My first clomid cycle has been a complete and utter disaster and I don't really know what to do now...

I think the biggest problem I'm facing here is the desperate need for a new fertility specialist, one who is actually a fertility specialist, and not just a gynecologist who dabbles in prescribing clomid.

I had my day 21 blood test on Tuesday, as per instructions, but was unable to get results out of my specialist until 5pm Friday. I was on my way to my acupuncture appointment, walked in and promptly burst into tears. A progesterone level of 1.5 is might depressing!

I have PCOS, and had absolutely no improvement on metformin, apart from losing a little weight. I'm now out of the "overweight" category.

Right on the point in my cycle where I was told I could be expecting to ovulate, I developed major anxiety problems due to stress at work. We don't know yet whether the meltdown was triggered by the clomid, or the meltdown interrupted the ovulation process. Either way my GP has advised me not to try another clomid cycle until after the end of the school term, when I'll be on holidays and under less stress.

My gynecologist went from "sorry, clomid didn't work" to "perhaps you should consider IVF". Rather a leap there, it feels! I've tried on cycle on 50mg of clomid. My DH has a testicular varicocele and we are awaiting a specialist appointment in order for him to get it repaired. The current specialist just rambled on about how we both have problems and that the risk of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities increases with age so we don't want to waste time on this and perhaps we should consider IVF.

Is it possible that 50mg of clomid can fail to have any effect at all, but 100mg or 150mg might actually work? Or is this an indication that we're looking at injections in order to induce ovulation?

I figure that I really need to get myself referred to a fertility specialist who is attached to an IVF clinic so that I can actually be monitored all through the cycle so that we know whether or not things will work before the event, not nearly two weeks later! This is the point where I get extremely confused. It appears that in Sydney there are 4 different IVF clinics, and I just don't know which one to choose! What sort of things should I look for in choosing a fertility specialist?

I feel way out of my depth here and I'm hoping that someone can give me some advice, recommendations and/or point me in the right directions.

BW