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My wife and I just did our first IUI today after a round of Serophene/Ovidrel. She's feeling mighty crampy after the procedure. They also had us try 'by ourselves' on the day we did the trigger shot. How long should the cramping last beyond today?
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Mar 3, 2012 20:14
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It's going to be a while before we actually start trying, but I'd like to have information for MY GIRLFRIEND before then. I'm definitely going to be the one getting pregnant, I've always wanted to, but all of the sperm bank stuff just seems so convoluted. Has anyone had success with ye olde turkey baster? Is that a terribly stupid idea? I suspect it may be, but I have a good gay friend whose kid I would actually like to have, so I want to hear about my options.
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Mar 8, 2012 19:13
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Tiny Deer, are you anywhere near a major city, specifically a major city that is large enough to have LGBT healthcare services? If not, and you do decide to work with fresh, my understanding is that turkey baster works pretty well. We went with the Fenway in Boston. They've been getting lesbians pregnant since the 1980s. They are specifically not a fertility clinic, they will do IUI without drugs or work with you as you inseminate at home and they have everything all set up with the sperm clinics. In my case, I was older so they would have tried to talk me out of doing it at home with frozen sperm. Or if you live in a place with a lot of midwives, supposedly some midwives will do unmedicated IUIs, which has a much better chance of working with frozen sperm than the turkey baster method. We had no male friends that we especially wanted to approach for fresh sperm and what I've heard about custody arguments didn't make it an appealing sounding option to us. The Fenway strongly encourages you to draw up a contract if you do go that route, it's not legally enforceable, but it does make everyone clarify their expectations and tends to result in better outcomes. If you have any questions specific to our experience, ask away! Edited to add, we went with the Sperm Bank of California which is a sperm bank created to get sperm to lesbians. I think they were the first ones to offer Identity Release Donors and they have their own registry if you want to be contacted by other people using your donor. Poison Cake fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 20:10
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My city (Winnipeg) barely has a women's health clinic, and I don't want to go there because ...well, Winnipeg is very conservative, and when I went protesting the presence of people protesting the other side was overwhelming. But I definitely could travel elsewhere. Was the process easy for you? How many hoops did you have to jump through? (My friend doesn't want to sacrifice parental rights: if me and my girlfriend die horribly, he wants the baby, but I'm still researching how that works out in Canada. I don't want my girlfriend hosed out of our kid if I die.)
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Mar 8, 2012 20:18
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Tiny Deer posted:But I definitely could travel elsewhere. Was the process easy for you? How many hoops did you have to jump through? Fenway is very easy to work with. I had to chart my cycles to make sure I had a normal cycles, both to make sure I wouldn't be better off with a fertility clinic and to start figuring out when we'd be doing inseminations. Also, I had to get all kinds of STD tests to make sure I wasn't carrying anything that would be problematic for the pregnancy. Both of these are pretty typical requirements. A book called "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" has been mentioned in this thread and it's great for learning how to chart. For the latter, I just went to my regular doctor and said, "I need these tests and I need a copy of the results". Traveling elsewhere is not a small commitment. You generally can't absolutely guarantee to the day when you're going to ovulate which is when they do the insemination, so that would mean staying at the elsewhere for several days each month while you tested your morning urine to see if you were ovulating. I'd look again at the women's clinic or maybe a local doctor who serves the LGBT community. If you're strongly tempted by your friend's offer, I think consulting a lawyer is a good idea. I don't think there's any way (and there's certainly no easy way) to give all three of you equivalent parental rights. One other thing to consider, even if your friend is great and doesn't flip out in some way, you're also tied to his family. Are his parents going to freak about lesbians raising "their" grandchild?
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Mar 8, 2012 21:32
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You have a point about parents. His don't like me, which would be a problem, and they certainly don't like The Gays despite my friend being very out. I should probably go the anonymous donor route. As much as it'd be a really sweet thing for us to do (I am sentimental as gently caress) it's just so impractical sounding. I don't want to put anyone in a lovely position. I'm going to look into clinics locally at once. Thank you a lot for the advice, I appreciate it. Bam, informed decisions on my childbearing! It's great.
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Mar 9, 2012 07:24
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Whattup, ladies. It is past time I joined in here - husband and I stopped trying to not get pregnant like 7 months ago. My 'cycles' are normally ~45 days so there wasn't much hope that anything would happen. Went to a new obgyn today for a 'family planning' appointment. I had seen a doctor late last year who was horrible - dismissive of questions and generally unhelpful other than giving me a prescription for provera. The lady I saw today was amazing! She didn't rush me or blow off my questions and I have a blood test to schedule on the third day of my next 'cycle' and a HSG to do a few days after that. It is really exciting to be finally taking steps to making this happen! Have any of you had a HSG? She mentioned that they can cause some pain and told me I'll want to take a motrin before and likely after as well but a quick google search makes me think that they can be more painful than just some mild discomfort. I'm not squeamish about pain, but I'd like to hear if any of you have experience with this procedure.
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Mar 16, 2012 05:23
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I know this'll sound kind of sad, but I can't remember if I had the HSG or something else with a similar name also involving a tube going past your cervix. I think there are 2 similar procedures. Either way, the painful part really was the insertion, since the tube kept popping out. It wasn't the worst pain in the world, but it was enough to clench my fists and exclaim a bit during. Definitely doable (and I didn't have any meds beforehand) edit: I had an SHG -a sonohysterogram- where they inject saline, not dye. Ben Davis fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 05:29
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If you want to be really precise about when you ovulate, this thing is amazing: http://www.clearblueeasy.com/clearblue-one-month-digital-ovulation-test.php I think I paid $35 for it at Target; you start peeing on a stick on day 6 of your cycle, and it gives a digital negative or positive. I was having a lot of trouble reading the tests that just had a line, because I could never be certain if the test line was REALLY darker than the control line or if I was just imagining it. I only began using it this month but it was really nice to know exactly when to get busy. Turns out I ovulate a lot earlier than I thought. I'll know if we were successful in a few weeks  A friend of mine swears by the test too.Good luck!
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Mar 16, 2012 12:26
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Do pregnancy tests with the +/- display usually have a crease where the line of the + will appear? I just took one and it looks like a clear -, but when I hold the test at exactly the right angle I can see a vertical line, too. It looks more like a crease than a pigmented line. I mean obviously the correct answer is to wait another week and take another one, but it'd be nice to know if all the tests have a crease without opening another $5 packet.
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Mar 20, 2012 13:56
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Well after 3 years of trying, I'm pregnant  I don't think it's fully registered yet, and I have a fear I'll miscarry. According to the blood test I took yesterday at the doctor, I'm 5 weeks along. I guess it was my thyroid this whole time. After finally being diagnosed and put on treatment and it taking months to find the right dosage, my blood tests last month were finally and officially "stable" and I got pregnant a couple weeks later. We weren't even really trying. I was going to start charting my temp again with my next period. I sort of wish my doctors had taken me seriously earlier because I've known something was wrong with me for years.
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Mar 21, 2012 03:37
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Alterian posted:Well after 3 years of trying, I'm pregnant Congrats! It sucks it took that long to get things figured out, but I'm glad you finally did. My IUD came out last Friday (less painfully than I expected) and I'm now in the middle of the first period I've had in 6+ years. Not thrilled with that, but my husband and I are super excited to start trying and already losing our resolve to wait until mid-late summer to do so. I know most ladies in this thread seem to avoid talking to their families about this stuff to avoid getting pressured, but I've wound up talking to both my mom and stepmom about it over the last couple of weeks and their encouragement has actually been really awesome. I was fully expecting my mom especially to think it was a terrible idea for us to start trying and she was actually thrilled, but in a very non-pushy sort of way. We will be avoiding telling my husband's parents about any of it until after I'm actually knocked up, since they have already been pressuring us, even when we told them repeatedly we weren't trying yet. If anyone in here is tracking temps and other ovulation signs, I saw the recommendation (in the birth control thread) for the app Ovuview for Android for doing that stuff and am really happy with it so far. I was using My Days before that but didn't find it as easy to manage. Also, the kindle version of the Mayo pregnancy book is on sale for $2.99 at Amazon through March 25th. I came across it the other day while looking through their deals and decided it was worth it to pick up at that price.
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Mar 21, 2012 04:09
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So something strange finally kicked in to my system and I'm no longer looking at crying babies as a nuisance and I want one of my own. Thought I'd join in on the conversation since I'm not quite sure who else to talk to. Don't want to get my hopes up for several reasons, most importantly that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and only get 2-3 periods per year that have no signs or symptoms of arriving. I can literally have a period, then not for another three months, and then another six months... no consistency at all. I also know that my left ovary is the only one that is working - my right one doesn't work at all. I know that I'm about to prepare for an uphill battle as I try to get my body ready and go to lots of doctor's appointments. Though the other part of me wants to just say "eh, gently caress it" and just have lots of crazy sex and conceive when I do. I'm 28. Still young enough to enjoy life, but I'm starting to obsess thinking about babies. I google'd names earlier today, when I typically roll my eyes and cringe at small children.
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Mar 31, 2012 04:16
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courtney_beth posted:So something strange finally kicked in to my system and I'm no longer looking at crying babies as a nuisance and I want one of my own. It's a funny experience isn't it? I got to that stage a while ago (maybe 25 or so? I'm 29 now). My husband and I have been talking about kids since a few months after we started dating. If I had not had an IUD I'm sure I'd have been knocked up long before now. Some of my friends are just starting to hit that stage and it's kind of crazy seeing women who have always talked about how they have no interest in kids start talking about how they want a baby. Good luck with the PCOS. If your periods are that infrequent it's possible you aren't ovulating at all. It might be worth charting to see whether you have signs of ovulation (which you can do while you have lots of crazy sex). If you are ovulating, you can decide to just wait it out until things happen on their own, and if you aren't you'll know it's time to go ahead and talk to the doc about it.
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Mar 31, 2012 05:13
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courtney_beth posted:So something strange finally kicked in to my system and I'm no longer looking at crying babies as a nuisance and I want one of my own. Thought I'd join in on the conversation since I'm not quite sure who else to talk to. Don't want to get my hopes up for several reasons, most importantly that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and only get 2-3 periods per year that have no signs or symptoms of arriving. I can literally have a period, then not for another three months, and then another six months... no consistency at all. I also know that my left ovary is the only one that is working - my right one doesn't work at all. PCOS doesn't necessarily stop you from getting pregnant easily-- I got knocked up both times the first try. But I was on metformin for my diabetes, and that seems to be a big help for most women with PCOS (diagnosed diabetics or not). The non-functioning ovary might make it harder, but it also might not. I am all for being prepared for the worst, but maybe you'll get lucky and it won't be too hard.
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Mar 31, 2012 05:26
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Thanks guys -- I'm super blessed to have excellent healthcare coverage, so I'm going to start taking full advantage of it as we creep into summer. But for now? It's just going to be me having fun and not thinking about it. Getting in a lot of practice makes perfect, right?
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Mar 31, 2012 06:40
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It might be worth asking around for an understanding doctor who's used to dealing with that sort of stuff too! My doc ended up diagnosing me with PCOS after we'd been trying for 7 months, then immediately went to treat it with metfornin and the lowest dose of clomid. Next month, baby We were amazed that it could be so easy once I was actually ovulating! Most docs would've wanted us to try for at least a full year since we were under 30.
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Mar 31, 2012 08:45
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So, uh we're pregnant.  I still can't really believe it & didn't think it would happen so quickly. I have a desire to buy a bunch of those cheapo pregnancy tests & pee on them just to make sure I'm still pregnant until I see my doctor in a month.
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Apr 14, 2012 00:01
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GoreJess posted:So, uh we're pregnant. Congrats! Yay for getting knocked up quickly! As someone who already has a bunch of cheapo pregnancy tests, I can totally understand the desire to buy a bunch to pee on until the doctors visit. As of today my Mirena has been out for 1 month. I'm pretty certain I ovulated this cycle (I've been charting and used OPKs, all of which pointed to me ovulating on the 4th) which was pretty surprising. Now I'm stuck waiting to test and see if I'm knocked up.
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Apr 14, 2012 02:27
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I totally took 2 tests the day I found out I was pregnant, and then several more over the course of that week just to be sure!
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Apr 14, 2012 10:11
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Hi everyone! I'm very excited to be joining this thread as my boyfriend and I have made the decision to try and get pregnant! We have been trying for 2 months with no luck so far. Something funny has been happening though: since we started trying my period has become very irregular. I've never been late in my life but or the past two months I am between 3 - 6 days lat for my period....but not pregnant! This month I even had a nice UTI to go along with h late period! Any thoughts? Regardless, I'm excited to keep up with your journeys and wish you all luck!
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Apr 26, 2012 04:38
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Are you feeling particularly stressed out about the whole trying to conceive business? I found that when I let myself get anxious and started stressing about whether or not I was going to get pregnant, I would tend to ovulate a few days late, which in turn makes my period late.
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Apr 29, 2012 23:09
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Welp, 9 months later I'm still not pregnant. Husband's SA came back completely normal, so it's my turn to get checked out now. Went for my annual exam yesterday, spoke to the dr, and she ordered a cycle day 21 blood test (progesterone), cycle day 3 blood test (FSH), a hysterosalpinogram (sounds like hell on earth, not gonna lie), and recommended that instead of her testing my thyroid like usual, I should go to my endocrinologist whom I haven't seen in 6 years and have bloods drawn and a sonogram done just to make sure all is ok - apparently it felt a little big and "wonky." Awesome! If everything comes back normal she'll give me Clomid, which is ok I guess but since I do ovulate every month I'm not sure that it'll help much. She told me to have lots of sex in the days following the HSG as it tends to "flush out the tubes." Man, this stuff is work.
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May 2, 2012 12:25
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Schweig und tanze posted:Welp, 9 months later I'm still not pregnant. Husband's SA came back completely normal, so it's my turn to get checked out now. Went for my annual exam yesterday, spoke to the dr, and she ordered a cycle day 21 blood test (progesterone), cycle day 3 blood test (FSH), a hysterosalpinogram (sounds like hell on earth, not gonna lie), and recommended that instead of her testing my thyroid like usual, I should go to my endocrinologist whom I haven't seen in 6 years and have bloods drawn and a sonogram done just to make sure all is ok - apparently it felt a little big and "wonky." Awesome! It took us 3 years to finally get pregnant. Turns out I had a thyroid issue. The first month my levels were stable, I got knocked up.
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May 2, 2012 13:45
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Schweig und tanze posted:Welp, 9 months later I'm still not pregnant. Husband's SA came back completely normal, so it's my turn to get checked out now. Went for my annual exam yesterday, spoke to the dr, and she ordered a cycle day 21 blood test (progesterone), cycle day 3 blood test (FSH), a hysterosalpinogram (sounds like hell on earth, not gonna lie), and recommended that instead of her testing my thyroid like usual, I should go to my endocrinologist whom I haven't seen in 6 years and have bloods drawn and a sonogram done just to make sure all is ok - apparently it felt a little big and "wonky." Awesome!
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May 2, 2012 14:46
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Schweig und tanze posted:If everything comes back normal she'll give me Clomid, which is ok I guess but since I do ovulate every month I'm not sure that it'll help much. She told me to have lots of sex in the days following the HSG as it tends to "flush out the tubes." Edit: also used pee strips and that ferning microscope thing Ben Davis fucked around with this message at 01:38 on May 4, 2012 |
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May 2, 2012 14:48
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Thanks... Yeah, I had Graves' Disease 7-8 years ago that was treated with medication and which has been in remission since then; I'm guessing if there is anything at all wrong with my thyroid then it's something on the opposite end of the spectrum as 1) I'm for sure not hyperthyroid right now; 2) I have my levels tested every 6 months, and all results have been normal. Still, I'll get it checked out. As for ovulation, I've just been using monitors that detect LH and I've been getting positives every month, but it's not impossible something is messed up there. We'll see what happens! At this point I'm just getting a bit burned out on the whole thing and I'm tempted to take a break. Actually, since that's when most people seem to get pregnant, maybe that's what I should do 
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May 3, 2012 12:21
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Only month two for me but I can definitely see how easy it could be to get burned out on it. It's good the sperm analysis came back normal but sucks that you don't have a reason why it hasn't happened yet, especially with regular cycles. Hope the testing gives you some answers.
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May 3, 2012 19:29
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We have been trying for roughly 6 years total. 4 on our own, 2 under doctor supervision without medical intervention and just a few months with meds. My wife has PCOS that went rampant in her adolescence because no one cared to diagnose why a girl in the middle of puberty would not have a period for a year straight and just put her on meds to induce it, then birth control once she started having sex. I have to admit, it is becoming extremely disheartening for both of us and really depressing for her. 6 nieces/nephews on her side and then my brothers wife has a surprise pregnancy after being staunchly 'I won't even decide/go off the pill until I'm a minimum of age 30' and turns in to 'MOTHERHOOD IS THE MOST AWESOME THING' overnight. It just kind of highlights what's wrong with her body for my wife and it really eats at her. She doesn't want to be chasing this dream until menopause starts and honestly, she's been debating whether she should bother trying past age 30 at all (2 years from now). But at the same time, it kills her to think that one day she may have to just accept that it is hopeless.
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May 4, 2012 01:09
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TVs Ian posted:We have been trying for roughly 6 years total. 4 on our own, 2 under doctor supervision without medical intervention and just a few months with meds. My wife has PCOS that went rampant in her adolescence because no one cared to diagnose why a girl in the middle of puberty would not have a period for a year straight and just put her on meds to induce it, then birth control once she started having sex. I'm sorry to hear that - I hope it happens for you soon. I totally understand; it's not rational but when you're basically told your entire life that sex always = pregnant it become difficult to understand why it doesn't happen right away. I mean, it's only been 9 months for us but I feel like a failure sometimes because I can't manage this very basic biological function. And of course all of my friends are having kids, and then even loving Snooki is knocked up as well...it's a mindfuck. Best of luck to you guys.
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May 4, 2012 12:00
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TVs Ian posted:She doesn't want to be chasing this dream until menopause starts and honestly, she's been debating whether she should bother trying past age 30 at all (2 years from now). But at the same time, it kills her to think that one day she may have to just accept that it is hopeless. It was 5 years for us for our first child and we're two years now trying for our second. My wife has been on clomid for like 9 months now and she's now on a double dose. It's disheartening this time around as last time she caught the first time we used clomid. We're both in our late 30s and we've decided that if she doesn't catch by October then we're giving up. It's ironic now considering how paranoid we were about not getting pregnant during our 20s.
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May 4, 2012 14:25
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Hunny and I have been trying for a month now. Have been using WbMd's ovulation calculator to better estimate when I should be ovulating. If it doesn't happen this month I think I'm gonna spring for an ovulation test. Good luck to everyone!
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May 4, 2012 16:09
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Sammeow, it'sw worth buying the ovulation strips off of Amazon, or at least from the dollar store. Same stuff, incredibly cheaper--and they do add up!
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May 4, 2012 20:19
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Schweig und tanze totally agree! Snooki!?!? lol My husband and I have been really trying for over 8months and I am due to have my period tomorrow. Yesterday I was feeling impatient decided to test, there was a faint second line. This morning did two more, both had faint second lines. I am crampy so will see what tomorrow brings! Edit: Success! after 4 days of fainted lines I took one that came out Pregnant! Chrystatta fucked around with this message at 04:17 on May 10, 2012 |
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May 5, 2012 05:39
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So, I'm going to take my last birth control pill in three weeks (which just so happens to be the day after my husband and I get back from a much anticipated scuba diving vacation). I have been on the pill for 11 years. I am just looking for some input and personal experiences as to how long it took others when they stopped taking birth control to get back to a normal cycle.
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May 7, 2012 01:44
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sheri posted:So, I'm going to take my last birth control pill in three weeks (which just so happens to be the day after my husband and I get back from a much anticipated scuba diving vacation). I have been on the pill for 11 years. I am just looking for some input and personal experiences as to how long it took others when they stopped taking birth control to get back to a normal cycle. I wouldn't say I got back to a normal cycle (they were 5-6 weeks in length), but we somehow managed to get knocked up after only 3 months. So it could happen really quickly or it could take much longer. There's really no way to know.
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May 7, 2012 02:11
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sheri posted:So, I'm going to take my last birth control pill in three weeks (which just so happens to be the day after my husband and I get back from a much anticipated scuba diving vacation). I have been on the pill for 11 years. I am just looking for some input and personal experiences as to how long it took others when they stopped taking birth control to get back to a normal cycle. I was on the pill for about 6 years before we decided to start trying for our first. I expected it to take at least a couple months, but I got pregnant immediately. My next period wasn't even quite due yet for a couple more days but I had a gut feeling and took a test, and I got a very bold positive.
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May 7, 2012 13:19
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Sigh. She is having really unpleasant, menstrual-like cramps. Looks like IUI #3 didn't take. Which means the next step is the stupidly expensive injections.
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May 8, 2012 00:43
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Here goes month 4.... I'm pretty new to this fertility thing and although I've done lots of research I'm having trouble finding answers to an issue I'm having: I have regular periods every month with a 29 day cycle (a few posts back I stated they were irregular when my SO and I started trying, I apologize as I was incorrect and was just having troubles calculating them properly) and all of the ovulation calculators/calenders in the world indicate that I should be ovulating on *specific* week. However, I don't have any cervical fluid and am completely dry the whole week. Yet, the day after I'm supposed to be most fertile, the cervical fluid starts. What is going on here? I'm assuming I'm fertile the week that my cervical fluid appears so then why does late ovulation occur? Edit: Just wanted to send some love to those who are having a hell of a time. Keep your heads up!
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May 14, 2012 02:16
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Looks like I have been successfully knocked up. Doesn't seem real yet (period was due today but I got a positive test 4 days ago). Sheri: Whenever I stopped the pill my cycles would go back to normal immediately (probably went off it 3 or 4 times) and the same happened when I got the Mirena IUD out. No periods for 6 years to normal cycles immediately. I think it depends more on your individual body and its reaction to birth control. Some women will take months to go back to normal. Keep in mind that "normal" will still just be your own normal as well, not a 28-day normal. Some women seem to expect that because they had regular cycles on the pill they will have them when they go off, even if they had irregular cycles before the pill. Ophelia's Ashes posted:Here goes month 4.... Have you considered tracking your temperature? The fertility calculators will assume average ovulation and average luteal phase (of ~14 days). It sounds like you might be ovulating on day 18-20ish with a short luteal phase (which could be totally normal), but it could also be something else going on and knowing your temps would be helpful so you can tell if you are actually ovulating then or if something else is causing the cervical fluid then. You can get cervical fluid and not ovulate and you can ovulate without having cervical fluid. Temps are much better (though not 100% foolproof) for determining if you are actually ovulating. Are you timing sex for the week the fertility calculators say you should be ovulating or the week of the cervical fluid or both? If you don't have it I would buy the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It will make the tracking a lot easier and will help you get a much better idea of what is going on with your ovulation.
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May 14, 2012 03:27
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