After 22 months of ACTIVE trying my husband and I are finally on our way to parenthood...
for the past 5 months there has been no romance involved in conception.
It's been all timing and test tubes and injections...etc.
We are only a few minutes pregnant (5 weeks)
but things are looking good at this point.
We do not know how many little babies are implanting in there yet...I had 10-12 follicles ready to fly on the day on insemination (my dr will only let us have 3 at a time...that's PLENTY!)

Our regiment went something like this: 14 months of clomid...various doses...for both me and my husband 7 months of clomid and glucophage...various doses 6 months of clomid, glucophage, estrogen, folistim, and IUI 1 month of hCG, Gonal F, folistim, projesterone (insert tablets...yuck!), and IUI
And it finally worked!
The next step was IVF...very pricey.
Oddly enough, my insurance has covered EVERY cent of my various procedures, drugs and dr visits.
Thank God/Allah/Buddha/Bramha (whoever wants the credit!) for them!!
In the past 22 months I think the grand total would have been about $20,000...

Thank you so much for this website... although I didn't contribute very much I turned to it every couple of days for support and anecdotes.
Thanks again...and fertile thoughts to you all!
HeatherG

Well I think I feel comfortable posting my story. I am 8w3d pregnant with twins. Its been a long road. I got off the pill December 99.
I have a 4year old son who I got pg with no problems right after getting off the pill, so I figured I would be pregnant by April at the latest. Well it did not happen. I did not know about timing of ovulation or anything. My cycles were short and then long. My friends told me dtd on day 11, and some say day 14. Well by July I was getting kind of worried. My ob told me to use opks. So I did, but could never get them to work for me. In August after reading this site I decided I needed clomid after charting for one month. I called my ob and told him and he gave me some. Got pg after 3 cycles of clomid. My betas did not do too well and my progesterone was kind of low so I had a m/c in December of 2000. It was kind of a mess. Went to see and RE and started ttc again in Feb 01. Jan cycle was perfect Feb not too good and March terrible.

My re put me on clomid again. I did not ovulate until day 20-25. We decided after 3 months of clomid I would start injectable. Did one iui the last cycle of clomid and could not even time it right. I was sooooo discouraged. Well af came and I was going to start gonal f. Went in for my day 2 u/s and they found a cyst so I had to take the month off. I was soo disappointed. The nurse told me to try anyway that I would probably ovulate b/c the clomid was still in me. Well I decided I would temp until o was confirmed and then put it away. The day to day fluctuations made me crazy. So I o on day 20. after that I told myself If 14dpo no spotting or af I would take my temp and see what it was and if good I would test. I was so tired of those neg tests. I also did not use opks or anything. Just tried to dtd every other day. Well at about 7dpo My boobs started hurting and my appetite kind of went away. At 14dpo on Sunday morning I woke up and no spot so I took my temp. I nearly fell out of bed 98.9!!! The highest ever. I was so scared to test. I was scared of another negative. My two best friends called me to see and I told them. I hung up and went to buy a test. Came home and sure enough two dark lines almost immediately. I was in shock. I already had $800 worth of shots ready to go and how could this be. I think I finally relaxed b/c I knew the next cycle we were being aggressive. Well at 15dpo my beta was 1186 - the nurse said don't be surprised if twins. The next one almost tripled. I have had 3 u/s and will get one more next week and If all is well I will be released to my ob. I can't believe I am having twins. I am still walking on eggshells everyday and run to the bathroom if I feel anything. I have been really sick and I am on anti nausea drugs. I also got Sea Bands to wear on my wrists which helps. I have lost 6 lbs from not eating the first couple of weeks. Last week and this week I am doing better. I just wanted to tell my long story and thank all my ttc friends. I would have not gotten this far without e veryone and the good advice. So yall hang in there and keep fighting for what YOU want and deserve it will happen. I pray that all goes well for me.

love to all
Lizzy

my history, I had the depo shot in 1998 which made me have bad side effects, had a lap done in 1998 also and the found endometriosis 1st stage which they removed and told me to get pregnant. after IUI's and clomid no success. ok ok now for my story.

this cycle my lmp was Sept. 23 I took clomid 50mg on days 3-7 and I o'd on October 5th I bd every other day from Oct. 2nd til October 7th. well apparantely it worked. 3 dpo I started cramping really bad and I though af was coming early, the cramps did not stop I still have the cramps, I tested on Thursday the 18th and the test came out negative but af did not come, my temps were still up 98.8 on saturday so I tested and a BFP. started having some uterine pains and I went to the ER and the doctor told me it was normal first time pregnancy pains.

My symptoms: swollen breasts, af like cramps and unterine streching pains, dry heeves and mood swings like crazy, oh yeah and constipation

I am so happy that after 3 years of ttc I finally have success.
Nicole

I can't believe I am finally able to post this success story! We are pregnant after trying for two years.

We began with doing everything standard, temperatures, ovulation predictor kits and herbs from the TTC store. I had heavy AFs for as long as I can remember, so after six months of trying, we went to OB/GYN. I had a sonohistogram done, and everything turned out normal. Did an HSG and all was normal too.

Then I began clomid during the months of October, November and Decemeber of 2000. That only resulted in a grapefruit size cyst that required emergency laproscopic surgery. They removed the cyst and endometriosis (I had stage I endo on the cyst and a few other areas).

We took several months doing the natural thing, and in April we finally did our first IUI. We didn't use any clomid, just did it when I had an LH surge. It didn't work.

I came back to my OB for a follow up visit, and he suggested two things: go to an RE, or go on Lupron for six months! First of all, I only had minor endo. and from what I know now, the lupron would not have been a good step. Second, he basically gave up on me after one IUI. Looking back, I am glad he did, but it was frustrating.

We decided to go to an RE. We absolutely felt so much better, and insurance covered it. We began with the RE by doing two cycles of ultrasound monitored IUIs. All looked good, including DH's sperm, but none worked. We began to notice that the ultrasound technicians could not document my follicles collapsing after ovulation. They would continue to grow and often turn into cysts. This would prove very important later.

So, we went onto injectables in November (2001). I overstimulated and made 9 follicles, and was counseled about risk of multiples. Everything looked great, so we did the IUI. Then, in follow up IUIs, we again saw that all nine did not release. We were devestated. DH decided we should go straight to IVF, and the RE suggested the same thing. It is called LUFS (lutenized unruptured follicle syndrome).

I don't want to scare anyone with this, as it is EXTREMELY uncommon and can only be confirmed with ultrasounds. Most people are cured by it with HCG trigger shot, but that didn't work for us.

So we began our IVF cycle! We started on the birth control pills and then lupron. We ended up doing 3 amps of gonal-f and had 15 eggs retrieved. 11 of them fertilized, and we had eight embryos make it to blastocyst stage. We transferred two of them on 1/28/02. We froze the other six.

We found out we were pregnant of 2/6/02! Our first beta was 260, and the second one on 2/8/02 was 639! So all looks really good, and our first U/S is on 2/25 to see how many made it!

I really feel NO different. I had NO implantation spotting. The only thing that was a sign was my ovaries began to hurt more and more about four days before my PG test. DR said they were a little overstimulated and the HCG was making them inflamed and sore...Other than that, I don't feel too different!

I can't say how much this site is a blessing in my life. Had I not learned from these women and been able to vent, discuss, support and encourage others going through the same thing, and have them support me, I wouldn't have made it!

I know we are not out of the woods yet, but we are very hopeful. As my friend Dede said, it is not really a success story until you hold that baby in your arms! That couldn't be more true.

All I can say is, never give up hope. I had almost given up the day before my PG test and my husband said, there is still hope. And there was!

The chances are so high that for everyone here, they will be PG at one point someday! I wish with all of my heart that everyone here finds success soon.

Luv
Nicole (From IVF board)

I had a pregnancy test today. I am pregnant. My HCG level is 235. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

I am absolutely thrilled because DH and I had pretty much decided to give up after this.
In the last 2 1/2 years, we've been through 3 rounds of IVF plus 2 frozen embryo transfers,
a bilateral varococelectomy and 2 testicular biopsies.
No fun to say the least!

I do not feel pregnant at all. In fact, I feel like AF is knocking on the door.
I have lower back pain and cramping, but no spotting.

I just discovered this website 2 days ago, but I've been reading it non-stop
and found it very uplifting.
My message to all you readers is hang in there.
Sooner or later you'll be a positive too!!!!

I wanted to share my story, because I found it so helpful when I was trying. I just found out four days ago and I'm still stunned!

After a year of trying, I went to my Midwife and told her I was sure there was something wrong with me. I'm 27 DH is 28. My Midwife told me age was in our corner, but she wanted to get a SA just in case.

The results showed DH had low count and only 18% motility. Midwife referred us to a urologist, but told us to go home and have a bottle of wine and DTD, there was still some hope.

We made the appointment, but they couldn't take DH for 2 months. So we DTD and had some fun.................

Well you guessed it, that's when it hapened. When our expectations were the lowest, God came through for us.

Here are my temps for those who are interested: