TTC Wednesday: Letrozole

We had our follow up at the fertility clinic yesterday and we confirmed and learned a few things. 

• I have two kidneys. wooooo!
• My ovaries are definitely polycystic. not so woooo. 
• Steve's fine. Percentage of good sperm was a little low but nothing concerning. Still plenty of them. Back on the vitamins. 
• I have to reduce my cholesterol. She did say we just need to eat a little better cos my good cholesterol was just a little bit high. Bad cholesterol was in the healthy range. Soo it will be easy to fix via diet. She also said it could just be whatever I had for dinner before we went (couldn't tell ya). 

So with all that good news she thought we should start on medicated cycles. We had two options, one being Clomid and the other being Femara (Letrozole). Apparently there is a widespread Clomid shortage because it's the cheapest fertility drug out there. It also has the most side effects and an increased risk of multiples. Femara is a breast cancer medication that just happened to provide similar ovulatory support. It's also got less (and better, IMO) side effects and it doesn't increase your risk of multiples. 

As far as conceiving, they have very similar statistics and they tend to work for different people. Some people are successful with Femara after they weren't with Clomid and vice versa. It's hard to say which will work for you until you try it. 

The doctor started out by telling us that there is the Clomid shortage and I kinda said, "well, there's other options though right?" and she brought up Femara. Because of my uterus we both agreed that the lower risk of multiples is a good thing and who's going to complain about less side effects? Based on where I was in my cycle I asked her if I should start it yesterday or wait until after my MRI and she said to start it right away so I called the pharmacy by our house and they had it in stock. We have enough refills to try for three cycles before we have to go back. 

As for the MRI, she said to test before and if it's positive call and cancel my appointment. In theory, if we are pregnant and haven't gotten a positive test at that point she said that MRIs are not as risky as getting a CT or x-ray because they are not radiation based. So if we know for sure, don't go. If the test is negative she said it would be fine to get the MRI. Other than that, I have to go for blood work on CD24 to confirm ovulation. 

We're officially on a medicated cycle! whoa!