Day 9 scan.. bad news.. IVF likely canceled

[Azwoman]

I am just so amazed how this past year, my fertility has dropped and FSH has gone up again. And for the first time, I dont appear to be responding to the high dose of Gonal F I am on. RE put me on Estrogen priming protocol, and I am on Lupron and Cetrotide as well. On Friday, (cycle day 6) the newer nurse thought she saw 11 follicles.. ranging from 5mm to 9mm.. now, Cycle day 9, the other nurse, who has been there forever, saw only 5 and she had a hard time locating my other ovary. She pressed on my abdomen, which was tender from the cramping I've had from the FSH meds. Seems I have some inflammation and large blood vessels and she said only one follicle that was 10mm now. I do not think this is good news, though she said I will likely convert to an IUI so this isnt a wasted cycle. Unreal. I have never stimmed this hard before, nor responded this poorly. I am wondering if the Lupron or Cetrotide that ive been on since day 1, can prevent me from responding as well. I dount this is the case or else they wouldn't be having me on them. I really hate the thought of going thru a retrieval, paying the labs, etc when there isnt much to work with. I am seeing the doc tomorrow and see what he says. They told me to keep stimming, keep doing what i'm doing so I am. But I'm frustrated. It will take me another two or three months to save up for meds again, and start over. Comments please- thanks

[babyhope40527]

Same thing happened to me, with low ovarian reserve, lupron supressed my ovaries and my cycle got cancelled, when we changed meds and protocol, it worked better in producing eggs, we tried birth control pill instead of lupron. good luck.

my RE didnt want to do EPP, based on too much of monitoring and other overheads involved.

[Azwoman]

I definitely think my ovaries were over-suppressed. A gal I know who is cycling with the same RE is younger than me, lower FSH, and also did not appear to respond as well with the high dose of FSH and she was on Estrogen priming- she feels the Lupron should have been stopped alot earlier and I totally agree. I think I am going to get a second opinion from another RE and I am going to ask for another protocol should I decide to do another IVF. Older women (over 35) with elevated FSH can be over-suppressed by Lupron. Just fyi for the older gals out there that are doing this. This has not been confirmed yet but talking to other women who have done EPP, they agree it is very possible I was over-suppressed.

[Azwoman]

Well I saw RE this morning. Scan showed a couple of the follicles have gotten bigger, but I am still at 5, 2 too small and likely not to mature, and 3 bigger ones. I will be stimming until probably day 13 or 14. he told me to continue with the Lupron (10 units) and Cetrotide. which is costing me $126 for a two day vial. He says the Lupron is not suppressing me, but i did admit I slightly reduced my dosage in the beginning since I simply could not afford more FSH (Gonal F , etc). He said, bad idea and that I am better off reducing towards the end, not in the beginning. My FSH bloodwork showed my FSH was also elevated and he says alot can happen in just under a year when it comes to age. However I did not reduce my FSH injections by that much and I dont believe that is the cause for the low number of follicles. he thinks it did not help, but no point in putting the blame on something- we are on to IUI, not IVF. I will go again on Friday for another scan and an E2 test to see whats developed. If this is a BFN, I will certainly have to buy a ton of FSH meds, enough to last 12, 13 days and take the full amount (750ius) he wants me on when I do the Estrogen Priming protocol. And of couse, I will have to by alot from private sellers to afford another cycle-people have really helped alot by selling left over meds and I know some people frown on it, but if you've got fertility coverage for all of this, you have no idea how much it costs and how stressful it is paying for it, especially when I'm single!!.  Ive decided that if I do not respond well next time, I will cancel again, and move on to donors. But lets hope this IUI has given me some better eggs and that it may be a BFP. Thanks for the input.

[Helen72]

I know someone who responded better to Gonal w/o Lupron.  
I am so sorry this is happening.  When is your next scan?  Obviously your other ovary did not disappear.  What do your E2 levels say??

[TTC2006]

I am so sorry you didn't get good news.  I hope that you do get some more follicles and that you don't have to cancel this cycle.  

While I personally haven't done IVF yet, (I'm still in the IUI stage, and currently trying to recover from an ectopic) the research I've done shows that some women who don't respond well to the major stimming actually respond better to less stimulation in the way of a "mini"-IVF.  I really hope this cycle works for you, but in the event that it doesn't, maybe looking it to a minimally stimulated IVF cycle to see if that would work for you.

Good Luck!