My husband was being nosey one day and looking over my shoulder while I was typing in a infertility discussion board and thought the use of all the acronyms was hilarious. So this list is dedicated to my hubby (who reads & stalks my blog).
2WW: Two-week wait (until you can take a pregnancy test)
AF: Aunt Flo(w), your period (menses)
BBT: Basal Body Temperature
BD: Baby dance, sex
BFN: Big Fat Negative (test result)
BFP: Big Fat Positive (test result)
BMS: Baby-making sex
CB: Cycle Buddy (someone who shares the same menstrual cycle/ovulation dates)
CD: Cycle day
CF: Cervical fluid
CL: Corpus luteum
CM: Cervical mucus
CP: Cervical position
CY: Cycle
DI: Donor Insemination
DP: "Dancing" partner; spouse or significant other
DPO: Days past ovulation
DTD: Doing the dance, sex
EW: Egg white (re: consistency of cervical mucus)
FMU: First morning urine
hCG: Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (pregnancy hormone)
HPT: Home Pregnancy Test
IF: Infertility
IUI: Intra-uterine Insemination
IVF: In Vitro Fertilization
LH: luteinizing hormone
LMP: Last Menstrual Period
LP: Luteal phase
O: Ovulation
OPK: Ovulation predictor kit
PCOS (POS): Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
PG: Pregnancy, pregnant
SA: Sperm/semen analysis
TTC: Trying to conceive
So there it is. Betcha didn't know there so many. Some of these seem a little ridiculous to me....for intense: DP- "Dancing" partner......I think I'll start referring to my husband as my "dancing" partner in everyday conversation, haha.
So a little update.....today is the 11th day of this month’s cycle and I just finished my 5 days of Clomid without almost any side effects (just one afternoon of complete irrational irritation followed by crying over nothing) I learned some very helpful information today that I am excited to share. So I have had a bit of anxiety over missing my ovulation last month, it's caused me to worry that the same thing would happen this month and my fears were only validated when I used my fertility monitor this morning and got a high reading (It should not have been high yet!!). Last month my readings were high from the first day I started testing and never dropped, even after a ultrasound confirmed I had already ovulated. So I became panic stricken and started obsessing on how it was going to be another month of no IUI for me. :-(
So this is how these monitors are suppose to work, in case you are unfamiliar........you start testing typically on day 10 (or so) and the monitor has 3 results it will give you, low, high, and peak (meaning 24-36 hours before ovulation). The first day you test you would normally get a low reading, a high reading would appear approx 2-5 days prior to the peak day. A normal ovulation test tests Luteinizing Hormone (LH) surge which occurs approximately 24-36 hours prior to ovulation, it does not detect when fertility is high because it has no way to measure that. A fertility monitor not only detects the LH surge and pinpoints your 2 Peak Fertility days, but also identifies typically up to 5 additional fertile days when you may conceive (High Fertility days) by detecting the rise in estrogen which occurs immediately before this LH surge.
So what does everyone do when they have a medical concern......GOOGLE IT! I should know better than this.....being a medical assistant and all. I'm not going to lie though, the truth is that I have found out more about the birds and the bees in baby making through Google than through a doctor’s office so I am going to stay loyal to Dr. Google. Well guess what I found out?!?! ...........................this is what the Clearblue website said:
"If you’re taking Clomid (clomiphene citrate), we advise you to consult your doctor for advice before using the Clearblue® Easy Fertility Monitor. Clomiphene citrate can raise estrogen levels and this may result in High Fertility being declared early in the cycle and more High Fertility days being displayed, and in some cases the Monitor may not show Peak Fertility even when ovulation occurs."
AH HA! So is there a reason my RE didn't bother to let me know this information?? I mean as the best reproductive clinic in the state shouldn't they have known this information? Whatever, it just goes to show you really must be your own health advocate! So the crappy news is that I am the owner of a $200 fertility monitor that is useless to me.....the good news is that I can use the regular ovulation kits from the drug store and since they don't measure estrogen the Clomid won't affect them! Yea!! So I anticipate having my IUI sometime midweek next week.
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