New Horizons...hopefully soon!

Well, we FINALLY got in to see our new OB/GYN. Seems like it's taken FOREVER. I wish we could have been taking clomid starting in January, but it was just not to be. Let me lay some groundwork for those of you who don't know my whole story.

Oct 2006 - stopped taking BCP
December 2006 - got BFP (aka big fat positive, or positive pregnancy test)
January 2007 - miscarried the pregnancy after 7 weeks, 4 days
April 2007 - BFP again, only to start my period 7 days later
nothing of consequence since

So, we were working with a doctor with our old health insurance which was a PPO. Infertility was NOT covered, so we decided to change to an HMO so that 50% of infertility treatments are covered. That leads us to seeing our doctor today. Both DH (darling husband) and I really liked her. She looked at all my past paperwork and thought all my tests looked great. Good to hear. She's going to prescribe us clomid the next cycle it makes sense for us. It's a matter of timing though...I'll be gone for 4 days right around the time I ovulate. It makes NO sense to go on clomid if DH and I won't be able to try during that time. So, I'll have to wait to see when I get AF to know how the timing works with my trip. AND, you can only take clomid for 6 months total - and it should be consecutive months. The drug has a cumulative effect. If you skip a month, you still only get a total of 6 months, no more. So, we need to clear our calendar for the next six months to make sure we can make all of our appointments! Once we do start, here's what we do:

Day 1, 2, or 3 - go into the office for u/s of ovaries to check for any cysts. If there are cysts, clomid isn't a good choice.
Day 3-7 - take clomid
Day 21 - come in and take a progesterone test
Day 28...hope and pray for a BFP!

We try 50mg of clomid for the first 2 months, trying naturally. Then try going up to 100mg for 2 months, with or without IUI (intrauterine insemination), then 150mg for 2 months. If clomid doesn't work within 6 months, our dr said that it is contraindicated to use it any longer and a dr can be cited (at least in California) for using it longer.

Now, the IUI procedure...that's a whole other story for another day. I'll save that for when we actually do it, if it gets to that point.

So that's the deal so far. It is really interesting how dr's approach infertility differently. Our other doctor wanted us to have one ultrasound to check follicles every day for 10 days during the each clomid cycle. This was going to cost us at least $500 for the ultrasounds and $1,000 for the IUI. The approach of our new doctor will be MUCH cheaper where the ultrasound only costs us $75, and IUI only costs $75. Nice to know all of this in advance!

I really hope that we can become pregnant after all of this...not sure if we want to have the expense of doing and IVF or not...maybe it's something to talk about once I'm working again.

That's all for this post - thanks for reading!

Yo