My Date With the Vag Cam (a.k.a. Monitoring Before IUI)

monitoring appointment
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Yesterday, I had my second monitoring appointment to check to see how well the Clomid and injections grew my follicles. (This is all to get me to start ovulating. See more about why I’m doing all this here.) I was incredibly nervous. I started to think about all the “what ifs.” What if there are too many follicles? What if there aren’t any at all? What if my lining is too thin? The ultrasound tech started with my right ovary. There were about 15 small follicles but nothing over 7 mm. I need at least one follicle over the size of 18 mm in order to trigger ovulation. I was disappointed that nothing was there. Then I started worrying there wouldn’t be any on my left ovary either. The tech searched and searched with the wand but couldn’t find my left ovary. She switched to the external wand and after more searching, found my left. She zoomed in and measured a beautiful 20 mm follicle. Whew, relief! She found one other one that was decent size: 15 mm.

After the ultrasound, I met with my doctor to discuss the plan. She said everything was looking great and I’m exactly where she wants me to be. The plan was to inject myself with an HCG trigger shot tonight to induce ovulation and then to have sex tonight. I told her my husband and I were on the fence about whether or not to do IUI (interuterine insemination — this is where sperm is injected into the uterus), instead of trying to conceive the old fashioned way. I asked her, “Should we give it our all and pay for the IUI this cycle or save the money for injections next cycle and only do timed intercourse for now?”  She said, “I’m always thinking about this cycle and giving it our all. I think you should do the IUI this cycle and we can worry about next cycle later. But then again, it’s easier for me to say that sitting in this position. Still, if you were my daughter, I would tell you to do the IUI.” So, go big or go home, right?  We are scheduled to for an IUI tonight and IUI #2 on Friday. Come on, Team Erwin!

Did you do fertility treatments? How did you decide which treatments and procedures to have done?

09/06/12, , , , , Comments:8
About the author:

I'm 26, a step mom, a wife, and trying to conceive my first child. I have been diagnosed with PCOS and have been trying to get pregnant for the past year. I have a long medical history which you can read about here, here and here. I work full time at a large securities firm and spend my free time hanging out with my husband and step daughter, riding our four-wheelers, watching movies, going out to eat and playing around on The Bump, especially the message boards. read more