Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Not So Bad News

I finally got see my RE today - at least her daughter anyway. The results are in - and they're suprisingly quite good.

First moi - all my FSH, LH, testosterone and insulin levels are normal. This totally surprised me. While I was happy to hear it, it made me ask (not out loud), why the hell am I not ovulating regularly?? According to RE, Jr. the good news is that my brain i.e. pituitary glad, is normal because it's producing the right amounts of the necessary hormones. It's that one bloody ovary that isn't responding to the hormones. Why isn't the damn thing responding?? Anyway, the Rx is Metformin for two months. If pregnancy doesn't result, then we do the Metformin-Clomid cocktail.

Then, we discussed DH's sperm work up. Almost all his numbers saw a healthy increase. He has a count of 77.8 million. (Woo-hoo! I married a stud!), 95% of his swimmers enjoy normal morphology, and 65% of those guys are still up and at 'em after three hours. Not bad - in the last work, up only 40% were in fighting form in the third hour. The only problem: liquefaction. Semen is supposed to liquefy within 30 minutes after ejaculation. DH's liquefied after 4 hours!! But RE, Jr. says that's not a big deal. He just needs to take Ambrolex (used to make sticky mucus - usually in your nose - run. Hahaha!

So we're supposed to boink on the fertile days which RE, Jr. said starts on CD 12. My regular OB-GYN always told me to start on CD 10. Maybe we've been starting too early all this time? When do you girls start contact??

I'm a bit worried about taking Metformin. She's suggesting I take it 3 times a day. But I'm gonna start on one a day and try to work my way up. I pray that the side effects don't hit me too hard. What do you guys feel when you take it? And how many do you take in a day?

So that's me for now. Not so bad news. I'm kinda relieved but then again, I feel more pressure to get pregnant since most things appear to be "normal".

6 comments:

Samantha said...

That's very good news! Okay, now here's my assvice:

If you're not sure about the timing of your schedule, you should try charting your schedule. My cycles are totally out of whack, but I can at least know if I ovulated based on my BBT. Check out the book, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler. It's chalk full of info to help with the timing.

I've also been taking metformin for the past year and half. I take 750 mg 3X day, but your dose will depend on your weight. Totally start slow and ramp it up, and don't overeat! I confess I felt completely sick from Metformin for basically most of the first two months, but I started the stuff right before Thanksgiving. :( After that we've gotten along a bit better, although I still sometimes have a bit of gatrointestinal upset.

Good luck!

Dr. Grumbles said...

I know what you mean about feeling pressure because you come back as "normal." Yeah, I am normal...so, what? Am I just an underachiever then?

Unknown said...

Congrats on the good news, RTT!

As for when to do the deed: it all depends on when you normally ovulate. If you're a 14-dayer, then starting on day 10-11 makes sense. If you're a 17-dayer (like me), then starting later makes sense.

Baby Blues said...

I'm guilty for being non-compliant with Metformin. I should be taking it but I'm not. I've had occasional GI upsets so I decided to drop it for awhile. I'm a bad patient, tsk tsk. But I'm planning to start it again while Dr. N is away on vacation.

From my experience, just make sure you take it with a meal. My tummy gets crampy when I take it on an empty stomach. What I do is I mask it with my food. I take it in between the meal so that I feel my system doesn't recognize it immediately. Oh yeah, no alcohol when you're taking it! I don't usually eat three meals a day, I'm a breakfast skipper. (Another bad habit!) So you have to start eating regularly, or small frequent meals.

Good luck! I know a lot of people who got pregnant on Metformin alone. It's a promising drug. But like any drug, it's not for everyone.

The Momcaster said...

thanks, girls!
whatever happens on met, i know i'm not alone.

Samantha said...

Hey RRT, for your question of what type of thermometer, I have always used an oral digital fever thermometer. Another option is that you can buy a special basel body temperature thermometer (at least around here) at the drug store. I haven't done this because from what I understand these take about 5 minutes to read your temperature, and I like the 30 seconds to 1 minute wait with the digital fever thermometer. But the bbt thermometers are supposed to be more accurate.