I am not an ignorant, uninformed fool after nearly two years on this journey, so
Why do you talk to me like one?
Following is an email exchange between my IUI nurse and I today.
(The ellipses are from sections I cut out of the emails for privacy reasons.)
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Good morning!
… I was wondering two things.
(1) Should I get a P4 test at 7dpo? My temps are not nearly as high as usual on my BBT chart, which kind of concerns me. Just wondering if it was only a weak O. Would the prometrium I’m on affect that result anyway though?
(2) For the beta test… do you send me orders for that or do I just call the clinic and ask for that blood to be drawn?
Thanks!
Josey
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Their response…
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Josey,
[Clinic] docs do not think BBT is a reliable way of determining ovulation and even if it usually works for you, taking a trigger shot is different than natural ovulation so it is reasonable to expect that your “chart” would be different.
I know the concept of a “weak ovulation” is all-over the IVF chat blogs and support websites but as with BBT is not a theory our doctors support.
No, you do not need a Progesterone level done yet. We will check it with your pregnancy test if the test is positive… I will send orders to you.
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First off, why is “chart” in parenthesis? FINE if you don’t use it as part of your protocol, but as a leading IF clinic, I would hope you at least were familiar with BBT and knew it wasn’t just some old wives tale! Why are you being so condescending?! UGH.
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[Nurse] –
To clarify, if you refer to my chart you will see that I did not end up taking a trigger shot, which is the reason I was slightly concerned about making sure I actually ovulated. My body seems to mess things up all over the place when it comes to reproduction and I have definitely lost some faith in it throughout this journey.
Whether [the clinic] supports BBT or not, there is science behind it, and my temps have reliably told me if/when I ovulated and how long/short my LP was for the past 2 years (and my BBT charts were the reason I knew to get help in the first place!), so it is definitely something that I look at – hence the reason I mentioned it.
Josey
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I tried to come across in a pleasant manner, but I was pissed!
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Josey,
I am sorry, I forgot that you surged on your own. Your LH was at 40.6 the day before the IUI, which is a very good number so I don’t think you need to worry about whether you ovulated. It is true that BBT works for a lot of patients but there are so many individual factors and variations in patients that it is not a good “clinical” tool and it definitely does not work for everyone. It is very possible that the “stim” drugs could have affected the way your chart looks. If you are not pregnant this month, we could do an ultrasound on the day of IUI next month – this would tell you for sure if you have ovulated or are close to it.
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Okay, so her final response was definitely better than the first, though it still kind of rubbed me the wrong way (though maybe more from residual annoyance after the first response than anything else?). Was that so hard to respond to me like I’m an intelligent human being who just had a couple of questions about a process (medicated IUIs) that is VERY NEW to me?
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