[Erin84]

I'm getting mixed reviews from Google.

My doc triggered me with four follies on the right: 21mm, 20, 16, 16. (None on the left.)

Do you think those 16s will have a chance? Most of the stuff I'm seeing says that docs like to wait until 18 at trigger to give them a real chance, but that even 15s can do the trick as long as estrogen levels are good. My levels were good, but because I was taking a supplement, so I'm not sure if what they need is body-produced estrogen or any kind of estrogen. (Like, high estrogen production is a good sign, OR simply the presence of estrogen is helpful.)

Thoughts?

[*JenJen*]

there is a chance for the 16's, but I'd guess a slim chance. It just depends on how quick they grow, etc.

[KMH]

Sometimes my 15-16s ruptured and sometimes they didn't...just depended on the cycle and my E2 levels I guess.

Just a heads up about the ones that don't rupture (sorry for being Debbie Downer)...they can become cysts. When mine didn't respond to the trigger, I had to take the next month off and take BCP to make them go away. Hopefully this won't be an issue for you since you'll be

[kayakr]

My RE doens't trigger until one is atleast 20. I am not sure about the minimum requirements to make one viable... sorry.

[Erin84]

Originally Posted by KMH

Sometimes my 15-16s ruptured and sometimes they didn't...just depended on the cycle and my E2 levels I guess.

Just a heads up about the ones that don't rupture (sorry for being Debbie Downer)...they can become cysts. When mine didn't respond to the trigger, I had to take the next month off and take BCP to make them go away. Hopefully this won't be an issue for you since you'll be

Do you HAVE to do a BCP cycle? What happens if you don't and you just let the cysts be cysty? I have a friend who was on Clomid and never had follicular ultrasounds, she was on it for 5 months I think. She never did a BCP cycle, also never knew if she had any cysts from Clomid/follies not rupturing. She does have PCOS though. Have another friend who developed a cyst for no apparent reason (not ttc or anything) and the doc told her she just had to wait for it to go away on its own. That wasn't an RE though, just a normal OBGYN. I don't want to take a month off -- we only have four tries to get a 2012 baby! Fingers crossed...

[KMH]

The way I understand it (someone jump in and correct me if I'm wrong), if you feed those cysts with more hormones (Clomid) they can rupture and/or disrupt the next medicated cycle. I know other ladies on here that have had cysts and just had to take the month off...no BCP. I think my doc just wanted to be absolutely sure that they were gone asap so that we didn't have to take more than one month off.

[*JenJen*]

I had to take a month off after each clomid cycle back in 2008, because I was always developing cysts and had to let them rest and I am allergic to BCP so it was just a rest month.

This time around, I've not had to rest, but my first clomid cycle was a BFP(ectopic loss), second cycle got canceled because I had an LH surge when my dominant follicle was only at 13, third cycle was another BFP(chemical), and we've not had another ultrasound since.

[Erin84]

So how do the Clomid cysts differ from, say, PCOS cysts? Should a woman with PCOS be advised to do a cycle of BCP before starting Clomid?

[*JenJen*]

It really depends. I have PCOS, and when we started clomid originally I had horribly cystic ovaries and was anovulatory. We'd tried BCP to suppress my cysts and that was when we discovered my allergy to them. I've since made major lifestyle changes and my PCOS is under much better control, though I still have cystic ovaries. As long as my cysts are small and my e2 is under control, my RE will let me cycle with cysts. Anything over 10mm would cause him to want to wait a cycle to see what the cyst does. That hasn't been an issue so far, because I've yet to have any cysts that large while actively cycling