U/S...

I like visual aids. Not my ovary, not my u/s but the
little dots are follicles and the blue line is the ovary.
This is a "normal" AFC.

U/S is the abbreviation for ultrasound in the medical world. I have learned so much these past couple of years with all this IF (infertility) hoopla.  I feel like I have educated myself well enough that I am rarely caught off guard.  This was not the case today.  I had an U/S today.  They call it the "screening u/s" and they check my uterus and ovaries to make sure the Lupron is doing it's job and to make sure there are not any cysts that would interfere with the escalated hormone production that is about to ensue.  The doctor and resident came in and they did their very uncomfortable thing and looked at a bunch of squiggly lines and started to count.  I was wondering what they were counting because I was sure that the Lupron stopped all activity in my ovaries and that no follicles were being made.  Wrong!  It just stops the follicles from maturing and being ovulated.  In my head I was freaking out a little because I didn't think having follicles was normal.  I so desperately want to be normal through all of this.  I guess the number of follicles on the this u/s is important.  It's called the AFC or antral follicle count. Antral follicle counts are a good predictor of the number of mature follicles that will be able to stimulate in the woman's ovaries when given injectable FSH medications (I will be on Follistim).  My AFC was 16 which means I have 16 eggs just sitting there waiting to be matured with the medication.  I may have more, I may have less when harvest time comes.  But, apparently this is normal.  That is what I am shooting for during the cycle.  Normal.  Average.  I do not want to have a crazy number of follicles and risk overstimulation and immature eggs and too few is scary.  The docs seemed very pleased with what was going on and I was prescribed a very average dose of medication (150 IU of Follistim if anyone cares).  I did a crash course on AFC since I apparently was not aware that it was so important and this is what I found:

• Normal (good) antral count, should have an excellent response to ovarian stimulation.
• Likely to respond well to low doses of FSH product.
• Very low risk for IVF cycle cancellation. Some risk for ovarian overstimulation.
• Best pregnancy rates overall as a group.

These are things I like to hear.  Here's to being average! Woohoo!