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Friday, February 20, 2015

Treatment starting!

So I have been working on a blog post all about PCOS. It's taking longer than I had that because I wanted to research and give more than just my experience, since I was just diagnosed and I don't really know whole lot about it. The problem with PCOS is the fact that it's such a varied disorder and everybody experiences a different reaction to it that it's hard to find a lot of concrete facts. And now my heart feels like I want to share more about what's happening in our journey right now. So look for the PCOS blog in the near future, maybe next time. I just want that want to be really good. 



So what's going on with us? That's the question we get a lot of the time and the problem is it's usually, waiting. Well we are moving into our first TREATMENT CYCLE!!!! 



So here's what's happening… You ready for this? To understand what treatments do, you have to understand some basics about cycles in general. Some people may know this, but most people have no idea!!! The things they leave out in basic health class. 


Everything in fertility has to do with the woman's cycle, seems reasonable right! So the basics are this. You have phases of your cycle. The cycle starts when a women gets her period, called cycle day 1 (CD 1). This is the menstrual phase and the phase everyone knows about. After starts the beginning of the follicular phase. Follicles grow eggs until one is matured and released (average is CD 14, but could range from CD 8-CD 50 and beyond). This is the main indicator of how long a woman's cycle will be. The day the egg is released, called ovulation day, is the beginning of the next phase. This phase is the luteal phase. This phase typically lasts 10-16 days with the average being 14 (14+14=28-why they say the average cycle is 28 days....but rarely is it actually). During this phase the lining of the uterus continues to thicken and prepare for the potential of implantation should sperm meet egg. If a woman gets pregnant, no CD 1, if not she will shed the lining and CD 1 comes and the whole thing starts over. 



Confused? Here is a pic :) 

Take Aways:
1. You can only get pregnant if you ovulate (no egg no baby)
2. You are only fertile for about 4 days a cycle(Sperm live 4 days, egg lives 1)
3. Cycles can be monitored and charted with science
4. Your period is never late. If your cycle is going long and if you are not pregnant, you ovulated later that month


How does a gal know where she is in the cycle and if there is a problem? By temping. Every morning, for the last 16 months, I take my temp when I wake up. Well actually I set an alarm for 5:15, everyday of the week (weekends included) and temp. This is called your basal body temp. By charting this temp I can see when a jump occurs (which happens and is sustained after) the day after O. Here is a typical chart from a great site called fertility friend. This site is fantastic if you are thinking about trying to conceive or just want to learn how your body works!!! I tell you, there are so many things I was clueless about in my own body! 

As you can see, in the follicular phase temps are pretty low, then a jump and starts the Luteal phase (LP). A drop at the end of LP signals impending CD 1. The nice thing, once I get those red cross hairs-I know to the day when my cycle would start. Never surprised! 


Well, just when you think you know your body and you know your cycles and everything, your body switches it up. Bodies can be jerks like that… Especially mine it seems (Thanks PCOS). So we went through all of our testing and we made our game plan, I talked about that in the previous blog that you can find here. The plan is to take a medication called Letrozole which is a generic form of femera. The way this drug works is you take it for five days (CD 3-7, 4-8, or 5-9).  Letrozole lowers estrogen which causes the brain to raise FSH and thus stimulates the ovaries to do their job (hopefully). So I was just waiting for my cycle, call in this prescription, and then start this next cycle with a renewed sense of hope. 



Here is an easy to see way of how it works: 



Well sometimes a cycle doesn't end, ever. So I had to call in to my doctor and get a prescription for medication called for Provera. This mimics the luteal phase and tricks your body into thinking it ovulated.  Well my body didn't ovulate so we had to make it think it did. I took the Provera, this isn't the first cycle so I kind of figured I knew it was going to happen. Last time I took it for 10 days and the next day was CD 1. Boom!  So I start the Provera and I thought my cycle and start the next day just like the last time. Once again bodies are jerks. I had to wait two solid weeks for that cycle CD 1 to show up! When you're trying to get pregnant the last thing you want to hope for CD 1 because that is the one sure fire way you know you're not pregnant. When you have IF and are trying to get pregnant, it seems you are forever waiting on CD 1 to get something started! 

So two weeks later, my cycle started. So now it is on to letrozole. I'll be taking this drug on days 3-7 with the hopes that it causes my follicles on my ovaries to grow, ovulation to happen around day 14, and at least one or two eggs to be released (we would be just fine with twins :) ). Keep watching for more updates to see how the story unfolds. One can only hope that my body will decide to get it back on track and do what it supposed to do!