Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fail

First, a brief overview of my fertility treatments the first time around:

1. More than two years of trying on our own. My cycles are really wonky.

2. 50 mg of clomid. My body doesn't even notice. No follicles worth mentioning. Cycle canceled.

3. 100 mg of clomid. Maximum dose recommended by the pharmaceutical company. My ovaries have a tepid response, one little borderline follicle that needs an extra week to mature.

4. 150 mg of clomid. My body nearly explodes from all that excess estrogen, but my ovaries produce exactly one mature follicle. This is known as "exactly the response we want!" Yay! The result: LL (nine months later).

So, now we want a second kid. The obvious place to start: 150 mg of clomid.

The response we expect: another textbook response, with one mature follicle.

The response that I secretly both hoped and feared: having been through a successful pregnancy and months of breast feeding, my body has been kicked around enough that it recognizes how it's supposed to react to hormones, and totally overreacts to the gigantic excess of estrogen from such a high dose of clomid, thereby producing so many follicles that I am both pleased (because my body is doing the right thing) and a little ticked off (because we have to cancel this cycle, since I have no desire to become an octomom).

The response that actually happened, as discovered during yesterday's follicle scan: no follicles worth mentioning. Cycle canceled because, you know, you need eggs to get pregnant.

Next cycle, we're moving to 200 mg of clomid, which is a frighteningly high dose. If I don't manage to produce any mature follicles at that dose, we'll need to move on to injectibles. Damn it.

Somehow, I had prepared myself for too many follicles, and I had prepared myself for not actually getting pregnant, but I hadn't prepared myself for not responding to the meds. Really didn't see this coming.

7 comments:

Jen said...

Oh Nicky that sucks. I sure hope that the 200mg dose dose works. It just does not make sense to me why the body responds one way one cycle and then completely differently another. Can't we at least get a little freakin' consistency for crying out loud???

(((Hugs)))

George said...

I'm so sorry honey...I'd be bummed out about having to increase clomid to 200 too! UGH! That drug is no fun even at only 50!

Hopefully you'll get the response you need on 200. I did lots of injectibles though, so I can attest to the fact that they're really not that bad. I actually preferred them over clomid (femara is actually what I used).

Sunny said...

I'm sorry, so frustrating. :( I hope the next round does it for you! But really, injectibles aren't bad. In fact, I have a half-used container of Follistim in my fridge that I have actually considered making out with sometimes when I'm grabbing a yogurt. I am forever greatful for what injectibles have given me. They are super easy to use and produce results without making me into an insane witch like Clomid. Please email me at any time if you want to talk needles!

Rachel said...

I am so sorry. I have my own suspicions that the frequent suggestion that getting pregnant and nursing can fix anovulatory cycles is just the equivalent of the urban myth that you'll get pregnant if you just adopt.

I have been secretly (and no so secretly online) hoping that I would cycle (any cycle, really would be an improvement, I am 100% anovulatory) post-pregnancy and thus far nada. I can say from experience that the leap from clomid to injectables was far less involved than I had feared.

HereWeGoAJen said...

Oh that sucks. I hope that the next dose does it.

Amanda@Lady Scientist said...

I'm sorry. I hope things go better this next cycle.

PhizzleDizzle said...

:(:(. Good luck Nicky.