Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Hi, I've been lurking here for a while and have found a lot of good information and comfort here - thank you for sharing your stories. I am feeling increasingly stuck and scared and frustrated and hope some of you could offer some advice.

My background - I'm 33, been trying for about 14 months, one chemical pregnancy about 9 months ago.

Started testing in June with OBGYN (apparently normal Day 3 blood work, normal semen analysis, normal day 21 progesterone). Have been doing acu and Chinese herbs since May to try to "relax" and shorten my cycles a bit (they were a bit out of whack since the chemical, but actually have regulated in the last two months).

Went to North Shore LIJ last month for more info/western advice - they took more blood (normal), and a sono (showed normal progression towards ovulation). I was told to wait for blood results ut to BD as the timing was perfect.

Everything is "normal" but despite months of charting (opks, cbefm, BBTs) and well-timed BDing it's not happening. Went back to North Shore last week to ask what more I should do, test, etc., and while they are not pushing me to do it, it was advised that if I want things to happen I should jump into clomid and try 3 cycles of that.

But in the next breath the Dr told me I could just keep on going as is, without doing clomid, and it should just happen.

Does this seem like appropriate advice? I asked whether I should do an hsg or something, and she said I could, "why not, check it off as done" but it seemed that the doc has a standard protocol of clomid to iui to injectibles with ivf and I feel totally overwhelmed. I feel like somethingis stopping me from just jumping into this...arent there other tests that could be run or something? Is this protocol normal for most fertility docs when dealing with a person who has normal blood levels and ovulated on her own??

Thank you for reading this! I don't know what to think or feel and don't want to waste time but also am scared of jumping into treatments.

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

sending you FM

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

you said they took blood. what kind of tests did they run on your blood? my doctor did a panel to look for genetic issues, blood sugar issues, clotting and immunity issues, antibody tighters on things like chicken pox, etc., and a slew of other things i can't remember. DH gave blood too, and they ran a portion of the tests on him as well. did they do any of this?

a lot of us are unexplained infertility, where everything looks good on paper but it still doesn't happen. I am unexplained, and I'm going on 2 years with a failed IVF and 3 chemical pregnancies behind me. and my GYN blew me off when I tried to raise the issue that there might be a problem.

sometimes they need to be pushed to care about it as much as you do.

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Your story is just like mine. Everything is "normal"...every single test/sono/blood work run came back fine. So with that being said. We tried timed BD, then medicated cycle then we went onto IUI. We tried 5 of those each time adding something alittle more aggressive and nothing
This cycle was my first IVF cycle and will have my beta on Tues.

Unexplained is the WORST. Its so frustrating
I would def. try the clomid and IUI and get moving. I wish I had started earlier. Good luck to you and FM me with any questions....

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Posted by Irishgrl1017

Your story is just like mine. Everything is "normal"...every single test/sono/blood work run came back fine. So with that being said. We tried timed BD, then medicated cycle then we went onto IUI. We tried 5 of those each time adding something alittle more aggressive and nothing
This cycle was my first IVF cycle and will have my beta on Tues.

Unexplained is the WORST. Its so frustrating
I would def. try the clomid and IUI and get moving. I wish I had started earlier. Good luck to you and FM me with any questions....

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

honestly, i would not do medicated (clomid or injectible) IUIs without doing an HSG first. the HSG is such an important test because it will tell you if your tubes are blocked. my dr recommended this right away and had mine done within 2 months of being a patient. good thing i did because it turned out one of my tubes was blocked. if you have a blockage, essentially the IUI would be a waste. i believe the HSG also looks at the uterus to see if there is anything wrong there.

besides blood work, HSG and post coital (not real popular test anymore), my DH had blood work and SA.

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

A SA and HSG test is a really good starting point. If your tubes are blocked you won't get pregnant without clearing them and if DH has a problem obviously that is an issue without some intervention.

I would start with those tests right away.

Good luck!

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Message edited 8/18/2011 12:17:34 PM.

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Re: Advice? I don't know what my next steps should be

Posted by Irishgrl1017

Your story is just like mine. Everything is "normal"...every single test/sono/blood work run came back fine. So with that being said. We tried timed BD, then medicated cycle then we went onto IUI. We tried 5 of those each time adding something alittle more aggressive and nothing
This cycle was my first IVF cycle and will have my beta on Tues.

Unexplained is the WORST. Its so frustrating
I would def. try the clomid and IUI and get moving. I wish I had started earlier. Good luck to you and FM me with any questions....

Message edited 8/18/2011 12:22:27 PM.