Not Bad, Not Great...

So the appt wasn't a total bust, but it was far from a great success.

I needed at least 1 16mm follicle in order to trigger today. (If you don't know what the trigger is, it is basically an hgc injection that goes into the muscle and forces my ovaries to release any follicles it has ready at the moment.) I had one follicle measuring 14mm, and a few stragglers that they didn't measure because they appear to be too small to be anything significant at the moment. So no trigger (yet). We go back on Monday for a repeat scan to see if we have gotten any farther and to see if the smaller follicles have gotten any larger.

The whole point of Clomid (in my case) is to:

(A) force my pituitary gland to think my body isn't producing enough hormones to produce good follicles, thus pushing my body to make more of those hormones in hopes of creating good follicles (make sense?).

(B) hopefully make my ovaries produce more than one follicle so Ben's swimmers (which are fine, no MFI issues at the moment) have a better chance at making contact with an egg.

(C) make me crazy.

It really is a combination of all three.

Long story short, my body didn't really respond any better to the Clomid than it does when I am not on it. I usually have one mediocre follicle around this time anyway, so, at the moment, it doesn't seem like Clomid really pushed my body to do anything else. But, like I said, we have a repeat scan on Monday. As a general rule, follicles seem to grow at about 2mm/day, so as long as our leading folly (measuring 14mm) keeps growing, we will have one good egg to use this cycle. It's better than none, right? If my prayers are answered (which they always are in God's time), we will have a few of the stragglers catch up and we will at least have two follicles to trigger. We'll see. Time will tell, right.

We did talk to our RE today about what we want from these cycles and how important it is for us to be monitored closely. Our main goal while on these hormones and medications and injections is not only to produce a baby, but also to be responsible. We want to avoid multiples at all costs. This does not mean we would not be thrilled with twins, but multiple pregnancies are known for being more risky, involving more bed rest and closer monitoring. I already have enough issues, so I would really rather not add high risk pregnancy to it. But God has a sense of humor...we'll see how it plays out. He (our RE) was very supportive and in all his years of practice, he has only had one set of triplets and his rate of twins runs between 5-10% out of all his patients. Not bad odds, right? However, we did fall into the 5-10% of couples who miscarry and the 5-10% of couples who deal with infertility. At least we are consistent.

But in good news, we did have one decent follie. I need to remember to be thankful for that one. After all, it only takes one. And my uterine lining still looks good. Clomid is notorious for thinning the lining, making it near impossible for an embryo to implant. It needs to be over 5mm in order for it to be considered "good" and I measured in at 6mm today. I need to remember to be thankful for that, too. And I have lost 7 lbs during this whole cycle of treatment, which shocked the bejesus out of me. It is almost unheard of to lose weight on these drugs, so woo-hoo for me!

We are (trying to) stay positive. We already discussed our plan of action for next cycle, assuming this one is a bust. Our RE is amazing (seriously, I love him) and is so supportive of our concerns. No question is a stupid question, and he talks in real people terms, not medical jargon. If this cycles isn't our cycle, we will either

(A) bump my Clomid dose up to 150mg and start it on CD 3 instead of CD5 and see how that goes.

OR

(B) use injectables (Gonal-F) to make more follies next time. Gonal-F is more powerful, but has a better success rate than Clomid.


We'll cross that bridge when we get to it though. Who knows, maybe this is it for us.

Time will tell.

It sure is a frustrating game in the mean time.


Hugs&Kisses