IUI #1 - Day 12

This is our first clomid\injections intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycle (note: different from IVF).

On cycle day 5-9, they had me take the usual 50 mg of Clomid. Most women seem to have side effects, but thankfully I never do. In fact, I think it makes me happier. It could be that psychologically I start to get hopeful that this month is "the month."

Day 12 was yesterday which means only one thing:  daily monitoring begins! I am to get an ultrasound every morning at 7:30 am until it is determined whether or not I will ovluate and, if so, when.

Day 12's ultrasound\blood work came back as a mixed bag! I had 3-4 eggs that looked as though they were going to win the "race to maturity." On a good note, this means the Clomid is working this round. On another good note, my estrogen numbers indicate that at least three of the follicles may release.The numbers looked like this:

1 follicle - 15 mm
1 follicle - 14.8 mm
1 follicle - 13.9 mm
1 follicle - 12.7 mm

Estrogen - 480
LH - 15.6

On the potentially not so good note, Dr. McClamrock does not know now why my LH is so high at this point. On day 12, it should still be around 2-5. Such a high number usually indicates that ovulation is 24-36 hours away, but my follicles are not big enough yet to be considered "mature." With Clomid, they want to follicles to be 19-21 cm before they begin injections to induce ovulation. Since follicles grow 1-2 cm a day, I should still be realistically 4 days away from ovulating. The only thing to do is to wait until I get Day 13 blood work back to see which way the LH surge is going. Because of this uncertainty, we are holding back on the hormone injections until we know for sure.

The call for today's bloodwork should come at about 3:00 pm.

Pet Peeve of the Day:  Women with PCOS should get discounts on pregnancy tests because we have to take so many. We have to take them at least 4 times before they will give us Provera to start the next cycle. Then you take 100000 during the time that should be the "end." I have spent probably $400 on pregnancy tests (including dollar store tests).