CD #3-Femara and Menopur

Alright. For anyone who is not familiar with Menopur, here are some pictures and videos. Ignore my lovely tummy, HAHA.

Here's WebMD's information on Menopur:
This medication is used to treat certain fertility problems in women. It provides follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) that help healthy ovaries to make eggs. This medication is usually used in combination with another hormone (human chorionic gonadotropin-hCG) to help you become pregnant by bringing about the growth and release of a mature egg (ovulation).




This is for one cycle, $628.00. Menopur (10 vials), Sodium Chloride to mix with, large needles, small needles, alcohol swabs, sharps container, and an HCG trigger shot to make me ovulate so we can time the IUI just right. I'm also taking Femara (pill). And if it works it will all be worth it!




I've never bled after the shots until today, HAHA! Chris thought he'd swab me with the alcohol afterwards, so that was me pushing his hand away. LOL

Update

Well, I started cycle #27 today. I did quite a bit of pouting about it yesterday but I'm going to try to look forward and be as positive as possible this cycle. We will be doing another IUI this month, with Femara and Menopur injections. I'll keep everyone posted. Hopefully it will work. And if it doesn't, hopefully we will have some extra eggs to retrieve and freeze and be able to do a frozen IVF cycle next, which is much cheaper. So there's the update. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

Menopur, here I come!

So after a lot of talking and me realizing that waiting until June is just going to make me miserable...we are most likely going to go ahead with another medicated IUI next cycle. So, we are pinching every penny we have, using the rest of my insurance flexible spending, and trying again. I just feel like trying on our own is a complete waste of time. BTDT got the t-shirt, the hat, and the flip flops. So, I'll be calling the RE's office tomorrow and telling them our plans. We will be doing the shots in the tummy and Femara again most likely and hopefully this time will be successful. And if not, try and try again I suppose. So, there's the quickie update!

Feeling like a pincushion

Well, after lots of indecisiveness on my part, we finally decided to go ahead with the IUI this cycle. I tried to talk Chris into waiting until June (I think mostly just cold feet about the whole thing....and being afraid of how let down I would be if it doesn't work). Chris finally said he didn't mind if we waited but I knew he really wanted to go ahead with it now. So I caved. I got brave about it and decided that it was worth the risk. I went in Tuesday for an ultrasound to measure my uterus and ovaries. And started the medications that night (Femara, a pill that I've been on before to lengthen my luteal phase and Menopur, an injection that will make me produce more eggs). So our nightly routine is for Chris to draw out 1cc of water, inject into the bottle of powdered menopur, swirl it around, pull it all back out, switch to a smaller needle, and give me a shot in my stomach (he's getting pretty good at it and I'm doing much better! It doesn't hurt bad at all, I'm just a WIMP) then I take 3 Femara pills. I'm on the Femara for 5 days total. And I take the Menopur until the dr tells me to stop. I go back on Tuesday for an ultrasound (to see how many follicles I have and to measure them) and bloodwork and they will tell me to either stop the Menopur and give myself an HCG injection to make me ovulate or they will tell me to give myself shots for X amount of days then I'll come back for another u/s and b/w and we'll go from there. After I have the HCG trigger shot, I will ovulate and come in for the IUI, where they will inject Chris' sperm into my uterus. I'm impressed with anyone who got through that all!

The nurse said that I have about a 25-30% chance that it will work. At first blush, I know that doesn't sound that great. But the average couple has about a 20% chance each month so it's a little better than a normal, unmedicated cycle. I do have a chance of multiples, but not a high chance. On paper, it says a 30% chance of multiples (with about 25% of that being twins) but the nurse said they only have about 2-3 cases of twins per year with this procedure (which to be honest, I was a little disappointed about...yes, I'm crazy and would LOVE twins). They want me to produce 2-3 eggs. The nurse also told us that with my age and our situation (no known factors...unexplained infertility) that we would have about a 70% chance of success with one IVF cycle. That really made me feel better. I am trying to tell myself that it WILL work. I am not even thinking about the "if it doesn't" right now. It does me absolutely NO good at all. I am telling myself "it IS going to work"...."all this money is going to be SOOO worth it"...."our prayers are finally going to be answered." Otherwise, I don't think I could mentally take all of this right now.

I am so thankful for everyone that has been truly there for me. If I were not surrounded by those that have been so caring, understanding, and supportive I don't know how I would have gotten through the past 19 months of trying. Thank you for the e-mails, phone calls, and genuine support. Those are the people I have to surround myself with. I love you guys!