Infertility Chronicles: Test results

I’ve been waiting for my infertility work-up to be complete before I updated things.

I did the clomid challenge test last month, here are my results:

Day 3:  FSH level 9.23 [<10 ideal, normal], Estrogen level 53

Day 10:  FSH level 11.4, Estrogen level 402

From what I was told, my FSH levels are elevated [10-15 elevated, 15-20 high, > 20 = moving toward menopause and no egg production]; the FSH is telling us about my ovarian reserve – my ovaries have to work a lot harder to create a follicle, and egg quality/count may be an issue too.

Apparently a clomid challenge test that shows poor ovarian reserve is predictive for women who won’t get pregnant.  Therefore, it is unlikely that I will get pregnant on my own naturally.

My estrogen levels are good – I had a normal response to the clomid.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I’m not ovulating on my own [actually I'm not sure if I ovulated with the clomid challenge cycle as they didn't choose to check my progesterone level - this is not part of their protocol].  Has it been standard to check progesterone levels during this part of testing in anyone else’s experience?

[By the way, I got a BFN after this cycle of clomid.  It teased me a little - my period was 4 days late, which is a typical response to the clomid medication apparently.]

As previously mentioned in early January, I also had the hysterosalpingogram test – good news, my tubes are open.

My husband had the joyous experience of collecting a semen analysis in the doctors office.  I think I was more bothered by this than he was – it’s one thing to put myself through the testing, and another to subject someone else to this madness.

His results were fine:

Count: 220 million little guys

Motility: 77% [Normal is >50%]

Morphology: slightly less than normal [Dr. H said this wasn't concerning]

We meet with the doctor next week to discuss our treatment options and statistics related to those options.

I have tried acupuncture in the past, and have done some research on the benefits of acupuncture related to infertility.  I was wondering if anyone out there knows of cases where acupuncture treatments help turn these things around?  The nurse at the clinic said FSH levels can’t be changed??? Any thoughts?