Hi. My friend has been trying to get pregnant for seven months. For the last two months she has been using ovulation kits which are saying that she is not ovulating. She is 26 years old. She went to the doctor in September and he said that she should keep trying for another 6 months. She called today about not ovaluating and the nurse said to make an appointment next week. If she is not ovaluating, what are the next steps they take? Do you know what tests they run? Any info is much appreciated!
This will sound wacky - but I was under the same scenario...and my doctor gave me the best prescription of all. Have more sex - every other day. Sure enough, within one month I got pregnant. Now I know that isn't rocket science but before taking more serious measures we gave it a try and without getting all scientific and everything...it worked! I wish them the best of luck.
Hi L.,
Ovulation predictors are not necessarily the best option for predicting ovulation (oddly enough!). I would HIGHLY recommend the book Taking charge of Your Fertility. It shows you exactly how to KNOW FOR SURE what your body is doing by charting your cycles. She will be able to not only determine if she is ovulating, but also WHEN that occurs (most women are NOT the typical "doctor chart" 14 day ovulation, 28 day cycle). It has really been an amazing thing for me to always KNOW what my body is doing. Give her my best...it's a difficult thing to face, but if she reads this book, she will be light years ahead in knowledge of her cycles and body and be better able to determine a course of action.
I might also suggest the book "What Your Doctor May NOT Tell You About Premenopause". I know she's quite young for that, but PREmenopause can begin even as early as age 30 and this book has a lot of info on hormone imbalance caused by estrogens in the environment. VERY enlightening.
I went through the a whole gammet of infertility treatments, for anovulation. It was so stressful, and hard on my body. My periods were irregular 60-80 days apart. I started clomid and got pregnant and miscarried, and then after a couple of more cycles of clomid. I did the hormone injections (very expensive), coupled with interutero insemination. Got pregnant on the second round had another miscarriage. Was exhausted and miserable. My husband and I decided to take a vacation. Post pone further treatment and discuss it when we got back. Low and behold, I got pregnant.
Just tell your friend not to worry. The others were right the ovulation predictor kits are not that great. The sex everyother day method worked for a lot of couples I know. She should keep her appointment with her doctor (I needed to feel I was doing something). Your friend could be a very early ovulator or a very late ovulator in accordance to her period. So, the every other day thing could work great for her. Also, the more worked up she gets the harder it is to get pregnant. Believe me, I know that this is next to impossible to do, but she should try to focus on something else. Exercise, Yoga, art classes, a pet, vacation. Anything to take the focus off of getting pregnant.
If she is truly concerned and want to seek some expert advise. I would suggest contacting a reproductive endrocrinologist. I used Fertility Centers of Illinois. Dr. Lifchez. He was the kindest and best doctor I ever met. 2 of my friends went to him and had great results. The first steps of testing is to monitor your cycle and go into the office every other day for an internal ultra sound to see if your ovaries are producing and releasing eggs normally. Wait, actually the first step is to have the husband tested, then the cycle test, then Clomid, Possibly exploritory surgury to check if there is any blockage of the tubes or endometriosis, then IUI and or IVF.
Tell your friend to hang in there. I hope it happens for her soon.
E.
We went to a fertility clinic after a year of trying to get pregnant and having my ob/gyn tell me to keep trying. They ran blood tests every few days for a month to check my levels of LH, FSH, Estrogen and Progesterone. They also did ultrasounds of my ovaries to determine their functionality.
It turned out that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome and that my hormones were not where they should have been. We had 3 IUI's using Clomid, 3 IUI's using injection fertility meds and finally tried IVF. None of them worked, but I do believe that it helped to get my hormones in sync. We ended up getting pregnant naturally right after we found out that the IVF failed. Also, I'm overweight but I was able to lose 10% of my weight and that helped me to get pregnant.
I hope that helps. I'd be happy to give you more detail about the procedures. ____@____.com
