and I had one more suggestion. Since you were not using suppression, you may want to consider something called estrogen priming. It involves taking estrogen prior to your cycle and has the effect of lowering FSH and makes some women more "sensitive" to the stim medicine. Now, it does not work for everyone (but what in this crazy world of fertility treatments does?) -- do mention it to your RE and see what he/she thinks.



MichelleL
ttc #3 (#1 for DH)

Michelle:
Thanks so much for your suggestion, I will definitely mention it to my Re. Do you know when you should start taking it prior to your next cycle? I may start my next cycle around the end of this month , begining of February. Also, is an FSH of 9.0-9.5 considered high? I didn't think it was,plus my periods are regular and normal..as far as my fsh - it could be lower ofcourse, but was just wondering if that was high. Thanks again,you seem so well informed on all of this crazy fertility stuff. But the more I read, and hear stories..it seems like there's no explanation as to why things turn out the wasy they do...take care, C.

but what concerns me was your lack of ovarian response, particularly without any suppression. Now if you were doing something wrong with the injections, that would explain it, too -- but I would've thought that with more gonal-f (plus clomid) you would've gotten more than 2 . . . so something is going on here --- but I agree that high FSH does not seem to be your primary issue -- so many estrogen priming is not a good idea . . .

I believe that with the estrogen priming protocol you start taking estrogen during the lueteal phase of the cycle before, but I am not entirely certain. I do know that Cornell uses Estrace (patches) for their priming protocol, while Cooper uses estinyl. The logic of using estinyl is that it doesn't show up in the blood work so regular E2 measurements can still be done during the cycle like normal.

If I can find a protocol, I will post it.

MichelleL
ttc #3 (#1 for DH)

but here is a link to a chat with a doctor from the Resolve site that discusses your exact issue -- good FSH numbers but less than ideal response.

http://www.resolve.org/site/PageServer?pagename=cop_ch_20050223

I hope there will be some good ideas for you in this discussion.

MichelleL
ttc #3 (#1 for DH)

Hi_
Thank you again! for your information...you are so well read and have lots of knowledge you are willing to share!-your info. was quite helpful-just got around to reading it now. I will bring this information to my RE-and also ask for tests to see if anything may be wrong, but as far as all of their diagnostic tests are concerned, everything seemed to be fine. I honestly thought I would over stimulate on the meds! even though I am older(just turned 40)-and when the doctor talked about people not responding I barely registered it bc I thought "that won't be me." Also, for the first round I did, my husband and I were not getting all the meds into the syringe, plus the injection site was totally wrong, it may have made a small difference. Alas, I may be in the poor responder category amyway...hopefully something works...if you have any other ideas..please feel free to contact me.I also noticed in the chat there was a woman in her early -mid 30's who was a poor responder, so it makes me feel like I have company...thanks , c