Wait for your period to begin. The first day of bleeding is “day 1 of your cycle.” If you typically spot for a few days before the bleeding begins, count the days of spotting as your period. The first day of any kind of bleeding constitutes day one of your cycle.

Call our office when your period begins for a “Clomid Check” appointment. If your period begins on the weekend, call our office on Monday. We will need to see you sometime between the 1st and 5th day of your cycle.

When you come into the office, we will perform a pelvic exam with or without an ultrasound. We want to exclude the possibility of your having an ovarian cyst of significant size that would cause us to wait a while prior to prescribing the clomid (Should you have a cyst on the ovary then we will wait one more month then reassess, as clomid may cause the cyst to greatly enlarge and burst).

After the exam, we will give you your prescription for Clomid. If you require multiple clomid tablets daily to produce ovulation, be sure to take tablets as a single daily dose, and not at separate times during the day. You will need to take the medication on 5 consecutive days, beginning on day 3 or 5 of your cycle (doesn’t matter which). For example: If you require 50mg Clomid, you will take one tablet once daily for 5 days. If you require 150mg Clomid, you will take three 50mg tablets together at once daily for 5 days.  Alternatively, we may prescribe a medication called Femara. It works very similarly to Clomid and may have an advantage in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome. Two pills are taken together at once daily for five days.

Buy an ovulation predictor kit from a local pharmacy. You do not need a prescription for this. Follow the directions for use. Begin on day 11.

On the day that you have a positive result, keep in mind that you will ovulate in 24 to 36 hours. Intercourse should occur a short time before the 24 hour mark, as much as your schedule will permit. You would get 10 different recommendations regarding how many times to have intercourse and with what kind of interval in between if you asked 10 different physicians. Suffice it to say, the sperm live in the pelvis for up to 2 days, and the egg remains “fertilizable” for only about 12 – 24 hours. Therefore, the more sperm present waiting for the egg, the better.

To make sure that the dose of Clomid is the correct dose to produce ovulation, you will need to have your blood drawn on Day 21 of your cycle. This will be done each cycle until we have confirmed that the dose of clomid you are taking is the correct one. After we have established the correct dose, we will no longer need to check this. On Monday thru Thursday, you may have your blood drawn in our office. If Day 21 lands on a Friday or on the weekend or a holiday, you will need to have it drawn at a lab close to your home or at the hospital (make sure you have a request form from our office when you go to have it drawn).

If your period does not start on schedule (usually on Day 28), use a home pregnancy test and let us know… If your period begins, give us a call and we’ll start the process over again.