EWCM after I thought I'd ovulated?

[Nightowlagain]

Hi there, I have a question and thought where better to ask it! I hope someone can give me an insight into the ovulation process.

I'm ttc number two, last time it took a few months but was successful without any intervention. We have just started again, and I've been using a calendar app on my phone to track my dates. It is very accurate with regard to predicting my period, and I'm very regular, 28 day cycle. I'm going by when it says I'm ovulating, but I've noticed the last two months of trying that I seem to get the EWCM starting the day after I think I've ovulated according to the calendar.

We dtd the day before I was supposedly ovulating and I'm worried now that we missed it again. We've not been dedicated to it really yet, so this was the only time we dtd this month.

Does this mean I'm ovulating later than the dates suggest, or is it possible that the EWCM can come just after? Thanks if you can help, it's very confusing!

[hanflan]

If you are just using the calendar method, based on nothing other than a 28 day cycle, it will automatically assume that you ovulate exactly mid cycle (usually day 14). This is not always true! For example I usually ovulate on day 15 and I have a 28 day cycle.
EWCM is a big clue that you are ovulating so I would go with that, if you don't want to go down the route of temping, opks etc. If you make sure you dtd several times over your fertile window you should be fine :)

[1moretime]

Im not 100 percent but im sure when you get ewcm that is leading upto ovulation & its the last day you hsve it that is most fertile. I may be wrong tho.
I also use a period log on my phone but im not sure if it is accurate as to when i should or am ovulating. Xx

[Nightowlagain]

Ok thanks. I guess I should go by my body rather than relying on the calendar. It's just annoying, I remember last time being blissfully unaware if the physical signs and going just by the dates. Maybe that's why it took a while! I work funny shifts as well so it's hard to fit lots of sex in at the right time, but I'll give it a go!

[hanflan]

1moretime that's right as far as I know. If you have ewcm for more than one day, the last day is supposed to be your "peak" and that means you should be ovulating either then or within 12-24 hrs or so

[Nightowlagain]

I just looked at my app and based on the CM it would have been ovulating on the 17th day, is that likely?

[hanflan]

It's very possible! People tend to ovulate on different days, we are all different! Don't get too hung up on the dates and timings of it all. As long as you dtd a few times over the fertile period then you should be fine! Don't forget that swimmers live for a few days up there, so even if you don't do it on the exact day of ovulation you are still in with a good chance

[hanflan]

The latest I have ovulated is the 17th and the earliest is 13th cycle day. Still have a 28/29 day cycle each time!

[1moretime]

Thanks hanflan thought it was something like that.
Im so confused and dont know where i am with mine...my cycles are irregular due to pcos. Anywhere between 32-45 days. Im on day 1 now after a 55 day cycle!! Dont have a clue when i will ovulate or if its poss to get preg with such long cycles xx

[FinickityCoder]

As everyone else has said, I'd go with the signs your body is showing you rather than an app that just estimates based on averages. I average a 30 day cycle and usually ov on cd18. The month I conceived my son I oved on cd21 yet according to apps/online calculators I 'should' ovulate on cd16

[PerpetualStudent]

Thanks for asking this - Im in the same boat!
Thought I'd ovulated last week, going by temp & cramps, but there was just a little EWCM
Today, cramps are back (still down same side) & EWCM by the bucket!
Im with you on listening to your body, but what about when it tells you different things?!

Still, will DTD tonight (any excuse :p) & just watch & wait I suppose...

[mrshjb]

I'm having the same thing. Been having EWCM for over a week now! Temp had gone up this morning so I'm hoping it will continue to rise and the EWCM will start to disappear. Tried googling it but got a lot of conflicting stuff. Does anyone think you can get EWCM after you've OV?

[kalidasa]

For most women EWCM is a pretty reliable sign that you have not yet ovulated. For some women it always means that they will very soon, others may have quite a long period of EWCM, or several patches of it, before ovulation, in which case it is a bit less helpful for timing things precisely.

You are unlikely to see true EWCM (very stretchy, shiny etc) after ovulation. Two things can be confusing though: one is that semen can appear quite similar (though it is not as stretchy), and obviously if you're having a lot of sex there will be some semen reappearing, often the following day; the other is that shortly before your period it is normal to notice very watery discharge, which you might mistake for watery cervical fluid (which is the most fertile form that some women get or notice). This is probably because as the womb lining starts to break down, very watery discharge is released first.

As a general rule, if you see EWCF assume you are HIGHLY fertile and proceed accordingly! Even if your cycle is always 28 days and you are on day 25, this could be one odd cycle in which you ovulate much later (and therefore your period will be due much later). Of course if you are usually very regular that is a good predictor but it is not a totally reliable one - you can always have an unusual cycle, and a lot of women seem to feel that their cycles change and become less predictable when they are ttc anyway.

[mrshjb]

Kalidasa you seem very knowledgable so can I ask you a further TMI question..... I did have a lot of it after just wiping a few days ago but the last few days I have just had it after BM. Could it be that it's just not dried up yet and is being forced out unlike a few days ago when it was coming out of its own accord?!

It's definitely very shiny and stretchy so I don't think I'm getting it confused with other stuff!

That question is far far too much information but it's driving me mad so I had to ask!!!

[kalidasa]

I think it's probably just coincidence that you've only noticed it after a BM. A BM will often force out ewcf that might be quite high up by the cervix, whereas if you hadn't had a BM it would eventually have worked its way down and you'd have noticed it on wiping or on your underwear, if you see what I mean. So I think it's probably just an accident of timing and doesn't have any particular significance re: fertility. The main thing is that you're still seeing it. Having several days of ewcf is generally a good sign as the more of it you produce the more fertile you probably are. Generally speaking younger women tend to see ewcf for longer. Have you got a chart you can link to?

[mrshjb]

Ah right ok. I've screen shot my FF. I'm pretty new to it so I don't know how to link it. I think the circled stats are because I input the data later in the day so I think the time is ok? I have to say I'm not brilliant at temping, I take it when I wake up but there could be an hour or so difference in that and I always get up in the night for a wee. Let me know what you think though!

[kalidasa]

Hi mrs, is this your first month charting? How long are your cycles usually? There is no confirmation of ovulation on this chart yet, so I think you should continue to assume you are fertile for now.

Re: the temping, it's a matter of experience really to find out whether a small difference in time, or a slightly disturbed night etc makes a difference for you. I charted for about five years as contraception/for information so personally I know that my thermal shift is pretty big and that the small variations caused by a restless night or waking a bit earlier or later won't obscure the pattern for me. While you are learning I would try to temp at the same time every day - e.g. set an alarm for your earliest usual wake time and just go back to sleep on the days you don't need to get up then. But you may well find there's a good clear pattern even without that.

[mrshjb]

It's my second month charting. Last month my temp went to around 36.11 for a few days and then rose steadily from 36.40s to 36.60s until AF arrived- so that showed my ovulation pretty clearly. My cycles have been all over the place since coming off the pill in October last year though, that's why I started temping! I've had 55 days, 29 days, 54 days, then the last one was 34 days, really hoping that this one isn't going to turn into another one long.

This morning I took my temp at 5am because I woke up for the loo and it was 36.29 but then I went back to sleep and woke up at 7am and it was 36.47 so I think timing must make a difference for me?! I don't really want to set an alarm to wake up even earlier because quite often once I've woke up and know I have to wake up to go to work I can't get back to sleep and I'm not too good with tiredness!!

Tearing my hair out a bit with it all day today!

[kalidasa]

I think the timing makes a difference for everyone - in that later on your temp will be higher, and in fact there is a rule of thumb somewhere (have you got the "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" book?) about how much to add/subtract per hour either way which definitely is approximately right for me. What varies I think is how big your overall temp shift is, and therefore how much it matters. So for me for instance before I had my son I would often have temps of 96.8-97.4, say, before ovulation and temps of 98-98.6 after ovulation; with a temp shift of a full degree or so on average the difference between 96.8 at 5 am, 97 at 6.30 and 97.2 at 8 (or whatever) just wasn't that significant for me as they were all obviously in my pre-ovulatory range. Obviously if your typical shift is more 97.5 to 97.8 then those sorts of differences are going to matter.

In fact, if you've got a F thermometer you might want to consider using that as it does give you slightly finer distinctions (but don't switch mid cycle as all thermometers give slightly different readings anyway).

I think funny cycles post-pill are pretty normal, and in particular you can see odd patterns with cf (cervical fluid) for quite a while afterwards.

Re: the long cycles, just to reassure you, I have never been on any kind of hormonal contraception but my cycles are pretty irregular, they vary between 26 and 47 days. Nevertheless I am very fertile and always ovulate. I charted for years even when single because it was such a useful way of knowing when my otherwise incredibly unpredictable period was going to turn up!

[mrshjb]

Hi, thanks again for the above. It looks like your temperature shift is much more sharp than mine, I bet that is really useful in determining ovulation for definite. I haven't read that book but I've heard a lot about it. Might be time in invest in it!

When I bought my thermometer I didn't know which to get and I read that the degrees c one was more accurate so I bought that but then everything I seem to read does it in F so I wish I'd bought one of those instead! I might convert my temps from C to F to see how it looks.

Thanks for the reassurance. I have been really worried that I've not been OV in the long cycles? In the last long cycle I had, I had the EWCM when I thought I was going to OV (around cd18ish) but then AF didn't turn up and I got a few bfns so I had to presume I hadn't ovulated when I thought I did, then AF arrived after 54 days, but I didn't get any EWCM around that time that I must have OVed- if I did that is. That's why I started temping. I'm finding it all so complicated. Especially because I was on the pill for such a long time. But I think I had pretty regular cycles before that. I didn't really record when they were but I remember never noticing that I was particularly late. Not to the extent of skipping a month like I've done since coming off the pill.

[mrshjb]

Done my temperature convertion and in F it's 97.12 to 97.30 to 97.66 over the last couple of days. So still looks slight differences but suppose that could be my shift?!

Do you track cervix changes?

[kalidasa]

I don't bother with the cervix stuff for the simple reason that I can never reach the wretched thing!! Also, cf and temps together (plus a few other things like energy/libido etc) has always produced very clear charts for me so I wasn't that motivated to try. Worth giving it a go though. Definitely get TCOYF, it is quite American and a bit repetitive, but actually well written for a teaching textbook I think - I mean the repetition is pedagogically effective!

Once you get the hang of it, charting should tell you for definite whether or not you are ovulating in those long cycles. I have heard of other women post-pill noticing that their CF is not in sync with their ovulation, and I think TCOYF has something about this actually.

I always discard the second decimal place to avoid obsessing about tiny differences, so 97.1, 97.3 followed by 97.7 definitely could be a shift, but obviously you'll have to wait and see if it stays up.

[mrshjb]

Ah yeah suppose you don't really need to then! I've definitely had a go and I can tell it's more soft and open at the minute than it was at the beginning of last week but I don't know how quickly it's supposed to change after OV so not sure how helpful that will be really!

I'll have a look into the book. You down seem to be able to get it as an eBook anywhere which is a shame. Yeah I've found in the short cycles that the cm definitely ties in with over but I'm not sure about the longer ones yet.

It has been 97.7 for two days now (if the later temp was the more accurate one) so if it stays higher from tomorrow onwards hopefully things might look more promising.

Did you find charting helped you conceive quickly?

[mrshjb]

Just realised my phone has changed a few words there. Hopefully it still makes sense!

[kalidasa]

Well when we were trying for DS we only had unprotected sex for three months and I conceived every time (two v. early losses then DS). We have just started ttc no. 2 but it's too early to know if we have succeeded this month or not yet. I did keep an eye on my charts when we were ttc but not super carefully - I'm sure I would have made more use of them if it had taken a while. To be honest for me I'm not sure how much difference it makes because my libido is so hormone-related: once I started charting I realised that I naturally always felt like/had a lot more sex in the run up to ovulation every month, regardless of the actual time of ovulation or how aware I was of where I was at. So obviously I am quite fertile but I'm not sure whether charting has actually made much difference to it.

Given how easily I conceived what is impressive is how effective FAM was for me for years!

[mrshjb]

Wow you must have been super fertile! Sorry about your early losses, it must have been hard even though you conceived very quickly afterwards. I think people are very brave to use it as a conception method, but clearly it worked very well for you!

FF has decided that I'm 4DPO today. My temperate has shot up ridiculously high this morning, but I'm thinking it might be something to do with the 2 glasses of wine I had last night? I finished the last about 7.30ish, do you think that would have had much effect on my temp? I've read conflicting stuff on google, some seem to say that it causes your temp to drop but I'm not sure, nor am I sure just how much alcohol they are talking about! I'll post the chart.....