OB-GYN Appointment Update

Today I had my CD 13 (cycle day 13) ultrasound appointment at the reproductive clinic. If you can remember from my post a couple of weeks ago, we're in the process of mixing and formulating our "Baby Makin' Cocktail" (for five days last week, I took Femara, an ovarian stimulant, to increase the number of follicles my ovaries would produce).  I had to wake up early as heck as my appointment was at 7am and I had to drive one hour to Troy.  Surprisingly, I made it on time (yall know I'm not an early person).


When I arrived at 7:05am (again, somewhat on-time) there were already 4 women waiting in the waiting room. What time did they get there?!?!? I'd later find out that the earlier you get there the quicker you'll get out (this clinic only does bloodwork and ultrasounds from 7-8:30am).  After about 10 minutes the nurse called me back for the blood draw.  It was quick and easy.  I'm so used to being poked and prodded, needles and giving blood don't bother me at all.  I was instructed to go back and wait in the waiting room until the nurse called me for the ultrasound.


As a waited in the waiting room a second time, I looked around to notice that the number of patients doubled.  I couldn't believe how many women had come in during the 10 minutes I was gone.  It's so awkward sitting in the waiting room at the "reproductive clinic" (aka infertility clinic).  No one makes eye contact, there's no woman-to-woman chatter, no "hello's" or "goodbyes", just pure silence.  As I looked around, it's obvious that we're all there because we are having some type of problems conceiving naturally, and that's awkward enough.  It's not like going to see your internal medicine doctor where people in the waiting room could be there for a number of reasons (cut finger, headache, sore throat,etc).  At the infertility clinic, the diagnosis is the same for all the patients.  We're infertile and we need help.


The ultrasound was next.  They called me back and I was escorted into the ultrasound room.  Once settled, the u/s technician quickly took her pictures and told me that I had three follicles, 2 on the left side measuring 16cm and 17cm and 1 on the right side measuring 11cm.  She also managed to point out that the doctor's like the follicles to be 20cm++.  She then told me that the nurse would call me later to give me an analysis of my blood work as well as tell me when to take my trigger shot and schedule my biopsy.


Around 3pm in the afternoon, the nurse called me with these results:


Estrogen    353.0
LH                5.5
Prolactin     31.0


It turns out that my prolactin levels are still slightly elevated.  Prolactin is a hormone gland that is secreted by the pituitary gland in your brain.  The role of prolactin is to stimulate milk production in pregnant women to allow for breastfeeding. Prolactin doesn't just cause a woman's body to increase milk production but it also affects ovulation and menstrual cycles. (This is why women who are breastfeeding rarely get pregnant). Prolactin inhibit two hormones necessary for ovulation: follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). When you have high levels of prolactin in your blood (a condition called hyperprolactinemia), you will not ovulate and this will result in infertility.  Additionally, a high prolactin level could sometimes just be because of stress.  The normal range for prolactin levels are less than 20ng/ml (mine was 31ng/ml).


Because of my elevated levels, my doctor wants me to go on a medication called Dostinex to treat this condition.  Another medication to add to the list.


The nurse also told me that I'm to inject myself on Wednesday with the Ovidrel shot (in my stomach).  I'll keep you posted on how that goes.  I'm also scheduled to have the endometrial biopsy next Thursday.  I'll definitely keep you posted on that.  


So, in all the visit went good.  I feel like we're getting closer to getting the cocktail recipe right.