On My 1st Medicated Cycle - Clomid/Ovidrel/IUI/Progesterone

My 1st Medicated Cycle was to be 50mg Clomid CD3-CD7, an ultrasound and bloodwork on CD12, and an Ovidrel trigger to spur ovulation 36 hours prior to IUI, and then IUI.

Clomid, in and of itself, only added to my crazy lady behavior. I am, by nature, a very passionate and emotional person. If you want an opinion on something, ask me, because I'll always be honest. It may not be what you exactly want to hear, but I'll try to watch my delivery but still give you the truth. Now, take that personality, multiply it by 10, add in headaches and fatigue, and general crankiness and you get me on Clomid. It was a rough few days, and I stand by my statement that R is a saint for dealing with me.

On CD12, I went in for my bloodwork and ultrasound. Dr. VD saw 4mm lining, a 23mm follice on the right ovary, and 14mm & 15mm follicles on left. He said the 2 on the left may not be big enough by IUI, but you never know. I was given instructions to trigger that night at 9:30pm, and then come in for IUI 2 days later. R would drop his sample off at 8:30am and I'd come in at 9:30am.

I was beyond excited that night. We were also told to BD, and I was definitely into it. ;) A friend of mine gave me the trigger because I was scared to do it myself, but it wasn't bad at all.

2 days later, I went in for my IUI. R couldn't come because he had to work. All in all, it was a very simple process. I had to sign a piece of paper that told me all about R's little guys, and confirming I was receiving his sperm. Thank the lord I was the only IUI that day, so there was no real concern, but still, lol. The process felt much less uncomfortable than a Pap, and I had to lay there for 20 minutes afterwards. I tried to practice visualization of the sperm meeting the egg and singing a little song that some friends and I had made up (the sperm will find the egg, the sperm will find the egg, hi ho the dairy-o, the sperm will find the egg).

Something that had concerned me was how thin my lining was at the ultrasound. I brought this up to the doctor who performed my IUI (Dr. S, the head of the practice), and he had me start progesterone vaginal suppositories 3DPIUI. He didn't seem super concerned about my lining and neither did the nurse. I had asked if I could switch to something other than Clomid for my next cycle, if it was unsuccessful, to try to alleviate the lining issue - the doctor agreed.

Now, to wait. I had to wait a week and come back for progesterone bloodwork... and then wait another week to come in for my beta. As you can tell by my chart, I started testing on my own at home, so I wasn't totally shocked when my beta came back negative. It was, by far, the hardest cycle for me when AF came. I had a friend who had similar issues to mine and went this treatment route and got pregnant on her first try with it, so it was devastating to me that I didn't. I also had a baby shower for that same friend that weekend, which only added to my personal pity party.

Something that TTC/infertility constantly brings up for me is this feeling of being happy for someone when they get pregnant, but also incredibly jealous and feeling betrayed by my body.

On Visiting the RE

I made an appointment with a local practice of Reproductive Endocrinologists (REs) aka fertility specialists.

About 3 years prior to our wedding (and actually before I was even dating R), I had a bout of unexplained lower abdominal pain. I had a colonoscopy done and nothing was found. I had gone to several doctors and no one could figure out what the issue was. I had my yearly appointment with my ob/gyn and she said "well, let's explore this". I ended up having a transvaginal ultrasound done, and during the exam, they noted that I may have a bicornuate uterus. (The reason behind the abdominal pain was never discovered.) My ob/gyn recommended I see a fertility specialist, so I ended up at my RE's office.

I had an appointment with Dr. VD, who I loved from the moment I met him. He explained the issues associated with having a bicornuate or septate uterus, and basically said that there is a procedure done to diagnosis it, and then if I did have it, I could have a surgical procedure done to correct it. He said it was up to me if I wanted to explore it now, explore it once I'm ready to have kids, or explore it if I have recurrent miscarriages. I decided to just wait overall.

About a year out from our wedding, R & I went back to Dr. VD  to explore the issues with my uterus. After performing the hysteroscopy, he noted that I did not have a septate or bicornuate uterus, which was of huge relief to me.

So, when I needed to return to the RE to explore my luteal phase issues, I knew I wanted to see Dr. VD. Initially, we met with another doctor in the practice for our consult. I brought in all of my charts from Fertility Friend, and we spent about 20 minutes with the doctor. She explained that my luteal phases were definitely short but that I was definitely ovulating, so she suggested we run through the fertility testing to see what we came up with, and then have another consult.

Through all of the testing of both of us, we were found to both be pretty normal. I had slightly low progesterone after ovulation, but really, that was the only issue they could find. Dr. VD then discussed treatment options with me. He said if we wanted to be really aggressive, I could start Clomid, with a trigger shot, and then if we really wanted to "up our chances" we could do IUI. He felt taking the Clomid would bring my ovulation date up, and naturally lengthen my luteal phase. I agreed that this treatment plan seemed like the best option. Dr. VD assured me that most women in my scenario would get pregnant within 3 cycles of this regimen.