Day 11 of stims – Estrogen 2000 ( US 540), P4 3.0
Lining 8mm
4 follicles – one on left (which is now out from behind my uterus)18mm, and three on the right 21mm, 18mm and 12mm.
Retrieval is scheduled for Thursday so I will probably trigger tomorrow night. So far so good 
Stim day 10 - Estrogen 1700 (US 459), P4 2.8
Stim day 8 - Estrogen 1100 (US 297), P4 1.6
I need to find out what they ’should’ be although i know Progesterone is ideally between 1.5 and 1.7. I’m worried it’s rising because of mucous from this damn virus intefering with my Synarel. I’m not feeling much better. I can’t stop coughing and both boys are now on anti-biotics for ear infections. I’m pretty sure my Estrogen is a bit low too.
Another blood test and a scan tomorrow morning.
Since I started my Gonal-f, my little boy has been sick with a mystery virus that gives him a high temperature, a cough, and not much else. He was home from school last Friday, sick all weekend, off Monday and Tuesday, sent back on Wednesday at which stage N came down with it. S then relapsed Wednesday night, I got a cough too that day but that’s all it seemed to be. Thursday S still home and both boys unwell and last night I get a fever and feel awful too 
. Bottom line is I haven’t slept for a week and I feel exhausted. Having said that the meds have been very tolerable…..and now I know why.
I got to the Clinic a 7:10 and waited for them to open. They took bloods and then I saw Dr M for the ultrasound. They were a bit confused as to why I’d been scheduled for one. I said I was happy not to have it and Dr M laughed and said ‘come now, you wouldn’t miss this for the world’ vaginal probe in hand
Unfortunately it wasn’t good news. I had two follicles on my right 18 and 15mm and one on my left 18mm. However the left ovary was behind my uterus so he said they wouldn’t be able to retrieve that one as the aspiration needle would pierce the uterus. That leaves us with two. Dr M said most Dr’s would cancel, but in his opinion if we got both and they fertilised it would be worth it. It just meant I wouldn’t have any to freeze but frozen don’t tend to be as successful. anyway. As I’d found the stimming easy to tolerate I wouldn’t have trouble doing it again. All this said with a comforting hand patting my knee.
So I left with mixed motions. I’m obviously a bit disappointed that there aren’t more eggs but at the same time this seems to add wight to the theory that my age is the problem. I actually find this easier to deal with than the thought that something went wrong from the D&C. My thin lining could also be age related. Now I’m off to research the chances of my ovary moving back to where it should be in time for retrieval. I am wondering if this is related to the sharp pain I feel on that side during my period – a new development – and if adhesions are to blame. I am such an optomist They will give me my BT results this afternoon at which stage I’ll have to decide what to do.
I’ve had a few niggles in my left ovary today so things are progressing. I was pondering the lack of monitoring – I haven’t even had a supression check but I know that my Dr is notorious for doing fewer blood tests than everyone else. I said to my friend, who is a Bio-chemist in an IVF lab that I suspect it’s because they’re not expecting much to happen, and she countered that it was because they expected me to respond perfectly She is a good friend! Anyway tomorrow I will update with what they found. In the meantime I have to decide whether it’s OK to take my Gonal-f an hour earlier or whether to take it with me. I think I’ll do it early….
Well I’ve done 5 days of stims and for a while there I was worried nothing was happening. Fortunately I blew my nose tonight and felt a twinge on both sides. I don’t know when you would expect to feel something but I was worried that with the possibility of only three days left I should sense some action by now. I could easily do another stim cycle from what I’ve experienced so far but the egg retrieval has me a bit on edge. The whole concept of a needle through the vaginal wall makes me cringe. I just hope the anaesthetic is sufficient enough that I am oblivious. With only three days until my scan I feel quite curious to see the results. Note that I have refrained from excitement in any form
After the FS had pointed out that the chances of conceiving ‘at my age’ are 7% he suggested I give Clomid a go – until I reminded him of my lining issue, at which point he changed it to Femara. He also suggested IUI just to increase the odds. The idea of the Clomid was to give more targets but Femara notoriously only produces one follicle.
First cycle dose was 5mg cd 2-6 with an Ovidrel trigger (10000u) The whole cycle I felt a bit off and in hindsight I realise I wasn’t well although at the time I thought the nausea was from the Femara. I had one follicle on RHS measuring 27mm. I ovulate quite soon after my LH surge and knew I’d started to surge when the gave me my trigger. As it turns out, I was called back the same day for the IUI as ‘things were moving a little faster than they realised’ A classic example of knowing your body better than anyone else. Poor Hubby had to be dragged from work without having time to ‘psyche up’ to his maiden IUI voyage. All went well and the procedure itself was easy. Most importantly, my lining was measuring 9mm on that day. I looked forward to a decent period if no BFP but it was still nothing like normal. When I questioned my FS about the lining and possible scarring he said it would be very unlikely for someone with significant scarring to get that measurement which he considered quite good.
First Femara cycle:
For my second cycle I had no side effects and felt completely normal throughout. Same protocol and trigger but I think they missed ovulation by doing the IUI a day too late. This made me decide to give up on the IUI as I found it more stress than it was worth. That cycle I had one follicle on the LHS measuring 21mm. My lining was 9mm (better than the last cycle as I still had an extra day to ovulation)
Second Femara cycle:
For the third cycle (timed intercourse) I asked the FS if I should switch to something that would give me more follicles since that had been the initial game plan. He suggested we try upping the dose to 7.5mg cd 2-6. I asked for a scan so we could see if this had actually worked. Unfortunately a different Dr performed it and had trouble ‘finding my ovaries’ (his words not mine). He eventually found one follicle RHS measuring 18mm. I didn’t get a lining measurement
Third Femara cycle:
I then decided to move on to IVF. Unfortunately my FS was away on leave when I tried to book on cd21 of that last Femara cycle so instead of just waiting a month I decided to self-medicate. I did 7.5mg for cd 1-7. My chart was fantastic but still no BFP. I had been doing Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine since my first Femara cycle. My Acupuncturist is a qualified Herbalist and a Fertility Specialist. I really think that her treatments improved my cycles and the changes are reflected in my charts. If I had more time I would try just with her for longer. As it is I feel that if IVF fails I have her to come back to and all is not lost. I will use her for Acu during my IVF as well.
Final Femara cycle:
After my D & C it took a couple of cycles to get back to ‘normal’ again. Although I never quite felt I achieved this as my periods were a lot lighter than before. At one stage they were down to a single day of loss whereas previously I had always been a 3 day + 2 of spotting gal.
I kept the faith – at this stage I had no reason not to – and we did timed intercourse for about 6 months. I decided to be proactive and saw a Natropath who put me on various supplements to increase cervical mucous and circulation to the Uterus. I took Zinc, Vitamin E, Evening Primrose Oil, a good Pre-Natal, some Chinese herbs and Vitex. I had already tried Vitex and was taking 300mg a day all cycle. She said that I needed to take a better quality, a higher dose and at a different time. By looking at my charts she was aiming for a greater thermal shift, lower follicular phase temps and a steadier luteal phase. My Vitex dose was changed to 1000mg from Ovulation to flow. My cervical mucous (of the egg-white variety ) increased markedly with her supplements and the change in my charts was immediate.
A chart before the Natropath
and a chart afterwards
I still felt something wasn’t right so I booked an appointment with my Ob/Gyn who also dabbles in fertility. He did a tracking cycle on me where the measure hormones such as FSH, LH and Estrogen at various stages of your cycle. He also did an initial ultrasound, at which he commented that my lining was thin. All my results came back as normal. Hubby’s sperm was great and we had a good post-coital result. My FSH was 6, so pretty good. My Dr then referred me to a Fertility Specialist but was very optomistic.
I queried my lining and he said another D & C may be needed and referred to ‘uterine estrogen receptors’. My further research leads me to believe I may have Ashermans syndrome which is under diagnosed and more likely with a D & C after 12 weeks of pregnancy. This is something I still haven’t resolved.
December 2006 I was pregnant with my second baby. I’d taken my time having fallen so easily with my first at 34. He had been such a happy baby I wanted to enjoy every minute. I like to control things. I am a perfectionist. There would be 2.5 years between them and I had avoided being heavily pregnant in the height of summer as I was with S. Having had such an easy pregnancy with S, I was happy and worry free when I went to my Nuchal scan on New Years Eve. The scan showed that the baby had died at about 11 weeks. It came as a big shock and I lost my pregnancy innocense for ever. Pathology showed a little girl with normal chromosomes. Miscarriage was unexplained.
I had a D&C that day and amidst all the emotion I can remember my Dad sitting next to me while I waited for the procedure. We were watching the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand on TV and he said ‘I guess there are worse things Love’ He was right, but at the time my emotions said otherwise.
It took a few months after that to conceive my second child N. In February Dad was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer which hit me like a sledge hammer. This gave TTC a new urgency and the 5 months it took seemed like a lifetime.
I went for every test under the sun during those first anxious weeks and once again I had a trouble free pregnancy with a gorgeous little boy to show for it.
When the time came for my Nuchal scan in August last year for baby #4, I was understandably nervous. The Sonographer commented and I explained that I’d had bad news at this time before. She reassured me and I can only imagine how bad she felt when she then had to break my heart again. Thus my Nuchal Scan phobia remains firmly entrenched. This time the baby had only just died. It measured 12 weeks and 3 days and I was 12 weeks and 3 days that day. Once again pathology gave me no answers. All was normal. It was a little Boy.
Hubby and I decided last January that our family felt incomplete. To be honest I know it feels more incomplete for me than for him. He would happily go on as we are. My Dad was battling secondary Pancreatic cancer and I knew that he would be with us for another year, if we were lucky. I wanted to share the joy of a new baby with him too. I was still breastfeeding my youngest who was 13months but I knew that as I’d turned 40 I couldn’t hang around. Due to my baby’s dairy allergy I had become Vegan (I have been Vegetarian for 23 years) and I knew that my health was suffering. So at 15months I weaned and in April 2007 TTC began in earnest. The first month (half breastfeeding) we had no luck and then tragically my Dad died on May 14th.
Losing Dad was devastating. I knew he had terminal cancer and I knew he would die but ultimately he died from his treatment and that was a huge shock. But that’s another story. I adored him. He was my best friend and the grief I experienced was like nothing else. When I think back on that time, I still catch my breath.
Somehow amidst all that pain, three days later I thought to take an OPK and it was positive. Hubby and I DTD in a less than ideal frame of mind but did it none the less. I still don’t quite know how we managed it. 8 days later I felt queasy eating my toast so I did a test. It was positive.
So, at the age of 40 during the most stressful time of my life I had sex once and got pregnant. But alas it was not to be…..
I started to down reg on 8th September – cd21. I have now started stimming. Yesterday was my first injection of 225ug Gonal-f sc.
This is a ‘middle of the road’ level as I understand it as we have no real way of knowing how the ‘old’ ovaries will respond. My first scan is booked for the 26th which will be cd 11. I am still on the Synarel. So far I have had no ill-effects other than the first day of my period when I had a headache from hell and the mood to match. But then it is still early days.
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