Feeling Very Lost & Confused

This is going to be really long so if you make it to the end, Thank you!

For years I have been told that I have polycystic ovaries/PCOS
First by my first OB all throughout my early twenties and was put on birth control to help with the cysts. I wasn't necessarily put at ease but it did explain why i had high blood pressue and why my hair was thinning...I wasn't really concerned about it because I wasn't married and hadn't even met DH.

Fast forward to 2 years ago. I switched my OB to my current OBGYN because DH and I knew that we wanted to get pregnant right away once we got married. I went for my annual visits every year and had a sonogram done every 3 months to check my cysts. I was still on the BCP at this point. He also confirmed that I had PCOS but assured me this would not be a problem with getting pregnant, i just might need help with Clomid.

Fast forward to 1 year ago, DH and I went of the BCP and start trying. We have been trying since then with no success. In December, i had my annual visit and discussed with my OBGYN that we had been trying for so long and nothing was happening. He put me on 50mg of Clomid. January was my first cycle (w/o monitoring and it was a bust) He also told me that I had a cyst in my ovaries and i would need to come back in Feb to do another sonogram. I also asked him to confirm whether or not i really had PCOS because I felt that no one had ever really told me and explained to me if i had it by just looking at a sonogram. We ordered up a whole batch of bloodwork and when I went in for my results told me that all of my bloodwork came back fine, my estrogen/progesterone levels were all normal and so was my sugar. I asked him, does this mean I don't have PCOS? and he said to me there is no one test to confirm if you have it or not (i knew this already) so just b/c your bloodwork says its normal doesn't mean you don't have it.

I went to a RE on Monday because i felt like it was time to take the next step. I brought along all of my medical records along with all of my latest sonograms and when the RE took a look at them and my bloodwork and asked a couple of questions of his own, he wanted to do his own sonogram. Once he did and I met with him again, he obviously reccommended that i needed to do his own set of tests to see if everything is working well with DH & I so we can proceed with whatever else he can help us with. He also mentioned that in his opinion, he did not think I had PCOS since my bloodwork was fine, I did have one cyst in my left ovary, but the other "cysts" in my right ovary were actually follicles that were not mature yet and that is why he thought that my OBGYN may have thought I have PCOS. I also get my period every month, mostly on time and my cycles are generally not longer than 30 days.

He told me based of the sonogram i should try to towards the end of this week since I would probably O around then.

Not that i want AF to come, but if she does, I will have to schedule my HSG for next month and DH has to go get his S/A but not until after I finish O ing to not waste a sample.

Backtrack to yesterday. My OBGYN practices with several other physicians in a large office where there are several OBGYN's and they are an ultra modern office so if your doctor is not available and you need to see someone else, they can easily pull up all of your information on a computer and help you.
I went for another sonogram yesterday to check back with the cysts they found in December.

While I was having the sonogram done, she asked me if i was TTC and I said yes. She mentioned to me that in order to get pregnant, the follicles have to be anywhere between 2-2.4cm long. She mentioned that the follicles in my left ovary were already too large at 3.7 and that i had several follicles on my right ovary ranging is size from 2.4 up to 3cm She told me that I should definately from now until this weekend. Fine, i'm happy at this point thinking wow! i got lucky this month and i know my body is ready!

I walk in to see an OBGYN, who is not my OBGYN but mine had to run to the hospital to deliver a baby. I explained to him that I had been taking clomid and that i wanted to check and see what was going on with my cysts. He told me that i had already ovulated this month based on my sonogram. i was shocked! i was like wait a minute? how can they all be so large? Sidenote: when i went to the RE on Monday, when he did the sonogram, he specifically told me that my follicles were still to small and to aim for this weekend to So from Monday to Thursday they grew so large so quickly that I totally missed it? I want to cry! I asked him how this was possible based upon what the RE said and he had no answers. I then asked him how did i miss it completely since the sonographer told me I had a bunch in my right ovary in the correct size and he just blew it off like oh well maybe she was loking more carefully at them. W T F! shouldn't you be looking at them carefully to really see what is going on so YOU can tell ME? I'm no doctor, didn't you go to medical school for this?

Then I told him how the RE doesn't believe i have PCOS and he was like oh well you have it, mind you he made this diagnosis, all he was looking at was the sonogram. BUT YOU ARE CALLING FOLLICLES CYSTS! he was already trying to usher me out of the door at this point and i sat my a$$ right back down and told him i want answers. how can my RE say i don't have it and you say i do and when he asked me why, i told him and then when he looked at my chart he said oh yeah, you don't have it. W T F again! He said if i don't get pregnant this month that i should speak with my regular OBGYN and see if they will up my clomid dose to 100mg and that i should be using the OPK tests. I told him, i have been using those OPK's for months and i never get a positive and my RE told me not to waste my money since they don't work well with women who are on Clomid.
He was fighting with me telling me that all of his patients use the OPK's and they all get pregnant. well whoop-e-do for them! because here i am and i'm not pregnant! so Eff you!

I swear i have never had such a bad experience with an OBGYN.
So, if you even made it this far, i congratulate you, but i have a few questions...

Do any of you know...does Clomid interfere with OPK's? and I'm new to this still - all the lingo and stuff - but if a follicle has reached the correct size, does it then release into the uterus? or does the egg release into the uterus and grows in there? or do they just stay in the ovaries until they are ready and then they are released? I know that if no egg is released you'll obvi get your period because your uterus needs to shed its lining ...i'm just so confused and i'm at the point that i think i am going to get a 3rd opinion form another OBGYN once I have these tests done to see what someone else says...

Re: Feeling Very Lost & Confused

You could still have PCOS with normal bloodwork. You could still have PCOS without cysts. Its very different for everyone. If I were you, I'd stick with the RE and don't bother going back to that OBgyn. They didnt even monitor you on Clomid- that's a big no no. How else are they going to know how you respond and when it's time to ovulate?

OPKs are useless when combined with PCOS OR clomid, so I dont know why he was even arguing with you about that. I find that most obgyns ironically know very little about reproduction. I dont really know about the follicle size because it's usually measured in millimeters- over 12 starts to become mature, around 22 they are mature and ready to release - they grow about 2 mm per day. If you had already ovulated, they would have seen collapsed follicles, or corpus luteum. Not large follicles.

My advice- continue with the RE and find a new obgyn when you get pregnant. There's no need to continue with this obgyn especially if you're going to an RE now.

Re: Feeling Very Lost & Confused

Re: Feeling Very Lost & Confused

That sounds very frustrating. First off I think you're in the right hands with the RE and would listen to your RE and not an obgyn. RE are specialists and it's their job to help you. They seem to do more in depth tests to find out what's going on. The obgyn is more high level.
I'm not really sure about Clomid, but I thought that if you're on it it might interfere with opk's.

Re: Feeling Very Lost & Confused

Okay...

(1) OPKs don't work for me. I had a similar experience with an OBGYN made a similarly obnoxious comment when I brought this issue to his attention, and yet here I am.

(2) I'd leave the OBGYN in the dust and stick with the RE. They're much more specialized. When I look back at how my OBGYN handled my cycles when I was in the early stages, knowing what I know now, I don't know how they don't get sued for negligence.

(3) Now that you're in the care of an RE, I'd let them do the work of monitoring since blood and sono is more accurate than any OTC pee stick. Plus, you sound stressed out. The RE can take a lot of this worry off your plate so you can relax and get preggers

GL!