My Letrozole Pregnancy Success Story: I got Pregnant after 4 Rounds of Letrozole with PCOS

My Letrozole pregnancy success story starts in late 2020. My husband and I had been wanting to get pregnant for a few months, without any luck (this was before I discovered these supplements that helped me get pregnant again, without Letrozole).

Before we decided to start a family, I had a copper IUD. I used to be on birth control pills and hormonal IUDs for years before that. But I ultimately made the switch to a hormone-free birth control because I didn’t do well with the hormonal alternatives.

With a copper IUD, I had very irregular cycles.

At first I thought my body was still getting adjusted to life without hormones. But for the two years I had the IUD my cycles were all over the place. They ranged anywhere from 20-48 days, the longer ones becoming the norm.

So after tracking ovulation for months and not seeing anything happening in my body, I decided to talk to my doctor.

Why I Started Letrozole for Infertility

It is usually recommended for women under 35 to try getting pregnant naturally before the doctor intervenes, at least in Germany.

However, when I (27 at that time) told the doctor about me tracking my ovulation over months and not seeing anything happen, he agreed to support me.

A quick ultrasound revealed that I did have follicles big enough to just be days away from ovulation. However, my doctor suspected my hormones were imbalanced and hence my follicles didn’t grow beyond the required size for ovulation.

My doctor literally said I have “lazy ovaries”. I didn’t really question this, as I was just eager to hear how he can help me.

Only a few months ago I went to a new doctor who told me I have PCOS, and that this is causing my issues.

Either way, the doctor proposed I should start taking Letrozole. He mentioned it is an off-label use, as it is usually used for breast cancer patients. However, it has a positive effect on ovulation, in terms of stimulating follicle growth and leads to less multiple pregnancies compared to Clomid, which would’ve been an alternative medication.

So I decided to give it a try, hoping Letrozole would finally lead to my pregnancy success.

When to Take Letrozole for Infertility & Monitoring Results

Your doctor will determine when and how much to take, but it usually is taken within the first week of your cycle.

In my case, I had to take one pill a day on cycle days 3-7.

As I was already way past this stage in the initial round of taking Letrozole, the doctor said it is ok to start right away.

And it worked right away.

I was still tracking my ovulation with tests strips and by measuring my temperature. And I ovulated within three days of taking the medication.

Now, I didn’t get pregnant the first time around.

But even in the following rounds of taking Letrozole, I always ovulated around cycle day 14.

And for the first time in my life I therefore had a predictable cycle with the perfect length of 28 days.

During each cycle with Letrozole my doctor always asked me to come in for a checkup a few days prior to ovulation. In general, there is a concern that taking Letrozole can lead to a pregnancy with multiples.

The doctor can then recommend to avoid intercourse in case there are too many follicles.

Luckily, this was never the case for me. In one or two instances I had two larger follicles, but we would have been ok with twins, would it have happened.

In addition to checking on the follicles, the doctor always assessed whether an ovulation triggering shot is needed.

It was never needed in my case. My body was apparently able to ovulate on its own as long as the follicles grew big enough, which they did thanks to Letrozole.

Side Effects I Noticed when Taking Letrozole for Infertility

While taking Letrozole for ovulation, I never really noticed any side effects. The list of possible side effects is not small, but I never really felt anything.

The only thing I noticed is that around ovulation, it felt like I had a lot of pressure in my lower abdomen.

I don’t know if this was because of the growth of the follicles, or the fact that there were multiple bigger follicles a few times.

But it did hurt during intercourse on the days around ovulation, given the pressure. And that was not really fun.

My Pregnancy Success with Letrozole

Even though I was now ovulating and we were able to time it right, we didn’t get pregnant right away.

It took us 4 cycles to conceive.

But I couldn’t have been happier when it finally happened.

There are lots of reasons why people are unable to conceive, and maybe ours was only partially rooted in my lack of ovulation.

But we decided to try it for at least 6 months before considering any other options, and luckily it worked out.

Effects of Letrozole on my Pregnancy and Baby

I often wondered if the use of Letrozole for ovulation could have any implications on my pregnancy.

After all, I was forcing my body to grow follicles and ovulate with the use of medication.

And I was wondering if this could mean anything for the baby.

But my pregnancy went very well, at least for the first 27 weeks until I was diagnosed with an incompetent cervix. But this was not due to the use of Letrozole.

And my baby came out perfectly healthy, without any issues, and I was able to breastfeed.

All in all I am just very happy I went this route and how it all worked out.

Because now we are the lucky parents of a beautiful and happy baby girl.

Future Use of Letrozole for Another Pregnancy

Letrozole had the biggest impact on my pregnancy success. Without it, I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to get pregnant.

Therefore, I am incredibly thankful I was able to get the help my body obviously needed as quickly as I could.

And whenever we are ready to think about baby number 2, I would definitely go this route again.

Update: I’m Pregnant with Baby #2 – without Letrozole!

Just a day or few days after publishing this post, I found out I was pregnant with baby number 2. And this time around, I surprisingly didn’t even need Letrozole. It happened before I even had my scheduled appointment with a fertility expert to get me started again.

Read more about the difficult start of my pregnancy journey with baby number 2 here and find out what I did differently – which supplements actually helped me get pregnant this time around, without Letrozole!