Million dollar question!

Thanks fedupttcnosuccess, I hope you dont have to wait too long for your BFP. xx

Charting is more reliable as it pin points the actual day you have ovulated ..opk's just tell you when you are going to ovulate rather than if you have. Also you could still have positive OPK's and not have ovulated but temp charting actually will tell you if you have ovulated. Fertility friend emails you with all of this information so it really becomes clear as to why charting is far superior to OPK's.

I have no idea, the OPK's must detect minimal surges in hormones but sure enough they were indicating that I was ovulating on day 14 (even on the cycle I conceived)but the chart said day 18. Of that particular cycle I only had sex twice and that was on day CD 18 and 19. If I really had of ovulated on day 14 I doubt I would have got pregnant having sex that late (and it certainly wouldn't have been a boy, given boy sperm is faster). I just think OPK's are unreliable, the hormones produced must trigger a positive even when they are not (and I was reading them correctly with the line having to be darker than the control line). I dont know how they got it wrong but from tracking BBT I now know that they did? Hope that kind of helps

Sorry Lennon80 for being clueless(again) but how is that possible that OPk told you that you ovulated on day 14/15 when u acutaly ovulated on day 18 based on charting and why is charting more relyable than OPK???

It took me just over a year so it was looking like we were going to have to go down the IVF route. I am currently 35 weeks pregnant with my first child a little boy. I also suffered from endometerosis and was in a really bad way just prior to becoming pregnant as it had gone into my intestines and everything and caused me to be really ill and the month I caught I had actually been in A and E twice and was at the point where my health was becoming a much more pressing concern than TTC as I was missing work and it was really affecting my life. I really thought it would never happen for me and it did. Please dont lose hope, these things can take time and it may just be something really simple. I know lots of women who were TTC for ages and went on clomid and were pregnant within months. Knowledge is power when it comes to fertility though and so charting is the best thing you can do to help yourself. Fertility friend also sends you daily emails and really enables you to understand the finer details of charting and how its measured etc.

PS I was also getting day 14/15 as ovulation day with OPK's but only after charting did I see it was about 4 days out and my DH was working abroad a lot and we were timing his trips around it ..all pointless...grr I hate OPK's they lulled me into a right false sense of security and led me to many BFN's and the subsequent heartache each month. Good Luck.

go to fertility friend and sign up and stick all your readings on a chart there as it will make it so much easier for you to understand

www.fertilityfriend.com/

Also it allows you to compare your charts etc and its just really really good. I dont think I would have been able to chart as effectively without this.

I agree that charting BBT has been invaluable.

I have irratic cycles - some very long, some quite short. I got pregnant with DD through ovulating on CD32!!

And just found out I am pregnant with #2 and ov happened on day 16.

Without my chart I would be totally lost!

Charting BBT was what did it for me. I had a 28-30 day cycle..ALWAYS assumed I ovulated on the 14 cycle day and ovulation strips would confirm this. Charted BBT and found I was actually ovulating on CD 18-20. I also used preeseed the month I caught.

btw it didnt take 10 years to be better I was back to work within 2 months!!

Hi Miffles, regarding the frequency of treatments, I personally ask the person to see how they are after a couple of treatments to see if they notice any change in general,such as being more relaxed, improved sleep, increase in toileting etc. I start with weekly treatments for a few weeks then every second week for a couple of weeks and so on. Depending on the reflexologist it can be expensive as prices vary.
Im not sure about the uk but health insurances cover a certain number of treatments eg 6 sessions and maybe you can claim tax back???

Reflexology is not a cure it works well with a combination of healthy eating etc.
I studied reflexology because I had back injury and was told by a consultant that I would need surgery, so I did Physio/Reflexology and Pilates and thankfully am fine nearly 10 years later without the surgery. With the Reflexology I found my menstrual cycle corrected itself and my periods were less symptomatic for me.

I am sorry that some have a negative view of Reflexology. Alternative treatments in my opinion are supposed to be used with your doctors knowledge as a combination to help with whatever is an issue for them. Taking time just for yourself is part of helping yourself, there is no guarantee with any treatment whether western medicine or eastern based in origin.
Hope this helps although message very long!! You may fall asleep reading it sorry!!

What's with all the "thus"es?

Aha - well if you have already plumped for ARGC, then fair enough to be investigating random shit in the meantime! And six weeks off sounds great. Apologies if I was rather blunt, I think I am just frustrated at my own failure to get knocked up.

I am in the north west, where there is a dearth of decent clinics. Plus we are having our one and only NHS cycle first, and my PCT limits the choices even further.

If this cycle doesn't work we will be looking elsewhere - money will be an issue, so might go abroad.

I'm sorry to hear about your poorly relatives. My dad has terminal cancer too. Thus far the progression of his disease has been thoroughly unpredictable, so life is a constantly balancing act between not making any plans at all, thus living in perpetual limbo, or making plans regardless, but accepting that we often have to cancel them. Which may include postponing IVF when we finally get to it. I'm sure you can relate to all this!

Good luck with everything x

No matter what the underlying cause is, it seems that IVF is usually the solution - so we will be going ahead with that. But as you say, I will be asking a good few questions first! And depending on the answers, may request some additional tests prior to treatment.

Forgive me for saying this, but I couldn't fail to notice you popping up all over the conception board recently, and you seem to be investing a lot of time and energy in asking for anecdotal accounts of what has worked for other people. I can see several related problems with that:

1. The majority of people on this board, unlike you and I, will not have fertility problems. They will be here for a few months, or a year, and the technique most likely to succeed for them is "lots of shagging". You and I have tried that (not together!), to no avail. Therefore the majority of responses are not necessary helpful to us.

1. It is deeply unscientific: the connection between someone drinking cough medicine and getting pregnant is most likely to be, in my view, nothing more than pure coincidence. Asking "what worked for you" is likely to come up with a whole host of different answers, sending you on a whole host of wild goose chases.

1. It is wasting time that could, I believe, be used more productively. Personally I am waiting for the wheels of the NHS to grind round to it being my turn, but if I was going privately, as I believe you are, I would be focussing my energies on searching for the best clinics, in the UK or abroad (particularly those with decent success rates in older women).

I think I have heard you say that you don't want to set the IVF wheels in motion until 2011, for whatever reason, but in the meantime I believe that time spent investigating foot-fiddlers would be better spent investigating foof-fiddlers!

OP, when you say you and your partner have had "all the tests under the sun", could you please clarify? I am assuming you have had semen analysis, day 21 progesterone, day 2/3 FSH/LH, and HSG or similar to assess tubes? In any case, that is what we have had, and are currently awaiting IVF (NHS).

The reason I ask is that I have been obsessing over [[http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a772.full?sid=e559c358-0fe3-47fe-95ef-973f3d0d37fa
this article]], which includes the following:

"Basic fertility investigations including semen analysis, confirmation of ovulation, and tubal patency testing using hysterosalpingography find no specific cause of infertility in about a third of these couples, who are given a "diagnosis" of unexplained infertility. Underlying mechanisms could include cervical, uterine, ovulatory, peritoneal, immunological, or fertilisation defects. Therefore, the true prevalence of this diagnosis will depend on the range of investigations available at individual centres and the willingness of infertile couples to undergo extensive testing."

I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at: "unexplained" is not a diagnosis. It just means the docs haven't found a reason - usually because they haven't tested for "everything under the sun". I certainly haven't been tested for all of the things mentioned (i.e. cervical, uterine, ovulatory, peritoneal, immunological, or fertilisation defects).

I tend to approach things very scientifically, so am of the view that a battery of tests is more likely to lead to finding a solution than having my feet fiddled with or drinking cough medicine would do!

fedup-I've found the link for the person I was looking for, I've pm'd you. Am sure there are lots and she may be no where near you but its some info to look at.