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I believe they either up your clomid or suggest IVF. Have you done IUI along with the clomid?

We switched to Femara. My doctor said they were seeing more babies with Femara than Clomid, and Femara has less side effects.

Does Femara have the same statistics in regards to muliples as clomid?

It has a 10% increased chance of twins, the same as Clomid. I got pregnant while taking it, and I'm only having one baby. I took Clomid for 3 months and then Femara for 3 months. I didn't have that many side effects with the Clomid, but I had even less with the Femara. 2 of the three months I had absolutely no side effects (other than we went to an amus____nt park during the few days you take the pill and I discovered that I would get Motion sickness on some of the rides), and the other month I did have a slight headache for a day or so while I was actually taking the pill, but that was it.

K - did you track your BBT while on Clomid? If so, were you able to pinpoint when you ovulated? I have not noticed the increase in temperature that my OB/GYN mentioned. I am starting to wondering if my problem is something beyond the scope of Clomid. I a__sume that he will increase my dosage this time around. I am currently taking 100mg days 5-9. Not sure if I can take it for longer than three cycles. Do you know what the difference is between Clomid and Femara? Oh and congrats on your baby...you are so lucky!

Yes, We had to do IUI because of male issues so timing was everything for us. We used BBT, OPKs and the Clear Plan Monitor (the Clear plan gives you a great picture of your cycles and is great, but sometimes it went to peak for me a day late so we couldn't rely on it being accurate for IUI. ). Have you used OPKs at all and are they turning positive? Are you taking your temp at the same time every morning the minute you wake up before getting out of bed? If you are and you are still not seeing a rise for more than one cycle (it is not uncommon to occasionally have an out of whack cycle), then you should talk to your doctor about that. My BBT chart was normal and I was ovulating regularly on a 26-27 day cycle, so that wasn't the problem for us. I really researched Femara before I started taking it. Clomid and Femara are different types of drugs that for fertility purposes basically do about the same thing. They can help you ovulate, or in my case because I was regularly ovulating on a normal cycle, they were used for two purposes 1) make my cycle a day or two longer in hopes that would give my egg a little more time to mature and 2) because when you are on them they can cause 2 eggs to come down instead of one which obviously increases your chances of conceiving (that's also where the 10% increased chance of twins comes from). Clomid has been around for decades, and using Femara for fertility is relatively new- I think in the past 5-7 years. Some people who did not ovulate on Clomid will ovulate with and have success on Femara. Femara started off as a b___st cancer drug which is not technically FDA approved for use for fertility issues; however it has become generally accepted in the fertility field and most REs in the US and Europe are now using it at least to some extent as it has been shown to be effective. Femara has less side effects than Clomid and it does not thin the Uterine lining or dry your mucous like Clomid can. It also gets out of your system much faster than Clomid (Clomid can stay in your system quite a while), so the risk of prolonged side effects or problems is greatly reduced. My doctor generally starts with Clomid, and if that doesn't work after a few months, then he moves to Femara. You can take Clomid for up to 6 straight months, but my doctor likes to switch to Femara after 3 months because of the uterine lining issues. After taking both, I definitely prefer the Femara. There was some Canadian study that recently came out that says Femara may give a slightly increased chance of birth defects, but I don't know how reliable that study was and my doctor has had many healthy normal Femara babies. I'm 26 weeks pregnant and have had several ultrasounds including a level 2, and so far my little girl appears completely normal.

FYI: I just looked at some articles on that recent study regarding Femara and birth defects. Apparently in the cases where the birth defects were found the women were given the Femara when they were ALREADY pregnant. When I researched Clomid before taking it- I found that it also has specific warnings that you should be sure you are not already pregnant when using it because it also has a chance of causing birth defects and miscarriage if given to an already pregnant woman. Even with the recent study, it is still my opinion Femara is better. My doctor required an ultrasound every month before I started taking either drug to ensure that I was not pregnant (even though I obviously wasn't) and had no cysts.

my doc suggested a fertility specialist after my attempts at clomid failed. I got pg and baby's heart stop beating when i was almost 3 months, had d&c in September, for New Years hubby took me on a ski trip to Boone NC and i got pg w/ my son who is now 4 and i'm pg again due w/ second baby boy in January.....didn't make it to the fertility specialist.....keep your chin up, i'm a firm believer in "if it's meant to be, it's meant to be". We definately would have looked into adoption if i had not conceived.....if you are meant to be a Mom then you will be; one way or another. good luck.

Thanks K and D - I have an appt with my OB/GYN next week and plan to discuss all of this with him. I truly hope another child is in the plan for me!

The other thing you should consider is having a laparoscopy (if you haven't already) to make sure there are no physical blockages preventing conception. By the way, I have a hopeful story for you. I conceived after 7 (yes, 7) Clomid cycles, only to miscarry with a blighted ovum. I went back on Clomid but couldn't get a period, so I went on the pill to restart my cycle with the intention of getting straight back on Clomid again. By then, I must admit I was tired of all the rigmarole and took a break without any medication. I conceived that cycle and am 10 weeks pregnant!

Michelle9426-Good luck to you on your pregnancy. I appreciate your response. I am currently taking Glucohage for the next month after which my OB said we would try Clomid again. I really hope this works!

Hi, I was seeing a fertility specialist a few years ago and she will not even use clomid. She said it doesn't give her good results. She only does the injections. I was told that if you don't become pregnant after 4 tries on then you see what to try next. Good luck. I tried to get pregnant for 6 years on clomid iui, injections and ivf once. Nothing worked, now I'm 7 months pregnant naturally. Never give up.

i am due to take femara i am a tubal reversal patient.i had tried clomid for 6 months and i am hoping that this femara works.can anyone help.

I think the success of Clomid and whatever treatment is offered next depends on the reason for infertility in the first place. I know Clomid is usually given for treatment of ovulation issues but these can be casued by a variety of things. In my case it's PCOS so I was initially put on metformin and then metformin and Clomid. My dose was upped 3 times (to 150mg) before I even successfully ovulated but even then it wasn't 100% as I went through 2 more cycles without ovulating again. Finally on my 6th I became pregnant but unfortunately lost the baby at 6 weeks. Because I have had some success, my consultant wants to put me back on clomid for up to 6 more cycles. Hopefully it won't take that long as I know there is an increased chance of cancer the longer you take it. However, everything is on hold at the moment as I've had pregnancy symptoms for the last 8 weeks and even though my hpts are coming up negative I don't want to risk taking Clomid until I know for 100% sure that I'm not pregnant. the only other treatment/diagnosis that has been mentioned to me so far is a special scan involving injecting dye to see if my tubes are blocked as well (it has some ridiculously long name) but that was before I got pregnant the first time. Ovarian drilling is suppose to be very successful for PCOS.

I've been on clomid for 6 cycles and nothing. My body has stopped producing estrogen, so I need a drug to make me ovulate. Has any one had a else suffered from this ?

Hi mccann837 - I have been through this. How is it going? I am on shots to create more follicles, shots to prevent me from ovulating, then a shot to make me ovulate. After all that, I have to take progesterone suppositories right after I ovulate until I take my preg test, which have been bfn. It's exhausting.