When does one move on to injects?

[abbiedarlin1]

I've done 4 cycles of clomid, and responded on three of them (the last cycle I didn't). First cycle 50mg, 2,3 and 4th all at 100mg. Would I move on to injects in this case? Or more clomid? Femera isn't available in Australia. And when doing injects, should one invest the extra money to do IUI? Thanks ladies.

[jesskeddy]

Do it! The shots are that bad and they increase the chances. We have done 6 cycles with injectables...two with timed intercourse, three with IUI's (one resulted in our 3.5 year old twin girls) and we just did our first IVF cycle and are in the 2ww. PG test 7/8. They are expensive but it looks like you have age on your side BIG TIME if you are only 21. :-) I'd go for it.

[puppy lovin cyster]

This is an interesting thread and I am anxious to see what you ladies have to say. Can someone explain how the injects work?

[abbiedarlin1]

bump

[AliciaJ83]

I would try soy first and then move on.. I would not want to face getting a bfp and then finding out I was carring 3 or more babies

[abbiedarlin1]

soy also isn't an option as you can't buy soy isoflavens here anywhere. I also don't think I would try it anyway...I'm not into natural methods.

[ALC]

Over the course of 2 years, I did 5 rounds of clomid. I began seeing a Japanese fertility doctor and we did a monitored round of Clomid. I O'd but got a BFN. He figured since it was my 6th round, we might want to move onto injectables. I injected two types of drugs: Follistim and hMG (I don't know the "brand" name of it, just that it was hMG). The follistim was a very easy peasy shot that used a "pen" with a cartrige. You can google that and see pictures- it wasn't scary at all. I did 150ui every other day for eight days. I've read on these boards about other people's stories, and it seems I had a different dosage than most people. most get a lower dose over a much longer course of time. Anyways, next I did the hMG shots- Just 2 of them which was great. Those shots were done with a regular needle and I had to mix the liquid with powder. The shot itself didn't hurt much, but I found it emotionally scary to mix it, then inject it with the needle. I much prefered the "pen" method of follistim.

Anyways, no IUI, we just BD'd and got our BFP on the first round of injectables. I personally wasn't ready to try IUI unless we had problems with a round or two, but that's just me

Sorry for the novel :-P Don't know how much detail you wanted! haha Best of luck!

[abbiedarlin1]

thanks ALC

[hnelson]

Over the course of 2 years, I did 5 rounds of clomid. I began seeing a Japanese fertility doctor .......

Are you by chance in Tokyo and if so can you tell me who you saw? I recently ran across a fertility dept in a hospital (Sanno) and self referred for my first appointment last week, but would love to hear a recommendation. thanks!!

[dkim1986]

i to am young (23) and i did 6 cycles of clomid with no luck i oed everytime but never got a BFP went to a RE and he recommends injects but could try me on a different drug similar to clomid (not femara, i dont remember what he called it) but he said if i was ok with it he would like to be more aggressive, he doesnt do iui unless there is male factor i go in for an hsg this month and then injects next month, thats what i wanted and i am very glad he is on the same thought track as me, good luck with your choice i hope you get a BFP regardless of the path you choose

[Lisa3]

I think it depends on whether you are emotionally ready to be more aggressive. I did four rounds of clomid and then did 3 rounds of injections with back to back iuis each time. I got pregnant on my third round of injections. Personally, I like the iuis because then it does up your odds and you don't have to do timed intercourse which I think was stressfull. You could try clomid with iuis but they are expensive if insurance doesn't cover it as are the shots. My insurance covered all of it. Clomid can have negative side effects which can affect you getting pregnant-thinning your lining and messing up your cervical mucus plus I had bad stomach pain with it. Anyways just go with your instinct and good luck-you are young so I would expect you to have a high risk of twins with the shots. Lisa

[ALC]

hnelson- I live in the Kanagawa prefecture. I looked into going where you've signed up for, but thought it was too far away. I went to the Tamiya Clinic located in Yamato (Minami-Rinkan train station on Odakyu Enoshima line). I thought Dr. Tamiya was pretty wonderful. Visits with him were always fast, but he never made me feel rushed. The longest I ever waited in the waiting room was maybe 7 minutes. I had friends who went to Sanno for IVF and they had mixed reviews about the place. If you have questions about Tamiya Clinic or want to know what my friends thought about Sanno, PM me

[pennykandy]

Are you being monitored? Do you know what your lining has been doing on clomid?

I did 3 rounds of clomid with timed intercourse, I O'd every cycle, but my lining was always thin. If I didn't have lining issues we probably would have done a couple more cycles of clomid, but instead we took 2 months off and did soy (I O'd on both of those as well) and then moved onto injectibles + IUI.

Maybe take a couple months off and see what your body does....

Do you have coverage for the IUI? If you have coverage, then I would probably do the IUI once you move onto injectibles. My RE recommends back to back IUIs for everyone doing injectibles, but if we didn't have coverage we would probably have just done timed intercourse (my DH has a normal SA)

[MaraJ2005]

My doc recommended doing IUI w/ injects, just to up the odds since you're injecting expensive hormones in your body. Besides, he always recommended intercourse after the IUI anyway.

[PBLayzod]

I moved to injectibles after 6 rounds of Clomid, an HSG, SA for DH, and lap. I did not do an IUI, but probably should have. My decision was based on DH's good numbers and the additional cost of the IUI.

If you responded to Clomid, you will need to decide if you are emotionally ready for injectibles. Cost may also be a factor. There's also the option of skipping injectibles and moving straight to IVF.