Some advice please?

[Randomgal]

Ok been off the pill for 8 months (ish) now, so far had 3 cycles, one lasting 44 days, then 55 then 51.. So average is about 50 days. TTC and now on day 86 in this cycle, went to docs about 2 weeks ago, managed to get her to do bloods to see if my hormone levels etc are normal, and to check pregnancy.. Results came back normal, but negative for pregnancy :( so here was me thinking, ok stress has made me late, so come on AF hurry up so we can start from scratch with a new cycle.. However, still no sign of it! Last few days I've been getting headaches (which I NEVER get), feel nausea late in the evening and oh my gosh my sense of smell has increased! It's like I can smell things a mile off and it's so strong.. Tried to rationalise is it just me being hopeful, but im pretty sure it's not..

SO.. Wondering what to do next? When is it worth re-testing with a home test, if bloods two weeks ago said negative? And could it be that I have actually got lucky this cycle? I feel different but I don't know, can't know what pregnancy feels like because I've never been pregnant before! Lol.

Any help?

I suggest taking a test in a week or two. I never had headaches when I fell pregnant with either of my pregnancies but with my first child my sense of smell got better and smells of certain foods would make me I'll.

Ok then, thanks.. When I went to doctors all she really asked was 'do you feel pregnant?' and that feels like such a silly question to me!

But fingers crossed I guess!

Randomgal,

If your cycles are that irregular then there is a high possibility that you are not ovulating regularly if at all. Cycles of over 35 days if consistently irregular are more often than not anovulatory. Stress would not normally cause such irregularity of periods if the cycles are consistently long.

Do not keep retesting now with home pg tests; seeing repeated negatives as well can be soul destroying.

Some GPs are not all that good at all when it comes to dealing with such issues, what blood test levels were checked for and when was this done?. There are standard blood tests that can be done. I have a feeling that something fundamental here has been missed out.

What you should have is a day 2 LH and FSH test; LH and FSH are two
important hormones that kickstart the ovulation process. If these are awry then ovulation will be affected. Blood tests should be done to see if there are hormonal imbalances; two common causes of such problems are problems with the thyroid gland and a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

As your cycles are irregular the blood tests can actually be done according to calendar days (i.e the 3rd and 21st of the month).

In your case I would be asking for a referral to a gynae at a subfertility unit because I feel that you are being messed around here in ignorance. Do not be fobbed off, you will need to be persistant in order to get answers.

Attila, they tested me for my testosterone levels, PCOS and another hormone or something that I can't remember. She said this was the best she could do for now, and said we will do what you just explained, blood tests between days 1-5 and then again on day 21, whenever my body decides to have another period lol, because she'd like to be done during a real cycle. She also said that if they do find something wrong, she won't do much til we've been actively trying for a year (so 4 months left til then) but even then she said because I'm only 20 years old, I will have a wait on my hands for a referral because older women get seen first :/ don't know if that's true, sounds possible I guess, but will deal with that if it comes to it.

Bugger, hope it goes well! I'll have to check that reflexology, I'll try anything to be honest lol. Please do keep me updated :)

I don't get stressed about all of this though, after the second rather long cycle I just decided to not think about trying, we have sex as much as possible, but with such a gap between my periods, there's just too much time to bother with getting stressed, Stressing wil only make things worse lol. Everything happens in time. It's just all unfamiliar ground for me, so like the advice from more experienced people sometimes :)

When I stopped taking the pull, a year later my cycles were still anywhere between 2-4 months! The dr was useless, the only test they gave me was to check i wasn't menopausal and he told me to come back in a years time.

I read an article in the paper about acupuncture, so I found a lovely lady who also got me taking Agnus Castus and charting. Really really wish I'd done it earlier as the charting told me that I wad ovulating, my cycles immediately went down to 5 weeks & I was pg with DD1 within 3 months!

Obviously, the needles might not work for everyone (I think my body had just forgotten what to do!) but I found the charting really useful (did it for DD2 too!£

The acu lady told me to read this book which explained it all.

Good luck!