Ovulation Induction Puns

My OBGYN offered me Clomid, but before I schedule an appointment to ask my final questions and get the prescription written/ filled, I was hoping to read some personal experience stories about this type of fertility treatment. If you have the time and are willing to share your experience, I would love to hear every little detail about it. From side effects and length of treatment to out of pocket costs etc. Thanks!

Hello everyone,

I am the husband, 38 years and my wife is 34 years old. She has PCOS and her dermoid cyst was surgically repaired in March 2020. Post that she had bilateral tubal block, which was cleared with laparoscopy. Next month after that, she got pregnant, but resulted in a miscarriage (blighted ovum).

Now, we tried ovulation induction with letrozole and HCG trigger, but still no success.

Please suggest, shall we try for ovulation induction again or proceed with IUI.

Your experience will be handy for us.

Thank you in advance

Hello everyone,

My wife did ovulation induction with letrozole 2.5mg (cycle day 3 to cycle day 7) and a trigger HCG shot on day 12.

When should the urine pregnancy test be taken considering the fact that HCG trigger shot was taken on cycle day 12?

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I have been TTC for 19 months, I’ve now had all testing and it’s been found I have PCOS, I am starting ovulation induction with Clomid which includes follicle scans every 2-3 days and a trigger injection, can anyone tell me what to expect with Clomid and the trigger injection or offer any advice? If you’ve had the same thing how long did it take you to fall pregnant? Feeling a bit worried about it all.

Hello everyone,

My wife, 34 years, has PCOS. She had a medical miscarriage (blighted ovum) 2 cycles back. Post that 1 cycle of failed planning without medication. Next another failed planning but with ovulation induction with letrozole and HCG trigger.

My question is that should we go for IUI or try more with ovulation induction or go the natural way?

Its feels strange to me that when she conceived 7 months ago, it was without any medication at all.

But why it is not happening now its feels strange to me.

Suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks in advance

I found out last year that I have PCOS and that it’s likely that I won’t be able to ovulate on my own. We’re working our way towards trying to conceive and I’m just wondering how many of you have been successful with ovulation induction and how long it took? Current plan for me and the hubs is to do cycle monitoring and ovulation induction (inducing a bleed, concurrent with/followed by Letrozole, Ovidrel and Endometrin). I’m quite nervous yet insanely excited for this process to start - I’m so excited to hopefully get to be a mom.

I'm looking for anyone who has experience with getting ovulation induction in the UK. I was supposed to have an tele-appt with an NHS fertility clinic this week but they fucked up and called some random number that was also on my file. It's now rescheduled for 7 weeks away (already been waiting about that long if not longer...). I have PCOS so my cycles are like 7 weeks long at the moment. My partner's SA was good apart from 2% morphology. We've actually been able to get pregnant twice now, both ended in losses for different reasons. At this point I am fairly certain that we just need OPKs to time sex and ovulation induction so that my cycles aren't dragging out forever and we get more chances to try.

With all that in mind, I was thinking of seeing if I can get in with a fertility clinic ASAP so we can get the ball rolling with some clomid but I'm also wary of having to spend several hundred pounds for monitoring etc if that's required - most of them seem to quote ultrasounds at around £400 and the initial consultation seems to be around £200-300. I don't want to pay close to £1000 just to potentially get 1 extra cycle in before we see the NHS fertility clinic. Can anyone share their experience of getting ovulation induction in the UK (both NHS and private), e.g tests & monitoring involved etc so I can try to judge whether it's worth pursuing?

(Also, it's not clear to me if later ovulation is likely to result in poorer egg quality or higher risk of CP - has anyone heard anything from their RE about this? Kinda nervous to try during long cycles if so).

Just wondering,

I’m having my first appointment to hopefully make a plan for ovulation induction.

I sort of know the prices of the medication, but one of them they listed was progesterone.

Is this always used?

I never have spotting and I was under the impression that progesterone was needed if you have short lutheal phase and spot between periods, or am I wrong?

Advice would be appreciated

This post is for the Wiki, so if you have an answer to contribute, please do. Please stick to answers based on facts and your own experiences, and keep in mind that your contribution will likely help people who know nothing else about you (so it might be read with a lack of context).

This post is about helping folks to get the bigger picture about timed intercourse/ovulation induction. (edited to add: u/corvidx makes a great argument below to also discuss this as timed insemination). Some points you may want write about include (but are not limited to):

• Why did your doctor recommend ovulation induction/timed intercourse? Did you have a diagnosis?

• What was the process like? (Monitoring appointments or home monitoring, medications prescribed etc)

• What tests did you receive prior to starting?

• How did you decided to move on from TI to other treatments? (If applicable)

• Is there anything else you wish you’d known prior to starting?

And of course, anything else you’d like to share.

Thank you for contributing!

Hi, I’m a lurker here so this is my first post. We’ve been trying for 9 months, I have PCOS. This was my first medicated cycle, I took letrozol from CD 4 to CD 8. I’m now on CD 16. I track using bbt(ovusense) and opk and use FF. I’ve been using opk since I started the letrozol just to see what it would do to them, it made them a little darker during taking it but then they faded back to my normal. Until today! Very close to positive.

During my monitoring ultrasounds the Dr. always has a hard time finding my right ovary. He says it’s higher and like in the middle. And my other Dr. says that in general my ovaries are hard to see. During the past 3 visits of monitoring they found a follicle but it didn’t show substantial growth. However, my estrogen was ‘rising nicely’ according to my Dr. She said to begin having sex over the weekend. And she also said that because my ovaries are hard to see that there could be a follicle that they don’t know about.

So my question is.. with estrogen rising and a positive opk does that mean I will actually ovulate? Even if they couldn’t see a follicle? My Dr. is overwhelmingly positive to the point where I don’t get any negative information. Like the ‘what could go wrongs’ which is kind of annoying to me because I like to know all possibilities.

I guess what I’m looking for is anyone with a similar experience with hard to see ovaries..

Thank you :)

My husband, doctor and I are all in agreement that if we don’t get pregnant this cycle next cycle we will try ovulation induction paired with timed intercourse. I’ve been looking through the google and there seems to be a lot of information on the different drugs that can be used but not a lot of info on what I should expect appointment wise or process wise.

I am wondering if anyone who has gone through a similar treatment plan can tell me a bit about what their experience was like and what I should expect or any questions I should be asking? I have difficulty advocating for myself sometimes medically and would feel better starting the process with some knowledge in laymen’s terms even if it’s anecdotal.

If it matters, regular cycles, OPKs and temp rises all seem to indicate I am ovulating each month, but I am guessing my doctor thinks we need to have more control over what cycle day I ovulate which is why this is the next step? We are currently in cycle 15 and I had an HSG earlier this cycle which indicated all tubes were clear.

Any info would be appreciated!

I’m finding it hard to not think the worst after losing the nausea and sensitive breasts that I had previously. Thinking back to my previous pregnancy I had stronger symptoms and ligament pains. I had a very slight brown tinge to discharge today too.

I’m in the UK so I don’t have any team to speak of, although I’m going to go to the Early Pregnancy Unit tomorrow for a scan.

It’s hard not to be completely defeatist. I was misdiagnosed with a serious illness in 2016, put on very high doses of steroids which has flared my PCOS and made me so ill I was in a wheelchair. I’m slowly improving, but I’m just told I need to lose weight to be helped and have a successful pregnancy. I don’t know where I could go for help in, for instance getting progesterone, as the NHS don’t look into recurrent miscarriage until the third occurrence.

No one in my family is having any issues and babies are popping out left right and centre. I’m finding I’m blaming myself without knowing whether I have lost my baby or not. I’m not sure if I could go through this again if I have lost my baby.

TW: pregnancy loss

Hi All! New to the sub and in need of advice!

Some background on me. I’m a 30F, recently married, and a doctor my first year out of medical school. My husband and I were married in May and immediately began trying to conceive. I had been on oral contraceptive pills from age 15 until 4 months prior to my wedding, so I was surprised when my periods became irregular. In October I had a chemical pregnancy and I got fed up in January and went to an REI specialist.

Well, after an extensive workup she diagnosed me with PCOS. I’m completely stunned, as my BMI is 20.8 and I have no hyperandrogenism either clinically or on labs. I meet Rotterdam Criteria based off my irregular cycles and having 80 visible follicles on ultrasound. I do not represent the “typical” picture of PCOS and that coupled with my use of birth control pills contributed to my being diagnosed relatively later in life.

My REI offered me either ovulation induction with Femara + IUI (roughly $2k) or we can go straight to IVF (roughly $16k including medications). The cost difference here is huge, but my husband is enthusiastic about IVF due to its relatively high success rate (75% vs 30-40% for ovulation induction with IUI) and the fact that my ovaries will be frozen at age 30 so I’ll have younger eggs for subsequent attempts to conceive. My friend in OBGYN thinks we will be successful with ovulation induction due to my rather atypical presentation of PCOS and the fact that I’m relatively healthy otherwise. But my husband also has a point.

I guess I’m just wondering if anyone else out there is going through the same thing and what your experiences are? Any opinions on the matter or other considerations I’m not thinking of? I thought as a doctor I’d be better at making this decision but either way feels like a dice roll.

Also, I read the sub rules and tried to follow all of them, but apologies if this violates the rules here or offends anyone!

Edited to add: Husband's semen analysis came back, and it's a little hard to interpret. Literally everything is sky-high, as in ideal sperm donor level, except his normal morphology level is 4%, which is borderline. I saw an incredible post on this sub by u/chulzle explaining semen analysis interpretation, and in the context of all the rest of the results looking great, we could be OK. Need to discuss with the RE, I guess, on what this could mean, but it looks like maybe IUI will be necessary at the very least.

Also, my HSG did s

I'm not really sure why I'm posting this, but my therapist thought I should find an infertility support group, and I'm having trouble finding a local one, so TFAB is it for now!

This week is my one year anniversary of starting to TTC. I was diagnosed with lean PCOS with no abnormal hormone levels in May (my only symptoms are polycystic ovaries, one 50-day cycle, and high AMH). I have been on metformin since then with no luck. My husband just got a semen analysis last week, and everything is all good on his end.

I called my RE this morning to get an appointment to discuss next steps, and by some serendipitous alignment of the stars, they were able to fit me in today. My husband's semen analysis results came in from the lab literally as I was walking into the RE's office. I decided with my RE that next step is either clomid or letrozole, along with ovidrel to induce ovulation. Because I got in to see her on the 2nd day of my cycle, we are able to start the new regimen this week if my blood tests come back normal tomorrow. For once in my infertility journey, I feel INCREDIBLY lucky that somehow this all worked out perfectly today, and I will be able to to try something new this month. I am SO ready for it.

The last 12 months have been incredibly draining. I felt so certain I would be holding an infant in my arms by now. I have watched 3 people close to me get pregnant this year, and even more old friends and classmates on Facebook. It kills me. I seriously almost cried this morning when I got on Facebook and saw an Ava bracelet ad of a woman announcing she was pregnant -- it took me a few minutes to realize I didn't actually know the woman!

Anyway, I am super hopeful for the next few cycles, and I just wanted to share that with everyone here!

So, we are heading into our fourth transfer this month (fun times) and have decided to do a natural FET for something different. The thing is, I have PCOS. Whilst I do ovulate regularly, my cycles are a little ‘wonky’ - late ovulation, short LP, etc. Anyway, I asked the doctor about taking clomid or letrozole to make sure I ovulate with a reasonable time (and the cycle doesn’t have to be cancelled). He said he doesn’t use either drug for FET cycles as they can inhibit implantation. Has anyone ever heard of this?? Also, any clues on what I can expect in a natural cycle after 2 recent stim cycles in May and August? I’m guessing there’s a fair chance I won’t ovulate, but I’ve also heard that the IVF drugs can remain in your system and somehow improve ovulation for a couple of months. Any thoughts/advice welcome!

EDIT: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/662188

Many apologies for not posting the link. Thank you ar0cketman for posting that link.

I'll be going to my gynae on Thursday, HOPEFULLY to get a prescription for Femara to start ovulation induction. I assume she'll use the day 5-9 protocol. I'm sure she'll be able to answer me as well, but I don't want to wait - how many days does it typically take after using Femara/Clomid/whatever for ovulation to actually happen? I've had home ovulation tests lying in my drawer for three months, but I have no idea when to start using them! Thanks.

This is my second pregnancy and the second time I’ve experienced this and I am itching to know if anyone else has had this happen to them.

I keep meticulous track of my periods and when my partner and I have unprotected sex. For an unforeseen set of circumstances, the last time I got pregnant I knew that we had only had sex one day that particular month.

And this time we got pregnant, we had a bit of a dry spell followed by a glorious week of sex, and then more dry spell after.*

Maybe TMI but here’s where it gets interesting. Last time the doc set my due date based on how the baby measured during my first ultrasound which was about 7 days later than my conception date.

This time I believe I’m 8 weeks pregnant but the doc is saying I’m only 6 based on the size of the baby.

Both times (different doctors) I’ve explained I know when we conceived but they don’t believe me.

Has this happened to anyone else? It’s not super consequential but I’m a little bummed to be 2 weeks “earlier” than I thought we were.

*to be clear we certainly tried more than once during each pregnancy. It just happens to be that both times I actually got pregnant after trying often were times when we were having sex much less but focused during my ovulation window.

I’ve been miserable for the last few days and just feel so defeated.

I’m 4 days overdue and just went for a sweep. The doctor said the baby is head down but posterior and “very high”. He’s currently chilling at -3 station and my cervix is barely 1cm dilated. The doctor could hardly fit the tip of his finger up there and doesn’t think the sweep will work. They are confident I will need the induction in a week.

I have done so much to try and get things moving to avoid induction.

• walking and using my birth ball daily since 32w
• consuming 6 dates and 3 cups of raspberry leaf tea a day since 34w,
• sleeping in the miles circuit position every night for the past week
• 1hr of nipple stimulation (pumping colostrum) daily since 40w
• sitting in forward leaning (and generally uncomfortable) positions to encourage baby down
• clitoral stimulation every couple of days
• pineapple every day for the past week
• spicy food every couple of days

I think I’m done and just going to stop trying. Logically I know that ‘due dates’ aren’t accurate but this was the date I calculated based on ovulation and thought I would at least have *some progress by now.

I know FTM’s often have long pregnancies. Rationally, I understand this. But right now I do not care. I’m just fed up.

Hi everyone,

We have had a lot of trouble falling pregnant.. TTC for 3-4 years, 1 year of trying the old fashioned way, 1 year of IUI/ovulation induction, and 1 year of IVF. I have PCOS and apart from one chemical pregnancy this is the first time Ive ever seen a positive pregnancy test.

This was our 3rd IVF cycle - our one last frozen embryo got implanted. my bHCG 14dp5dt was 5152 - we were cautiously over the moon! And week by week my hcg was rising well.. almost too well!

Because of all our past failures and knowing anything could happen I refused to let myself hope for anything concrete, and just waited anxiously for the first ultrasound at around 7 weeks.

Lo and behold, I was lying there, holding my breath, when the sonographer said theres a strong heartbeat!!.... and ANOTHER ONE!!!

somehow Im cooking twins?!

Theyre DCDA (two placentas two sacs) which is so odd because they only transferred one embryo, so they said its hard to tell if its that one embryo that split off really early, or if I ovulated around the same time and two separate embryos implanted! yikes..

I know I should be happy but right now feeling so overwhelmed.. how did i go from maybe never having babies to TWO at once??

How the heck are we going to manage??