CD7: A bit of understanding about my cycle

I haven't heard from Dr. Czech's office as it's Saturday and my stressed phone message to them yesterday wasn't an emergency, but more a plea for understanding.

I stayed up late last night, until 2AM, reading and digesting. I've read a number of his articles before but I hadn't tried to find any that spoke to the sort of protocol I was on because, well, I didn't understand what sort of protocol I was one! However, I found a few articles of the Dr's online which helped me understand what he's going after.

So. In a nutshell.

The estinyl estradiol (EE2) forces your FSH down and gets your granulosa theca cells to do create more FHS receptors.

Think of it this way: you cut off the FSH but your granulosa theca cells WANT FSH. So they make more receptors to capture whatever FSH comes their way. It makes them very efficient with whatever FSH they can find and capture with their "receptors". They become hypersensitive to FSH and therefore act like cells from a younger person!

So you stick with this oral EE2 until the FSH tanks (becomes normal) and the E2 rises to above 50. He notes that EE2 doesn't cause your blood E2 values to change. Different chemical. So the EE2 gets the FSH into the normal range, gets the granulosa cells primed for FSH. The body's own FSH helps to mature the follicles but if it slow you can add in extra FSH (150 to 220iu of FSH the latter amount if you're using ganirelex or cetrotide).

It's a very low dose cycle - but it's interesting how he's making the body use it's own FSH here and then helping out where necessary. I did see one article where he said that this is not only successful with older patients, but that it helps to really save on costs for IVF drugs.

Brilliant.

It's too bad that his nurses, after a few years of nursing school, and probably multiple years of working for him, don't understand his protocols enough to help calm patients' nerves.

I can guarantee you that he and I will have a very long talk next opportunity. I think he is an utterly brilliant man who is doing studies that aren't what universities consider "lucrative" or those that would entice big pharma funding. In other words, pharmaceutical companies wouldn't want to fund his research because his work shows that 900iu pens of gonal-f aren't exactly necessary. Imagine spending $500 for your cycle meds rather than $10,000? His research money is probably not huge, despite his working a university IVF clinic outpost, but he persists on doing work that is really insightful and meaningful. Seriously, ladies, from what I read last night, I can that this man is one of the few that is truly on our side.

Maddy: Maybe you need to be cycling with Dr. Czech? :-)

Postscript: I just realized that in one month I will be 46 and it'll be time to update my age on my blog headline. I hope to one day edit that headline to speak to a success.