CD5, Bring It On. Again.

The day after my early (12dpIUI) beta and subsequent BFN, I woke up feeling like my uterus and actually most of my reproductive organs were going to explode. Thinking AF was still 2 days away I chalked it up to my being "broken" and "probably unfixable" but turns out AF decided to not make me wait any longer for her arrival. That means a shorter than usual LP for me of only 12 days (usually I'm 14 or even 15, with or without progesterone).

And so it was back to the RE early Wednesday morning for my CD2 b/w and u/s. I thought for sure with 14 days of stims last cycle I'd have something bad in there that would bench me this cycle, but the RE said I was good to go.

So I've now started my fourth IUI cycle.

My main agenda when meeting with the RE was to make sure that I get more than one follicle this cycle. That was a big disappointment for me last cycle. If you're on injectable meds and only get one mature follicle, are your chances any greater than they would be just on a regular cycle where you ovulate on your own? I'm thinking no, or not much anyway. And so I really really really want this last IUI to be perfect. I know I can produce follicles, as shown during my first injectable cycle (I ended up with 9 good-sized contenders). This time I'd like 3, maybe even 4. So, I talked to the RE about how on my first injectable cycle I had too many follicles, and on my 2nd too few, and how I'd really like to fall somewhere in between this time.

She totally heard me and agreed with me.

And then she told me to start on the same dosage as I did last cycle.

What?

She said that we can always go to a higher dosage if needed.

Okay, I don't have a medical degree, but here's what I was thinking: start me on a higher dosage, just for a few days, in order to make sure we get a few growing at a good pace, and then lower it so they don't mature too fast and so we don't get too many. But, what do I know?

She also wanted to put me on the estrogen patches again. As you may recall I had to fight for them last cycle. I thought they might help my lining but Dr. "Young" did not. He eventually gave in to me and I felt... unsure that I should be pressuring my doctor into treatments that he didn't support. Anyway, turned out that with the estrogen patches my lining was 6.5 at CD9, which was the same as it was the cycle before. The difference last cycle was that I didn't end up triggering until CD20, and by then it had grown to a healthy 9.5. So, anyway, she wanted me to do the estrogen patches again, and I said, "Well, the extra time seemed to help my lining more than the estrogen patches. Both cycles my lining was at 6.5 on CD9." And she said, "Good point," and told me not to do the estrogen patches after all. Am I paying more attention than they are?

Anyway. Here we go again.