Drugs

My new injection to keep my from ovulating. I'm up to 3 injections per day.

I wanted to do a post on the drugs I take because it's fascinating to me (surprising, I know). Today I started Cetrotide, which is a direct GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone) antagonist. Basically, when your estrogen is so high because of multiple follicles (which is the goal), your body thinks perhaps it should produce LH (luteinizing hormone) which triggers ovulation. But, since drugs have tricked my body into producing many follicles instead of the one you normally produce each month, this drug now has to trick my body into holding onto these eggs and not releasing them before we can get them surgically. Kind of cool.


Bravelle is the drug that has been stimulating my ovaries to make lots of follicles. Bravelle's generic name is urofollitropin and is given with low dose HCG. It's primarily FSH (follicle stimulating hormone-  makes sense!) and get this: it's made from the highly purified follitropins extracted from urine of postmenopausal women. So, I am going to try not to think about that as I inject it into my body. There are other versions of this drug that are made from recombinant FSH from ovaries of Chinese hamsters (not sure if that's less gross?), but they are even more expensive than Bravelle. So looks like it's urine from postmenopausal women for me!

Prior to egg retrieval, I do a shot high of dose of HCG, which is actually the pregnancy hormone they test for in a home pregnancy test. Normally your body releases LH (Luteinizing hormone) from the pituitary gland and triggers ovulation about 36 after the surge. LH is so structurally similar to HCG that if you give yourself a shot of HCG, your body thinks it's LH and then 36 hours later you are ready to ovulate. So, I give myself a shot 36 hours prior to going into ER so they hopefully my eggs are mature and ready to be taken.

If you've made it this far in the post you are a real trooper! And as a reward, I'll let you know how tomorrow's appointment goes.