To ask if anyone conceived with irregular cycle? Petrified

[nocyclenochance]

I have been trying and failing to get pregnant for 8 months. I'm 25 and I appreciate time is on my side but it's so hard to figure out how to get pregnant when I have literally no cycle. November I came on on the 8th and it lasted 3 days. December I came on on the 31st and it lasted 6 days. January I didn't come on. February I didn't come on. April I haven't come on. Me and hubby are doing it like three times a day. Am getting so upset that my cycle being this non existent is making me unable to conceive? Struggling to sleep at night thinking I'm infertile. I know I'm BU but can someone please give me some hope

I had an identical problem which has never improved. My very understanding GP prescribed clomid & I now have 3 fab children.

A woman I worked with had this problem. But she finally conceived after years of struggle. And then fell pregnant again when her first was only a few months old.

I have PCOS clomid worked for me three children later

Poundland have ovulation strips which could possibly help you identify fertile days.

I conceived after 9 months with my hugely irregular cycle.

Do you use ovulation predictors? It might be worth getting some so you can see where in your erratic cycle you ovulate. It might show a pattern better than the presence of menstruation. Or it might take the pressure off dtd so frequently in the hope of hitting the right time.

You might also be putting yourself under so much pressure that stress is not helping as much as your irregular cycle.

Yep been there done that! Made for an interesting time trying to figure out a rough idea as to how pregnant I might be when I got BFPs! At one stage I went a full year without a period. No idea how, but I have managed to get pregnant 5 times despite this!

I had the same problem.
My GP told me how to use my temperature to predict ovulation. I found this useful as I knew when I was in the 2 weeks between ovulation and my period. I also recorded when we had sex on the chart so I didn't get my hopes up if we'd had a 'lean' week around ovulation. It saved me a fortune in wasted pregnancy tests!

It was a bit of a faff but well worth it. I'm sure that reducing the stress helped me conceive too.
www.mumsnet.com/conception/basal-body-temperature

Good Luck.

Have a read up on Angus castus as I think it can help regulate cycles

I conceived with no cycle, know that sounds stupid but the progesterone only pill stopped my cycle (even when I was off the pill) and then I was pregnant!

Always get a strange look from midwife when I say my last period was 6 years ago!

If you're doing it daily with no success then you probably need ovulation blood tests.

They're tricky to time with the GP, thats all.

But basically the GP takes bloods when you first get your period to get a baseline progesterone.

Then your progesterone has to increase otherwise you dont ovulate. So they take another set of bloods 7 days after ovulation to check its increased sufficiently.

If your cycle is irregular, for this second test you probably have to buy ovulation kits. You pee on this every night and it tells you when you are in the pre-ovulation surge. Ovulation happens (or is supposed to happen) 24 hrs later.

So when you get a positive result on the pee stick, you have to ring the GP and try to get an appointment within a week for 2nd bloods.

So the pee stick doesnt actually tell you if you have ovulated, it just gives an indication you should be within the next day.

But maybe you dont. Which is why you need the blood test.

If its over 30, then happy days. If its much less, then you havent ovulated at all and you need something like Clomid which mimics progesterone and will supply wht you're missing and hopefully you will ovulate then.

(Though I have to add Vitamin B6 worked for me instead of Clomid as it increases progesterone. )

If you haven’t already been to the GP I think it would be worth going to discuss irregular cycles and trying to conceive. I had similar cycles and conceived after a year of trying. Ovulation testing kits never gave me a positive and I didn’t find temperature useful either. I suspect acupuncture might have been somewhat helpful but it could also be coincidence. There are a number of apps that are quite useful for monitoring cycles, even if it’s only so you’ve got information to share with a GP.

Trying to use the glow app but it's pretty useless when all it really tells me is I'm like 70 days late. I hate to even think how much money I'm spending on pregnancy tests and all I'm doing is tormenting myself. I went to my gp and as I only came off the mini pill 8 months ago she said it takes time to regulate and with my age fertility testing isn't a concern to her right now.. I get where she's coming from but it's a concern for me.

Yep, my cycle was (and still is bonkers). Sometimes I can go 6-8 weeks between periods, sometimes my periods can last up to two weeks.

We'd been trying to conceive for nearly two years. Investigations revealed I'd got an underactive thyroid and PCOS. I was put on levothyroxine and metformin and boom! Was pregnant less than two months later.
Might be worth getting checked out?

Get the ovulation strips and test every day. If you get no positives prob means you’re not ovulating.

Ah, just read that the GP isn't too concerned at the moment - they are supposed to investigate if you go a full year without conceiving, so you may have to wait another few months before chasing them up.

Good luck!

Do you have acne or excess hair or struggle with your weight?

@Mightymucks Never had a spot, been size 8 my entire life and my hair grows so slowly. Would it still be worth getting checked for PCOS? I had pretty much ruled it out due to lack of symptoms

I had 100 + day cycles whilst trying to conceive. Felt it was all hopeless. Started taking agnus castus that I bought from Holland and Barratt. It was a few years ago now but as I recall I started taking them in October and had a period within 40 odd days. Second period came around 30 ish days and also managed to have one after 28 days once. They came on average I think every 35ish. Sorry I can’t remember exactly. But basically my cycles shortened very drastically to something that seemed “normal”.
Started them in October and was pregnant in June. Didn’t have sex that often. It’s powerful stuff, do your research. Good luck with whatever you do.

What were your periods like before you went on the pill?

Yes, still worth getting checked. They are signs but you might not have them. I didn’t, just irregular cycle.

I never had a regular cycle and I could 6 months inbetween periods and both my boys were conceived naturally I got pregnant straight away with ds1 and it took about 12 months with ds2.

Yep, sounds familiar! Took us 14 months to conceive DD and 12 months to conceive DS - currently 27 weeks.

I'm also very thin (was underweight until having DD) and the doctors refused to diagnose PCOS for years and years because of it. Eventually had an internal scan and confirmed it. Definitely ask your GP about it, see if they'll refer you for one. My periods were really irregular: sometimes I'd have two months of exact timing, then nothing for six months, then a random bleed for a few days... It was crap before TTC but then obviously made it a lot harder! DH also has some fertility issues, but not as severe as mine.

We were about to start the process of fertility treatment when I found out I was pregnant with DD. After having her I went on the pill and my periods were regular, then came off the pill and they stopped entirely for the year it took to conceive DS. I didn't do anything special so I suspect we were just lucky, but there are lots of things you can try as PP have said.

Good luck!

I would be tracking my ovulation with the strips and a basal body temp thermometer. Use a (free) app like fertility friends to plot it. You may be ovulating and not know it. And just be having sex at the wrong times. I have a few friends with irregular cycles that have successfully conceived through monitoring. Yes it's dull and not sexy, but if it works...

Perhaps also see if you can get a blood test for any thyroid probs/pcos etc.

I'd give that all a crack for say another 4 months, then go back to your GP for more active investigations (in line with recommendations).

Also I know its frustrating if you want to conceive but 8 months isn't that long at all in the grand scheme of things-the average is up to a year for most couples with no sig fertility issues, which is why the GP isn't doing anything yet. There are things like Clomid that can be tried to regulate cycles without having to go anywhere near more full on fertility treatments. And you are nowhere near that stage yet! :)

I'm afraid I can't say anything positive yet but I'm in the same boat OP, been trying for nearly a year now and cycles are all over the place. Went to the GP a few weeks ago, it wasn't my regular GP and he said to come back when it's been a year of trying which didn't seem right at all (what if I had the symptoms but wasn't currently trying?) but I let it go because it's not long to wait. I pushed for some blood tests that are not to test fertility but may be linked e.g. thyroid, anaemia, vitamin deficiencies as I have other symptoms of those. I'm trying to improve my diet and exercise more but at the moment it seems like I'm flailing about not knowing what the problem is.

Is it correct you have sex 3 times a day? I've heard the previous advice was every other day to preserve sperm quality, but recently I've heard once a day is ok.