My Experience with Clomid
How Taking This Fertility Drug Made Me a Mom
I dealt with unexplained infertility for five years before becoming pregnant with my son. Now, six years and two children later, I'm ready to do it again!
For many, the path to motherhood is rocky and steep. And for some, it is down-right frustrating. I flushed my birth-control pills the night of my honeymoon, and five years later I was no closer to my dream of being a Mommy than I ever was.
Then a series of events set me on the path I had been trying to get on all along. First, I had a miscarriage, and I hadn't even known I was pregnant. My doctor said, "Well, at least we know you can get pregnant" and she offered to let me try the lowest form of fertility drug there is-- Clomid, otherwise known as Clomiphene Citrate.
I was supposed to take 50mg of Clomid starting the third day of my cycle, through the seventh day. For those not in the know, the third day is the third day of bleeding in a new menstrual cycle. That month went by so slow. For the most part, I experienced little of the side-effects. Mostly, I was plagued with almost constant, low-grade headaches, being a little more bloated than normal, and a mild tendency to become irrational. Only, I didn't get pregnant the first month.
So I went on to the second month and bingo! I was officially pregnant with my son, who is now 5 1/2 and the cutest little tow-headed boy you ever did see. Ironically, when my son was about four months old, I was complaining to my girlfriend about being tired and achy, and she pointed out that I hadn't complained like that since I had been pregnant with my son. "You better go buy a test," she said. I did, and I was.
For a woman that doesn’t ovulate regularly (which is called anovulation), Clomid is said to induce ovulation in up to 85% of women. Of that 85%, roughly half of those will become pregnant. The standard dosage for Clomid is 50mg, 75mg, 100mg or 150mg. And if after taking Clomid for six months, the woman is still not pregnant, then she will be moving onto other fertility drugs—namely injectable drugs like Lupron, etc.
The most common side effects noted while taking Clomid are the ones I mentioned earlier (headaches, achy body, and bloating) and other lovely maladies like tender breasts, lethargy, mood swings, hot flashes and multiple pregnancies (mostly twins, and that is rare, around the 2-5% mark).
So my two months taking Clomid netted me two little blessings, albeit one indirectly, and lord help me, I want to do it again!
I have been irregular for over a year now following laparoscopic surgery (for a tubal pregnancy)and a D&C the day after Christmas '06, so my doctor gave me the choice of going back on Clomid to maybe fix my problem, and maybe get another baby too. (My other option was a uterine ablation, and I hope it doesn't come to that!)
