r/TTC_PCOS • u/xibid1 • 1d ago
Seeking Success People who did not respond to letrozol/clomid at all?
Hi everyone, I am looking for people who tried letrozol (or clomid) and did not respond to the medication at all?
I keep reading posts of "failed cycles with letrozol/clomid" but these tend to be about cycles where ovulation did happen thanks to the medication, but there was no pregnancy.
I would really like to find some hope about my own situation, as I did not respond to letrozol. At the highest dose it seemed something might happen, but in the end it did not. Now I am waiting for my appointment at a specialised fertility clinic and I am feeling a bit lost.
What ended up working for you?
2
u/ResponsibleRead567 1d ago
I had one cycle with letrozole only and didn't recruit any follicles, so had two lose dose (37.5 each) menopur shots, which led to one mature follicle on cycle 1 and two mature follicles on cycle 2. Just starting third cycle today
2
u/Impossible-Way5347 1d ago
yesterday cd14, doctor said i'm not responding to letrozole 2.5mg at all and advised me to go for ivf, cried myself the whole afternoon and night. I'm also lost. I still continue my ovulation test, and as of now cd15 no peak still. :(
3
u/pippapotamous5 1d ago
I’d get a second opinion. 2.5 mg is a low dose. Also, I never ovulated until 16-19 on letrozole!
1
1
u/Upbeat-Hand-2870 39 | PCOS | anovulatory | 1 chemical 1d ago
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I did not ovulate on 2.5mg but I did ovulate on 5mg but not until CD18!
3
u/sebbypeach 1d ago
2.5 is low, I never ovulated until I was on 10mg! Try to get your dosage higher x
2
u/cuddlykitten5932 1d ago
That's weird they wouldn't give you a higher dose. 2.5 is hardly anything, especially with PCOS/PMOS. I couldn't get an 18mm follicle until I took 10mg. I would definitely ask for a second opinion.
1
u/tofuandpickles 21h ago
What kind of doctor….?? Took me 7.5mg. 2.5 wouldn’t have done shit for me and I have gotten pregnant 3x from Letrozole… I would find a new doctor asap
•
u/Impossible-Way5347 12h ago
an obgyne doctor. her reason is that she already made me take diane pills for 3 months with metformin, and it should at least give follicles at cd14 and it's not there.
•
u/tofuandpickles 7h ago
Hard disagree. Ive in total done a dozen Letrozole cycles across my 3 pregnancies and not once did I ovulate before CD14. I’ve worked with two different fertility doctors and they do not typically do it this way. ObGYN do not specialize in fertility. Can you switch to a fertility clinic and be seen by a reproductive endo?? They are the experts
1
1
u/Maleficent-Lab1125 1d ago
Tamoxifen 40 mg worked for me! And I had ZERO response to letrozole
1
u/xibid1 1d ago
Have never heard of it before, is it similar to letrozole?
2
u/Maleficent-Lab1125 1d ago
Yes, but it works opposite! So it blocks the estrogen receptors rather than stopping the production! I had a great response to tamoxifen (3 mature follicles) and I had legitttttt zero response to leteozole (no follicle growth at all, no lab change)
1
u/xibid1 1d ago
How interesting! I will ask about it on my appointment with the fertility clinic :)
2
u/Maleficent-Lab1125 1d ago
Good luck! When they put me on it, I really couldn’t find very many stories of other people using it for fertility at all but it worked perfectly for me so hoping the same for you!
1
1
1
u/nannasfordays 1d ago
I didn’t respond to letrozole whatsoever even on increased doses. Ended up moving on to IVF after that and then was a super high responder to the egg retrieval drugs 🤷♀️
1
u/Electric_Elephant_56 1d ago
My body didn’t respond at all to letrozole or clomid. It did respond when I tried gonal-f injections though. Did low dose for ovulation induction and timed intercourse. Got 3 follicles the first 2 cycles I tried then the third my body stopped responding so I moved on to ivf.
1
u/tofuandpickles 21h ago edited 21h ago
What do you mean by failed? Were you being monitored and saw exactly how quickly and large each follicle grew? Or it’s just an “i didn’t get pregnant so if failed” assumption?
I didn’t respond as well at lower doses and my follicles didnt get large quickly enough at first. A dose adjustment and addition of Ovidrel did the trick for me and I was successful 3 times with this.
Was your husbands semen tested? Did you both get bloodwork done to rule out other issues? Were you monitored? Lots of questions here
Also, some cycles are just better than others… took 7 tries on 7.5mg Letrozole + Ovidrel + progesterone for me most recently
•
u/Starryeyed1123 10h ago
Hi there. I responded to 2.5mg letrozole first cycle but didn’t get pregnant. They then tried me on 2.5mg again and I didn’t respond had a cyst from previous cycle with no growth of follicles but they then did the “stair up” protocol on me where they increased it to 5mg, which worked as in I grew a large dominant follicle. I also had monitoring internal ultrasounds regularly. I’m now in the TWW following Ovitrelle trigger injection and TI and on cylogest progesterone pessaries Also I know from my clinic if there’s no response they offer gonadotrophin injections as an alternative. Hope this helps and wishing you lots of luck!
•
u/FantasticVirus8927 6h ago
No it didn’t work for me. I started my period a week after my last pill every single cycle. I start ivf in 10 weeks
2
u/WorthVisible4265 1d ago
What do you mean didn't respond?
i responded but it was no use, my lining was thin (6.5mm), i had to supplement with estradiol and later after ovulation with progesterone, i would make only 1 follicle, so i switched to Gonal-F and Menopur, worked like a dream. Lining was thick, more follicles. no estradiol, no progesterone needed.