So here I am on my second round of Clomid 50mgs. The emotional stuff has been a lot easier this cycle, but the ovulation stuff has been a LOT more noticeable. I have had serious cramping and since my basal temp had dropped significantly the morning after that started I assume it is ovulation time. The cramping was very similar to period cramping in that it was low in the abdomen, not as severe as the cramping I often get with AF, but definitely noticeable with a few serioius twinges that made me jump or exclaim out loud. Anyone else had this on Clomid?
Around the cramping time I found I didn’t have much of an appetite, yesterday in particular I ate VERY little. I just really didn’t want it and I figured that if that was what my body was telling me then okay I shall listen. It started off the same way this morning, I couldn’t really face the idea of breakfast, even though my breakfast is generally a protein shake. So I thought I would have a breakfast bar when I got to work, I ended up being able to face it around 10-10.30, then I had some low GI biscuits, but the sweetness of it wasn’t for me. Since then I have been ravenous and I am completely craving salt, I tried to have good stuff for lunch including yoghurt and I ate the yoghurt (YUMMO), but seriously I could not shut my brain up. It was demanding chips. This is kinda weird because last night even though I didn’t want to eat I was getting cravings for plain corn chips at like 11pm last night which are really salty too. Long story short, my brain won, but I bought the reduced satruated light chips so it didn’t get me all the way – it was begging for full fat crinkle cut 🙂 This kind of all consuming craving is pretty new to me, well I guess I have had it for chocolate, but not so bad that it was all I could think about. Then I realised it has been a REALLY long time since I had a potato chip, any kind of potato chip. Seriously it would be a few weeks at least. Thinking over my meals from the past few weeks I think they have been a little low in the salt department too so I am thinking I can see what happened here 🙂 Might have to have a couple of scrambled eggs on toast nights. Oh man does that sound good! Okay, so the craving hasn’t really settled down even though I should be salt happy now, what the? So hungry, very weird.
We have an appointment with the specialist on Friday, I think for me this will be crunchtime as to whether we proceed with him or not. He is okay and I felt a lot better about him at our second appointment, but we shall see because I was less than impressed with the hair shenanigans and I never bothered to ring and tell him that I had elected to not go to a hair specialist and instead just stopped taking the thyroid meds because I didn’t like how I was on them. I have been okay with tracking my temperature (I have missed 2 days, the first one because I had dogs desperately jumping all over me because we overslept and they needed to be let out for their morning ablutions and the second being this morning because I woke up late) so I have that data for him. I have also been tracking the length of AF and my cycles since November 2014 so I have that data for him too. You can really see the difference the metformin is making. I was always around 33 days (sometimes it would not come at all) now I was 30 days for many months and just last month I went down to 29 which is pretty cool. Not cool that I have AF more frequently, but at least the timing is sorting itself out to be regular 🙂
What do you guys think? I am thinking 36.07 was my O queue 🙂
So if I assume that 36.07 was my ovulation queue, how long am I supposed to wait until I test for pregnancy? I normally just wait for AF to come to town, but I want to make sure that I am not actually conceiving, but it is not being retained so I thought I would do a pregnancy test a bit before AF was due to make sure. I figure the only harm to come of it will be the money I spend on tests 🙂
If this cycle doesn’t work we will also have to decide whether we proceed with Clomid at a higher dose or I don’t know… do something else. I guess we will discuss that with the Doc. To be honest I am not sure what I want to do yet. I am feeling a little frustrated because I have done a myriad of tests and take all these pills daily and in 5 months my Husband keeps forgetting to take his Menevit (1 pill a day) and has not been able to get down the street to do ONE blood test. I have done many, he was asked to do ONE and in 5 months he hasn’t been able to get there. It’s a bit of a downer really. Also because I know if we agree to move forward and get to the point of IVF the Doc will only insert one, we go through all the pain and needles and hormones and money and everything for one microscopic chance? That doesn’t make sense to me. Twin me up baby, give me double the chance. Still unsure how I feel about that whole part of it, but we shall see I guess.
How are you guys all doing on your journey?
Ditch the Bun 
June 24th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
Hmmmm not sure if that would be O or not. Looks a bit like it on the chart but it is only day 11 which seems pretty early for your cycle length. Do you test with O strips at all?
Two embryos being put back in doesnt double your chance. It increases likelihood of pregnancy by about 20% (I think that’s the number). That’s why most don’t like ti do it. The increase isn’t huge and the risk to a safe pregnancy is really high with any sort of multiples. My old Dr made the point that we go there to leave with a live healthy baby. Putting 2 embies back in actually puts that at risk if that makes sense.
Temping is a full time job! Nice work keeping at it. I did it for ages. Used to set an alarm to temp. So glad those days are over!!!! Good luck!
June 26th, 2015 at 11:42 am
The big drop to 36.07 was on day 15 of my cycle (sorry the first couple of days of my cycle weren’t charted because I didn’t have the thermometer yet).
Yeah all that makes sense about the implanting (I did know it wasn’t double, I think I was just in a rant hahaha) I should know all of this by now and obviously I want to take the safest route. I just guess that I was looking over the numbers (success rate and dollars) and got a little freaked out. Thanks for writing it the way you did 🙂
It is a hard thing to remember first thing in the morning when your mind hasn’t clicked in to function mode yet and you have two dogs jumping all over you needing to be let out. It’s hard for them to understand that they have to wait until I have temped, but they are getting used to it now 🙂
June 26th, 2015 at 1:25 pm
Ah well if it was day 15 then I say def the big O! Sorry if it felt like I was telling you to suck eggs if I told you something you already knew! I’m not anti 2 embies and we may end up pushing for it if we ever get healthy ones. Just wanted to pass on the info 🙂
June 29th, 2015 at 9:47 am
No, no, I didn’t take it that way at all 🙂 and I do appreciate the info because I was going a bit off tangent there… bad day hahaha and I was feeling a bit sad for myself, a slight case of infertility blues/frustration I think hahaha.
June 29th, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Yes, I know that feeling!
June 24th, 2015 at 11:14 pm
I have zero experience of Clomid so I don’t know how it impacts but I think we conceived a couple of times naturally before IVF and they didn’t stick. I didn’t get a BFP in either case but my body was clearly doing something different in those cycles and then I had an unusually heavy and painful period at 10 dpo, rather than the usual of AF at 13 dpo. Using that timing I tested after IVF at 10 dp egg collection and it came back positive. I appreciate that doesn’t really help you but I’m not sure a BFP is the only way to tell if you’re making non-sticky ones.
As for your husband, you have my every sympathy – my hubby grumped and growled about every test, frequently cancelled them and didn’t take his vitamins regularly until we were about to start IVF (way too late), while I was entertaining crowds of specialist staff in my nether regions and had changed absolutely every aspect of my diet and lifestyle. I think it’s just the way it is – another infuriating part of the whole crappy journey! Good luck, good luck, good luck 🙂 xx
June 26th, 2015 at 11:54 am
Yeah you are probably right about the sticky eggs and BFP. It probably sounds weird that I feel like even just having fallen pregnant once would make me feel better, but I feel like I have this “Infertility – reason unknown” cloud hanging over me 😦
Yeah I think I am starting to get that men don’t really understand how important this is until either they are at the point where they have to give you injections or you have a tanty hahaha
Thank you so much!!!
July 1st, 2015 at 3:49 am
Oh I don’t think it’s weird at all to want to understand the “are we making them and they’re just not sticking?” question and to hope that maybe you are. It opens different doors, even if the outcome is the same so far. Our consultant was actually really keen to hear all about it when I feared he’d look at me like I was suggesting I had psychic powers! I hope you’re doing ok 🙂 xx
July 2nd, 2015 at 2:29 pm
Thanks 🙂 Makes me feel less strange that someone else thinks it is a normal thing to wonder hahaha. Like you said at least there would be some answers then. 🙂
At this point I think if I ever got a positive test I would likely pass out from shock hahaha. 🙂
June 25th, 2015 at 12:58 am
I have found that sometimes our partners avoid or delay or ignore doing something as a coping mechanism. My husband is about as supportive and awesome as you can get throughout this whole IF process but I still have to drag him to his own tests/ blood draws. As annoying as it is- can you just make the appointment for him and tell him it is mandatory? Good luck on your upcoming decisions!
June 26th, 2015 at 11:58 am
I think this is so true, if they avoid it then it doesn’t happen.
Weirdly though he is all about the temperature stuff. Every night he will ask me what the temp was that morning and then he looks at the information sheet to try and figure out where we are and stuff, so I think he is starting to slowly get more involved in different areas. You gotta love them 🙂
Thanks so much!
June 25th, 2015 at 1:33 am
My husband was the same. We had 1 test done together at my RE’s office (the genetic testing) and then we had to have “regular” blood done at an outside lab. I got mine done withing a week, I had to keep nagging B to get his done about a month later. So frustrating! Normally you’d test about 2 weeks after ovulation, but like Emily said, it looks a little early. And I’m right there with you about transferring 2 embies for IVF!! My RE told me that they would do 1 good one, or 2 moderately good ones. Umm no please I want 2 good ones!! I’m old, I want this to be it! Then he said we would wait 2 years after giving birth to start trying again. NO! Wrong!! We would probably start within 6 months or so!! I’m not getting any younger!!
Anyway…good luck with this cycle! Hope you get some good news soon!
June 26th, 2015 at 11:59 am
It’s nice to know that I am not the only one with this problem hahaha.
Thanks, good luck to you guys too 🙂
June 25th, 2015 at 6:17 pm
Boys are terrible… I echo mamajo- make him an appointment and tell him he has to go!
Do they not offer follicle tracking via ultrasound with the clomid?? Or can you just use a pee stick to pinpoint ovulation?
The 2 embryo transfer thing is a difficult one – a singleton is a less risky pregnancy by far, but having got a healthy singleton from a 2-embryo transfer I’m not sure how I’d feel about the one…
But… Even if your clinic decide 1 is all they’re doing, hopefully you’ll have some on ice in the event that there needed to be a next time 😉 so not necessarily all the needles and procedures in vain!
June 26th, 2015 at 12:02 pm
The blood testing place unfortunately doesn’t do appointments or I would be all over that suggestion hahaha.
No they didn’t offer me that. We have an appointment this afternoon so maybe I should ask about it. I bought some pee sticks, but I cheaped out and I think they are a bit inferior. I need to buy better ones for next cycle.
Yeah I totally hear what you are saying about the 2-embryo tfr and I know you are right and I was aware of the reasons, but I wasn’t feeling very reasonable about the whole process when I wrote my post I don’t think hahaha.
June 25th, 2015 at 10:58 pm
Hey friend. Don’t let the twinges freak you out too much. If you are like me, you are going from “no ovulation to ovulating” and you will feel new things. t sounds pretty normal to me. As for when you ovulate and when you test – my doctor dictates all that. I go for ultrasounds scans around O time and they pinpoint maturity instead of having to do basal temps. I test two weeks for that “magical day” and try my best not to cheat and test early.
June 26th, 2015 at 12:38 pm
I think I am going from ovulating every second month, but not sure. I was definitely ovulating some of the time according to their testing. At least the twinges let me know when we should be getting busy hahaha.
The ultrasounds sound cool, someone else mentioned those, I will have to ask about them when we go in today.
June 27th, 2015 at 7:16 am
This is going to sound gross but look up The Billings method on t’internet. I started doing this years ago when trying for Little Man and, although PCOS can play tricks on me, I swear by it. I can pretty much guarantee when I ovulate based on cramping and mucous alone. FYI – you’re looking for stretchy egg whites… As well as temp start looking at this too. It really is a great way to learn the cycle.
Isn’t it great I feel so comfortable talking about this with you on a public forum??? 😉
June 29th, 2015 at 9:49 am
Yeah I have looked at that actually. I am to the stage now where we are combining several methods hahaha. I temp, I check mucous, I pay attention to cramps and we are also using the sperm meets egg method of having fun time every second day. 🙂
Yes it is, I feel comfortable talking with you too 🙂
June 29th, 2015 at 2:24 pm
Naaaaw *blush* we’re so comfortable!! Hey, I totally made you a friendship bracelet 😉 I think temps are a sure-fire way to know your cycle too. Although, around day 30 when I’d see the temp dip I’d be gutted.
July 16th, 2015 at 2:08 am
I’m sure your are concerned. I’m wondering if you have been tested for Free T3 to be sure your thyroid is functioning properly. I’m told that temps below 36.5 sometimes indicate hypothyroidism.
Evelyn
Here’s to Your Health!
evelynmmaxwell.com
July 17th, 2015 at 5:41 pm
My thyroid is not functioning properly and they have me on meds for that too. In fact they have just changed my meds because the old ones made me lose approximately 40% of my hair. Luckily I had a LOT of it to start with and it is growing back, but that was seriously scary.
July 4th, 2016 at 4:24 pm
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