I'm Tired of Making Decisions!

[Rainy229]

Long-time lurker here... I just need someone to tell me what to do... or at least a few opinions... I'm just tired of all these choices that I don't want to have to make!

Here's my background:
I've been pretty up-beat for the last 18+months; keeping an attitude of 'it'll happen when it happens,' but after over a year of acupuncture/herbs, I still wasn't preggo. I ended up going to a NP hoping for labs and imaging... what I got was labs and offers of drugs. As I suspected, I have PCOS and sub-clinical hypothyroid; I'm taking the advised medication - synthroid and metformin. My BBTs have been cycling "normally," or so I thought - apparently, I'm getting pretty spikes @ ovulation, but I'm not ACTUALLY ovulating (per recent progesterone lab). I now have several options on the table - hcg, clomid, both, or wait a cycle on metformin and synthroid (this was my first cycle on them).

When I decided to go back to a western medical professional, I told myself, "just metformin and synthroid" (I'd already self-diagnosed w/PCOS and sub-clinical hypothyroid). I really want to "fix" what's not working correctly with my body, but of all the folks I've seen in western medicine, not a single one understands that (and that's a lot of folks not getting it). It's not that I don't want to get preggo, 'cause I really do (I'm kinda upset today, since I found out I didn't O last month, and we had good timing on BDing compared to when I thought I O'd... and that was the last cycle where my due "date" would have been before my 30th birthday [dh is early 30's].)

Part of me wants to just do whatever the NP suggests, (hopefully) get preggo, and (again, hopefully) find out that after having a child, my body's "reset" itself. The other part of me wants to take my time, just use the metformin and synthroid for a while, regulate my thyroid, reduce "bad" labs (insulin and trigs), and see what happens. I really didn't want to use western meds at all to start a family, but apparently my body has other ideas..........

ACK! Please, get on your and tell me what you think I should do...

--Rainy

P.S. I know fostering and adoption are great and needed options, but right now, I'm not that far yet; it'll take a LOT to convince DH of either one of those, but he's alright with whatever I chose to do medically.

P.P.S. I'm not coming here for technical medical "advice," just "friendly opinions." There... legal bases covered.

[Autumnlaughing]

I feel pretty much the same way - my thyroid seems OK (so far, my Mom is hypo + is always telling me to have mine checked AGAIN), but the PCOS thing is really an issue.

When DH got laid off a year ago, it was a great excuse to take it easy for a bit + see if my body would normalize out more on it's own (I was on the pill for a decade beforehand...). And it has, at least a bit! Although I should say that the RE I saw looked at my charts + didn't doubt that I was ovulating, given my temp spikes. (Which are slow rise, I have a pretty short luteal phase on my own, and I spot for 4 days before AF, usually...) I also tend to get the weird side effects, so that colors my opinions.

Since you asked if I was you, I'd try a few months on just the met + the synthroid. Then you always have more things to try if it's not working.... which might help you feel a little more in control if things take a bit longer (even perfectly.. it's only a 1:4 chance, right?).

[Rainy229]

Thanks, I needed that! I'm still thinking about a plan, but I get some weird symptoms @ "O" time (vomiting and diarrhea; but not related to pain), and one suggestion was that perhaps the symptoms are due to my body getting ready to O, but then not Oing. I'm pretty sure my plan will look something like "stay on met and synthroid, do pre/post O US, and think about HCG..." I want to try it because, let's face it, who likes knowing they're going to puke? Granted, if I get what I'm after, I'll likely face that whole thing again, but it's different when it's for a new life, instead of a whacked out body... ahh, I digress.

Thanks again! If there's anyone else wanting to give their opinion, I'm still looking for 'em - if you can't tell, decision making is not my favorite activity.

Thanks!

--Rainy

[bella99]

If you're wanting to address the problem with ovulation but not take western medicine, would you consider taking Soy Isoflavones? It works similar to Clomid, but is gentler on the body.

Also, it sounds to me (in my "expert" infertile opinion) that maybe you ARE ovulating based on symptoms and temps, but that the quality of the egg is low and you're not getting pregnant, and the corpus luteum is not making enough progesterone even at cd 21.

If that was the case, both Clomid/Soy and HCG would help to grow and mature better quality eggs.

And FWIW, after my daughter's birth (conceived with injectables), my body seems to have reset itself about halfway. I ovulate on my own now (yay) but very late (cd56), so this most recent cycle, I tried Soy, brought my ovulation date to cd15 and got pregnant.

[Rainy229]

OOH, another option to look into, thanks, Bella99! I am hoping that my body can reset itself too, provided I can get preggo in the first place. Thanks for your input!

Rainy

[IdahoMom]

I don't know anything about soy isoflav.s, but you might do some reading on soy's effect on hypothyroidism. I avoid soy myself, but again I'm no expert. For me it takes met a few months to really start working, and when I started on Armour thyroid they told me it could take 3 months for it to work. So if I were you I'd hang in there for a couple more months, but I know how hard it is to wait when you just want that baby!

[poppan]

I don't know what your chart looks like... but do wonder if you are ovulating and then not producing enough progesterone to sustain a pregnancy even if you conceived. If it were that, that's pretty easily solved with progesterone supplements (not just the over-the-counter cream stuff -- I'm talking suppositories). I don't think extra progesterone hurts (except to make you constipated!) so I would look into that in addition to the other things.

[Rainy229]

IdahoMom, thanks for the heads-up on soy and hypothyroidism. Within a week of starting synthroid, I could tell quite the difference in the remaining symptoms I've been having (cold feet... I've been using acupuncture and Chinese herbs for a while that have helped significantly... I'll find out an a couple weeks how much more the synthroid actually is helping - when I was put on synthroid, my TSH was 3...). At this point, I'm just waiting for AF... I still haven't decided if I'll try the soy this month or not... part of me wants to try it, because I have horrible symptoms at "O" day and end up missing work because of it, and the fewer O's that do that, in my opinion, the better... :-/
Poppan - I'm not sure if that's the case, my dr said I didn't ovulate 'cause my progesterone was 0.3 seven dpo. Like I just mentioned, I get yucky symptoms when I supposedly O (nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting), and it's obvious that my body is doing SOMETHING... I'll certainly look into that; I wonder if it's possible I DID O, but just didn't produce the progesterone that the doc measured to determine that I didn't O... hmmmm....

Thanks, guys!

Rainy

[MBFoley]

I have only read the initial post, I'll go back and finish the thread after I post.

I am in a similar boat but not the same one. After trying to get pregnant for a year with no success, I went in for a round of testing, specifically for thyroid and pcos since we suspected both. We found nothing wrong except that I apparently hadn't ovulated (via prog test). I was pressured into taking a scrip for clomid and was told we need to do something because I'm "not getting any younger" (I was 32 at the time). I went away frustrated, confused and scared. Doubly so when I learned that since we had done progesterone testing and I recieved the scrip for clomid (which I had taken home and thrown away, I didn't want it to begin with), this visit was determined fertility treatment and my insurance doesn't cover it, so I was responsible for the bill.

Fast forward another year and I am still not pregnant. We did find through a naturopath that while my thyroid is fine, my anti-thyroid (I think this is what he called it) is sky high which is why I have so many symptoms of low thyroid. Whether that's why I'm not pregnant or not I don't know, thus far it's the only thing verifiably wrong. I don't know what to do. We want a baby so bad but I don't want to get pregnant through fertility treatments and I am tired of being treated like I just don't want to be a mom badly enough to do so (something my mom actually had the nerve to say to me). Besides which while we are financially comfortable, we are in no position to fund fertility treatments since our insurance wouldn't even cover a freaking thyroid test due to my mentioning fertility in relation to it. Besides which both financially and medically, fertility treatments go against everything we believe in - getting and staying out of debt and living within your means and not subjecting our bodies to drugs, trusting them to do what they are supposed to do and accepting imperfections as a part of life.

Part of me wants to say screw it, hock everything we own and get into debt up to our eyeballs and ply myself with every drug possible so I can have a chance at having a baby (because we all know all the fertility treatments in the world don't always work).

Anyways, I'm sorry, I don't really have any advice nor do I expect to get any either. I'm just going through a bad time right now, usually I am better and optimistic and all but sometimes I get overwhelmed by the fear and sadness and right now that's where I am.

[Rainy229]

MBFoley