17 DPO negative tests - Clomid

sister13 · February 2014

I wanted to reiterate all of what @bbg676 said. I don't have personal experience with Clomid but I keep thinking one day I may be recommended it if I go to another RE.

One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that the dosage and overall protocol may vary and some women respond well, some not at all, or some way over-respond to the medication. You don't know what's happening unless you are being monitored.

I would tell your husband that there are serious risks to this drug - including (a) cysts that can damage your fertility forever, (b) high order multiples pregnancy if you over-stimulate and produce multiple eggs (i.e. Jon & Kate + 8). Proper monitoring can be expensive, but it is well worth it to make sure you are using this medication effectively. Especially if you have already tried 3 cycles of clomid and are not yet pregnant.

You don't owe your other doctor an explanation - if you go 60 days without your period, I would call a new OB and get progesterone and keep temping/charting from that cycle to see if you are ovulating. Lurk around here and after you take the FF tutorials, feel free to ask legitimate questions.

stace56475 · February 2014

WhoCanItBeNow said:
You call to get a copy of your medical records and take them to your new doctor. It's a business. You don't need to tell them a damn thing.

You tell your husband you have learned new info and aren't comfortable going forward with the drug at this point until you can speak with a different doctor.

As for my experience:
I did 1 cycle of Clomid. I was properly monitored. Thanks to that monitoring my doctor could see that my uterine lining was dangerously thin. When I triggered it was around 3.8 mm. It should have been over 8 mm. Had I continued on Clomid I very well could have destroyed my lining permanently and made it impossible for me to get pregnant.

The next cycle I switched to Femara. On day 21 of my cycle we cancelled the IUI because my follicles would grow then disappear. The next cycle I went in on day 3 of my cycle for my baseline ultrasound. The cycle was cancelled due to a cyst that stuck around for 2 cycles. Stimulating when you have a cyst can cause that cyst to grow exponentially (which is in the Clomid handout and tells me you did not read it at all).

I had an ER doctor prescribe me the same narcotic pain killer he got after shoulder surgery. I was having an anxiety attack. Fortunately I'm not an idiot and didn't take it.

Stop being an idiot when it comes to your health. You need to be your own advocate. Doctors are people, and even D students get a medical degree.

I did read the information that came along with it and my doctor reassured me the serious risks of any ruptures or multiples was extremely rare. I didn't want to get myself worked up over something that I was told wouldn't be likely.

stace56475 · February 2014

jefa621 said:

Show your husband this thread. Make him read the whole thing. Especially the links I gave you. If that doesn't convince him to seriously think about the harm you could be doing to your body, I'd seriously consider getting a new husband.

Haha! Thank you for a laugh, but I won't be finding a new husband. We have been together 8 years and I love him more than anything. He can sometimes be skeptical. I will also show him the links. He can't make me take something I don't want to.

stace56475 · February 2014

Thank you everyone for all of your help. I hope I didn't do any permanent damage so far. The terrible cramps I experienced now make me super worried.... I will have to update you if I finally get a positive!

Does anyone have good advice on how to get through everyone else's pregnancy announcements? My sister-in-law just announced her pregnancy as well as two very close friends all within 2 weeks time. Each time I get discouraged and sad. Then I feel even worse for not being more overjoyed for them. My selfish feelings creep in and I say "why is it happening for everyone else and not me?!" and I then I feel like a terrible person for thinking that. UGH.

I will also have to let you know how discussion with hubby goes. When we first started being sexually active, he was very opinionated on the birth control issue. I hope this goes better than THAT discussion did!

SCSmith2011 · February 2014

stace56475 said:

Thank you everyone for all of your help. I hope I didn't do any permanent damage so far. The terrible cramps I experienced now make me super worried.... I will have to update you if I finally get a positive!

Does anyone have good advice on how to get through everyone else's pregnancy announcements? My sister-in-law just announced her pregnancy as well as two very close friends all within 2 weeks time. Each time I get discouraged and sad. Then I feel even worse for not being more overjoyed for them. My selfish feelings creep in and I say "why is it happening for everyone else and not me?!" and I then I feel like a terrible person for thinking that. UGH.

I will also have to let you know how discussion with hubby goes. When we first started being sexually active, he was very opinionated on the birth control issue. I hope this goes better than THAT discussion did!

It's tough dealing with pregnancy announcements. Especially when it's people you care about. You just have to remember that them getting pregnant has no bearing on your own fertility. And, frankly, getting pregnant is a total crapshoot. If getting pregnant was really so easy then I feel like IVF would have much, much higher success rates.

As far as talking to your husband if you think he might have trouble understanding why you'd want to stop the Clomid then you might want to google infertility testing. I know several fertility clinics have good info on their webpages about that type of testing done and why it's done on certain days and what it's measuring. That might help explain to him why the testing done on you on CD21 was not a good test to diagnose you as not ovulating.

stace56475 · February 2014

WhoCanItBeNow said:
You haven't even been trying 6 months. Stop overreacting. Feel sad for half a second then go back to living your life.

Your husband sounds like a bigger ass every time you talk about him.

I can assure you he is not an ass. He has done more for me than I can begin to explain on a message board here. Couples can have disagreements and when it comes to this issue, that is where we differ. I know he will be supportive, but it will take some convincing. He wants to be a dad so much and I think he will worry I'm hurting our chances if I stop the treatment.

jaytee16 · February 2014

stace56475 said:

WhoCanItBeNow said:
You haven't even been trying 6 months. Stop overreacting. Feel sad for half a second then go back to living your life.

Your husband sounds like a bigger ass every time you talk about him.

I can assure you he is not an ass. He has done more for me than I can begin to explain on a message board here. Couples can have disagreements and when it comes to this issue, that is where we differ. I know he will be supportive, but it will take some convincing. He wants to be a dad so much and I think he will worry I'm hurting our chances if I stop the treatment.

Please show him the information provided, and encourage him to do his own googling if that would help. Clomid is a serious drug and continuing it, before it's needed, before proper testing and without proper monitoring is what might be hurting your fertility. If he loves you, he will want what's best for you, which right now means putting down the Clomid and learning about charting with Fertility Friend, using OPKs, etc to make sure you are hitting your FW and giving yourselves the best possible chance each month. If you do those things and uncover an issue, or you get to a year of trying with no luck, then please see the proper doctor, an RE. I promise you, you do not want to head down the road of fertility treatments if you don't have to.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

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renbee · February 2014

I would just like to say that this thread is an excellent example of the brain trust we have on here when it comes to TTGP. I'm thankful every day that I found this place. If I hadn't I probably would have gone on monitored clomid myself - when I first realized I wasn't ovulating, my OB offered it to me, but luckily I was armed with the knowledge that this place offered!

stace56475 · February 2014

I've been doing extensive research today on the risks of Clomid and have been reading the links provided by other members. I thought I could trust my doctor when he assured me that it was safe and now my eyes are opened.

I talked to my husband when he got home and he was understanding and supportive as well as being extremely upset with my doctor for prescribing this to me without testing. He even went as far as threatening to sue the doc for him pushing me to take this and not fully explaining the risks. My husband might have been overreacting in that aspect, but it showed me how much he cared about this whole situation.

I read that you should be tested each cycle and closely monitored. The doctor never even did a pelvic exam! UGH! He never even saw me again after I started taking it. So my husband immediately called a different OB and we set an appointment to get a proper exam, get a piece of mind, and come up with a plan. I already plan to stop the Clomid, try to chart my own cycles, and wait until next July before I start doing anything drastic again.

PinkCamino · February 2014

NariaDreaming said:

stace56475 said:

WhoCanItBeNow said:
You call to get a copy of your medical records and take them to your new doctor. It's a business. You don't need to tell them a damn thing.

You tell your husband you have learned new info and aren't comfortable going forward with the drug at this point until you can speak with a different doctor.

As for my experience:
I did 1 cycle of Clomid. I was properly monitored. Thanks to that monitoring my doctor could see that my uterine lining was dangerously thin. When I triggered it was around 3.8 mm. It should have been over 8 mm. Had I continued on Clomid I very well could have destroyed my lining permanently and made it impossible for me to get pregnant.

The next cycle I switched to Femara. On day 21 of my cycle we cancelled the IUI because my follicles would grow then disappear. The next cycle I went in on day 3 of my cycle for my baseline ultrasound. The cycle was cancelled due to a cyst that stuck around for 2 cycles. Stimulating when you have a cyst can cause that cyst to grow exponentially (which is in the Clomid handout and tells me you did not read it at all).

I had an ER doctor prescribe me the same narcotic pain killer he got after shoulder surgery. I was having an anxiety attack. Fortunately I'm not an idiot and didn't take it.

Stop being an idiot when it comes to your health. You need to be your own advocate. Doctors are people, and even D students get a medical degree.

I did read the information that came along with it and my doctor reassured me the serious risks of any ruptures or multiples was extremely rare. I didn't want to get myself worked up over something that I was told wouldn't be likely.

Just to add a bit of legitimacy

Chance of naturally occurring twins: 1.25%
Chance of twins or more on clomid 7.98%

That's a 500% increase in risk of multiples.

This.

I know very little about clomid but do unfortunately know about multiples. I would do some serious research about the risks of a twin pregnancy. They are often high risk and can bring a ton of unique complications to the table. It's very very important you know exactly what you are getting yourself into and have a team in place (MFM/High Risk Doctor) to be ready to follow you if you do get pregnant with twins or higher order multiples since these pregnancies require more monitoring.

Best of luck.

RunBooRun · February 2014

Posts like this just piss me off (OP, this is not necessarily aimed at you).

We are taught bullshit science in our health classes. We are taught that if you have sex, you could get pregnant. They forget to mention that it has to be in your fertile window. We are taught that every woman ovulates on CD14. We are not taught that ovulation can change depending on the cycle and that our LP length stays about the same. So we think that when our cycles go long, its our period that's late and wasn't ovulation that's late. So we all think that we understand our cycles, but we really don't.

Further bullshit that doctors aren't even taught the correct information. They are going around telling women that they ovulate on CD14 and don't understand what's really going on.

GAH!!! It's sooooo fucking ridiculous!!!

OP, I am pissed that the education has failed you. It failed most of us until we learned this stuff on our own. I am pissed that your doctor didn't learn the correct information in fucking medical school. There is something seriously wrong when so much misinformation is being spread around.

Disclaimer: I know that some people are taught the right information and that there are many excellent doctors out there who understand how a woman's cycle really works. I'm just pissed at the general trend that we see time and time again.

\rant

renbee · February 2014

DrZoid said:

Posts like this just piss me off (OP, this is not necessarily aimed at you).

We are taught bullshit science in our health classes. We are taught that if you have sex, you could get pregnant. They forget to mention that it has to be in your fertile window. We are taught that every woman ovulates on CD14. We are not taught that ovulation can change depending on the cycle and that our LP length stays about the same. So we think that when our cycles go long, its our period that's late and wasn't ovulation that's late. So we all think that we understand our cycles, but we really don't.

Further bullshit that doctors aren't even taught the correct information. They are going around telling women that they ovulate on CD14 and don't understand what's really going on.

GAH!!! It's sooooo fucking ridiculous!!!

OP, I am pissed that the education has failed you. It failed most of us until we learned this stuff on our own. I am pissed that your doctor didn't learn the correct information in fucking medical school. There is something seriously wrong when so much misinformation is being spread around.

Disclaimer: I know that some people are taught the right information and that there are many excellent doctors out there who understand how a woman's cycle really works. I'm just pissed at the general trend that we see time and time again.

\rant

ALL OF THIS. I went to Catholic school growing up, so I can't even begin to tell you how fucked up my sex education classes were.

stace56475 · March 2014

Update:

I went to see a new OB mostly because all of you got my scared that I blew up my ovaries and ruined my uterus for life for going on unmonitered clomid. I was also having bad abdominal pain and thought I should mention that to the doctor. She ordered some ultrasounds and the results just came back that I most likely have a septum in my uterus. I also am on day 52 without a period.

The doctor ordered an MRI and HSG to get a better look at the Septum. I knew something was off all along which is why I went to see the doctor in the first place even though I hadn't been trying for a year yet. So there's the update. Thanks again for everyone's advice!

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