I am on vacation this week. Yahoo! I am so happy about that. It was actually planned before I knew I was cycling this month, but it works out well since I have a lot of cycle related things (baseline u/s, sperm run, acupuncture) and it will nice to get it done without worrying about juggling work as well.
Since this is my first day of vacation, what I am I doing up at 4:44 am blogging? Yeah, well, not one to ever sleep in. Last night was actually a decent night sleep. A solid 6 hours with no sleep aid. In an ideal world, 7 hours is usually best for me so 6 isn’t too bad. Since I started the Dexamethasone and Lupron, I have had trouble sleeping. It was worse in the beginning and climaxed last Thursday my first full day with no BCP with only 2.5 hrs sleep. I am not sure if it is the FSH, Estrogen, or LH, but one of those hormones when increased causes me insomnia. I am sure the Dex doesn’t help, but it is not the primary cause…in my humble opinion.
When you first start taking Lupron, it causes your body to produce more FSH/LH causing a feedback loop to prevent further production of it by your body. Once this happens, you can lower the dosage to maintain the bodies freeze on the production of these hormones. Once it has been confirmed during the cd2/3 baseline u/s that the Lupron has done its job and your ovaries are quiet (indicating that the body is no longer producing these hormones), stims can be started to stimulate the ovaries, but the Lupron is continued so that your bodies natural hormones remain suppressed and don’t interfere with the ones being injected allowing for more predictable results.
Based on the above understanding of Lupron (which I confirmed with my dr.), going with my theory of FSH, Estrogen, or LH causing the insomnia that my sleep would be worse when first starting Lupron, but once it was suppressed it should get better. I don’t really understand how the BCP fits into it and why the insomnia peaked after stopping them. I read the package insert on the BCP’s last night, but that was useless because it only talked about how you should use the BCP’s not how they work. My Taking Charge of Your Fertility book just said that they affect your hormones by causing your body to already think it is pregnant. Obviously, more research is needed here.
Once I actually started my period, which has been lighter than normal, but more than spotting, my sleep improved. Before I started all the ttc, I did notice that a day or two prior to getting my period, I would have trouble sleeping. It is more pronounced while cycling.
It seems to be a fairly rare side affect, insomnia during stims. I have run into a few people out there in internet land that have this reaction, but most don’t. Again, clearly something that needs more research. I suspect that maybe it is the LH. It will be interesting to see how I respond on the Gonal F (pure FSH) stims with Repronex (FSH/LH) thrown in a few times as opposed to my Injectable IUI cycle with only the Repronex.
Why is this important? It’s not. Just interesting to me. I like to find the patterns. I like to understand the details and the whys.
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