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letrozole or femara

well i recieved my negative beta today and they want me to do a cycle of letrozole or femara which is an oral pill simliar to clomid..  my question is has anyone ever tried this med before, any side effects and any success..thankyou in advance
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725941 tn?1297882209
I've been on Femara and had great success with it!  I had stopped ovulating for some reason, after my second month I got pregnant!  I haven't tried clomid but my doctor said he would always reccommend Femara over clomid....I had a bit of a headache on the days that I took the pills (days 3-7 of my cycle) but it didn't bother me.  It also doesn't dry up your cervical mucous which I heard can happen with clomid.  I had TONNES of EWCM on Femara.  I'll be starting it up again next month.  I wish you all the luck in the world and I'm sure this will make a difference for you!

Take care!
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Avatar universal
thankyou everyone for ur response
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Avatar universal
Oh wow, I had headaches all last week, really, really bad ones. I thought they were just sinus but looking back I can say with certainity that they started and stopped with the femara. Were yours really bad?
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795248 tn?1250686616
I have been on femara for the last 4mos.  The only side effect that I had were headaches but they went away a few days after I finished the med.  Good luck!!!
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Avatar universal
I agree with what Nat said.  Clomid can cause moodiness, hot flashes, thin lining and dry up your CM.  Femara works on a different hormone then Clomid and is not suppose to have any of those side effects.  I did 4 cycles of Clomid on the lowest dosage and 1 of Femara on the lowest dosage.  The Clomid did dry up what little CM I did have and made me a little moody.  I didn't notice any of that with the Femara.
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691236 tn?1311199974
Hi there-

I used clomid my first 2 IUI cycles-only had 1-2 follies.  And my uterine lining was VERY thin-probably too thin for implantation.  I guess clomid can thin your lining.  I did femara last cycle and had 6 follies!  My lining was still not great, but better than it was on the clomid.  I am starting another round tomorrow.  I had 0 side effects.  On clomid I had hot flashes at night.  HOpe this is helpful!  I liked it a lot better.  :)  Good luck to you.  
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Avatar universal
That's good to know :) Maybe thetam01 and I will both have results as great as yours! I hope so!
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359321 tn?1278268890
p.s. no side effects for me either
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359321 tn?1278268890
Yes, I used Femara in order to conceive my last son. I will be using it again this month to try to conceive again. I actually took it for 6 months and had no luck, went to a fertility specialist, took it combined with a trigger shot and got pregnant the first try :-)
It worked for me, best wishes!!
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Avatar universal
By the way, am I the only one who finds it ironic that my ovaries or follicles or whatever are quiet??? I mean, that's like the one part of my body that is actually quiet, you know? Sorry, it's been a really bad week all the way around :)
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Avatar universal
Hey girl, just spotted your post up here. Yeah, I had really bad hot flashes from the clomid so they put me on femara (primarily used to treat breast cancer, apparantly it either blocks estrogen or tricks your body into thinking it doesn't have enough and  thus produces more or something to this effect). For the first IUI with the clomid I had two follicles emerge and then they gave me a trigger shot of Ovidrel. This go round with the femara I have six follicles just kind of hanging out in there with not one of them stepping up to dominate. They keep saying I"m quiet, I'm quiet, they aren't getting any bigger and they aren't doing anything. So then they prescribed four days worth of some other type of drug which is also primarily used for breast cancer treatment and pretty much works the same way as the femara called tamoxifcan or something similar. I can't remember I don't have the bottle in front of me. It's similar anyway. I just finished taking my second dose of it so I have Friday night and Saturday night to go. I'm hoping that these follicles will have grown between now and then and that they can do the second IUI by Tuesday. I didn't really have any side effects with the femara and I'm really glad that it caused the six follicles rather than the two. I just wish those six would get off their lazy rear ends and grow already. Anyway, the way my RE explained it was that clomid is kind of like the first line of attack (so to speak) because it has been around and you know it's FDA approved for just this sort of thing so we're basically talking covering your rear end due to medical malpractice lawsuits, etc... I mean he didn't come out and say that. I think he said medico legal atomospher, etc., etc... The femara is FDA approved in the treatment of breast cancer and they are just using it for infertility because hey it works there too. My RE said that if femara and some of these other drugs had of been around from the same time clomid has been (I believe he said something like 40 years or so, I could be off on that figure though so don't hold me to it) then you might actually see one of these other drugs as the preferred one of choice for the front line. He said that the clomid really, really affects the entire body (he's telling me he wasn't the one who thought his body was baking in a 500 degree oven for about 20 minutes at a time about 30 times per week OMG! IT was BAD). He said some of these other drugs like femara mainly target (the ovaries?) I could be wrong there, they specifically target whatever it is they target rather than up-ending the entire body. Anyway... It's been a long day and I'm rambling :) Again.... Yeah, I do tend to do that don't I? Hang in there :) I know how hard it is I mean I've ONLY cried about four times this week that's down from three days straight after getting a BFN from the first go round   :)   Maybe this month will be better. Forget about the 2ww I"ll just be glad to be able to get there! LOL I was supposed to have had my 2nd IUI by Wednesday AT the absolute latest this week. Oh, this is so much harder than what I imagined it would be when we went in for the initial consultation with the RE. It'll get better. I mean at least we get to turn right back around and try again right? I'm sorry you got a BFN but it'll get better. Just hang in there and keep me updated on how you're doing. Let me know what you get put on for this time around.
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