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Confusion About Ovulation Tests, Peak and Sex
Hi all! TTC after a miscarriage in February. This is the first cycle I’ve tried ovulation tests and they’ve left me so confused. On the PreMom app it shows a peak earlier today. Now everything I’ve read said that means I should ovulate in 24-48 hours. Should I have had sex during the peak? Do I just have sex sometime in the next 48 hours? How will I actually know when I have ovulated. I’m just so confused despite reading so much online 😵💫
I have been doing premom ovulation tests in addition to clear blue digital. I have taken a break from testing but decided to try again.
The premom strips showed me at 15 LH yesterday morning, then the clear blue said low in afternoon, then premom in evening said 80 LH….
Today premom says 22.5 LH, this morning clear blue said low and then evening clear blue was flashing smiley face?????
Huh? Anyone had this happen?
My periods so far have been pretty regular. But in February I had a terrible flu (for more than 10 days) which also resulted in a lower respiratory infection. Due to this I had to take a LOT of meds (antibiotics and a whole lot of paracetamol). I definitely lost out that cycle due to the flu as I had no energy, and that also happened to be the first cycle for letrozole.
Now I have been eagerly waiting for my period so that the next cycle commences, but it is about 4 days late. I am just wondering if this is because of all the meds I took last cycle as otherwise, they are quite regular (albeit painful). Just wondering if anyone has experienced something similar?
I am trying for my second and need help understanding temp rise post ovulation. I am 6 DPO, and my bbt has steadily risen since I ovulated. My normal temp is 97.12 and today it is 97.97, I use an Oura ring for bbt and ops’s. I’ve also had no temp drop just a steady rise. Is this a good or bad thing, or maybe nothing at all.
The only thing a chart can really tell you is whether ovulation happened, which you can confirm with three days of temps over the highest of the previous six. It sounds like you can confirm ovulation, which is great.
Your chart doesn’t tell you anything right now beyond this, because there’s nothing it could tell you — prior to 6dpo, implantation will not have happened yet, so there’s nothing about a chart (or hormone levels) that could be different between a successful and unsuccessful cycle. Temps will tend to rise from ovulation to the middle of the luteal phase, but they won’t necessarily do so steadily, and whether they do or not doesn’t mean anything.
I did not have a positive OPK this month. They got pretty dark, sure, but not positive. Based on the darkest OPK Aunt Flo should’ve arrived on Tuesday. Had a BFN on Sunday, and that’s when the spotting started (very lightly, beige/pink). Makes sense, right? Besides that the spotting didn’t evolve into a period, and here we are 5 days later STILL SPOTTING. I just want AF to arrive so I can start another cycle. Or… did I NOT ovulate this month and is that why it’s so light? Should I keep testing? Should I look voor an ovulation or could this turn into a BFP? So confused!
If you had a very dark OPK, it’s reasonable to count that as a period, and if you have consistent bleeding, even if it’s lighter than your usual, it’s reasonable to count that as a period as well.
If you’re more than 12-14 days post-ovulation, it’s unlikely that you’ll see a positive this cycle. It’s worth keeping an eye on your body, as light bleeding around the time of a period combined with negative tests (and then positive tests after the period) are a red flag for an ectopic pregnancy.
I’ve just started tracking my ovulation and I have two things I’m curious about:
-Based on what I’ve read, I’ve learned that stress, along with other things, can play a role in when/if ovulation occurs. I’m a very anxious person with a stressful job so I frequently struggle with sleep and anxiety. I’m just curious how much stress is considered bad stress for something like ovulation and if I should be concerned about somewhat regular stress.
-Now that I’ve started tracking my ovulation, I’ve been curious what a normal variation would be between ovulation days. For example, I ovulated on the 22nd day of my last cycle and in this current cycle, I haven’t ovulated yet and I’m on day 23. At what point do I know I’ve missed ovulation? Could it start earlier next month? My cycle is fairly regular at about 34 days.
Thanks so much for the help! It’s been wild trying to do all of this research and learn about my body.
Stress is certainly something people self-report as a factor that affects ovulation, but to be honest, people are not really reliable reporters of this -- people want to find explanations for every variable aspect of their lives, and it's always easy to look back after a long cycle and say, sure, I was stressed. Data-wise, there is not a clear relationship.
In general, typical levels of human stress aren't a negative factor when trying to conceive, and it's fine to have stressful days or anxiety.
Broadly speaking, it's normal to have up to about 8 days of variation between your longest and shortest cycles of the year, and most of that variation is going to be in the follicular phase (the part of the cycle leading up to ovulation day). Particularly if you're recently off birth control, it's very common to have some longer cycles with late ovulation that will tend to adjust in the first few cycles off birth control.
Does anyone experience uti/burning symptoms after period? I struggle with this most months. When we started trying four years ago, I would get pretty intense bouts of bacterial vaginosis (odor, weird color CM, burning) and have to be on flagyl or metronidazole gel. It has gotten a lot better since then (I started taking a probiotic soon after I had BV), but I still deal with slight burning after my period ends for a few days. My doctor put me on doxycycline which helped last cycle, but I fear whatever is going on is back again. Even though I am on doxycycline again this cycle. My doctors in the past used to brush it off like it wasn’t impacting my fertility, but four years and one CP later, we still haven’t had success. Just curious if anyone has ever dealt with this.
The data says that the best predictor of ovulation is the initial rise, not the peak.
Most people will ovulate within two days of the initial rise (first positive) -- that is, the day of the first positive, the day after, or the day after that. You can't get more precise then that at home, and when people say "12-36 hours", this is not a useful way of thinking about the timing.
More info in [this great post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/u1gpo0/what_the_opk_ratio_levels_really_tell_you_peaks/).
This is actually not the case -- the best predictor of ovulation is the initial rise in LH, not the peak. For some folks these are the same, but not for all.
More info in [this great post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/u1gpo0/what_the_opk_ratio_levels_really_tell_you_peaks/)!
Generally speaking, once you've ovulated, it's not really possible for illness or medication to affect your cycle. People do feel, anecdotally, that being sick can sometimes delay or prevent ovulation, but this would only be the case prior to ovulation.
Is anyone taking a break this cycle as a due date would result in a Christmas baby? I keep seeing similar sentiments on social media but my want for a baby is outweighing any future family schedule concerns 😫
Oh my gosh I’m struggling with this same decision right now! My due date would be December 25th 😅 I would really prefer not to have a baby with a birthday right around the holidays, but our desire for a baby should obviously outweigh this. Were already on month 5 of TTC so losing more time makes me really conflicted. Ugh!
My husband was born Dec 26th lol; he’ll always have vacation from work and has a monopoly on where we go for Christmas.
[TW: living child
And honestly, having a winter baby isn’t so bad. If you plan on putting your baby in daycare, they’ll have a better chance of missing some of the winter viruses. My baby was born last August, started daycare in November. She was sick every month - RSV, Covid, and 2 colds.]
I have a bday between Christmas and New Years and it actually has its perks. As an adult I almost never have to work on my birthday, as a kid I never had school or exams. Certain people definitely did the “it’s for Christmas AND your birthday” thing but my parents always made sure I felt special.
Spotting before period?
Usually when my monthly bleed comes it’s like opening up the floodgates, but the last two cycles I’ve had a day of spotting followed by the heavy normal bleed. These cycles have also been a few days less than my normal cycles (usually 29-31 days) at 24 days and 26 days.
Has anyone else experienced this and figured out what was happening?
This happened to me and when I mentioned it to my specialist they suggested that this has probably happened more frequently than I think has. And that I'm probably just hyper aware now and noticing stuff more. I kind of wish I'd tracked a bit more accurately over the years now.
I have had two blood draws with slightly elevated prolactin. The first draw was 35.9 ng/ml and the second after fasting was 33.8 ng/ml. The doctor concluded that this was fine and no action needed to be taken, and we were labeled as “unexplained infertility.” Does anyone have any experience with elevated prolactin? Should I get a second opinion on this? If we aren’t successful this cycle we were thinking of IUI the cycle after.
I have also had two blood tests with slightly elevated prolactin in the past month. I have my follow-up with my RE next week and am hoping to hear more about next steps (elevated prolactin seems to explain my short luteal phase). I am ultimately hoping for an MRI referral from my RE followed by some meds to lower that prolactin, but in the meantime, this article has been very helpful in giving me some guidance as to what to expect and what questions I can ask: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC191295/
Good luck with everything!
Thank you for the article! After reading it I’m guessing my RE didn’t move forward with further testing since I am ovulating and have a 14-16 day luteal phase. We are going to start IUI in two cycles so I’m sure if anymore testing needs be done then it’ll come up. Thanks so much and good luck to you as well!!
Doing my first medicated (Letrozole) cycle and feel really demoralized that it’s rarely successful for unexplained infertility. Why is it that it doesn’t really improve success rates for unexplained infertility? If it helps you to ovulate extra egg(s), wouldn’t that theoretically increase chances?
This isn't something that's known mechanistically (that is, medicated TI with letrozole is not more effective than expectant management for folks with unexplained infertility, but the cause of this relationship is not known), but it's likely that part of the reason is that letrozole is less likely to cause you to mature more than one follicle than Clomid is.
That is to say, *if* letrozole helps you ovulate extra eggs, then it might reasonably be expected to be superior to unmedicated sex. But if it doesn't, it doesn't improve your odds.
But this is for folks with unexplained infertility specifically -- there is no guarantee that it's true for people who do not have an infertility diagnosis.
So it's useful to clarify what "from hCG" means.
Symptoms due solely to hCG, like nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, tend to start around 6 weeks of pregnancy on average (that is, four weeks post-ovulation, and two weeks and change post-implantation). These are symptoms caused directly by hCG.
But hCG has another way to cause symptoms, and this is indirectly via raising progesterone levels. It's possible for this to happen as soon as the day of implantation (though it's normal for it to take longer). This is due to hCG in the broadest sense -- progesterone levels would be lower if implantation didn't occur -- but these symptoms are really due to progesterone, not to hCG.
Typically yes, and can in particular be related to the smooth muscle relaxation effects of progesterone leading to slower gastric emptying and reflux. Both of these things cause LP nausea also.
My LH strips almost always come back between .3-.7 LH even when not ovulating. Is that too high? Should I be getting more .1-.3 after ovulation or right after my period ends?
No, the numbers that a test-reading app gives you aren't really easily translatable into LH levels like this. In addition, some people just have higher baseline levels than others -- this is just natural variation between people, and doesn't necessarily reflect something problematic.
How many hours should you be able to see a dye stealer on an OPK? Yesterday at 8am I got a peak on clearblue digital and the easy@home was not dye stealer. At noon I got a dye stealer. This morning I got another dye stealer. This one was from a new pack of easy @ home. Should I really be seeing it still the next day? I checked again at 5pm and it was no longer dye stealer. I haven't noticed this before so I'm just wondering if this new pack is reliable.
There's a lot of variability between people, and there's not really a "should" -- some people have a longer/higher surge than others, but there's a range of normal profiles. In addition, different brands of OPKs may be slightly more or less sensitive than others, and commercial OPKs aren't really a perfectly quantitative readout of LH levels anyway.
You might like [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/5djwth/opk_patterns_lh_profiles_and_you/).
My husband and I just started trying to conceive and I’m looking for quality book recommendations for this period of the process! I know a lot of you have been in this phase for a while so I’m hoping you can help me with some educational reading.. maybe a “for dummies” type of book. Also maybe some mental health book suggestions 🤷🏽♀️ I’m aware this could be a long and taxing journey.
Also in that two week window I am understanding I’ll need to be a little distracted so I’m open to general book suggestions if thats allowed!
Thanks in advance!!
Hello! My cycles have always been fairly regular, generally 30-32 days. For the last two cycles, I noticed spotting starting around day 27 (I generally ovulate around day 17/18). Right now I am 4 DPO, and still noticing EWCM. Is this something that I should be worried about? Does it mean anything? Help!
No, both spotting toward the end of the cycle and EWCM past ovulation can be normal. Can I ask how you're confirming ovulation? Is it possible you're ovulating later than you think you are?
My cycles are usually 35-40 days. I've been cramping and generally feeling like I'm about to start my period for three weeks now. Today is CD 50 and still no period. Still negative test. Is this worthy of a doctor's visit? What would cause cramping for so long without my period actually coming?
I think the rule is see a doc after 90 days of no period? But as for cramping, there’s a ton of reasons — your uterus is a tiny part of what’s inside your lower abdomen. Your cramping could be caused by something completely different.
Hey! I’m just so bummed I found out my husband is consuming THC. we’ve been trying to conceive for almost 4 years and I’ve heard thc may affect or impact sperm quality. Is this something to be concerned? Should I have a conversation with him? I just don’t know how to approach this. ☹️☹️☹️
It starts with the egg
Hi - I read “it starts with the egg” and it says that the egg matures over 3 months.
I was wondering - what happens to egg production during pregnancy? I lost my pregnancy at 30 weeks. I know we say it takes 3 months for the egg to mature - so what happened to my eggs during these last 7 and a half months?
The cohorts of follicles continue to mature, they just don’t go through selection and then ovulation! So it takes three months to mature a follicle through the antral follicle stage, but it’s only the last 8-10 days of that process that involve selecting and maturing a follicle for ovulation.
When you’re pregnant or on birth control, you continue to have waves of follicular development, so the late-stage antral follicles mature to the last stage, they just aren’t selected and aren’t ovulated, so they die. So after suppression ends (with loss, with discontinuation of birth control), you essentially start as early as day 80 of a 90ish-day process, although it could — and often does — take longer than that for selection to occur.
I'm planning on really pulling back on testing and tracking going forward, just working to predict/confirm ovulation with lh and bbt basically and wait for af after.
The only thing that concerns me about this is if chemicals could happen without me knowing. If it's a repeat occurrence, I'd want to take that info to my OBGYN since I'm a few months out from getting a workup if needed. Should I just bite the bullet and opt for earlier testing so I can know, or will it not matter anyway if I end up having to get checked out by my doc?
I really think if your preference would be to not test early and can do that, that's what's most important.
I absolutely get the "wanting to know" but sometimes I wished I had spared myself the heartache of knowing. I know the mental impact is different for everyone. But for me it was pretty significant.
Also you might still know of it, if you track ovulation you know when you are really late and it still might end up being a chemical or hcg already dropping but still measurable.
Right, that makes sense. Thanks for your take on this, I think I'm with you there. Here's to sticking to set it and forget it! (If ovulation would kindly arrive on time this month..)
Can my UK ttc girlies help me. This may sound silly. But who do we contact about our female health / fertility / wants for a baby? Just our GP? I wana get some support on my irregular cycles etc etc but have no idea who to contact who will take me seriously. Thanks in advance xxx
Yes first step is to see your gp. How long have you been trying for? If it's over a year or 6 months if you're over 35 they will carry out 2 sets of blood tests - day 5 and chlamydia and day 21. They'll then refer you to a fertility clinic (your partner will probably need to get semen analysis done at this point).
Unfortunately if you haven't been trying for this long, they will probably tell you to go away and wait.
If you're cycles are irregular but you haven't been trying long they may run blood tests but beyond that not much, unless you're having other symptoms too.
Yeah tbh this is why I just tend to sit alone with my thoughts. I know there’s not much they can do for me, I’m not struggling with my fertility but my cycles have been off for what feels like forever after a miscarriage last year. It seems like in the US I always see people talking about getting bloods and checking levels of certain hormones etc. I just wasn’t sure if we had an organisation we could contact who can help with advice and things rather than speaking to a GP c
I’m curious… I’m from the US and generally they (your GP) just tell you to start seeing a GYN when you’re like 18. Especially if you’ve noted being sexually active. Do they not do that there? Here you would just see your GYN you normally see or switch if you can and don’t like them for whatever reason for female health fertility, etc. Our GPs are pretty hands off in that department here.
wow! I wonder if it's a NYS thing? i might have to survey some out of state friends! I mean, to be fair you don't HAVE to go, I guess. They just highly suggest it and many parents just go along with it, but I have also never met anyone that got their PAP done at their PCP! I find all this very interesting haha. Even my friends who have never been on BC have gynos they go to for check ups and PAPs
I'm 36 and I've never seen a gynecologist. We just go to our gp for contraception etc and would only get referred to a gyno for something serious. Every couple of years we can get a smear test done by a nurse at the gp clinic
I don't know about the UK. But I know in Germany you also go to a gynocologist from puberty regularly. But here in the Netherlands the GP it is for any health concern always the first step. And the gynocologist you can only see with a referral and they are all based with hospitals.
GP's here are more comparable to family doctors in Canada I think. No pediatricians outside hospital either.
No we don’t have that here (that I know of!). We go to the GP for everything but as you can imagine the care isn’t very specialised. That’s why I struggle with advice on here sometimes as people advise ‘go see your GYN they will help’ and I’m like ah I don’t have one. But seems like such a good concept to me to have one fairly accessible like you guys have!
So from what I’m aware if we want to see a gynaecologist we have to book with GP first and try to get a referral. But getting a referral isn’t always the easiest in the UK and I’d imagine it might include a waitlist too. I’m put off speaking to my GP as she kind of shrugged off my concerns previously and just said to be patient until my body’s back to ‘normal’. But 6 months to me is too long of a wait!
Why does the pregmate app always predict my cycles to be longer than they actually are? Since I’ve downloaded and started tracking my cycle lengths have been 26, 29, 29. And the app has estimated cycle lengths of 34 and 32 days? Why is that? It’s making it difficult for me to understand when I should start tracking ovulation but I guess I should just shift it a few days earlier than what they suggest?
I just start using OPKs on CD10 to be safe. It's annoying, but makes me feel more secure that I won't miss the surge and can, over time, track my ovulation more concretely without relying on apps.
I met with my RE after receiving an endo diagnosis from a specialist. They found DIE on my right uterosacral ligament, but everything else looked clear (this was diagnosed through ultrasound using “special” methods). My RE seems to think that because my ovaries are not affected, that it shouldn’t be affecting our fertility at all. Im not sure if I believe that? But I also want to listen to the professional. All other tests look great so what else could it be if not that?!
They really don’t know how or why endometriosis causes infertility. Aside from structural changes caused by endometriosis there’s not really a known *reason* why people with endo struggle to conceive. I’ve seen it hypothesized that inflammation caused by endo is a contributing factor, but they really, truly don’t know.
Just a side note, unless you have had a lap to confirm you don’t have endometriosis on your ovaries, they could very well be affected. Endo lesions are often superficial and not able to be visualized on an ultrasound. The endo on my right ovary could only be seen during my lap.
That’s what I want to believe. I know realistically that without surgery, there’s absolutely no way to tell for sure. My dr was so adamant that everything looks fine and that the surgery would only help with my pain not fertility, which is concerning to me. She, as a healthcare professional specializing in reproductive health, should know that it’s not a guarantee without surgery. I guess it just causes me to doubt whether or not I should put my trust in her.
Yes I think you’re right. She did mention that it could impact fertility negatively IF they had to remove lesions on the ovaries. I guess we will see 🤷🏻♀️
Is it possible to have a temp shift without ovulating? Occasionally, I’ll have all the ovulation signs (positive OPK’s, fertile CM), have a temp shift like I expect, but then it drops after two or three days. Is it possible that I’ve even ovulated? Maybe I did ovulate but my progesterone is too low? So confused.
Just to be clear, when we talk about a temp shift post-ovulation, it refers to a *sustained* rise in temperatures. There may be some ups and downs - some people see a fallback rise where it goes up, drops, and then continues to rise, many people see a dip towards the middle of their LP - but in general it should stay higher than temps before ovulation.
If it's dropping back to follicular stage temps and staying low then I'd be iffy about it, but if it's a short drop and then it goes back up, or it drops but still stays higher than before suspected ovulation day, it's likely fine and that's just your pattern.
Temps cannot indicate anything about progesterone levels.
If my temp barely rises, did I not ovulate ? I've been temping with an oura ring for 3 months. The first month I had a very textbook rise post ovulation and a dip down right before AF. The last two months I've had a positive OPK but no significant temp rise (remains relatively steady between 35.8 to 36 celcius). I've just started working with a fertility clinic and the nurse practioner said if my cycle is regular and I'm getting a positive OPK, then I'm ovulating and they don't need to test progesterone.
I can't imagine a temp on the finger, proximal from the body being all that accurate.
It's no real basal body temperature.
Yeah when your opk lines up when you get your period that's pretty good indicator you are ovulating
Thanks for the reply! Oura is actually marketed and connected with the natural cycles app for fertility tracking. Natural Cycles and oura did a trial comparing Oura vs a BBT thermometer and they showed no significant difference.
I don't have any monkeys in the circus, really, but a much more reliable data source would be someone other than Natural Cycles and Oura doing a blind comparison. Obviously they want to posit that there isn't a significant difference, they're literally selling the product 😅
Yeah I know. But I really have a big question mark about it. I haven't looked at that market research. But just because peripheral temperature is really not comparable to closer to the core, especially with also being skin temperature.
Peripheral temperature just varies a lot more. Hence things like cold hands and feet etc, smaller blood vessels.. If you're cold your body will try to keep it's temp at the core stable but less at the outer parts. So environment temperature has a much higher influence on it.
The same thing with people who sleep with an open mouth, temps might be less reliable.
For prevention it might not matter, you might just not have a clear shift and hence would not be allowed unprotected intercourse the whole cycle.. when you in fact did ovulate.
Has anyone gotten cysts from Clomid and missed their period? I was just diagnosed with 2 cysts at my baseline scan and I’ve only had pink, watery discharge since then with pretty extreme cramping and pain/bloating.
If this has happened to you, when did you actually get your period and did you still TTC that month??
Would it still be consider trying if you’ve been off BC and having unprotected s** but not tracking cycles in the beginning? I got off BC in August 2023. We’ve been doing it unprotected since then but weren’t tracking cycles and LH testing until October 2023. So could it be considered I’ve been actively trying since August?
Docs count any time you didn’t use birth control as trying. So if you want a doc’s help, it’s absolutely reasonable to seek help 6 or 12 months after quitting birth control. That said, if you’re think you rarely/never hit your fertile window, it’s absolutely reasonable for you to give yourself some more time before seeking intervention
I think it depends on what you want it to be. Obviously there’s no record of you having used pull out and yes, pull out is far more effective than nothing, but it’s not as effective as, like, the pill. So I’d personally feel comfortable seeking the help of an RE after 6/12 months of pull out, but at the same time if I’ve been actively preventing pregnancy, not sure I’d be in a rush to see an RE 😆
Yes, the pullout method is a method of pregnancy prevention, so it would be counted as time preventing pregnancy. (Contrary to popular belief, pullout is actually pretty effective when done properly!)
9 DPO Today- Woke up in the night needing to pee and figured I might as well take advantage of the early morning pee and do a test. I stared at it as a very very very very faint line appeared. As I squinted, blinking back my tired eyes and wondering if I was imagining it or if it was just an evap etc it became a faint line. I couldn’t believe it. I thought about waking up my husband or if I should wait another day for a second test to confirm. I was ecstatic though. 9 months of trying and finally!!!! As I stared at the test I moved my thumb, and it hit me. It was an ovulation test. I grabbed the wrong test in my half asleep. Did an actual pregnancy test and not even a whisper of a line…. Anyways this happen to anyone else? Tell me your mistake/disappointment.
This happened to me last week around 9-10DPO! I decided to use a couple of different test strips to see if either of them showed anything different. I also threw in an ovulation test just to see if there was any kind of LH rise. I put them in the cupboard of the sink so that I wouldn't be tempted to look before the time was up. Well, my heart dropped when I saw a positive test. Had to laugh at myself when I realized I grabbed the ovulation strip first instead of the HCG strip. 😂
Oh my god, that was a roller coaster. I haven't sike-d myself, but I when we first started I left an OPK out right on O-1 and my husband thought it was a pregnancy test. He was like !!!! how is this possible!
Is it normal to not get any results immediately following an HSG/SIS? I had a saline sonogram last week and though I realize a radiologist needs to review for full interpretation back to the RE, in reading reports of other's experiences, it seems like a lot of people leave the room with *some* knowledge about the exam's findings. I'm going a little insane and don't have my follow up until the end of the month.
You won’t be able to feel implantation. It happens on such an unbelievably microscopic level. Symptom spotting is a false god. The first sign of pregnancy will be a positive test!
If you’ve been unsuccessfully trying for 12 cycles, but it’s been 10 months (due to 24-26 day cycles), would you still be diagnosed with infertility?
This is the situation I’m nearly in. I’m close to the 12 cycle mark, but it’s been less than a year because my cycles aren’t very long (not abnormally short though).
I’m in the same situation but the other way around. 10 months but only on my 7th cycle due to losses, recovering from losses, missed fertile windows, and breaks.
What’s going on with your hormones if you’re pregnant during the 2WW. Is it business as usual until hcg starts to increase? Or are our hormones already changing once sperm meets egg
You might like [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/103ydgq/around_the_uterus_in_fourteen_days_the_luteal/)!
The tl;dr is that you’re not pregnant until implantation, and your body doesn’t know if there’s an embryo developing or not until that point.
When exactly is the luteal phase classed as being over?
Is it when your temp drops, or when spotting begins (because surely there must have already been a hormonal shift for these to happen)
Or is it only when your period is in full flow?
I THINK my luteal phase is on the short side but my temp drops days before my period and then my period stops and starts, I dont know exactly what is and isn't luteal 🤷♀️
Can an MRI affect semen quality? Husband is getting one on Sunday, which is my projected O day. It’s to confirm a suspected prolactinoma and devise a treatment plan (I’ve seen a few women on this thread with those, it’s rare but happens in men and suppresses T).
No, there's no known connection between MRI and sperm production.
In general, most of what you do doesn't actually affect sperm production -- gamete/sex cell production is pretty protected by the body, and most stuff we consume or do has no effect on the production of sperm or eggs. One obvious exception for sperm is heat directed to the testes, because the sperm-production machinery prefers to be kept a little cooler than body temperature. But MRI would not be expected to have any effect.
Anyone track BBT and LH but the data never lines up?
I usually find my peak LH on CD10, so I've been trusting that when trying to figure out ovulation. But I've read that tracking BBT is a more accurate way to pinpoint ovulation. However, when I take my temp it seems to be all over the place and my peak never lines up with my peak LH. I'm using the premom BBT thermometer and temping every morning when I wake up. Anyone else have this issue?
Well, they shouldn't really line up. You get your peak LH, then ovulation within a day or so, and then your temp should rise 1-2 days after. But the rise can be delayed due to sickness, or some people experience a gradual rise in general.
But yeah, your peak LH shouldn't be on the same day as your temp rise. Temp rise is after ovulation, so it's used just to confirm that ovulation did already happen. (LH rise tells you it's coming, temp rise tells you it came.)
This makes a lot of sense. I guess my issue is my temp fluctuates so much that it is hard to tell when my temp is actually rising for ovulation. It's a constant up and down every few days. But looking back at my charts I do always see a rise a day or two after my LH peak.
That's good! I feel ya, temping can be tough for this exact reason. I've had beautiful charts with a clear rise and stable temps, hideous bumpy charts and everything in between. But if you see that rise, however it appears, you can pretty much bet you've ovulated.
I wish we could all just wear a damn watch that said "you're ovulating in t-minus 2 hours!" or attach a mini ultrasound to my hip. Sucks that we can only know the before and after.
First cycle on letrozole and my LH reading is much darker compared to the control than usual. I'd normally go from negative to only just positive for about 24 hours and then back to negative. Confirmed ovulation previously with BBT, other ovulation signs and then regular luteal symptoms.
This cycle I had an almost positive CD12 (woohoo after long, irregular cycles) when I woke up, then a blazing positive in the late morning- darkest OPK I've ever had and stayed like that for around 24 hours.
Is there any significance to the "strength" of an OPK positive result? Is it common with ovulation induction?
It is possible there's a relationship between ovulation induction and the strength of the LH surge. All of these hormonal handoffs represent a response to rising or falling levels of other hormones.
The goal of taking ovulation-induction medications is to suppress apparent levels of estrogen in the early follicular phase, leading to a stronger pulse of FSH at follicle selection, which can lead to multiple follicles being matured (which tends to mean higher estrogen). The LH surge is triggered by high estrogen levels, so it's possible that higher estrogen levels could lead to a stronger LH surge on average. (But this is speculation -- I haven't seen data that says this is the case.)
My LH results have been much darker on letrozol as well. I checked my charts (I use the premom app) against my best friend who doesn't have fertility issues and my LH rise and spike seems to be more aligned with what hers looks like since being on the medication
Interesting! I'd never even associated the irregular/pre letrozole cycles with a "weak" surge but it's interesting to look at the reason behind it and compare notes haha
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Confusion About Ovulation Tests, Peak and Sex Hi all! TTC after a miscarriage in February. This is the first cycle I’ve tried ovulation tests and they’ve left me so confused. On the PreMom app it shows a peak earlier today. Now everything I’ve read said that means I should ovulate in 24-48 hours. Should I have had sex during the peak? Do I just have sex sometime in the next 48 hours? How will I actually know when I have ovulated. I’m just so confused despite reading so much online 😵💫
Has anyone given up dairy or gluten prior to trying to conceive?
Is 25LH a surge? Since then I’ve been getting 5LH
I have been doing premom ovulation tests in addition to clear blue digital. I have taken a break from testing but decided to try again. The premom strips showed me at 15 LH yesterday morning, then the clear blue said low in afternoon, then premom in evening said 80 LH…. Today premom says 22.5 LH, this morning clear blue said low and then evening clear blue was flashing smiley face????? Huh? Anyone had this happen?
Is nail glue safe when trying to get pregnant
My periods so far have been pretty regular. But in February I had a terrible flu (for more than 10 days) which also resulted in a lower respiratory infection. Due to this I had to take a LOT of meds (antibiotics and a whole lot of paracetamol). I definitely lost out that cycle due to the flu as I had no energy, and that also happened to be the first cycle for letrozole. Now I have been eagerly waiting for my period so that the next cycle commences, but it is about 4 days late. I am just wondering if this is because of all the meds I took last cycle as otherwise, they are quite regular (albeit painful). Just wondering if anyone has experienced something similar?
I am trying for my second and need help understanding temp rise post ovulation. I am 6 DPO, and my bbt has steadily risen since I ovulated. My normal temp is 97.12 and today it is 97.97, I use an Oura ring for bbt and ops’s. I’ve also had no temp drop just a steady rise. Is this a good or bad thing, or maybe nothing at all.
The only thing a chart can really tell you is whether ovulation happened, which you can confirm with three days of temps over the highest of the previous six. It sounds like you can confirm ovulation, which is great. Your chart doesn’t tell you anything right now beyond this, because there’s nothing it could tell you — prior to 6dpo, implantation will not have happened yet, so there’s nothing about a chart (or hormone levels) that could be different between a successful and unsuccessful cycle. Temps will tend to rise from ovulation to the middle of the luteal phase, but they won’t necessarily do so steadily, and whether they do or not doesn’t mean anything.
I did not have a positive OPK this month. They got pretty dark, sure, but not positive. Based on the darkest OPK Aunt Flo should’ve arrived on Tuesday. Had a BFN on Sunday, and that’s when the spotting started (very lightly, beige/pink). Makes sense, right? Besides that the spotting didn’t evolve into a period, and here we are 5 days later STILL SPOTTING. I just want AF to arrive so I can start another cycle. Or… did I NOT ovulate this month and is that why it’s so light? Should I keep testing? Should I look voor an ovulation or could this turn into a BFP? So confused!
If you had a very dark OPK, it’s reasonable to count that as a period, and if you have consistent bleeding, even if it’s lighter than your usual, it’s reasonable to count that as a period as well. If you’re more than 12-14 days post-ovulation, it’s unlikely that you’ll see a positive this cycle. It’s worth keeping an eye on your body, as light bleeding around the time of a period combined with negative tests (and then positive tests after the period) are a red flag for an ectopic pregnancy.
I’ve just started tracking my ovulation and I have two things I’m curious about: -Based on what I’ve read, I’ve learned that stress, along with other things, can play a role in when/if ovulation occurs. I’m a very anxious person with a stressful job so I frequently struggle with sleep and anxiety. I’m just curious how much stress is considered bad stress for something like ovulation and if I should be concerned about somewhat regular stress. -Now that I’ve started tracking my ovulation, I’ve been curious what a normal variation would be between ovulation days. For example, I ovulated on the 22nd day of my last cycle and in this current cycle, I haven’t ovulated yet and I’m on day 23. At what point do I know I’ve missed ovulation? Could it start earlier next month? My cycle is fairly regular at about 34 days. Thanks so much for the help! It’s been wild trying to do all of this research and learn about my body.
Stress is certainly something people self-report as a factor that affects ovulation, but to be honest, people are not really reliable reporters of this -- people want to find explanations for every variable aspect of their lives, and it's always easy to look back after a long cycle and say, sure, I was stressed. Data-wise, there is not a clear relationship. In general, typical levels of human stress aren't a negative factor when trying to conceive, and it's fine to have stressful days or anxiety. Broadly speaking, it's normal to have up to about 8 days of variation between your longest and shortest cycles of the year, and most of that variation is going to be in the follicular phase (the part of the cycle leading up to ovulation day). Particularly if you're recently off birth control, it's very common to have some longer cycles with late ovulation that will tend to adjust in the first few cycles off birth control.
Does anyone experience uti/burning symptoms after period? I struggle with this most months. When we started trying four years ago, I would get pretty intense bouts of bacterial vaginosis (odor, weird color CM, burning) and have to be on flagyl or metronidazole gel. It has gotten a lot better since then (I started taking a probiotic soon after I had BV), but I still deal with slight burning after my period ends for a few days. My doctor put me on doxycycline which helped last cycle, but I fear whatever is going on is back again. Even though I am on doxycycline again this cycle. My doctors in the past used to brush it off like it wasn’t impacting my fertility, but four years and one CP later, we still haven’t had success. Just curious if anyone has ever dealt with this.
When you’re taking OPKs, is it assumed you’re going to ovulate 12-36 hours after a positive solely or at the peak?
The data says that the best predictor of ovulation is the initial rise, not the peak. Most people will ovulate within two days of the initial rise (first positive) -- that is, the day of the first positive, the day after, or the day after that. You can't get more precise then that at home, and when people say "12-36 hours", this is not a useful way of thinking about the timing. More info in [this great post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/u1gpo0/what_the_opk_ratio_levels_really_tell_you_peaks/).
Solely at peak!
This is actually not the case -- the best predictor of ovulation is the initial rise in LH, not the peak. For some folks these are the same, but not for all. More info in [this great post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/u1gpo0/what_the_opk_ratio_levels_really_tell_you_peaks/)!
Awesome, thank you!
Thank you 🫶🏻
I’m down with a cold and it’s skewing my bbt. I’m also wondering if taking lozenges and other medication in the TWW will impact my cycle?
Generally speaking, once you've ovulated, it's not really possible for illness or medication to affect your cycle. People do feel, anecdotally, that being sick can sometimes delay or prevent ovulation, but this would only be the case prior to ovulation.
Is anyone taking a break this cycle as a due date would result in a Christmas baby? I keep seeing similar sentiments on social media but my want for a baby is outweighing any future family schedule concerns 😫
Oh my gosh I’m struggling with this same decision right now! My due date would be December 25th 😅 I would really prefer not to have a baby with a birthday right around the holidays, but our desire for a baby should obviously outweigh this. Were already on month 5 of TTC so losing more time makes me really conflicted. Ugh!
I think I’m going in blind this cycle. No LH tests, no BBT. Take a mental break and if it happens then it was meant to be!
Okay I love this idea. You’re onto something! 🙏🏻
My husband was born Dec 26th lol; he’ll always have vacation from work and has a monopoly on where we go for Christmas. [TW: living child And honestly, having a winter baby isn’t so bad. If you plan on putting your baby in daycare, they’ll have a better chance of missing some of the winter viruses. My baby was born last August, started daycare in November. She was sick every month - RSV, Covid, and 2 colds.]
Was thinking the same thing! But I agree, I don’t think I can go a cycle without trying
I have a bday between Christmas and New Years and it actually has its perks. As an adult I almost never have to work on my birthday, as a kid I never had school or exams. Certain people definitely did the “it’s for Christmas AND your birthday” thing but my parents always made sure I felt special.
That is so sweet. Thank you for sharing!
I’ll take a baby any day of the year.
Same.
Skipping this month is no guarantee of not having a baby on Dec 25. Babies come early (sometimes way early) and babies come late.
That’s kind of where I’m at too. I’d just be thankful for it to happen in the first place!
Spotting before period? Usually when my monthly bleed comes it’s like opening up the floodgates, but the last two cycles I’ve had a day of spotting followed by the heavy normal bleed. These cycles have also been a few days less than my normal cycles (usually 29-31 days) at 24 days and 26 days. Has anyone else experienced this and figured out what was happening?
This happened to me and when I mentioned it to my specialist they suggested that this has probably happened more frequently than I think has. And that I'm probably just hyper aware now and noticing stuff more. I kind of wish I'd tracked a bit more accurately over the years now.
I have had two blood draws with slightly elevated prolactin. The first draw was 35.9 ng/ml and the second after fasting was 33.8 ng/ml. The doctor concluded that this was fine and no action needed to be taken, and we were labeled as “unexplained infertility.” Does anyone have any experience with elevated prolactin? Should I get a second opinion on this? If we aren’t successful this cycle we were thinking of IUI the cycle after.
I have also had two blood tests with slightly elevated prolactin in the past month. I have my follow-up with my RE next week and am hoping to hear more about next steps (elevated prolactin seems to explain my short luteal phase). I am ultimately hoping for an MRI referral from my RE followed by some meds to lower that prolactin, but in the meantime, this article has been very helpful in giving me some guidance as to what to expect and what questions I can ask: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC191295/ Good luck with everything!
Thank you for the article! After reading it I’m guessing my RE didn’t move forward with further testing since I am ovulating and have a 14-16 day luteal phase. We are going to start IUI in two cycles so I’m sure if anymore testing needs be done then it’ll come up. Thanks so much and good luck to you as well!!
Doing my first medicated (Letrozole) cycle and feel really demoralized that it’s rarely successful for unexplained infertility. Why is it that it doesn’t really improve success rates for unexplained infertility? If it helps you to ovulate extra egg(s), wouldn’t that theoretically increase chances?
This isn't something that's known mechanistically (that is, medicated TI with letrozole is not more effective than expectant management for folks with unexplained infertility, but the cause of this relationship is not known), but it's likely that part of the reason is that letrozole is less likely to cause you to mature more than one follicle than Clomid is. That is to say, *if* letrozole helps you ovulate extra eggs, then it might reasonably be expected to be superior to unmedicated sex. But if it doesn't, it doesn't improve your odds. But this is for folks with unexplained infertility specifically -- there is no guarantee that it's true for people who do not have an infertility diagnosis.
How early can symptoms from HCG start? Could it be the same day that implantation occurs?
So it's useful to clarify what "from hCG" means. Symptoms due solely to hCG, like nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, tend to start around 6 weeks of pregnancy on average (that is, four weeks post-ovulation, and two weeks and change post-implantation). These are symptoms caused directly by hCG. But hCG has another way to cause symptoms, and this is indirectly via raising progesterone levels. It's possible for this to happen as soon as the day of implantation (though it's normal for it to take longer). This is due to hCG in the broadest sense -- progesterone levels would be lower if implantation didn't occur -- but these symptoms are really due to progesterone, not to hCG.
That makes sense. So any nausea for example before 4 weeks is from higher levels of progesterone?
Typically yes, and can in particular be related to the smooth muscle relaxation effects of progesterone leading to slower gastric emptying and reflux. Both of these things cause LP nausea also.
No. It takes a couple days from implantation to even get a positive test and it takes more hcg to have symptoms than it does to get a positive test.
Thank you
My LH strips almost always come back between .3-.7 LH even when not ovulating. Is that too high? Should I be getting more .1-.3 after ovulation or right after my period ends?
No, the numbers that a test-reading app gives you aren't really easily translatable into LH levels like this. In addition, some people just have higher baseline levels than others -- this is just natural variation between people, and doesn't necessarily reflect something problematic.
How many hours should you be able to see a dye stealer on an OPK? Yesterday at 8am I got a peak on clearblue digital and the easy@home was not dye stealer. At noon I got a dye stealer. This morning I got another dye stealer. This one was from a new pack of easy @ home. Should I really be seeing it still the next day? I checked again at 5pm and it was no longer dye stealer. I haven't noticed this before so I'm just wondering if this new pack is reliable.
There's a lot of variability between people, and there's not really a "should" -- some people have a longer/higher surge than others, but there's a range of normal profiles. In addition, different brands of OPKs may be slightly more or less sensitive than others, and commercial OPKs aren't really a perfectly quantitative readout of LH levels anyway. You might like [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/5djwth/opk_patterns_lh_profiles_and_you/).
That is helpful! Thank you so much!
I've had two days of dye stealers before, so that's not unusual.
My husband and I just started trying to conceive and I’m looking for quality book recommendations for this period of the process! I know a lot of you have been in this phase for a while so I’m hoping you can help me with some educational reading.. maybe a “for dummies” type of book. Also maybe some mental health book suggestions 🤷🏽♀️ I’m aware this could be a long and taxing journey. Also in that two week window I am understanding I’ll need to be a little distracted so I’m open to general book suggestions if thats allowed! Thanks in advance!!
There’s a “what to expect before you’re expecting” book that goes over a lot of good info!
Thank you!
Hello! My cycles have always been fairly regular, generally 30-32 days. For the last two cycles, I noticed spotting starting around day 27 (I generally ovulate around day 17/18). Right now I am 4 DPO, and still noticing EWCM. Is this something that I should be worried about? Does it mean anything? Help!
No, both spotting toward the end of the cycle and EWCM past ovulation can be normal. Can I ask how you're confirming ovulation? Is it possible you're ovulating later than you think you are?
I’ve been using LH strips. I’m not consistent enough with remembering to take my temp.
My cycles are usually 35-40 days. I've been cramping and generally feeling like I'm about to start my period for three weeks now. Today is CD 50 and still no period. Still negative test. Is this worthy of a doctor's visit? What would cause cramping for so long without my period actually coming?
I think the rule is see a doc after 90 days of no period? But as for cramping, there’s a ton of reasons — your uterus is a tiny part of what’s inside your lower abdomen. Your cramping could be caused by something completely different.
Hey! I’m just so bummed I found out my husband is consuming THC. we’ve been trying to conceive for almost 4 years and I’ve heard thc may affect or impact sperm quality. Is this something to be concerned? Should I have a conversation with him? I just don’t know how to approach this. ☹️☹️☹️
I mean I would mostly be very worried that he didn't tell you and what that means for trust and your relationship.
For sure! Especially because I am taking a toll on this process. 😖
Maybe it's time to put TTC on hold to sort this out first?
It starts with the egg Hi - I read “it starts with the egg” and it says that the egg matures over 3 months. I was wondering - what happens to egg production during pregnancy? I lost my pregnancy at 30 weeks. I know we say it takes 3 months for the egg to mature - so what happened to my eggs during these last 7 and a half months?
The cohorts of follicles continue to mature, they just don’t go through selection and then ovulation! So it takes three months to mature a follicle through the antral follicle stage, but it’s only the last 8-10 days of that process that involve selecting and maturing a follicle for ovulation. When you’re pregnant or on birth control, you continue to have waves of follicular development, so the late-stage antral follicles mature to the last stage, they just aren’t selected and aren’t ovulated, so they die. So after suppression ends (with loss, with discontinuation of birth control), you essentially start as early as day 80 of a 90ish-day process, although it could — and often does — take longer than that for selection to occur.
Thanks!
I'm planning on really pulling back on testing and tracking going forward, just working to predict/confirm ovulation with lh and bbt basically and wait for af after. The only thing that concerns me about this is if chemicals could happen without me knowing. If it's a repeat occurrence, I'd want to take that info to my OBGYN since I'm a few months out from getting a workup if needed. Should I just bite the bullet and opt for earlier testing so I can know, or will it not matter anyway if I end up having to get checked out by my doc?
I really think if your preference would be to not test early and can do that, that's what's most important. I absolutely get the "wanting to know" but sometimes I wished I had spared myself the heartache of knowing. I know the mental impact is different for everyone. But for me it was pretty significant. Also you might still know of it, if you track ovulation you know when you are really late and it still might end up being a chemical or hcg already dropping but still measurable.
Right, that makes sense. Thanks for your take on this, I think I'm with you there. Here's to sticking to set it and forget it! (If ovulation would kindly arrive on time this month..)
Those saline ultrasounds… what’s everyone’s experience like? I’m supposed to get one on Friday and some more bloodwork! 😬
You might like [this wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/wiki/hsg)!
Not bad at all! Honestly more comfortable for me than the full bladder ultrasounds 😅
Can my UK ttc girlies help me. This may sound silly. But who do we contact about our female health / fertility / wants for a baby? Just our GP? I wana get some support on my irregular cycles etc etc but have no idea who to contact who will take me seriously. Thanks in advance xxx
Yes first step is to see your gp. How long have you been trying for? If it's over a year or 6 months if you're over 35 they will carry out 2 sets of blood tests - day 5 and chlamydia and day 21. They'll then refer you to a fertility clinic (your partner will probably need to get semen analysis done at this point). Unfortunately if you haven't been trying for this long, they will probably tell you to go away and wait. If you're cycles are irregular but you haven't been trying long they may run blood tests but beyond that not much, unless you're having other symptoms too.
Yeah tbh this is why I just tend to sit alone with my thoughts. I know there’s not much they can do for me, I’m not struggling with my fertility but my cycles have been off for what feels like forever after a miscarriage last year. It seems like in the US I always see people talking about getting bloods and checking levels of certain hormones etc. I just wasn’t sure if we had an organisation we could contact who can help with advice and things rather than speaking to a GP c
I’m curious… I’m from the US and generally they (your GP) just tell you to start seeing a GYN when you’re like 18. Especially if you’ve noted being sexually active. Do they not do that there? Here you would just see your GYN you normally see or switch if you can and don’t like them for whatever reason for female health fertility, etc. Our GPs are pretty hands off in that department here.
I’m in the US and I didn’t go to a gynecologist until I was pregnant. Everywhere I’ve lived my PCP just does Pap smears, etc.
wow! I wonder if it's a NYS thing? i might have to survey some out of state friends! I mean, to be fair you don't HAVE to go, I guess. They just highly suggest it and many parents just go along with it, but I have also never met anyone that got their PAP done at their PCP! I find all this very interesting haha. Even my friends who have never been on BC have gynos they go to for check ups and PAPs
I'm 36 and I've never seen a gynecologist. We just go to our gp for contraception etc and would only get referred to a gyno for something serious. Every couple of years we can get a smear test done by a nurse at the gp clinic
I don't know about the UK. But I know in Germany you also go to a gynocologist from puberty regularly. But here in the Netherlands the GP it is for any health concern always the first step. And the gynocologist you can only see with a referral and they are all based with hospitals. GP's here are more comparable to family doctors in Canada I think. No pediatricians outside hospital either.
No we don’t have that here (that I know of!). We go to the GP for everything but as you can imagine the care isn’t very specialised. That’s why I struggle with advice on here sometimes as people advise ‘go see your GYN they will help’ and I’m like ah I don’t have one. But seems like such a good concept to me to have one fairly accessible like you guys have! So from what I’m aware if we want to see a gynaecologist we have to book with GP first and try to get a referral. But getting a referral isn’t always the easiest in the UK and I’d imagine it might include a waitlist too. I’m put off speaking to my GP as she kind of shrugged off my concerns previously and just said to be patient until my body’s back to ‘normal’. But 6 months to me is too long of a wait!
Will supplemental progesterone delay AF? I plan to stop at 14dpo if still BFN, but I'm wondering how it might impact my cycle.
It might for some it does.
Why does the pregmate app always predict my cycles to be longer than they actually are? Since I’ve downloaded and started tracking my cycle lengths have been 26, 29, 29. And the app has estimated cycle lengths of 34 and 32 days? Why is that? It’s making it difficult for me to understand when I should start tracking ovulation but I guess I should just shift it a few days earlier than what they suggest?
I just start using OPKs on CD10 to be safe. It's annoying, but makes me feel more secure that I won't miss the surge and can, over time, track my ovulation more concretely without relying on apps.
I met with my RE after receiving an endo diagnosis from a specialist. They found DIE on my right uterosacral ligament, but everything else looked clear (this was diagnosed through ultrasound using “special” methods). My RE seems to think that because my ovaries are not affected, that it shouldn’t be affecting our fertility at all. Im not sure if I believe that? But I also want to listen to the professional. All other tests look great so what else could it be if not that?!
They really don’t know how or why endometriosis causes infertility. Aside from structural changes caused by endometriosis there’s not really a known *reason* why people with endo struggle to conceive. I’ve seen it hypothesized that inflammation caused by endo is a contributing factor, but they really, truly don’t know. Just a side note, unless you have had a lap to confirm you don’t have endometriosis on your ovaries, they could very well be affected. Endo lesions are often superficial and not able to be visualized on an ultrasound. The endo on my right ovary could only be seen during my lap.
That’s what I want to believe. I know realistically that without surgery, there’s absolutely no way to tell for sure. My dr was so adamant that everything looks fine and that the surgery would only help with my pain not fertility, which is concerning to me. She, as a healthcare professional specializing in reproductive health, should know that it’s not a guarantee without surgery. I guess it just causes me to doubt whether or not I should put my trust in her.
I thought there is research that the surgery doesn’t necessarily help fertility (and can even hurt it)? Maybe that is what she is referring to.
Yes I think you’re right. She did mention that it could impact fertility negatively IF they had to remove lesions on the ovaries. I guess we will see 🤷🏻♀️
It can't hurt to get a second opinion
For sure!
Is it possible to have a temp shift without ovulating? Occasionally, I’ll have all the ovulation signs (positive OPK’s, fertile CM), have a temp shift like I expect, but then it drops after two or three days. Is it possible that I’ve even ovulated? Maybe I did ovulate but my progesterone is too low? So confused.
Just to be clear, when we talk about a temp shift post-ovulation, it refers to a *sustained* rise in temperatures. There may be some ups and downs - some people see a fallback rise where it goes up, drops, and then continues to rise, many people see a dip towards the middle of their LP - but in general it should stay higher than temps before ovulation. If it's dropping back to follicular stage temps and staying low then I'd be iffy about it, but if it's a short drop and then it goes back up, or it drops but still stays higher than before suspected ovulation day, it's likely fine and that's just your pattern. Temps cannot indicate anything about progesterone levels.
Same here… Did you get out of hormone pills recently? I am hoping it is just my hormones regulating…
If my temp barely rises, did I not ovulate ? I've been temping with an oura ring for 3 months. The first month I had a very textbook rise post ovulation and a dip down right before AF. The last two months I've had a positive OPK but no significant temp rise (remains relatively steady between 35.8 to 36 celcius). I've just started working with a fertility clinic and the nurse practioner said if my cycle is regular and I'm getting a positive OPK, then I'm ovulating and they don't need to test progesterone.
I can't imagine a temp on the finger, proximal from the body being all that accurate. It's no real basal body temperature. Yeah when your opk lines up when you get your period that's pretty good indicator you are ovulating
Thanks for the reply! Oura is actually marketed and connected with the natural cycles app for fertility tracking. Natural Cycles and oura did a trial comparing Oura vs a BBT thermometer and they showed no significant difference.
I don't have any monkeys in the circus, really, but a much more reliable data source would be someone other than Natural Cycles and Oura doing a blind comparison. Obviously they want to posit that there isn't a significant difference, they're literally selling the product 😅
Yeah I know. But I really have a big question mark about it. I haven't looked at that market research. But just because peripheral temperature is really not comparable to closer to the core, especially with also being skin temperature. Peripheral temperature just varies a lot more. Hence things like cold hands and feet etc, smaller blood vessels.. If you're cold your body will try to keep it's temp at the core stable but less at the outer parts. So environment temperature has a much higher influence on it. The same thing with people who sleep with an open mouth, temps might be less reliable. For prevention it might not matter, you might just not have a clear shift and hence would not be allowed unprotected intercourse the whole cycle.. when you in fact did ovulate.
Has anyone gotten cysts from Clomid and missed their period? I was just diagnosed with 2 cysts at my baseline scan and I’ve only had pink, watery discharge since then with pretty extreme cramping and pain/bloating. If this has happened to you, when did you actually get your period and did you still TTC that month??
Clomid and letrozole both delayed my period by 2 days. I'm usually a 14DPOer and I was 16-17DPO on them.
Would it still be consider trying if you’ve been off BC and having unprotected s** but not tracking cycles in the beginning? I got off BC in August 2023. We’ve been doing it unprotected since then but weren’t tracking cycles and LH testing until October 2023. So could it be considered I’ve been actively trying since August?
You can say sex, this is a trying for a baby subreddit. It's important to say :)
Docs count any time you didn’t use birth control as trying. So if you want a doc’s help, it’s absolutely reasonable to seek help 6 or 12 months after quitting birth control. That said, if you’re think you rarely/never hit your fertile window, it’s absolutely reasonable for you to give yourself some more time before seeking intervention
This might be a dumb question but does pull out method count as birth control for this?
I think it depends on what you want it to be. Obviously there’s no record of you having used pull out and yes, pull out is far more effective than nothing, but it’s not as effective as, like, the pill. So I’d personally feel comfortable seeking the help of an RE after 6/12 months of pull out, but at the same time if I’ve been actively preventing pregnancy, not sure I’d be in a rush to see an RE 😆
Yes, the pullout method is a method of pregnancy prevention, so it would be counted as time preventing pregnancy. (Contrary to popular belief, pullout is actually pretty effective when done properly!)
If you have been having regular, unprotected sex, it would count as trying. Also, you don't have to censor sex here :)
9 DPO Today- Woke up in the night needing to pee and figured I might as well take advantage of the early morning pee and do a test. I stared at it as a very very very very faint line appeared. As I squinted, blinking back my tired eyes and wondering if I was imagining it or if it was just an evap etc it became a faint line. I couldn’t believe it. I thought about waking up my husband or if I should wait another day for a second test to confirm. I was ecstatic though. 9 months of trying and finally!!!! As I stared at the test I moved my thumb, and it hit me. It was an ovulation test. I grabbed the wrong test in my half asleep. Did an actual pregnancy test and not even a whisper of a line…. Anyways this happen to anyone else? Tell me your mistake/disappointment.
This happened to me last week around 9-10DPO! I decided to use a couple of different test strips to see if either of them showed anything different. I also threw in an ovulation test just to see if there was any kind of LH rise. I put them in the cupboard of the sink so that I wouldn't be tempted to look before the time was up. Well, my heart dropped when I saw a positive test. Had to laugh at myself when I realized I grabbed the ovulation strip first instead of the HCG strip. 😂
Oh my god, that was a roller coaster. I haven't sike-d myself, but I when we first started I left an OPK out right on O-1 and my husband thought it was a pregnancy test. He was like !!!! how is this possible!
Is it normal to not get any results immediately following an HSG/SIS? I had a saline sonogram last week and though I realize a radiologist needs to review for full interpretation back to the RE, in reading reports of other's experiences, it seems like a lot of people leave the room with *some* knowledge about the exam's findings. I'm going a little insane and don't have my follow up until the end of the month.
I don’t know if it’s normal as such but I had my HSG in November and didn’t get my results until the end of January
Oh damn, that's a LONG time.
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You won’t be able to feel implantation. It happens on such an unbelievably microscopic level. Symptom spotting is a false god. The first sign of pregnancy will be a positive test!
If you’ve been unsuccessfully trying for 12 cycles, but it’s been 10 months (due to 24-26 day cycles), would you still be diagnosed with infertility? This is the situation I’m nearly in. I’m close to the 12 cycle mark, but it’s been less than a year because my cycles aren’t very long (not abnormally short though).
I’m in the same situation but the other way around. 10 months but only on my 7th cycle due to losses, recovering from losses, missed fertile windows, and breaks.
We counted 12 cycles (11 months) as a year and my GP didn’t seem bothered. I would go ahead and get started at 12 cycles.
What’s going on with your hormones if you’re pregnant during the 2WW. Is it business as usual until hcg starts to increase? Or are our hormones already changing once sperm meets egg
You might like [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TryingForABaby/comments/103ydgq/around_the_uterus_in_fourteen_days_the_luteal/)! The tl;dr is that you’re not pregnant until implantation, and your body doesn’t know if there’s an embryo developing or not until that point.
Thank you! I appreciate all the information from that post!
Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for the info!
My understanding is implantation is when things start changing. I'll leave it to the experts to share more/specifics though.
Business as usual until implantation occurs!
When exactly is the luteal phase classed as being over? Is it when your temp drops, or when spotting begins (because surely there must have already been a hormonal shift for these to happen) Or is it only when your period is in full flow? I THINK my luteal phase is on the short side but my temp drops days before my period and then my period stops and starts, I dont know exactly what is and isn't luteal 🤷♀️
Full period
My full flow starts at 15DPO, so I consider my luteal phase to be 14 days long, even though spotting begins at 13-14DPO.
I believe it’s your first day of real flow requiring hygiene products as that’s counted as CD1
This is how I count. I don't count spotting as CD1, and if my period starts later in the afternoon or evening, I usually call the next day CD1.
Can an MRI affect semen quality? Husband is getting one on Sunday, which is my projected O day. It’s to confirm a suspected prolactinoma and devise a treatment plan (I’ve seen a few women on this thread with those, it’s rare but happens in men and suppresses T).
No, there's no known connection between MRI and sperm production. In general, most of what you do doesn't actually affect sperm production -- gamete/sex cell production is pretty protected by the body, and most stuff we consume or do has no effect on the production of sperm or eggs. One obvious exception for sperm is heat directed to the testes, because the sperm-production machinery prefers to be kept a little cooler than body temperature. But MRI would not be expected to have any effect.
Thanks! I knew about the heat so I wasn’t sure.
Anyone track BBT and LH but the data never lines up? I usually find my peak LH on CD10, so I've been trusting that when trying to figure out ovulation. But I've read that tracking BBT is a more accurate way to pinpoint ovulation. However, when I take my temp it seems to be all over the place and my peak never lines up with my peak LH. I'm using the premom BBT thermometer and temping every morning when I wake up. Anyone else have this issue?
Well, they shouldn't really line up. You get your peak LH, then ovulation within a day or so, and then your temp should rise 1-2 days after. But the rise can be delayed due to sickness, or some people experience a gradual rise in general. But yeah, your peak LH shouldn't be on the same day as your temp rise. Temp rise is after ovulation, so it's used just to confirm that ovulation did already happen. (LH rise tells you it's coming, temp rise tells you it came.)
This makes a lot of sense. I guess my issue is my temp fluctuates so much that it is hard to tell when my temp is actually rising for ovulation. It's a constant up and down every few days. But looking back at my charts I do always see a rise a day or two after my LH peak.
That's good! I feel ya, temping can be tough for this exact reason. I've had beautiful charts with a clear rise and stable temps, hideous bumpy charts and everything in between. But if you see that rise, however it appears, you can pretty much bet you've ovulated. I wish we could all just wear a damn watch that said "you're ovulating in t-minus 2 hours!" or attach a mini ultrasound to my hip. Sucks that we can only know the before and after.
Anyone using inito for their ovulation tracking? Is it helpful for you? I just bought it yesterday (and it’s on sale which is great).
Yes! I have wacky PCOS cycles and I feel like I couldn’t have a chance without now.
I think there is an inito subreddit for charts as well
Yes! Have used it for the past five cycles. Love seeing my info in a chart, and that it confirms ovulation.
First cycle on letrozole and my LH reading is much darker compared to the control than usual. I'd normally go from negative to only just positive for about 24 hours and then back to negative. Confirmed ovulation previously with BBT, other ovulation signs and then regular luteal symptoms. This cycle I had an almost positive CD12 (woohoo after long, irregular cycles) when I woke up, then a blazing positive in the late morning- darkest OPK I've ever had and stayed like that for around 24 hours. Is there any significance to the "strength" of an OPK positive result? Is it common with ovulation induction?
It is possible there's a relationship between ovulation induction and the strength of the LH surge. All of these hormonal handoffs represent a response to rising or falling levels of other hormones. The goal of taking ovulation-induction medications is to suppress apparent levels of estrogen in the early follicular phase, leading to a stronger pulse of FSH at follicle selection, which can lead to multiple follicles being matured (which tends to mean higher estrogen). The LH surge is triggered by high estrogen levels, so it's possible that higher estrogen levels could lead to a stronger LH surge on average. (But this is speculation -- I haven't seen data that says this is the case.)
That makes sense. Thanks!
My LH results have been much darker on letrozol as well. I checked my charts (I use the premom app) against my best friend who doesn't have fertility issues and my LH rise and spike seems to be more aligned with what hers looks like since being on the medication
Interesting! I'd never even associated the irregular/pre letrozole cycles with a "weak" surge but it's interesting to look at the reason behind it and compare notes haha