Slow growing follicles.

awoz20 · September 2016

Hi everyone,

This is is my first iui cycle and I'm getting frustrated quickly. I am on cycle day 12 and went for monitoring to have one12mm follicle. My doctor says my lining looks like it's progressing too. I have pcos and did 100mg clomid days 3-7. I was expecting to go in and have some better news, but now I have the long 3 day wait to go for monitoring Monday morning. Is this common for someone with pcos to take longer to have mature eggs? I have been hoping, as I'm sure most are, that my iui works the first or second time because I have 4 vials of sperm and my office does 2 consecutive days of insemination. The cost of donor sperm for 2 tries cost of $3000 so it's frustrating to think that there is a possibility I can have to go out and buy more. At that point I feel like if iui doesn't work I might see if I can just jump to ivf. Sorry for the long winded post, just trying to sort my thoughts after I this frustrating morning.

AandDM2014 · September 2016

I always had slow growing follicles when I was doing IUI. I don't know if it's PCOS related, but it could be.

Esperer · September 2016

Me too! A couple times I had to do an extra 5 days of meds, sometimes full dose and sometimes half dose. Maybe it is a PCOS thing? In any case once they start growing it's usually 1-1.5mm per day, so hopefully you'll see it growing at that rate when you go back on Monday. I feel you though, it is so hard to be patient! Hope you can find some good distractions this weekend, and hang in there!

LizzieJ13 · September 2016

I have PCOS haven't had a problem with it until this past cycle when I tried Clomid. After 2 ultrasounds on Day 11 and Day 14 my doctor had me start Letrozole which worked fine. (BFN, but I had a good sized follicle.) Maybe you can ask about Letrozole (Femara) as I believe it is supposed to work better for PCOS.

mandasd · September 2016

My follies grow slow too. I only did one IUI cycle because it was covered under military insurance. I never intended to do it but we used it to test if I could stimulate. I was slow which was fine for an IUI (only got 3 follies which is ideal for IUI). Now I'm doing IVF and I'm on a Microdose Lupron protocol for slow/poor responders. If anyone asked me, I would say jump to IVF. I know too many people that don't end up getting pregnant from IUI. I've only known 1 person (personally, not on these boards obviously) that got pregnant with IUI - on her 10th time! Due to cancer she did unmedicated cycles, but still!

mrsdaddario · September 2016

You just have to find the dose that works for you. I didn't respond at all to Letrozole 5mg. They tried to stim me for a total of two weeks and 10 days at 5mg. Nothing. As soon as they upped my dose to 7.5mg I responded quickly. PCOS follicles are stubborn and it may take sometime! GL!

PCOSat25 · October 2016

Hey! Many of the ladies have already touched on this but clomid does not work for everyone. I did 5 clomid cycles about two years ago at varying doses monitored by my obgyn. Once I got up to 100 or 150 (can't remember) my ob recommended we move on. He said the chances that a women will start responding at a higher dose than that is unlikely and said we should try a different drug. During those cycles my ob just canceled when we did not have a growing folli or the folli was growing so slow that ovulation would be too late in they cycle anyway. The thing that stinks about clomid and letrozole/femera is you take them on certain cycle days at the beginning. By the time you go in for montoring I feel like it has either worked or it hasnt but there is not much the doctor can do but wait and see. I was happy when we moved on to FSH injections because the doctors can adjust the dose based on your response at any time. If you are slow growing they can up the injections to speed up the process.

Depending on if your insurance covers iui or if you are paying oop your doctor may encourage you to consider if this cycle is worth the expense

Good luck!!! Keep us informed on what comes next.

awoz20 · October 2016

I'm on insurance, but the cost of the sperm donor is about 1600 each cycle since they do iui 2 days back to back. I'm just trying to process if I want to spend the money on one slow growing folli or just wait till next month and advocate for a different stimulator. My cycle is so irregular on top of it, it's just frustrating. There are times I won't get my period for three months so I just want to get this going.

madasm0530 · October 2016

Niether Femara nor Clomid worked on my stubborn PCOS follies. The only that's worked for my is a high dose of injectibles. GL to you!

BecauseLove · October 2016

I have really inconsistent Follicle growth from using Femera (clomid didn't really work for me) even with higher dosages. Sometimes I respond like a beast and sometimes not at all. Don't be too disenhartented CD 12 is still early and a size 12 follie isn't bad for CD 12 (not awesome but not bad)...by CD 14 you could have a roughly size 16 follie (which could be moved forward). Follies can grow 1 - 2 mm per day (and can grow even more after a trigger (if you are using a trigger). You could also look at canceling this cycle and seeing if your dr will up your dosage and go for a new cycle to use the sperm.

puppyluv13 · October 2016

@awoz20 I know exactly how you feel about having irregular cycles... It makes the IF process that much trickier and frustrating.. Hang in there!!! FX that you guys figure out what works for you and follies start acting right!

awoz20 · October 2016

Ok so little update. My one follicule stopped growing, but up popped a 12mm on Monday and then a 16 and 13 today. Tomorrow evening I will trigger and then back to back iui Saturday and Sunday! Hoping for the best!

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