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@raintreebee: They won't. Clomid works to manipulate your hormones through your pituitary gland- so it is essentially screwing with your brain in order to control your ovaries. I was a raging lunatic on Clomid. I cried every day bc I didn't know who I was. But the injectables go straight to source, the good ol' ovaries, so they won't make you crazy.

@kentuckygirl: So, not to be a Debbie Downer, but I did not get pregnant on any of the medicated cycles I did. And because I was such a good responder to the drugs, the RE was worried about hyperstimulating me, so he was pretty conservative (too conservative I think!) with my dose. And I ended up having one huge follie on both cycles that would suck up all the drugs and the smaller ones couldn't catch up. On the second cycle, they had me take a Ganirelex shot to hold my body off from ovulating that huge follicle on it's own, to give the smaller ones some time to catch up, but it got to a point where I had to trigger that big follie, and the smaller eggs were borderline as far as being big enough to drop an egg. So probably just one. Which I can do by myself without drugs, so we decided to take some time off after that...It was emotionally draining and it takes a lot of time and energy to be monitored so much- always going for ultrasounds. But I think that maybe the drugs ramped my body up to work a little better, because I got my first BFP the very next month. It was a chemical pregnancy, and then that immediately repeated itself, another chemical pregnancy, and then the third month in a row that I got pregnant, it finally stuck and I am 37w now. So I don't know what the method to the madness was to go with NOTHING for quite a while and then to get pregnant 3 months in a row after doing drugs. I hope it just takes one for you!

Hi! Was planning on to make my way over to this thread and then I saw your message on the IF thread, which reminded me...

So I did an injections cycle plus an IUI and here's the basics-
I started with Gonal-F 300iu on CD 3. My husband did the injections for me after both an instructional class from the nurse as well as watching an online video. The shots were really not bad at all, a tiny sting at most. We alternated from the thigh and the belly and I did not have any bruising, swelling, hardness, etc.
After 3 days of injections, I went in for an ultrasound and bloodwork. I continued doing the injections until CD 10, with every-other-day monitoring until the last three days, which I went in every day. Once the ultrasound showed several decent-sized follicles (usually they want you to get to around 18mm, I ended up with 4 over 18 and one at 16), I was told to do the trigger shot. I did 100iu of Ovidrel and 36 hours later, went in for the IUI. The IUI was so easy, the nurse inserted a catheter into my uterus and then put the washed, concentrated sperm all up in there. I laid down for 20 more minutes and then was on my merry way with instructions to BD that night and the next morning, if possible. We did and now here I am, 9 weeks pregnant with multiples.
All in all, it was totally worth it and while I am shocked that it worked the first time (my understanding is that the chances of conceiving from this procedure is about 25%) but obviously really, really happy.
I think the major downside to this whole thing was the time commitment because of the constant monitoring. I am lucky in that my schedule is pretty flexible but if I had a regular, 9-5 job, it would've been much tougher to do it...
Otherwise, I had almost no side effects from the hormones. I wasn't allowed to exercise because of the risk to the ovaries and it was kind of annoying to have to be home at the same time each night to do the injections but truly, very minor inconveniences for the positive outcome we received!
Sorry for my novel, hope this is helpful and of course, if you have any other questions, just ask!!

I did two IUI's with injectibles. I was deemed a slow responder so I had around 3 weeks of injections. I gave myself the shots, I used to be deathly afraid of needles but IF cured me of that! I just rotated sides on my stomach. I went in around every 3 days for monitoring, depending on how my follicles looked. With our first cycle I only had one mature follicle after 3 weeks. With our second I had four. Once the follicles got to be around 15mm I was going in every other day for blood work and an ultrasound. The RE adjusted my meds quite a bit throughout that time. With our first cycle we started off with a lower dose but quickly realized I would need to go higher. I think the highest I went was 150iu. With our second IUI we started out at a higher dose and ended up lowering it right at the end so I wouldn't end up with too many follicles. Since I ended up having four, we had to sign papers regarding our options if we were to have multiples. Both times the RE gave me a time to trigger and I had my IUI 36 hours later. I didn't have to lay there at all, I could get up as soon as she was done. The second IUI was successful and we have an almost 8 month old son.

I didn't have any crazy side effects from the injections. Towards the end of cycle 2 I was pretty bloated but that was from all the stimulation.

We have 10K in insurance coverage that we can use for infertility treatments and testing. I'm pretty sure we are close to our limit so for number 2 we may have to pay out of pocket. Insurance covered all medications and that did not go towards our infertility limit.