Infertility Support Group

In vitro fertilization is one of the most common and utilized ways of treating conception problems. This support group is dedicated to those beginning their journey with IVF and needing support. Join the community and share your experiences, advice, and story with people going through similar challenges starting a family.

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AmandaSin 04/13/2014

Hi everyone, I hope this post finds you all at a good and strong point on this journey. If not, feel free to post/vent/bitch/whine (or wine!)...happy to hear you out. I'm fairly new to this but continue to be impressed with how supportive everyone is.

So, currently we are going on 2 years of unexplained infertility. I've already had 6 months of Clomid (no luck) and am now on my first month of Letrazole. I have an appointment for a transvaginal ultrasound tomorrow to check on the number and size of follicles and how the lining looks...I was curious if anyone has had or heard of anyone who has had any luck with Letrozole. We have another month of this left before moving onto IVF...the idea of taking that big step to IVF is really quite anxiety provoking and to be honest I'm hoping it won't be needed both emotionally and financially...Insurance not covering a dime of things really sucks...anyone have any input?

PolkaDotGirl 04/13/2014

I know of several women who have had success with femara! And I hear it's much kinder to your body than clomid. Good luck hun!!

Nellysgirl 04/14/2014

It was successful with me in that it produced the right amount of follies for an IUI, with minimal side effects. However I wasn't successful at pregnancy until doing a FET. My RE doesn't even use clomid, she goes straight to letrozole (Femara). Good luck!

deleted_user 04/14/2014

We did our first IUI this month and only used Letrozole and Ovidrel (trigger). We used Letrozole for five days (CD3-7). I did not have any side effects. On CD10 we had two follies and did the IUI on CD11. The nurse said that with only Letrozole we responded well.

We did have to sign a waiver to use Letrozole. There was a Canadian study published that linked Letrozole to abnormalities. I couldn't find the original study online but I did find this article online.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Infertility/2231

Tomorrow is the end of my two week wait and we will be testing at home to see if the Letrozole and IUI worked. I'll let you know. Best of luck!

hope1016 04/14/2014

I used both clomid and femara. Femara was much nicer to me then clomid was but I produced more follies on clomid lol

I did not get pregnant with either iui cycle.

Fingers crossed for you!

deleted_user 04/15/2014

Well we tested this morning and it was negative. Letrozole gave us two follies but was not successful. Best of Luck.

AmandaSin 04/15/2014

Sorry to hear about the negative 123...It sucks! Still wishing you good thoughts and vibes for next month...

CaliCutie81 04/16/2014

Hi Amanda,

I'm a little late to the party but wanted to share my experience as encouragement.

We did 5 cycles with clomid, it was horrible on my body and nearly caused me to have a stroke. I then moved onto Femara/Letrozole combined with Menopur injections and IUI and got lucky on the 2nd cycle!

Fingers crossed that it works for you and you don't have to move onto IVF,

Good luck!!!

deleted_user 04/17/2014

Thank you, Amanda Sin.

Hi CaliCutie81,

I have a question if that's okay about your IUI. Do you know why your Doctor had you use Letrozole and Menopur together? I'm asking because our first IUI was only Letrozole without Menopur. Our second IUI (next month) will again be Letrozole without Menopur. Our doctor said that we could add Menopur on our third IUI. She said that they are basically the same. Are Letrozole and Menopur basically the same?

CaliCutie81 04/17/2014

Hi 123MP! I don't mind questions at all!!

My RE ended up having me do both because even with the Letrozol/Femara my follies didn't want to grow as big as they needed to. Without the Menopur they would just grow a bit and then stall out and stop growing before they were mature enough for ovulation.

But it is a fine balance because menopur is super strong and you can over stimulate very easily and quickly. Sometimes I went in for monitoring ultrasounds for 3 days in a row!

Hope that helps!

Mendolove 04/17/2014

Sorry my reply comes a bit late... I have not been that active on the boards lately... but I myself have had success with Letrozole+IUI! The pregnant ended in m/c (bad eggs) but still it worked just the same and the side effects were much more tolerable on Letrozole then Clomid! Good Luck!

deleted_user 04/17/2014

Thanks CaliCutie81! your reply did help. I'll just trust my nurse and do the menopur for the third IUI (I'm hoping it doesn't go to a third).

I'm sorry about your m/c mendolove. I myself have an issue with bad eggs. I'm going crazy (eating maca powder, pumpin seeds, infertility yoga, and more non stop) just to try and help those eggs. I'm not even sure if it does anything. BEST OF LUCK!!!

CaliCutie81 04/17/2014

My RE had me and hubby both taking 600 mg of CoQ10, evidently recent studies have shown that it improves both egg and spermie quality.

I'm sure there are various schools of thought on this but it can't hurt to try it!!

Good luck!!!

AmandaSin 04/17/2014

Hi everyone! Thank you to those who offered feedback on this! I've noticed that a lot of you with experience (successful or not) have used this medication with IUI. Can I ask if there was a reason IUI was used? Maybe there were specific issues that led to that? My IF is unexplained, but my RE has us making love at home.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this!

Nellysgirl 04/17/2014

Letrozole is often used for timed intercourse at home to help keep down costs and invasiveness. If that doesn't work and your looking to up the game, the next step is to do iui, or if there is some male factor they might recommend iui right away. If after so many iuis don't work (my re suggested 4 but we did 6) then they'll recommend ivf.

fishnswim 04/18/2014

My RE had us do 3-4 months of Letrezole, dexo, gonal f and ovidrel with timed intercourse. My eggs were fine and getting nice and big, and his sperm was perfect. But it just wasn't working.
We did an IUI, and it worked on the first try, however it ended in a MC. Not sure why, hopefully the genetic testing will give us answers.

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