Femara, not Clomid!

So I had my RE consult today with one of the other doctors at the practice (Dr. Cool since Dr. Wonderful couldn't be there). He was very nice and I felt very comfortable with him. He seemed very cool, like he's such a cool guy. Most of my questions he answered while he was talking which is a good sign to me. I hate when the doctor hardly says anything and the only way I can get information is to ask questions. Don't get me wrong, the patient should always ask questions but it's nice when the doctor gives you some basic information first. The one question I forgot to ask is he knew why my left ovary area was hurting so bad. It started shortly after I got my period yesterday and hasn't let up.

Dr. Cool told me that I could take Clomid or Femara and went over the pros and cons to each. Basically the only con I remember for Femara is that I had to sign a form saying I agreed to take it and he said mostly that was due to a (flawed) study that had been done on Femara saying it caused birth defects. He said that Clomid can thin the uterine lining and make cervical mucus thicker, which I knew. He really left it up to me. I decided to go with Femara and my hubby feels I made the right choice. Then the doctor says to me he wants to do some bloodwork and an ultrasound. I was mortified since I had my period and it was a vaginal ultrasound but I figured I need to get used to this! So I had the ultrasound and here my right ovary looks good but my left ovary has a cyst. So maybe that is the cause of my pain. He explained that this ultrasound is a baseline ultrasound so when I come back closer to ovulation he'll know what was already there (like the cyst on my left ovary).

Since my RE's office charges the same amount for a monitored cycle with IUI as they do for a monitored cycle without IUI, we will probably move forward with the IUI as well. He said in almost all cases they do a trigger shot too so I have that to look forward to. He told me that each Femara/IUI cycle has a 15% success rate. That doesn't sound too promising but I'm just going to try to stay even-keeled - hopeful but not too hopeful.

Right now I'm waiting for the call back from them tomorrow regarding my bloodwork results. If everything is fine, I can start the Femara on day 4 (Sunday, 1/1/11 - a great day for a new start!) and take it through day 8. And then the rest I'll figure out as we go.