WTO Thursday 1/14

fitzfizz · January 2021

**This is a thread that welcomes all regardless of where they are at in their TTC journeys. Please be mindful of topics that are discussed that could be hurtful to those going through tough times. Mention of children or pregnancies of others should have a TW (trigger warning) and be in a spoiler if possible, and only be mentioned if it is extremely pertinent to the conversation. Thanks for keeping this a safe place for us all to engage!**

Month/Cycle:

CD:

WAYDTGKU:

R/R:

CS/Q:

fameonmain2 · January 2021

Month/Cycle: 8/7

CD: 8

WAYDTGKU: BBT, OPKs and the typical

R/R: Not much going on today. Super happy AF is over. I always feel better at this point in my cycle even if O seems so far away . Definitely going to try for EOD up to FW and then every day during FW if I can pinpoint it a bit more easily this time. Also very much looking forward to the long weekend this weekend!!

CS/Q: nothing to see but I did finally wear my TD again last night so that's a win

LJMoon6 · January 2021

Ugh, sorry I keep posting and ghosting! The days have been getting away from me lately.

From yesterday:

@bows22 We must have posted at the same time! I hit the snooze button so many time and I always think the same thing. It would be nice to get a solid 30 extra minutes of sleep instead of waking up every 10 minutes 3 times! I generally do find my grandma on FB funny. And I’m starting to get over the fight we had, which is good. Just want to move on.

@fameonmain2 We haven’t taken a trip in a while either and I’m really wanting to plan something for this year, maybe May. I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the pandemic, I just don’t know how long the tunnel is. It feels still risky to plan anything right now, which doesn’t help with think funk we’re in. I also love that brief time when AF is done and you haven’t started the stressful FW yet.

@demimondaine Sorry for your CP. That’s exciting that you get to get in with your OB sooner than normal tho.

@quiltandknit Sorry for the unhelpful data your boss sent. Hopefully she can clear up the questions you have and put you at ease.

Month/Cycle: 2/2

CD: 2

WAYDTGKU: Might reach out to my OB to see if she will prescribe low dose Femara (see rant below)

R/R: Yesterday MH had a mini freak out about the possibility of having to do an IUI. He doesn’t want to spend money on a maybe. I get it. I would much rather get pregnant naturally and spend that money on something else. But the reality is we’ll likely need to head in that direction, sooner rather than later. I have to see my OB soon for a physical so maybe I’ll ask her about possibly doing a low dose of Femara with TI. That would keep the cost down and maybe help MH with the anxiety he’s having right now. I know there’s risks with taking femara/clomid without monitoring but from my previous experience I only produced 1 egg on the lowest dose. Makes me feel a little bit more at ease. Idk…

CS/Q: What’s the benefit of doing Femara/clomid with TI if the intent is to only produce 1 egg? Maybe I should jump over to the IF thread for this question?

LJMoon6 · January 2021

Also, @keikilove you have a PM

quiltandknit · January 2021

@fameonmain2 yay for AF being over! EOD and then every day! You go girl! Also super jealous of the long weekend!

@LJMoon6 sorry your DH is not quite on the same page. Hoping your OB will be able to give you good advice on things you can do before an IUI or a way to reduce cost.

Month/Cycle: 12/12 plus a couple NTNP

CD: 14

WAYDTGKU: OPKs, prenatals, Coq10, DHEA

R/R: My job is getting ready to kick up their vaccine clinics and looking for staffing. I'm picking up a bunch of extra time to vaccinate and supervise. Going to be a crazy next two weeks but it will help the time pass faster. I'm not doing well with all the waiting involved in this TTC process--the more distractions I have, the better!

CS/Q: no questions, just starting to do some research on unexplained IF. I want to get a sense of what our options might be and get our questions ready for my RE.

acleverusername · January 2021

@fameonmain2 how do you like the TD? I got one in June of last year, and had really mixed feelings about it. I stopped using it in October when I realized that progesterone supplementations really messed with my temps and gave me false hope; and the whole adjusting 2 days of data thing just made it worse!

@LJMoon6 Your tags from yesterday made me go back and read what happened yesterday! Your grandma sounds like a hoot. Re: your question on what's the point of Femara if you only get 1 egg, I also wondered and the kinda "lose" explanation I got was that it helps have a "proper ovulation". The term "weak ovulation" gets thrown around without any actual medical research to support it, but some doctors seem to think that how an egg is released make a difference. A good ovulation usually also means your progesterone production from corpus luteum will be good enough to maintain a pregnancy. I hope this helps. Feel free to ask in the IF channels in case some ladies don't lurk in the dailies. Also curious, what day would you normally start Femara?

Month/Cycle: 12/13

CD: 1

WAYDTGKU: Letrazole + Menopur + IUI (aka Combo IUI); lots of vitamins and supplements for both MH and I (too many to mention, but if anyone wants details, I'm happy to provide.)

R/R: I had a really bad night's sleep; woke up at 1am DRENCHED and had to peel off my PJs and go sleep on the couch, which meant really broken sleep for the rest of the night. In the meanwhile, my sleep tracker seems to think I had a great night's sleep because couch sleep resulted in more REM sleep. Just goes to show that you shouldn't blindly trust the sleep tracker data. I know I'm not feeling rested and quite honestly, dreading the day.

I got a little peeved earlier this week with our fertility clinic because I got a message from them saying that I owed a bunch of money for past cycles. And that's true, except that they bad information about what we did in what cycles, and how much I owe. I started to think "these guys don't have their administrative shit together... what does that say for the clinical side." Anyways, because I keep meticulous records, I corrected them. Yesterday, they came back with "since we had to cancel 2 of your cycles (intended IUI, turned TI), we won't charge you the cost of a TI cycle, but just for the monitoring appointments during those cycles" which ends up being $160 cheaper per cycle! So now the clinic is back in my graces.

I'm also happy that I managed to pull out a 14-day luteal phase; the longest non-medicated LP I've had. Although I was starting to get hopeful/concerned that AF wasn't coming, so I took at HPT yesterday which I KNEW would be negative given temp drops for the past 3 days. If only I'd waited until this morning.. could've saved myself a test.

CS/Q: I don't chart anymore

acleverusername · January 2021

@quiltandknit Woops, I missed your post while writing my novel ^^. Re: "unexplained infertility" -- you're new so you don't yet know how much of a fan I am of Dr. Aimee aka the Egg Whisperer. I often share links to her podcast videos where she says something novel. She doesn't believe "unexplained" as a diagnosis and quite frankly, I agree with her. For me, at 37, the explanation is most likely egg quality, but my RE still insists on giving us the "unexplained" diagnosis. And the reason for that is likely that: any more testing wouldn't change the treatment, so why bother spending more time/money delaying the treatment? That's great, but it does mean that some testing... that RE's don't think are good "bang for buck" testing, is not done until much later. For example, Sperm DNA Fragmentation test. It's still fairly new, and most ppl don't get prescribed it unless there are SIGNIFICANT issues in a sperm analysis. However, an SA can be fine, and the DNA fragmentation can be high, which means changes of pregnancy are nil. Anyways, it sounds like you work in a medical environment so I'll just end my rant here.

fameonmain2 · January 2021

@LJMoon6 I'm sorry YH isn't being super supportive with the IUI. I'm also frustrated for you that something like that wouldn't be covered. May sounds like a good time to plan! I just got an e-mail from Are Lingus that you can reschedule any travel you plan with them in 2021. I wonder if other airlines are doing that too (aside from the JetBlue/Southwest type).

@quiltandknit That sounds busy but also really exciting. I know I keep posting that I am hopeful for the vaccine but I really am just so hopeful and itching to get it. I hope it will be a helpful distraction for you!

@acleverusername I really like it. I have to get up so early for work as it is so waking up at 4 to make sure I was temping at a consistent time was so stressful. Also then having to do that on the weekends was just plain horrible. I had a hard time pinpointing O last month but that also had to do with a lack of CM (which I think was linked to prednisone I had to take at the beginning of the month) so I'm hoping I will have an easier time with it this month. I'm sorry you weren't into it - it's such an investment to then not like it! What about it didn't work for you?

demimondaine · January 2021

@fameonmain2 What is a TD? I hate setting an alarm too so its something that automates temping?

@quiltandknit I hope you are administering vaccine and not taking the appointments! Man, that must be a ROUGH job these days!

Month/Cycle: 2/2

CD: 8

WAYDTGKU: OPKs, consult with new/old OB

R/R: *TW* I unsubscribed from the bump and what to expect, but forgot freaking baby center who sent me a "6 week pregnant" email this morning

CS/Q: I finally had to sign up for a new account with FF because I wasn't getting any pw reset emails. So hopefully upcoming! Have to dig out my old supplies from the linen closet of doom.

quiltandknit · January 2021

@acleverusername going to have to look into TEW. I hadn't heard of her until I started hanging out here! Thanks for the tip! And SO glad your clinic was able to fix their billing issues. And save you money, bonus!

@demimondaine *TW* so sorry for the unexpected email. I've been there. *end TW*

Thankfully I am only doing clinical supervision or vaccine administration. Our policy is to have a licensed provider on site at all times in the (very very rare) event of a reaction where we would need to give benadryl or epi. I will also jump in and give vaccines so our nurses can take breaks.

Technically I can schedule appointments for the office but I wouldn't touch vax clinic schedules with a 39 1/2 foot pole. Our front desk is going absolutely insane directing people to the correct place for scheduling, thankfully they can't book them either!

fameonmain2 · January 2021

@demimondaine TempDrop. It’s a temperature monitor you wear to bed and it is supposed to learn your body’s unique temperature fluctuations. Once it learns your body and an algorithm kicks in (after 15 days, but takes 60 days for it to fully kick in) and adjusts the previous 2 days’ temps based on it. I like it bc it doesn’t matter what time I wake up! I will admit I had a weird chart last month with it, but like I mentioned before I had a bout of pleurisy and was on steroids which I think messed with my cycle. Also had a strange lack of cm. Anyways, I will have a fuller/better review after I O this cycle just to make sure it does really register my temp shift. The placement of it on your arm matters a lot and I’m not 100% on that yet so I’m still learning it too.

LJMoon6 · January 2021

@quiltandknit I love being busy at work too!

@acleverusername Thank you for the detailed response! I don’t know where I should be asking these questions. I don’t want to keep bringing up my history but it’s obviously important… That’s interesting about the weak ovulation. I do somewhat remember reading about producing a “better quality” egg when taking femara/clomid. Not sure if that’s true at all tho. When I took femara I started on CD3 and was only on 2.5mg. At CD10 I had a follicle at 19 already, so it obviously helped. I love the way you explained “unexplained” infertility. That’s basically how my RE explained it to me too. There’s obviously something wrong, we just don’t have the right tests to figure it out right now.

@fameonmain2 So we do have some insurance coverage. It’s not the best but it’s better than nothing. It covers 80% up to a $5k limit per year. So basically at $2,500 per IUI we could get 2 in a year, then would have to pay all out of pocket for anything additional.

acleverusername · January 2021

@LJMoon6 IF thread is definitely a good one to post your Q's. Lots of collective knowledge in there.

So, regarding one follicle, I actually have the same problem... whenever I start meds on Day 3, I always end up with a mature follicle by Day 9/10. My RE thinks it's a sign of poor egg quality (but I'm not sure I believe her and am getting a 2nd and 3rd opinions; that said, there is evidence that those with poor egg quality/diminishing OR have ovulations earlier and earlier in the cycle). HOWEVER, I just recently reviewed all of my medicated cycles, and – my first RE, at another clinic – had me start meds on Day 2, and for the 2 cycles I was with that clinic, I produced 2 mature follicles. So, this cycle, I insisted to my current RE that I start on Day 2 (she doesn't think it'll make a difference, but I insisted). I'll report back with my findings, but it's something to keep in mind if you go further with your treatments (once YH is on board). I wouldn't advise aiming for superovulation while not monitored.

LJMoon6 · January 2021

@acleverusername Yes, I don’t want anyone who’s reading this not to know how risky doing an unmonitored cycle can be. The only reason I’m considering it is because of my history, which I’m going to put the rest into a spoiler for.

That’s really interesting that your RE said early ovulation is a sign of poor egg quality. I had actually thought it was the opposite. The later you ovulate the worse the quality was… Now I’m going to do a deep dive into that research lol. I had actually produced 2 follicle with clomid when starting it on CD3. But my lining was so thin, only 4.6. My RE didn’t catch it and we went through with the IUI. She wanted to keep me on clomid for the next IUI too so I had to push to be switched! It was incredibly frustrating. But I’m glad I fought for it. It was actually the early mature follicle on CD10 that gave us our only successful cycle. I’m going to be interested in hearing what your 2nd and 3rd opinions say.

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