come on here expecting fluff and rainbows when you know what you're doing is improper and that you're risking your own health and future fertility. You can't control how we respond, especially when you know that we don't support unmonitored fertility treatments.

jfb29 · June 2013

bbg676:
There is one other MAJOR benefit of being monitored midcycle.nbsp; You don't have to rely on OPKs and sporadic temping to determine if you've responded to the medication.nbsp; Monitoring will tell you EXACTLY where you are at in your cycle and if you need to trigger ovulation with an Hcg shot or not.nbsp; It will tell you if you are responding to the meds, as well.nbsp; I've had cycles where I didn't appear to respond, ones where I over responded, ones I nearly formed cysts caught in time without monitoring, I would have been SOL.

While PPs have givenn some excellent advice I'm going to put in my 2 cents about this. I don't ovulate either and have to induce my cycles with provera as well. I did not respond to clomid or clomid and injects. The ONLY reason I know this is because I was monitored. I receive false positive OPKs. My RE says some people just do how do you not know if you are one of these people? I never developed a mature follie. The seriousness to your health aside, do you not want to ensure you are responding to treatment?

ErinSays · June 2013

OP, I hope you push past your initial reaction to really consider what these great ladies are saying to you. I know you don't want to hear opposing viewpoints, but it is important to examine something from all sides - especially something as serious as what you are proposing to do to your body. You are not indestructible.

rox825 · June 2013

Asking for opinions means that you'll get opinions, which may not necessarily be what you want to hear. Clomid can definitely do some bad things to your body so we pretty much always recommend that it only be taken under the guidance of an RE.

Also, clomid can cause false positive OPKs, so without ultrasound monitoring or accurate temping that shows a shift, there is no way to know whether you responded to the medication. Many women with ovulatory issues don't respond to 50 or 100 mg, not sure what your dose is. My opinion is that you should find an RE and go about this the safest way that you can.

caroeliz02 · June 2013

Rumbera28:
First, let me say welcome to the board.nbsp; IF is such a difficult and highly
emotional journey for everyone so I hope that you find the right
answers very soon. I am going to skip the Clomid lecture.nbsp; I'm only going to tell you what I think that I would do in your case.I would definitely insist on an SA for my husband, if only for my own peace of mind.nbsp; Since you struggle with anovulation, every folliclar opportunity is that much more precious why leave a gaping question mark in the equasion?I would definitely see an RE instead of an OB to try to find out why I'm anovulatory basically more testing. There's more to getting pregnant than having mature eggs, KWIM?As for your temping question, I agree that temping might not be that effective for you.nbsp; Yes, thernbsp; are some tutorials on FF about temping with shift work/random sleeping patterns, but you have that anovulation, you'll probably just go mad looking for a sustained shift.Finally, I was not able to see the pic for your OPK.nbsp;nbsp; You might want to upload it to the tinypic website, and then cut and paste a link.If you're feeling uncomfortable posting again, you can feel free to PM me anytime.

I totally agree with this. See here is the thing. Obgyn may agree to do clomid cycles to help you get pg but to be honest going to an obgyn for fertility problems is akin to you working as a nurse in a primary care practice and getting tossed overnight to ICU at one o nations too hospitals and having your first pateint be one with a double lung transplant. Would you kill the patient? Probably not but how much confidence would you have that you were doing the right things? Not very much.

I will take this one step further and say I have done both. I had found a protocal that works well for me but my RE is four hours away. The last cycle I was pg resulted in a miscarriage and my ob was so kind to open up on a Sunday that I realized how much I missed havin a provider close by. He agreed to do my femara hcg protocal MONITOREd for me and I thought, wow, this will be great! Not so much. The cycle that he monitored me was my first one post loss and I did not respond well unlike any of the other times. He had NO idea what to do. At that point had i stayed with my RE he would have told me to take a couple more days of meds and come back to check growth but instead since I was with my ob I got cancelled....

Also, a positive ovulation test does not mean you ovulated but ether conditions are favorable for it. It's kind of like having a thunderstorm and the meteorologist saying you are at risk for developing tornadoes when many times nothing develops.

I hope you choose to stick around on the board because it is a great place to be. Just try not to be close minded. There are great women on here who have been there done that got that t shirt and they do not want other people to make the same mistakes. No one here is trying to tell you anything to hurt your feelings, but rather to have you possibly just pause to think and make sure you are making the right calls.

caroeliz02 · June 2013

Also not doing the Sa is not such a great idea. What are the negatives in doing it? Lets face it, giving a sample is not invasive or unpleasant .

SnowLady1019 · June 2013

I would think that being a medical professional would allow you to see how ridiculous what you are doing is. Here are just a few facts whether you want to hear them or not.

FACT: Unmonitored Clomid is dangerous.

FACT: All the Clomid in the world will NOT get you pregnant if your DH has 0 sperm.

FACT: A semen analysis is a simple procedure that involves DH ejaculating into a cup to determine the status of his semen.

FACT: Without a HSG there is no way of knowing if your tubes are blocked.

FACT: Clomid is not a solution for blocked tubes.

FACT: OPKs are not 100% accurate. Fertility medication as well as medical conditions can cause false positives.

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