PCOS - pregnancy options - IVF or injectables

[kaprovea]

My RE told us that we have two options to get pregnant with PCOS.  He said I could take injectable fertility drugs or I can have IVF.  What do people suggest doing?  Which one is more successful?

[Jenny5]

It depends first on your age. If the time is not ticking for you, you can start with injectables for a couple of cycles and then move to IVF. I got pregnant with clomit+injectables 3 times but m/c all three so next time i'm doing IVF. Even injectables are successfull and less expensive than ivf. If that doesn't work you can move on to ivf. Good luck

[ALT76]

If you do IVF, you use the injectables.  I've never heard of using both clomid AND injections - I thought they did the same thing.  Unless Jenny, you are talking about a trigger shot?  Or maybe two separate incidents?  Not sure cuz I'm just about to start the injectables in about 2 days, but I did 5 rounds of clomid in the past.  

Kaprovea, there are a couple of options for you.  First is just taking clomid, which is a pill that you take for 5 days in order to help you O (ovulate).  This can be done on it's own and you just bd around O time, or it can be done in conjunction with IUI (intrauterine insemination).  That's when they wash the sperm to only keep the best ones, and inject them through a catheter through your cervix up to where the eggs should be.  In order to make sure you O, they will give you a trigger shot.  This procedure can be done as I said, with clomid, or with the injectables.  The injections can be pricy for IUI or IVF, but the IUI procedure is MUCH cheaper than IVF, so many women start there.

Lastly, you can do IVF, in which you still give yourself injections to make yourself O, and I believe there is still a trigger shot involved, but they take your eggs out, fertilize them and put them back in.

[kaprovea]

I tried Clomid and it didn't work so the doctor told me that the two options I have are IVF or the injectables.

[Jenny5]

I have done in the past 6 cycles of clomit 50 and 100mg and ovulated only once.This was the treatment my regular gyn give me. Then i changed to an Re who for the first cycle put me on a trial clomit round cause he didn't have any idea if i was ovulating or not my gyn was following only by bloodwork never did a sono. I did for that round 200mg of clomit with trigger shot and IUI. It didn't worked. I asked my re to move to injectables and he was afraid of giving me only injectables because of hyperstimulatin. So he put me on combo of 5 days clomit and 3 days of Gonal f. And at the last day trigger shot. It was my choice to do IUI or Bd. I choose bd and got pregnant immediately. I grow 4 follicles with this method, i have done it three times, got pregnant immediately and all 3 times but m/c all 3. That is why next time i'm doing IVF we want to have a look of the eggs since all the tests are normal, and there is no reason why i'm m/c. When you have pcos you cannot do injectables with IUi is to risky and you might grow to many follicles, that is why they do only IVF with injectables. My re never wanted for me to grow more than 4 follicles because is the risk of multiples, and even with that this last pregnancy i had two sacs.

[ALT76]

Jenny5 - Wow!  That's interesting - I never heard of doing the two at the same time - ya learn something new everyday I suppose.  By the way, I felt terrible for not saying before that I'm so sorry for all of your m/c's.  I can't even imagine....

kaprovea - like I said - injectables and IVF go hand in hand - if you do IVF you need the injections to do it.  I am currently doing injectables with an IUI.  I have PCOS but they are monitoring me w/ultrasounds every other day during the week (M,W,F), and giving me lupron to make sure the eggs aren't released while they stimulate my ovaries.  They are also starting me at a very low dose of the follicle stimulating hormones (I will start all this tomorrow), to see how I respond so I don't get overstimulated.  So IUI can be done with PCOS and injections.  HOWEVER, they did warn me that if there end up being more than 5 follicles that they will either recommend skipping the insemination and just bd'ing - or they will switch to an IVF so they can control the number of eggs that go back in fertilized