Advice on my next course of action

[atomic sagebrush]

We have tons of girls on here with Hashimotos' having their 3,4 or 5th kids!! Itwill be ok.

I am not a believer in "fine one day, disaster the next". 999 times out of 1000 there is a lot of warning about things going south and even when things are going south you generally have years to get pregnant before it's impossible. May not be as easy as when we all were 21 but it CAN AND WILL happen.

[CarolineSinclair]

I got my period and had an ultrasound today, but I didn't like the results. I have 9 follicles and they like at least 10. I had bloodwork too so I'll see what that says. The sonographer said 9 isn't atypical for my age, but that doesn't make me feel any better seeing as how it's not the minimum of what they want.

[CarolineSinclair]

Just got the FSH result and it was good. Wednesday I see the new doctor and she will order the AMH and we'll go from there.

[atomic sagebrush]

9 is practically 10! HOnestly that's not too bad at all - there are many ladies on this site who would do a dance of joy to see 9!

What was FSH just out of curiosity??

[CarolineSinclair]

Well that's good to know! I was really disappointed about the 9 number.

I can't remember the FSH exactly but I do remember the lady said it was good. That they want it to be under 12 I believe? And under 10 is even better, and I think mine might have been 7. The thing that made me feel good was she said all my blood test numbers were really good, although I'm not sure why they didn't test the AMH and I'm still worried about that.

And I just have to hope my thyroid doesn't go off again in the meanwhile. That was what held me up with the first IUI, I had been going to get it much earlier but my thyroid got all messed up again and it took months to get it back to normal.

[atomic sagebrush]

The good news is that if FSH is good, AMH is PROBABLY good too. They work in concert with each other. FSH is a signal to your ovaries to develop eggs, and then the eggs themselves signal back when they're developing so your body stops making FSH. Over time your body gets "deaf" to the FSH and has to make more and more FSH to get the eggs to develop, and then additionally, if there are very few eggs, the reverse signal is too quiet to shut the FSH down. your body has to make a lot of FSH if your AMH is low.

[CarolineSinclair]

The good news is that if FSH is good, AMH is PROBABLY good too. They work in concert with each other. FSH is a signal to your ovaries to develop eggs, and then the eggs themselves signal back when they're developing so your body stops making FSH. Over time your body gets "deaf" to the FSH and has to make more and more FSH to get the eggs to develop, and then additionally, if there are very few eggs, the reverse signal is too quiet to shut the FSH down. your body has to make a lot of FSH if your AMH is low.

Oh that's good to know! They still haven't tested it yet, they are going to test it closer to when I will do the IUI.

I had a meeting with the doctor last week. So I'll be trying a monitored and medicated IUI next cycle. It's going to be a lot more costly than it was with the natural cycle, but more chance of it actually working. Unfortunately my insurance doesn't cover any of it. But I want try this first before going to IVF. The IVF is much more costly and sounds a lot more complicated as far as they said I'd have to undergo anesthesia which I am scared of.

The egg freezing/fertility preservation just sounds too costly. It's about $10,000 a pop and they would need to do 3 cycles to get the number of eggs they want, and that's not even counting the cost of sperm and the IVF.

So, fingers crossed that one IUI will work. I also have to get the DSH test which I'm not happy about, it's very costly and I've heard very painful. It was waived for me last time due to the cost, but this doctor wants me to do it, and it makes sense, if my tubes aren't open I need to know.

[atomic sagebrush]

FX and TX too!

Yes I agree about the test - it makes no sense to proceed if your tubes are blocked altho given what you mentioned about your history you are probably ok unless you have endometriosis.

[CarolineSinclair]

FX and TX too!

Yes I agree about the test - it makes no sense to proceed if your tubes are blocked altho given what you mentioned about your history you are probably ok unless you have endometriosis.

No, I don't have endemetriosis.

I've been worrying a lot that maybe this IUI is a waste of money because they told me it only has a 13% chance of working. That's like nothing, to me. I have a cat that's sick and needs surgery and if they told me he only had a 13% survival chance, I wouldn't put him through it. (The other IUI they told me only had a 7% chance of working. If they had told me that, I wouldn't even have bothered with it.)

Any opinions on whether I should just go directly to IVF if I can afford it?

[The Anchor]

Just my 2 cents...I would NEVER EVER do unmonitored IUI. EVER. It is a waste of time and you will not get pregnant, even if you think you have perfect cycles. Washed sperm will die within 24 hours, the timing has to be PERFECT. You're throwing your money away.