Hellobee Boards

• What was your experience? I used Follistim as part of my meds for my IVF cycle but not for IUI.
• Worst side effects? None
• Weight gain or water weight? No
• Was it effective for you? Very effective in growing my follicles!

The pen was easy to use and the needle was small. The only con I can think of was every time I clicked the pen you could feel the medication inject. So it felt like you were being stabbed a few times instead of one. Edit: Another con, it is also an expensive medication if paying OOP.

I thought DW used follistim but it was actually Gonal F...which I believe does the same thing but a different brand. She had Gonal for 3 unsuccessful medicated IUIs and for our 2 successful IVF cycles. It was just for growing follicles, not for any specific issue (our problem is no sperm but nothing else that we know of ) It’s also in the pen injection which is super easy to inject. No real side effects besides feeling really bloated by the time she got to retrieval during the IVF cycles. Minimal weight gain which was water retention and no OHSS. Hard to say about mood stuff because the whole experience of these medicated cycles is emotional and upsetting sometimes. I think it depends on dosages too: more noticeable changes during the IVFs than any of our IUIs whether on meds or not. Dosages were low for all her treatments because of her age and no clear fertility issues. We got 2 follicles for all our medicated IUIs.

Ultimately we did:
DS1: 6 unmedicated, 1 medicated IUI that did not work
1 cycle of IVF with two fresh embryos transferred that worked! No embryos frozen.

DS2: 1 unmedicated, 2 medicated IUI that didn’t work
1 cycle IVF with single fresh embryo transfer that worked! 1 embryo still frozen.

Good luck with your cycles!!

I used Follistim quite a lot during my years of IVF. I don't recall that medication in particular causing me any negative physical issues.

With the cocktail of IVF meds, I almost always felt that my emotions were pretty out-of-control but I think that the process itself has as much to do with that as the hormones.

Best of luck to you!

@Kaohinani: That is a high dose to start with! My RE always started me at 75-125 and then adjusted accordingly.

• What was your experience? - Was it used for infertility, PCOS, maturing eggs, or as a standard part of your ART? Infertility (I never had a cycle prior to having children and didn't respond to oral meds on their own)
• Worst side effects? None
• Weight gain or water weight? None
• Was it effective for you? If so, how many cycles before you conceived? If not, what was resultant and did you change medication? Yes, it took two cycles (Follistim + Ovidrel + IUI) for my first son and two cycles (Femara + Follistim + Ovidrel + IUI) for my second son. I saw a different RE for my second which is why the protocol was slightly different.

@Kaohinani: The great thing about follistim is that it can be adjusted. During the second cycle for my youngest, I went up and down with the dose a couple of times. Good luck!

@Kaohinani: Well I can understand that completely as this is all about as frustrating and emotional a process as you can get! Who is your doc? I saw that you mentioned he was a top doc and I spent far too many hours researching top REs...

I used Follistim...

...for IVF. My dose was high* (I wanna say higher than yours like 375) due to AMA.
...I can’t pinpoint any specific side effects with F. So much was going on for me physically and I had done Lupron priming before starting to stim which was hellish.. I’m prone to migraines but after Lupron hell, I kept my calcium/magnesium up and it really helped (daily Epsom salt baths and supplements). I also did a lot of acupuncture throughout to abate anxiety and side effects.
- I had some bloating and a couple pounds of weight gain but I was growing follicles (huge amounts!) and the retrieval process does that to you. I had mild OHSS as a result of the post-retrieval bloat which you shouldn’t have to deal with. I think my RE went a bit high with my F dose but it wasn’t over the top...just expensive.
...But in end, it worked. Just one cycle. I stimmed with F (same dose throughout) for 10-12 days.

ETA: it was painless for me and easy to self-administer and load into the pen. Oh and there’s an extra (50-75 cc ??) amount in the vials beyond what’s on the label (300cc ??) that you can draw out so you can save some $ that way, but not sure how much you will actually go through in your case.

I used follistim for 3 failed IUIs and our successful IVF. No major side effects. I really liked the pen style injection over some of my other drugs where I had to draw up the needle.

• What was your experience? I used Follistim as part of my meds for my IVF cycle (irregular ovulation and unexplained infertility). I never tried it for any cycles besides IVF Round #1
• Worst side effects? None that I remember
• Weight gain or water weight? No
• Was it effective for you? Very effective; we harvested 9 eggs (would have been more, but had a knicked blood vessel) and we conceived via IVF that round!

Good luck to you!!!!

I did gonal-f (pretty much same thing) through a total of 4 ivf rounds.
I agree with a pp that 300 seems high for intercourse or iui, but I’m not a doctor and it can always be adjusted.

The only symptom to speak of for me was bloating. But of course with ivf you’re going for quantity so that’s to be expected. If he’s just trying to mature one egg you may not experience that as much. And for that reason I wouldn’t worry as much about OHSS.

I’ve only done 1 cycle with follistim and ovidrel trigger to mature eggs for home insemination (ICI) with known donor sperm. I didn’t notice any side effects. Mayyybe a little weight gain but I haven’t been on a scale so I can’t say for sure. The clomid side effects were worse. The worst part was trying to inject myself when my wife wasn’t there. I’m a nurse and could give injections to others all day long but I couldn’t get myself to do it. Haha. The meds don’t sting and the needle is small! So far no + so I’m pretty sure it didn’t work for us. The monitoring was $$$ so I don’t know if we will try it again. It is exciting to watch the follicles grow. Good luck to you!!

@Kaohinani: I think it’s a little less common to overstim with IUI/TI. And then on top of that the boards are generally a lot slower on the weekends. I’d just try and bump this again on Monday.

@Kaohinani: fwiw, I know it’s not the same but I had random follicles in the middle of my cycle when I was doing IVF. Like not when I should have. And it was causing issues with starting stims. They always had me trigger those away. I would imagine if your body didn’t ovulate on its own past a certain time frame they will trigger you but maybe caution you to stay abstinent so you don’t end up with quads