I get many questions from women who have been given
Clomid by their doctors but are not sure when they should start taking it.
The answer depends on the reason you are taking clomid.
stay tuned and I will explain.
The process of ovulation actually involves
two phases. The first phase that must happen before the egg is released from
the ovary, is the egg must mature. The egg is
contained in a small cyst called a follicle.
As the egg matures, the follicle grows larger.
This follicle growth can be seen and measured on
ultrasound. Once the egg has matured, then it is released from the ovary. This
is what most people think of when they hear the word "ovulation".
Here is the most important fact for you to remember
from this episode. To work best, Clomid needs to be started
before any follicles have started to develop in the ovary.
Clomid for women is used in two different situations.
First, there are women who do not ovulate on their own.
This group of women use clomid to try to get ovulation to occur.
Fertility experts call this "induction of ovulation".
If a woman does not ovulate, she also does not have
any follicle development. In this group of women,
Clomid can be started anytime. At my infertility treatment center in the USA,
I will have women who don't ovulate come into the office
for a baseline blood test and ultrasound so i can make sure that she doesn't have
any follicle development. I look for two things. First, there should
be no large follicles or cysts in either ovary and
the levels of estrogen and progesterone should be low.
It does not matter whether she has had a period
recently or not. Once I confirm there are no developing follicles,
I can start those women on clomid right away.
The second group of women who take clomid, are women who already ovulate
but are hoping to improve their chances for getting pregnant.
The idea here is that women normally release only
one egg each month, so there is only one chance that the egg will be a healthy
egg that can fertilize, develop into a blastocyst and implant
into the uterus. To establish a pregnancy by using a fertility medication like
Clomid, the hope is to get more than one egg to
develop so that there is more than one chance to
get an embryo to implant. Fertility experts call this
"superovulation". Since this group of women already
ovulate on their own, it is important to start clomid early in
the cycle, before a follicle has started to develop.
If we call the first day of a full flow period day one,
then Clomid can be started any time in the first few days after that.
day two, three, four or five. It doesn't matter!
As long as a follicle hasn't started to develop yet,
there is no difference in the chance for pregnancy.
if you start clomid on day two or day five
or any day in between. Here is an expert tip:
On any given month, it is sometimes possible to have
abnormal hormone production from the ovaries or
leftover cysts from the previous month's ovulation.
You don't want to start cComid if either of these situations
is true. This is especially common if you took Clomid in the previous month.
In order to make sure that your body is ready,
get an ultrasound and blood test on the second or third day of your period
to look for cysts and abnormal hormone production
each month before starting clomid. Check out this playlist for lots more
information about Clomid but before you go don't forget to
subscribe to InfertilityTV. It's like having a fertility specialist
in your phone