IUI#4 CD13

This morning it looking like things were moving along well, with a "beautiful" lining of 6.5 and a follicle at 16.2 mm. However, the phone call this afternoon announced that I would not be coming in for another ultrasound tomorrow, but for my IUI. "Already?" I said. "Already", they confirmed. My HCG Pregnyl shot tonight at 8pm, and then the IUI tomorrow at 12:30.

Now I know my ovulation date, I can take a look at how my response stacks up against the other IUIs. And my endometrium measurements fit right over the other ones. No matter if I ovulate at day 9 or day 16, my lining is always around 7 mm, one standard deviation below my clinic's average of 8.7 mm ± 1.59. My lining is a consistent under-achiever.

IUI#4 CD10

I was able to check in on my ovaries again this morning. My lining is looking good at 5.5 mm (triple stripe), there are no large follicles on my right ovary, and my left ovary has a single follicle at 12.1 mm. This is good, if we can take things nice and slow, there will hopefully be time for my lining to thicken up a bit before we trigger. My estrogen was only 80 on Monday (CD8), so everything is just cruising along gently, which is fine with me. I'm guessing the IUI will happen around CD15. Now I just wait for the nurse to call and tell me when to come back again. (Edit: E of 121).

IUI#4 CD8

I woke up very excited this morning. I love the chance to spy in on my ovaries and see exactly what they are up to. I had my first ultrasound of the cycle today, and everything looks great. My lining is already at 4.4 mm (red dotted line) with a triple stripe pattern, and for once my follicles are not racing ahead. I have a sub-dominant follicle on my right ovary at 7.1 mm, and a dominant follicle on my left ovary at 10.1 mm (red unbroken line). It looks like 37 units of Menopur per day is a good dose for me. Looking at this, I guess that we'll probably do the IUI around Sunday on day 14 - must more respectable than day 9 with the first injectables attempt.

IUI#4 CD3

Yesterday was the first day of Menopur shots. Considering that I ovulated on day 9 last time, they have cut my dose in half. So I take half an ampule each night, keeping the other half in the fridge until the next night. My husband is doing a wonderful job mixing everything together and giving me the injections.

Protocol:
CD2-CD7: ~37.5 IU Menopur
CD8: Ultrasound and bloodwork - Menopur dose as advised
CD9-17: Possible ultrasounds and bloodwork - Menopur dose as advised

It has now been two years since I started ovulating again after eleven years of hormonal contraception. Twenty six cycles, twenty six ovulations, twenty six thermal shifts. Fertility friend tells me that my second year-long VIP membership will expire next month. Do I sign up for another twelve months?

IUI#4 CD1

Our insurance approved the injectables for IUI#4, so we start with low doses of Menipur tomorrow. I go in next week for my first scan.

It has now been over five months since my laparoscopy, and the surgeon said that the adhesions start to grow back after six months. After this cycle, we will not be attempting any more IUIs, and will start preparing for IVF.

Our lives have really settled down recently, we both have stable jobs, and we have a spare room that would look perfect as a nursery. For so long I have been able to tell myself that it wasn't really the bset time to have a child anyway, but now I think that this December might be an excellent month for us. I am very glad, however, that we started trying two years ago when our lives were all over the place, so we're not starting at square one today.