Part 1: Clomid + Femara

PCOS manifests as a lack of ovulation, so the treatment involves inducing ovulation by synthesizing your hormone levels. There are 2 types of drugs taken to do this - Clomid (clomiphene citrate) and Femara (letrozole). I tried Clomid for a few months in increasing dosages, sometimes adding in letrozole as well. Each cycle would basically look like this:

• Take Clomid on cycle days 3-7 (or 5-9)
• Take ovulation predictor kits from day 10 forward
• Get blood drawn on cycle day 21 to check progesterone levels
• Wait 10-12 days and take a pregnancy test
• If day 21 bloodwork AND pregnancy test are negative, start 10 day progesterone regimen to induce a new cycle

If you're doing the math here, that is a minimum of 6 weeks for a negative cycle. That means I was able to do 4 cycles in just over 6 months. I was frustrated.

The OB eventually told me there was nothing more they could do for me, as an OB cannot prescribe stronger dosages of Clomid and/or letrozole, so I made an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist (RE). I was nervous because technically we had been trying for 11 months, not a full year, and I thought I wouldn't be allowed to get full-on infertility treatments until it had been 12 full months. Looking back, I realize how ridiculous that was, because I'd already been getting treatments from the 6 month point on.

Advice to my younger self: don't be afraid to go to an RE before the 12 month mark if there is something obviously wrong.

We started working with UCRM, and I was so impressed with their team. I loved them all and had a great experience there. The RE was able to check my lining and say "let's just call today day 3" instead of making me take progesterone for 10 days first. IT WAS AWESOME.

My first cycle was unsuccessful, so at only 14 days after I'd started taking Clomid, I was able to start taking Clomid + letrozole and started a brand new cycle. The pace at which REs can move, compared to OBs, is night and day.

At UCRM, we did 5 medicated cycles of Clomid/letrozole combos in 4 months, and had successful ovulation on 3 of those. At that point I'd been taking Clomid for 10 months straight, and we had a trip to Italy planned, so we took a break for a few months. When we returned, we decided to move to the next treatment plan: IUIs.