What happens now?

[veeboo]

I went to the gp this week to discuss ttc. I came off the pill in January and since then have had cycles of a day different each month 30, 31, 33, 32, 31, 30, and now 29. He confirmed this means they are irregular and he booked me for blood tests and advised me to get my boyfriend to book in to provide a semen sample. Can anyone advise what might happen now?

I do think I am ovulating as the last 3 cycles we have used opks but in addition to this me and my partner struggle to dtd and need to use viagra. We have only been managing once or twice each fertile window. It feels like the start of a long road of worry.

Also is it normal to just have the bloods taken at any part of my cycle? The gp didn't tell me to book in on a specific day.

[Blankspace4]

I wouldn’t class that cycle as especially irregular, it’s only a day or so each side?

I think my original blood tests were Day 21 and day 2-7.....

Good luck xx

[Persipan]

Yeah, I'm also rather surprised at that being considered irregular. It sounds as though your GP is being really proactive, though, such is great!

What specific blood tests are you having done? This would make a difference to the timing.

[Ohluckyme]

That’s not irregular. My consultant said I have regular cycles and I tend to have 25,26,27 day cycles with the odd 21 or 33 thrown in. Irregular cycles are beyond 21-33 days usually. You’ve only been trying for 8 months so I would worry yet too much but good to get the bloods and early tests done! Good luck x

[Ohluckyme]

*would’ny worry!

[SleepyMcEdie]

Those cycles aren’t irregular at all! Especially given you have not long stopped the pill.

It took 2 years for my cycles to settle down and for me to conceive DS1. I had lots of tests but everything was normal, although I didn’t always ovulate every cycle. It has taken 2 months to conceive the baby I am currently pregnant with.

I can highly recommend the Clearblue fertility monitor. It’s expensive but worked really well for me and gives you the 2 days in a cycle you are most fertile.

[Ohluckyme]

Arrrh wouldn’t 😂

[MissTeye]

I don't think that's considered irregular. In fact I read before there needs to be a minimum of 5 days difference in each cycle.
Please don't start stressing yourself out with tests and thoughts of infertility yet as this will just add to the pressure. It sounds like you've only dtd at the right time a couple of times.
I'd recommend getting the 'Clue' app to track your cycle and predict your fertile days. Then every month for at least 6 months make sure to dtd 3 days leading up to your fertile window and also throughout your fertile window too.
If at the end of doing this for 6 months it hasn't worked, then look for help with it.

[Isittimeforbed]

Agree with pp, those aren't irregular. The initial blood tests should be FSH, LH and oestrogen done around day 3, then progesterone around 7 days after you ovulate so prob around day 23 for you.

[GemmeFatale]

The fertility clinic im with considers me regular for the purposes of treatment. I have anything from 28 day to 45 day cycles.

[MrsDrambuie]

I agree with PP, your periods definitely don’t sound irregular and you haven’t been TTC for very long, especially if you only DTD once or twice in the fertile window. No reason to be worried at this stage

My GP said it would be at least 3 months before Pill hormones were out of my system.

I recommend Ovia app for tracking periods & fertility.

[explodingkitten]

That's not an irregular cycle. I have an irregular cycle. It's anything between 5 weeks and 7 months. My aunt had an irregular cycle, anything between two weeks and two months, one of my cousins has 1 period a year. I know that we are extreem but those are real irregular cycles.

Your cycle only varies about two days, that's very regular. It's nice that your GP wants to do extra tests though, better to be sure that you're ok healthwise.

[charlyn]

Agree with everyone else, those cycles definitely aren’t irregular! I have irregular cycles and mine range from 24-60+! Have you tried using ovulation tests?

[veeboo]

Thanks for the reassurance all. I must admit I was surprised when he said. I was expecting him to say to stick with it for a while longer. I use tracking apps and have been using opks. Going to use the clearblue advanced this month and maybe preseed. It will be good to know what the blood and semen tests say. The blood tests seem generic, testing for all the main hormones on a non specific day although by chance it will be around the time I would expect to ovulate.

[Isittimeforbed]

Just to say - as per my post above - there is no point testing all the hormones on one day. You need to test them as I described otherwise they are meaningless.

[veeboo]

Thanks @isittimeforbed I'm going to ring back tomorrow and check the gp didn't forget to tell me a specific cycle day

[CornishMaid1]

As others have said, if they are hormones for your cycle they need to be specific days to mean anything.

Your cycles are not irregular. I know a lot of areas day that they can't do anything unless you've been trying for at least a year or there is an issue. Maybe your doctor has to wait a year unless you have issues with irregular cycles and he has said that to be able to get you tested now.

[Smidge001]

100% agree with everyone else, those cycles are in no way irregular!
Also fully agree that blood tests need to be specific to the time in the cycle.

And in case you are as clueless as I was (and apologies if you aren't!), count day 1 of your cycle as the first day of heavy blood flow. I completely cocked up all my tests until they explained this properly to me, as I spot for about a week before the heavy days in my cycle,so thought my cycle started a week earlier than it did.

[TheRedRoom]

That's definitely not irregular. I have had 6 pregnancies and conceived within 2 months every time. My periods have always ranged from 28 days to 33 days and my doctors have always regarded that as regular.

[kikisparks]

My cycles vary from 21-28 days and I was told they weren’t irregular by hospital consultant specialised in fertility. GPs don’t know much about fertility though.

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

That cycle you describe veeboo is not irregular. A "normal" cycle is a cycle day of between 21 and 35 days or with 4 days of variation from month to month.

Blood tests done on the "wrong" days will give meaningless results, it sounds like your GP knows very little about fertility testing. Blood tests too are normally done for such testing on specific days during the cycle; these are day 3 (for LH and FSH) and day 21 (for progesterone).

Also your partner needs to be tested. No point at all doing tests on you solely to further discover down the line that there are male factor issues. It sounds like he is having problems already and that should be looked further into.

[Pumpkin18]

I was told to have all blood tests between cycle day 2 and 5 except for progesterone which was day 21 of cycle