Technical question about luteal phase

[sevendwarves]

I've used the ovulation calculator on MN but I says your luteal phase can be 10-16 days, although I think mine is 17. Can anyone tell me if this is possible, or am I actually ovulating the day after I think I am each month?

Any help appreciated, thanks!

Hopeful bump

Hi there. I think almost anything is possible with our bodies and you might have an LP of 17 days and that's normal for you! Are you charting?

Hi - I would guess that 17 days is possible - whenever normal ranges are quoted, they are usually for 95% of the normal population, so it's possible to be still normal and slightly outside of the "normal" range.

Perhaps you could give us some more information about why you think your LP is 17 days? Are you detecting ovulation by a temperature rise, or ovulation predictor peesticks, or pains/spotting/cervical fluid? I believe there can be a delay of up to a few days between a peestick + and ovulation.

This may not be applicable, but I think my luteal phase must be super super long. I'm on clomid, and the FC thought I ovulated on day 13 or 14. And then AF didn't arrive til day 34. So that means my luteal phase is....err....even longer than yours!! May not count as it is chemically induced and what have you, but the last two months, my cycle has been 33 days with ov'ing on day 13/14.

I've been ttc for 2 months, and using ovulation predictor sticks. The first month I got a + on CD19, the second month it was on CD16. Both times AF started 18 days later, I assumed I ov'd the day after the +OPK's, therefore a 17day luteal phase.

Well, I start af 16 days after a positive OPK, so I work on the fact that I must have a 15 day luteal phase.
I don't think it should cause any problems for you, given that it is regular, and you are getting positives on the OPKs...
I'm sure you'll get your BFP soon :)

Hi seven the OPK's will pick up Lutenising Hormone which is a "message" made in your brain to be "picked up" by your ovaries. Its the message that says "get going girls, the estrogen threshold has been reached and you can go ahead and ovulate now!" As Emoo says actual ovulation can happen a few days after that or even not at all, just because you saw the message it doesnt mean ovulation has definitely happened.

Instruction packets for OPK's say you will usually ovulate 12-36 hours after detecting the LH surge, but I have had to wait 3 days on two different occasions. If you are stressed/travelling/excercising a lot/ill your body sometimes decides to delay ovulation until conditions are better. If you have a condition like PCOS you can also get "false" positives meaning that ovulation is not about to happen at all, just that your body is over producing LH.

I think ov sticks are great for letting you know when a good time to SWI is, but dont fall in to the trap of thinking you definitely HAVE ovulated and then stop having sex - unless you have other evidence to correlate it with (temps, CM etc) then keep going for as long as you can!