About that little white pill called Clomid

I’ve been asked about my personal experience with Clomid so far. In one word: confusing.

For those of you who don’t know what Clomid does to help you get pregnant, here’s the scoop. First of all, it’s typically for women with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) or other ovulation related disorders. Women who have PCOS typically have irregular cycles and may not ovulate, so Clomid helps them to actually ovulate.

Here’s a brief explanation of what Clomid does to your body: Clomiphene (Clomid) assists in increasing the production of egg maturation in the ovaries. It does this by tricking the body. It acts by inhibiting the action of estrogen on the gonadotrope cells in the anterior pituitary gland, which then starts to, or increases to, secrete more FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone). This leads to a higher rate of ovulation. Clomiphene comes in pills that have to be taken orally on days 3 to 7 or 5 to 9 of your menstrual cycle. (Source: wikiparenting)

Possible side effects of Clomid include:

• hostile cervical mucus


• mood swings


• nausea and vomiting


• breast tenderness


• abdominal pain


• insomnia


• headaches


• blurred vision


• fatigue


• depression


• weight gain


• ovarian cysts

On to my personal situation… in case you’re curious about my side effects I’ll tell you that they weren’t bad at all. The first cycle I took it I had some hot flashes in the middle of the night, and I did notice that my EWCM wasn’t as abundant. One other weird thing was that I felt like I was “in da club” when I would go from a dark room to a light room at night. It was like strobe lights flashing all around. Very strange, indeed.



I also have to say that I have never had a problem ovulating. I’ve charted my bbt off and on for quite a few years now, and I always had a clear and sustained temperature rise every month. Typically I would ovulate anywhere between day 13 and day 17 of my cycle. So when the doctor had me start Clomid I wasn’t quite sure what would happen to my body. Logically you would think that if I already ovulate regularly, then Clomid should make me super ovulate, right?



Not so much…


Here’s my typical FF chart BEFORE Clomid:



See that pretty, pretty chart?


Now that I’ve been on clomid the big O has been entirely uncertain…which translates to complete annoyance and frustration. Here’s my first month’s FF chart on Clomid:



And my second cycle, which is the one I’m on currently:



Can you see what I mean? The first one was not too bad…O on day 16 (although the red line is dashed so it wasn’t entirely conclusive), but my post O temps were quite a bit lower than normal. So I’m thinking, “do I have a progesterone issue or something?” I was just a little confused…

And look at my current cycle! I actually decided to use OPK’s this month, and did that between days 11-18, BFN on the OPK’s, the whole time (see all those ugly little negative signs?) I thought I wasn’t going to O at all. O finally came on what I think was day 22, but FF said it was day 25. That’s why I did the override and my chart shows a blue line instead of red. But seriously, DAY 22-25 FOR O??? That just plain stinks! I NEVER O that late…and I’m also concerned about the length of my luteal phase, as my cycles are almost always 28-29 days long. I just don’t know if that’s enough time between O and the end of my normal cycle length for implantation if we were successful. Can you see the conundrum I’m in? Geez.

So now that I’ve vented again, I can move onto the more positive aspect of all of this. I am very thankful that I did ovulate, and it is now day 29 of my cycle with no signs of AF in sight. That’s always a good thing! I don’t think I’ve made it to day 30 in at least a year or more. I’m just not sure if it’s because we have something “more” happening, or if it’s because I O’d so late. I guess time will tell, it always does… tick, tick, tick.

Until I have something more conclusive I’ll keep saying lots of prayers and thinking positive hopeful thoughts…positive hopeful thoughts….positive hopeful thoughts….

Like this one: