Random varying cycle, negative OPKs - wish I'd never started with the damned things!

Wigglesmummy - how long have you been using the fertilityblend? I have weird cycles too - I will give those vitamins a go.

I agree with everyone who says OPKs are the work of the devil - they drove me mad and nearly blind trying to decide whether the 2 lines were the same 'intensity' ... do I look like a paint chart designer?
I would recommend a really good fertility type vitamin. My cycle was bananas - between 27 and 39 days - and despite ovulation pains I was utterly confused and then I started using fertility blend and cycle now 29/ 30 days every time and feeling much better overall. Not pregnant but DH has low sperm count.

I used OPK's for all the 7 cycles that we ttc'd baby #3. I only got a positive for the first 3 goes and then for the rest I just got loads of big fat bog off's.

The month I got pregnant I didn't get a positive on an OPK. I'm now 9 weeks preg.

I hate those stupid sticks they caused me so much anxiety.

Zita West at the fertility show said that we should try to make love about every 3 days to keep topped up with the necessary ingredient .

I wont be having any more children, but if I were I really wouldn't use those things. I bought the flippin' expensive ones as well!!(£20 a month).

Please try to relax and before you know it you'll be peeing on a hpt stick. Good luck.

babyvalentine - just to echo the ditch the sticks vote here. But also add a couple of extra bits, you can get a positive opk (or near positive) just before af arrives. There is a second LH surge just before your period. You also get positive opk results when pregnant. At other times of the month you could potentially get more than one LH surge but not actually ovulate, as you mentioned stress amongst other things can delay ovulation.

So in essence the sticks are not worth it. Even if you get a positive on an opk, you could be ovulating or maybe not. For me I only ever got a positive AFTER ovulation!!!!! I was temping, monitoring cm etc and it was clear that if I had gone by opks alone, I would not have ever given myself a chance. With the internet cheapie opk's I only ever generally got a near positive too.

So I am glad you are ditching the opk's, I hope you get to relax and enjoy good old-fashioned shagging time with your dh.

You asked about farenhight or celeius thermometer - C is fine.

Hi BV!

Well, I will prob go back to the Dr again in 2 months time because by then it will have been 'a year' according to what I have previously told him but actually 9 months in reality.

I temp every morning when I get up though sometimes I do forget but I do find that my temp drops slightly on the day of ovulation and jumps up the next day and stays up until i get my period. My luteal phase is approx 13 - 14 days and has always been around that time.

So def not doing the opk thing and as of tomorrow will be will by CD8 for me I will try the sex every other night approach. I know as Attila rightly points out it's better not to be so regimented and not follow a plan but if we left it to just having sex when I feel like it then it would prob be never as I have a really low libido at the moment. DH on other hand would prob like to do it every night.

arionater i know what you mean my mother is the same, we joke and refer to it as her crate load of mega eggs, like i said my ds was conceived not only first month but first day of ttc! heard it can take a little longer second time around so not worried at mo.
babyv i felt like that first month too, like youve said before a bit of a fraud. people say to you relax it will happen and try to forget your even ttc to get the pressure of you both, i hate all that! how can you forget that your trying? its exciting time in your life and we are all bound to be a little crazy about it. after all we are women hahahahaha

I am not ttc but I use fam (fertility awareness method) for contraceptive/general awareness purposes, so I know my cycle well. Just wanted to say that I have cycles of very varied length (26-46 days in the last few years) but I always ovulate. So erratic cycles does not necessarily mean there is any problem with ovulation (though obviously it can make it harder to predict when you're likely to be fertile in advance). Interestingly, my mother also had very erratic cycles but was highly fertile and conceived very easily.

glad those horrid sticks are in the bin baby, dont get bogged down with temping, you will only end up winding yourself up like this month. it is however a nice little way of seeing each month at a glance, not just temps but each phase, cm and exactly when you do have sex. ff will put a whacking great big red line through when you ovulated but only 3 days after.

i have found that having sex because of ttc has actually helped us and not put pressure on, as after my first born my sex drive dropped dramatically. the more you have sex the more you want it. i am aware thought hat this isnt the case for all couples.

BV I just wanted to say that in my experience - strange cycle over a few months, unpredictable in length and regularity - that using OPKs are a waste of time if you do not have a regular cycle. I used these over a couple of months and never got a positive result then 4 in a row which was actually the opk detecting HcG as I was pregnant. Just try and relax and enjoy some slightly less pressured sex. Temp and CM charting are more reliable as you can easily miss your LH surge with OPKs. Good luck!

Sorry I thought you had been ttc longer than a month (read the list of previous cycles and used that) but even so I would say make love instead when you both feel like it. Do not go down the route of timed intercourse as doing that can put pressure on the relationship.

If you do temp be mindful that this method is not infallible either.

Good luck!!.

BV

Ditch the OPK's as of now (these are problematic at best) and do not temp chart either, this method can also be fraught with difficulties. Also you can have a temp rise in the second half of your cycle when an egg has not been shed so charting as a method is not infallible either.

Personally speaking only I think you are well beyond using such methods now in view of the length of time you have been ttc.
If you have been ttc your second child for a year now a visit to the GP would be in order.

It is certainly not unknown for people to conceive their first child readily but have problems conceiving the second (this is called secondary subfertility). It would be in both your interests therefore to visit the GP and have some tests done on both of you. Generally speaking as well fertility does decline with age.

yes and every morning, my poor ds doesnt like it as i dont answer to his early morning sreams asap any more, oops!! also it has to be after several hours sleep not justa cat nap

By the way, I went to the GP about my cycles and although we did a Day 21 progesterone test (in my case Day 28 as long cycle) which confirmed ovulation, he would not carry out any further tests until we had been trying at least a year. I am 34, but my DS took a year to conceive so I obviously have issues somewhere. At that stage we had been trying for about 5 months but I have to admit that I was a bit naughty and told him we had been trying for 8 months so that we might get more help.

Hi there, I have the same problem with my cycles, they have been from 28 - 40 days in the last year. I think its possible that you are ovulating today, I did not ovulate until day 26 last month, the month before that was day 16 I think. I used the CBFM, last month I thought that it had just missed my ovulation as I was not getting any peaks and the latest i had ever ovulated was Day 22 prior to that. I thought that i had actually ovulated on around Day 17 last month as had all the ewcm, ovulation pains and a slight temp rise. Sure enough, i started to get peaks around day 26 and I did ovulate on day 26 (i got more ewcm) and my temps went up significantly more and stayed up. Unfortunately because I had thought i was going to ovulate around day 16/17 we had lots of sex around that time and in the build up. I was not expecting to ovulate much later and we got caught out and we only managed to have sex once the day before I actually ovulated. As soon as my period finishes the plan is to have sex every other day now. I am ditching the opks this month and just going with the sex every other day method and temping to confirm ovulation.

I def recommend FF and to try and take your temps every morning. Good luck with this month!

just had a look and yes on the home page to the right there are somecoloured boxes the bottom 1 is charting basics go through all the slides then it will give you the option to log in. thats how i did it, there probably is an easier way though

apparently you can get basal body thermometers from boots. i have a f one its actually my sons from his first aid kit.
you really should chart it most if not every day to see a pattern as you could leave it 3 days and not realise you've ovulated.
as for ff i cant remember what i did first think it was click on charting basic or something, think its the bottom coloured box to the right. i will check it out and let you know
my cycles have been crazy too varying from 26-56 days