FSH injects + TI?

Does anyone know if it's possible to do Puregon or Gonal-f with TI (timed intercourse) rather than IUI/IVF? I was considering asking my FS about it, but not sure if the PBS covers the FSH for that type of cycle?

Thanks in advance.

It is possible. I spoke to my old FS about it but I am planning on using leftover fsh.

It's what we used and had success. Happy to answer any questions if I can.

Thanks ladies. We've only ever used them with IUI or IVF, so wasn't sure if that was a condition of prescribing (since I O without meds). I'm not sure how they work with the PBS requirements since the PBS says it's for annovulatory infertility.

I'm not even sure if my FS will go for the idea, but didn't want to waste his time asking if we'd have to pay out of pocket for the FSH. Given that I'm a poor responder (low AMH) and it has been 2.5 years since our last stim cycle I was thinking it might be a good trial run for IVF to try a lower dose FSH cycle with the TI. I'm nervous about jumping straight into an IVF without some idea of how I will respond to the meds now that I'm older.

Keta, congrats on your BFP. If you're in a similar situation (ie poor responder), I'd be interested in hearing details (eg doses, which cycle days for injects). I'd also be interested to know how many follicles you had and whether you used a trigger?

My fs expected me to respond well to the fsh injections but I was kind of all over the place. I think it mainly had to do with my pcos. I'm not sure if I would be classed as a poor responder but I was certainly unpredictable.
First cycle I got 1 follicle (50 units), second cycle I had one decent size and one medium (50 units). Third cycle they went with 75 units and my body went really weird. My hormones did not respond at all and until they did the scan I think they thought I wasn't injecting. The scab showed around 15-20 follicles (probably 10 big enough to have an egg but others could have). The cycle was canceled because everything was so out of whack.
Forth cycle (75 units) I got another 10 follies but hormones were fairly normal. We didn't try as too many and Dh was really scared about ivf (they would have been happy to collect eggs if we had wanted).
Last cycle we went back to 50 units and added metformin. It took six weeks to get one follicle but I guess that one was enough.

We used a trigger each time and then progesterone pessaries for the tww. I can go six to eight months without ovulating so I guess that could be why it would take six weeks for me to get one follicle without over responding. Injections of puregon started at cd3 and continued until I would have a mature follicle.

Hope that all made sense! On my phone so can't really edit what I have written.

Thanks Keta. By comparison, as a poor responder, last IVF I used 450iu of gonal-f and got 5 eggs (and, thankfully, a BFP). I was curious to know if you ever triggered with 2 or 3 follicles, but it sounds like it was always 1 (mature) follicle. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi Juniper,

This is how I conceived my DS and also the pregnancy I just lost (and my chemical I guess). I too have PCOS and don't ovulate, but hubby's swimmers are fine so theoretically IUI wouldn't increase our chances. In terms of cost it was not covered at all by medicare. My clinic charges a flat fee which covers all meds, scans, blood tests etc from start to finish of cycle. This was $580 per cycle. This worked out cheaper than what we paid out of pocket for our 1 IUI cycle, which was more expensive but we did get some back from medicare.

My response was similar to Keta- very unpredictable! I have done 9 cycles in total. Ist one was successful with DS but then it took 8 to get our BFP second time round. The frustrating thing is the length of the cycle, they go slowly at low dose to avoid overstimulating and it can take AGES. I triggered anywhere from day 15 to day 30, the long cycles sent me bonkers and I seemed to get really bad PMS after about day 20 so by the time we had to DTD our relationship had suffered a bit from me being on edge and moody and that didn't help. I had one cancelled cycle where I had 4 follicles, anything above 2 they cancel.

There was a bit of pressure from the clinic to switch to IVF after 5-6 failed cycles but we didn't want to for various reasons and because we knew it had worked before so it was just a matter of getting lucky. We were given 20% chance of success per cycle.

Hope that helps. Good luck

Thanks Lyra. I was sorry to read of your loss on the m/c board.