Anyone's taken Clomid in two bouts within same cycle?

bkb2008 · 03-23-2009, 07:27 PM

Hi Ladies,

Just wanted to ask if anyone's been prescribed to take clomid twice in the same cycle? RE prescribed me clomid 50mg for day 3-8 (6 pills) and today (day 11), she wants me to take an additional 150mg per day for another 3 days until day 13.

The protocol sounds a lil scary since I thought clomid was meant to increase in 50mg each cycle and not within the same cycle. Can anyone advice? (I tried searching on the website, possible with the wrong search strings but was not able to find anything).

Thanks in advance!!

DD56 · 03-25-2009, 12:07 AM

I have heard of doing clomid for 10 days instead of five. my RE suggested trying that for me if the 200mg doesn't work. Also, clomid has a 5-7 day half life, so the levels in your system probably didn't actually drop that much between the two bouts of clomid, so it might end up being more like the 10 day stretch of clomid.
did you ask her why?

knighad · 03-25-2009, 11:09 AM

My RE has actually done 3 cycles of clomid in one month this time. We did 50mg (no O), 4 days later started 100 mg (no O), and then 3 days later did 150 mg. I thought it was crazy too, but he seemed confident about it. It's so hard to know if things are normal or not! I'm just crossing my fingers for an O this time around or he suggests ovarian drilling next...

bkb2008 · 03-27-2009, 05:18 PM

Thanks ladies!!

DD56: Well she sort of said my follicles weren't large enough after the 1st bout, so hence the 2nd bout. (not the very technical answer I know). I went in the day after the last dose of the 2nd roun (150mg) and she said I had one on the right growing at size 14. Another two on the left at size 9 and 11. She said she'll see how it goes on Sunday again and what size I am, if I need estrogen to thicken endometrium or a shot to trigger the release. *Crossing all fingers and toes*

knighad: Thanks!! It's good to know it's not just my RE that has this protocol. Mine's almost the same except she ramped from 50mg (day 3-8) and then 150mg (day 11-13). Just got confused coz she told us to time BD on day 10 and again on day 14. Today on day 15, she said to hold off and it's not essential and she'll see again on Sunday. Hope your protocol works this cycle for you. :-) Did your RE suggest maybe trying femara or gonads before going straight to drilling?

knighad · 03-28-2009, 07:55 PM

My RE won't use femara since he found an increased risk of birth defects while using it years ago. He has given me the choice between injectables and ovarian drilling. I'm leaning towards the ovarian drilling. It's a lot less monitoring afterwards and my insurance will pay for a lot of it. My insurance won't cover injectables at all! So, the clomid 150mg did not work either, so I'm on provera to start AF and then I'll call him on Day 1 with my decision. Scary!!!

bkb2008 · 04-02-2009, 12:40 PM

I thought I'd post this in case anyone else in the future was wondering....

I asked my RE at the last visit why she prescribed the 2nd bout of clomid. She mentioned that after the first bout, from the U/S and the bloodwork, it didn't seem like follicles were going anywhere, so she gave an additional little boost (triple the dose, but only for 3 days and not the usual 5 or 6). The more recent u/s and bloodwork seemed to show some response with this, coz the number of follicles above 10 increased and the larger ones increased in size (largest one was 24, which RE said was what she wanted).

For the endometrium, not sure if this affects others, but RE mentioned this was my first exposure, and given the long half-life of clomid, my endometrium wasn't affected and too thin. (0.8 or something like that... but not sure what the optimum range should be. She just said it was so-so).

Knighad: Hmm I read both sides of the coin for femara but I guess your RE would prefer to err on the side of caution and not give it just in case. Di you eventually make a decision on the drilling vs injectable? (Would there be fewer visits with the drilling? I figured it would be more since it was more invasive... but less trips to the clinic early in the morning would be so nice!)

knighad · 04-03-2009, 11:07 AM

It would be a lot less visits if I do the drilling, which I have decided to do. With injectables, I would be going in at least 3 times a week which is incredibly time-consuming. I give a lot of credit to the girls who go through that! With drilling, I will go in for my post-op visit and then back to just monthly visits. We'll try metformin alone for a couple of months and then add clomid back on again if necessary. So it is just the better option for me. He prefers doing the drilling over injectables, so I have faith in him. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

bkb- you're having a much better response to clomid than I did. I never had ANY follicles develop at all. It was incredibly frustrating to hear that month after month!

bkb2008 · 04-05-2009, 12:51 AM

Ah that is true... going in less sure is a big advantage I find. Going into the clinics in the morning before work has been so taxing. My acupuncturist keeps saying if you overstress your body, it's going to think it's in a catastrophe and won't ovulate coz it'll think it's not a good time to reproduce given scant resources. Was worried all this lack of sleep is one of those things that overstresses.

Good luck with the drilling and the metformin/ clomid protocol knighad! The drilling has really good results for us cysters with PCOS. And metformin does seem to increase sensitivity to clomid so hopefully that combination will be a successful one. :-)

knighad · 04-05-2009, 02:24 AM

Thanks a ton for the encouragement! I definitely needed some, I've been feeling a little hopeless this week. I am so glad to have people who understand what I'm going through.

DD56 · 04-06-2009, 01:18 PM

good luck to you too, knighad. I'm having the same trouble with poor response to clomid. I'm going up to 200mg this coming cycle, and have now added metformin. Are you doing the metformin/clomid first or the drilling? I'm eager to hear how the drilling works for you. I might be facing the same choices in the near future if these next few cycles don't work.

knighad · 04-07-2009, 12:25 PM

Yes, I tried clomid/metformin for 5 months with absolutely NO results. I never developed even a hint of a follicle, but I did get more cysts every month! It is so frustrating when you can't even ovulate. I thought my BBT chart would eventually do something interesting, but it never does... And now I know why. Good luck to you all- I really wish that no one else had to experience this.