FSH levels and HSG

Dr. Schmidt's nurse (Patty) called me this afternoon with my FSH results. My FSH is 12.3. Remember that 10 or below is normal or ideal. Patty said that 12.3 is great and completely normal for someone of my *ahem* advancing age (haha), and Dr. Schmidt is pleased with this number. She said that Clomid tends to work very well with this FSH level. I was very happy to hear this. :)

I had my HSG this morning. I was pretty nervous, mainly because of the thought of a catheter being inserted into my cervix! It wasn't bad at all, though. The whole procedure took less than 5 minutes. The catheter insertion was certainly uncomfortable, and I felt some pretty intense cramping when the dye was injected, but the whole thing went very quickly. I also got some great news ... Dr. Schmidt said that my cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes are "beautiful" and "perfect for making and growing a baby"!!! I am so happy about this news. We still don't know if my ovaries are functioning properly (and he is still suspecting that they were somehow damaged by radiation), but I am hoping that the Clomid will jump start my ovaries and help me produce some good mature eggs. I have read several places online that having the HSG can increase the chances of pregnancy because it opens up the fallopian tubes. I'll take all the help I can get! :)

Tomorrow is my last day of Clomid. I have had a few hot flashes (most common side effect), which has been a bit surreal and a not-so-pleasant sign of things to come in about 10-15 years! Other than the hot flashes, I haven't had any issues with the medicine.

Next Friday (day 13 of my cycle), I will be having an ultrasound to see how many follicles (mature eggs) I have produced, and to figure out when I will ovulate. Dr. Schmidt will tell me that day when I need to give myself an injection of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in my belly. The HCG injection will make me ovulate 36 hours after I take it. It's amazing to me that this can be timed down to the hour!

bloodwork and Clomid

I had blood drawn yesterday (7/27) to check my FSH (follicle stimulating hormone ... this is the main hormone involved in producing mature eggs in the ovaries). In women with fertility issues (we are called "subfertile", as I recently learned), FSH on cycle day 3 (which was 7/27 for me) is an indicator of ovarian reserve ... how well my ovaries are working and how hard they will have to work to produce mature eggs, or follicles. The higher the number, the more infertile a woman is. To put this in perspective, postmenopausal women have the highest FSH levels ... their bodies no longer produce mature eggs so the pituitary gland constantly produces FSH in a futile effort to produce mature eggs. Thus, it makes sense that the older a woman gets (and the closer she gets to reaching menopause), the higher her FSH levels will get. Anyway, each lab varies a bit regarding cutoff values. In general, an FSH of 9 or less is normal or ideal. Over 20 essentially indicates ovarian failure, which means the ovaries are no longer producing good or any mature eggs. I should be getting a phone call from Dr. Schmidt's nurse by the end of the week to let me know my FSH level.

I started my first round of Clomid yesterday. Clomid is in a class of medications called ovulation stimulants, and it is used to induce ovulation in women who do not ovulate on their own. Clomid is the most well-known and commonly used fertility drug. I am taking the lowest dose (50 mg) once a day for 5 days.

On Friday (7/30), I will be having a procedure called a hysterosalpingogram (HSG). This procedure involves inserting a catheter into the cervix, injecting dye, and viewing the dye dispersement on an x-ray screen. This will tell my doctor if I have any anatomical issues with my cervix, uterus, or fallopian tubes. I will post on Friday after the HSG.

period.

The estrogen/progesterone cocktail worked! My period has started, which means I officially have a cycle. This is a very good thing! I will have bloodwork drawn on 7/27, and I will also start the first round of Clomid that day. More on this in my next post ...

good swimmers :)

Part of the infertility diagnostic process is making sure there are no male infertility issues. This requires the guy to provide a semen sample for analysis. Brian went to the lab on Friday (7/16) to provide his sample. :) He was nervous about it, but told me that it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. :)

Patty (Dr. Schmidt's nurse) called today with the results of his analysis. She said that everything looks great. His count is 59,000,000 (should be greater than 20,000,000), his motility is 70% (should be at least 50%, which means that at least 50% are moving in the right direction), and his activity is 2++, which means they are moving the way they should be. So, Brian has strong, plentiful, good swimmers! :) I am not surprised at all!

I am relieved that everything is working right with him, because Dr. Schmidt said that male fertility issues are more difficult to fix than female fertility issues. So, now we know that I am the one that is broken. :( Hopefully Dr. Schmidt can fix me and we can finally have a baby after all these years. I just want to be pregnant and feel a baby growing and moving inside me. I can only imagine what an amazing experience that must be.

here we go!

Well, Brian and I have been trying to get pregnant since graduation (end of February). I was told by my OB/GYN last summer that I probably wasn't ovulating (most likely due to a hormone imbalance and possible damage to my ovaries from radiation in April 2009), so he put me on Yaz (birth control pill) to try to regulate my cycles. I went off Yaz in December (in preparation for trying to get pregnant a few months later), and didn't have a period at all after that. I decided to go to my OB/GYN on June 30th for a check-up and to discuss my fertility issues. He was certain that I wasn't ovulating, especially since I hadn't had a period in 6 months. He referred me to Dr. Schmidt at Ohio Reproductive Medicine, and said that Dr. Schmidt is the best reproductive endocrinologist (aka fertility specialist) he knows. I called Dr. Schmidt's office that day and made an appointment for today.

The appointment went very well. Dr. Schmidt was wonderful, comforting, funny, and very reassuring. He said that despite my suspected hormone issues and possible ovary damage due to radiation, he was very confident that he would get me pregnant (I laughed when he said that, and he said, "well, not literally me, but you know what I mean!"). He wrote prescriptions for an estrogen and progesterone cocktail to induce a period, since I need to have a cycle established in order to ovulate (and thus hopefully get pregnant). I started the estrogen pills tonight and will take them for 7 days. I will start the progesterone pills on day 5 of the estrogen pills, and will continue to take them for 9 days. Within a week of finishing the progesterone, I should start my period. I have always dreaded my period, but this is one time I will actually look forward to it! :)