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Hi Tanner -- You should at least have bloodwork done on cd21 to check your progesterone levels. That will indicate whether or not you are actually ovulating. Prior to 50 mg of clomid for cd 5-9 my progesterone level was only a 3. After one cycle of clomid it shot to 28. This is my second cycle on clomid and I have not been monitored. My dr. said that we would continue the course at the same doseage because I am ovulating now.

On another note have you had a fertitlity workup done yet? My DH and I just did. I had an HSG procedure which checks to see if your tubes are functioning properly. In my case they were. My husband had his sperm count done and I had my prolactin, testosterone and DHEA checked through bloodwork. All essential things required to rule out infertility. All my levels came back normal. It's good to do a work up so that you know what's going on. If your Dr. won't do it then I encourage you to find a Dr. that will. I wish you the best! Baby dust.

lucky-i didnt have a fertility workup done, what happened is my cycles were increasing over the monthes when i first went off bc in dec they were every 31 days for 3 monthes then went to 36 then 39 and then finally at 40, but a couple monthes ago i missed my period for 60 days, i had kept a history of all my cycles, and when the dr looked at them he said i was either ovulaitng too late or not at all. he said it was my choice if i wanted the procedure done to look at my tubes, but said its very rare for a woman to face anovulation and blocked tubes, plus he was trying to save me from a painful procedure so i agreed and skipped it, my hubby had jsut been tested for semen analaysis which came back well over above normal, so he was clear, the dr couldnt stress enough i just wasnt ovulatng and needed some help. so being this is my second month he sai we try upping it, and then if nothing we would do the u/s' b/w and see from there. thats all i know.

tanner -NEVER do clomid without being u/s monitored. It can lead to OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome -if left untreatead and is severe can cause you to have to be admitted to the hospital and have to be drained from excess fluid and can cause death). I had it and its not fun and I was monitored. Read this article which in part states "Too often, doctors give clomiphene to women with unexplained infertility before the couple has a fertility workup, or even after they have a workup, but there is no evidence of an ovulation disorder. This empiric therapy may create new problems, such as interfering with fertile mucus production, and often delays further evaluation that can lead to a specific diagnosis and proper treatment." website: www.inciid.org/article.php?c
at=infertility101&id=249
(if it doesnt come up google "use and abuse of clomid" and the article will come up. If your ob is not monitoring you how does he know if your lining is adequate. I was on both 100mg and 50mg and it thinned my lining so i had to have estrace supplemental to increase with my lining. A thin lining mean no pregnancy or miscarriage. obgyns do not know the same as RE's as reproductive endocrinologiest are specialists in infertility treatments. Oh and by the way the hsg is painful for all of about 2 minutes and it will tell you if you have blocked tubes. If you do what you do with clomid will not help you what so ever. You should never start any fertility meds until you have had a monitoring workup done. Mine was following me for 2 cyles having all the bloodwork done and ultrasounds and follow ups after ovulation with more b/w to check progesterone levels etc. The fact that you are having problems with a regular cycle is indication enough you need a workup. My RE believes anyone off a 28 day cycle by more than 2 days means something has happened in your cycle and needs fixing. A 31 day cycle is too long. Either your follicular phase or luteal phase is out of wack and you need to figure out which one it is. You can do that with free bbt at fertilityfriend.com and learn to do bbt'ing. It's easy and will tell you lots about your cycle. Use opks to find out when you are ovulating (if you are ovulating). the bbt will tell you after you have ovulated not before but it will be able to tell you (and your doctor)that yes you are or no you are not ovulating and use it as a starting point. Go to a specialist not someone who thinks they know what they are doing. Go to an RE and leave the obgyn to do the baby delivery stuff. Good luck ,its a long road but if you do it safely and wisely you will save yourself time and time is of the essence when ttc.

take out the dashes in the website I gave you there are not supposed to be any - in it so take out both of them but the = sign is .

but i do have an ovulation disorder i kept track of my cycles for 8 monthes and they showed that i was ovulating way to late, my cycles were coming every 40-41 days and ovulaitng on day 23-24, he said at that rate i would have never conceived, that anything over 28 days is abnormal cycles. i had a choice if i wanted to do the tube test and i chose not too, not his fault. obviously i'm not ovulating so clomid will fix that. and this is the last month i will go being not monitered by the u/s and bw, i dont want to get all freaked out and think my dr isnt doing the right thing, maybe drs have a dif way of doing things???? my next dr is oct 19th i will definately talk to him about making sure i'm monitered the next month. tahnks for your help, but now i'm extremely nervous

I didnt tell you all that to freak you out but to inform you. Do your own research on clomid and other fertility meds and procedures and Know your stuff so when you do go to talk to doctors you will sound educated and informed. I would never do any fertility meds without being monitored but that's me. I've read enuogh to know the problems that occurs with that and my RE is wonderful. He is the one that found out I have a chromosomal problem and we are now doing ivf b/c I may have no eggs due to my condition. I tried clomid 2 cycles and with monitoring saw what it did to my lining and RE said no more. It's most common side effect is to thin your lining and you dont know how thin or thick yours might be to begin with. My RE as i said did 2 investigative cycles before he even gave me clomid to see what problems might be there. If you think maybe you are pg and that the hcg isnt enough to show on an hpt then request a quantitative beta and it will tell you what your hcg # is.Anything over a 5 is pregnant. It should double every 2 days if you are pregnant. At the very least have a cd3 full bladder u/s to see if there are any cysts, check your lining, and b/w to check your lh, progesterone, prolactin, fsh, DHEAS, tsh, testosterone and E2 levels. Those will give you an idea of where things start for your cycle and where the doc should start things off. Then next step is hsg. If they see blocked tubes you may be able to have a lap or they may say go to ivf. etc etc. It's a long road and it takes time. Clomid is not the correct all to infertility although it does help some. Unfortunately its the first prescribed drug many docs give without knowing what they are doing.

Tanner... my RE put me on Clomid for 3 cycles without monitoring. I was sort of worried about that, but he is a specialist at a very well regarded fertility clinic so I'm hoping he has enough experience to feel confident doing that. (I think it's possible they didn't do more monitoring since I'm paying out of pocket.) He put me on clomid because my cycles (like yours) were very long and I was ovulating late every month. One thing I would strongly recommend is to get your thyroid and progesterone levels tested. My naturopath (not a specialist) convinced me to test those. I've been on thyroid medication for several months and on my last cycle I learned my prog was low (8.8 at 7dpo). I went on prometrium and just got my bfp on my 3rd clomid cycle (after about a year of ttc after a mc). I'm a big advocate of getting as much information as possible about your body, so if you haven't had those tests, I would have them done. Progesterone is a really simple thing to address, and I'm kicking myself for not testing it sooner! I agree with Isa that some doctors don't test enough before starting you on clomid. Best of luck to you. (btw, ISA, how are you?)

Hi Tanner, I was on Clomid 50 mg on cd 5-9 for 3 cycles. Like you, I had long cycles so I sought the help of a RE. Before he started me on Clomid, I had to undergo a fertility work-up bec. he wanted to make sure what was causing my ovulation problem. I also had HSG done. On each of my Clomid cycle, I had to go for an u/s on cd 3 to check if my ovaries were ok, then had to come back on cd 12 for another u/s to check the development of the follicles in the ovaries, then they did cd 21 progesterone test to confirm ovulation. I remained on 50 mg bec. the dose was effective based on the u/s done. It is advisable to get monitored.