Oh, the ups and downs of it all. Once again, no baby this month. I guess that means I start Clomid in a few days. I went to get my prescription filled, and to my surprise, our insurance does not cover Clomid. It was only $55, but that's just for one month. This is going to be expensive!

Joel and I had an argument yesterday over whether or not we should do IUI with Clomid. He wants to try it the natural way, and I think that if I'm going to jack myself up with drugs we should do it the way that is most likely to be successful. After much searching, I found some statistics. Without IUI, the rate with Clomid is 5.6% successful. With IUI, the success rate is 8.3%. That represents a 48% increase in success by doing IUI. Joel wants to go as low tech and noninvasive as possible. I want quick success. We're still discussing this issue. Here's an interesting slide show I found published by George R. Attia, MD., of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

I just got back from yet another doctor's trip. Geez. I seem to visit the doctor twice a week now. Today Joel and I went together to meet with a reproductive endocrinologist. My diagnosis? Possible luteal phase defect, if such a thing exists, according to the doc.

The good news was I left with prescriptions in hand and will be starting Clomid next month. At least I think that's good news. I've heard the side effects can be overwhelming and cause mood swings - like I don't suffer enough from those already. Poor hubby.

The scariest side effect of all is the possibility of twins or more. See, my family is pretty unique in that we really don't need Clomid to produce twins. My grandmother was a twin. She had twins who were stillborn I believe, my aunt (maternal) had twins who were stillborn, my cousin (maternal) had twins...none of that generation skipping stuff here. That's just the identical ones! My aunts on my dad's side are fraternal twins. Are there genetic tendencies for fraternal twins? I have no idea, but I suspect that if I take twin increasing drugs I will have twins.

Not that I'm opposed to the idea, mind you. I would love to get it out of the way so I only have to go through this nonsense once. However, things never turn out that way for me.