Summer Break

Well, Aunt Flow arrived again. I am feeling okay about it and Scott and I are ready for a real break. We are taking the entire summer off. Our original plan was to do 3-4 cycles with Femara and Ovidrel, the meet again with our RE and move on to injectables and IUI. We just finished our third cycle of the Femara. We talked and both decided that we could use some time off. So, we will wait a few months before we meet with our doctor and discuss our next plan of attack.
I will still blog, so please keep checking in. We have a lot to figure out over the summer.

Second Opinion, Support, and General Updates

Lately I have been second-guessing the approach my current RE is taking with our treatments. Since my diagnosis of DOR we have been doing medicated cycles with Femara and a trigger shot. We are in our third cycle and only have one more round to go before we regroup and discuss other options.
In my slightly obsessive research I discovered that most women with DOR go through more aggressive treatments. After our first cycle on Femara, I called my doctor and asked if we should move on to something more aggressive, like injectable meds and IUI (aka artificial insemination). She wanted me to stick with the Femara treatments for a few more months first and that she has had a lot of success using it to treat unexplained infertility.
But, I don't have unexplained infertility. I was diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve, remember?!?!
This brings me to last week. I received an email from a RESOLVE partner which led me to investigate other clinics in the area. I made an inquiry and the actual doctor from the clinic called me! I missed his first call and he left me a voicemail. I was very impressed. We played phone tag for a few days but I was finally able to speak with him. We spoke for about twenty minutes and I gave him the run-down on my numbers (FSH, AMH, AFC, SA) He said that he would take the same approach by starting with a few cycles on Femara and then regrouping to discuss our options with injectable meds and IUI. He did say that given my slightly elevated FSH (he said slightly! Maybe my numbers aren't as bad as I feared) that if we moved to the injectables he would take a more aggressive approach. He also said that with my age, he is not as concerned with the elevated FSH and has had great success in treating cases like mine.
I did some more research on their clinic and found that they have been very successful. The only downfall is that the clinic is about an hour from my house. We will need to seriously consider this issue as we decide how to proceed.
This conversation made me feel so much better and renewed my faith in my RE and our current plan.

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I may have mentioned to some of you that I found a support group. Resolve had been a great resource for me lately and I found that they offer real-life peer led support groups. I went to my first meeting just about a month ago. There were about thirty people there; some couples but mostly women there without their husband or partner. Being surrounded and supported by others feeling the same things I am, going through similar struggles, was really rather wonderful. While at the meeting I found out that there is a second group that meets during the month as well. Some of the women and couples go to both meetings. I decided to go to the second meeting. Each group meets once a month, and the meetings are two weeks apart. So, I am now going to both meetings and it has been a very good thing for me. Scott isn't quite ready to go yet, but he is incredibly supportive and glad that I am enjoying them. This seems to be the popular theme with most of the women who attend, the husbands like to stay home. Which really is fine with me. We all deal with this differently and do what works for us.

Fingers Crossed

I went in to the RE's office this morning for my mid-cycle bloodwork and ultrasound. This cycle I went in two days earlier than what we normally schedule. This is because the Femara seems to make me ovulate sooner than I do on a non-medicated cycle. The last two cycles I took Femara I had to call the doctor the day before I was scheduled for monitoring. I was already getting a positive OPK and because of this I had to rush to the office to do my bloodwork and ultrasound a day ahead of time. We decided to be proactive this time and start the monitoring a little early.

At the office there are two ultrasound technicians. For my first cycle of monitoring, I had the "good" tech. She talked me through the entire ultrasound, telling me how many follicles she saw andthe size of each follicle. She was great. The next two times I had the "other" tech. She was all business. She didn't chat, didn't tell me what she saw, and I had to wait until the nurse called me later that afternoon before I knew if I had any follicles at all.
This morning I had the good tech again! She talked me through the entire ultrasound, told me that there was a 21mm follicle in my right ovary, along with three other small ones. The three other follicles won't mature and release an egg. My left ovary also had three small follicles which won't release eggs. This may not sound like the greatest news, but I think it is fabulous! This means that I do have a good number of eggs left. This means that my diagnosis of DOR isn't all that horrible. This means that if the Femara doesn't work then I have a really great chance with Bravelle or other injectables.
The good tech also gave me an ultrasound picture of my one fabulous follicle. I took the photo with me and tucked in into my purse.

The nurse called me this afternoon and confirmed what the good tech told me. I have one fabulous follicle in my right ovary and a handful of smaller follicles that aren't large enough to release eggs. My E2 was 97, which seem a little low, but it is earlier than when I usually have the blood draw so I am not concerned. She didn't give me my actual LH level but just said it was still low and that is good. I took an OPK (ovulation test) tonight and it is still negative. So, now I take the Ovidrel shot tomorrow morning and the waiting game begins. Here's to hoping that this cycle works!

Amaze-balls!

National Infertility Week ended May 1st. I ran across this video on many, many websites over the week and wanted to post it here. A project was started on one of the infertility blogs, I think it was on Stirrup Queens, and it was called "What IF". In the online communinity IF stands for infertility. The "What IF" project allowed those struggling with IF to all post a "What IF" comment on the board. It could be a fear, a hope, anything you wanted. The project receive a lot of attention, and one woman made a video of her "What IFs". It really touched me, and I wanted to share it.

What IF? A Portrait of Infertility from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.