Cervical mucus question. possibly quite stupid

[qazxc]

I apologise for the TMI of this post but would love your answers.
How do you check it?
There's nothing when i wipe, so should i stick my fingers up there? Even when i do there doesn't seem to be much. Am i dried up?
Also as DP and me are DTD every day or every other day, how do you tell the difference between CM and sperm.
My periods are irregular so i can't use the calendar or temp method. I've been using OPKs as well but the clear blue are so expensive and the cheap ones i bought online seem to be crap. Also is it just me or do the clear blue seem to fail quite a bit (surely there isn't a wrong way to dip into a ramekin)

I'd love to know this too! what exactly are we looking for?

Ok this is probably tmi but
Ewcm does look v much like egg whites it also doesn't dissolve in water and sperm does. I only ever have about 1 day ewcm and usually only ever really see it after pushing down to do a number 2 iykwim. It always coincided with a double line on a cheapie opk.
Hoe tat helps a bit

so when you get the ewcm means im likely ovulating and this is best time to dtd?

I dont think ive ever noticed my cm before!

EWCM is generally clear and stretchy whereas semen is opaque and not so stretchy.

Also just to add that you don't need regular periods for basal waking temperatures to help you figure out your cycle. However they're not all that helpful for TTC as the temperature goes up after ovulation when the progesterone kicks in. Most people are still fertile for a while as the egg lives for a bit (if you're using it to avoid pregnancy you wait 3 days) but the EWCM comes before or at ovulation so gives you more warning.

Oh and either check several times a day at the entrance to your vagina or at your cervix. Do the same each time.

thanks these responses are so helpful.
pizza have you seen this?s

Yes as soon as you see ewcm and every day you have it dtd. If you can spot it much better than temping as that only tells you ov has happened so you've missed the window.
Good luck

I thought I had it spotted but now AF has just arrived.

How irregular are your periods exactly?. This should be checked out if they are consistently irregular as such things can be caused by hormonal imbalances. OPKs are also useless to use if periods are irregular.

CM is a poor predictor of ovulation anyway, you'd be better off ignoring that and having blood tests done instead to see what your hormone levels are actually like.

....and does this stuff mean I have ovulated, am going to ovulate or I am ovulating? I forget....I do actually have one child .

I call it my "magazine sample glue"..

About to ov. Also it can usually stretch a few inches between your fingers.
Second going to drs if af is v irregular how irregular are they?

cycles vary from anything between 28days and 43 days.

Which clearblue opk's are you using? I used the one thats pink at the end, and ive found you need to hold it in the wer for wuite a while or it doesnt seem to register. So hold it kn there carefully until it starts to flash to say its working, then put the end back on and lay it flat. And if you get them off amazon there's 10 in a pack rather than just the 7 you get in the shops.

Hope this helps. Cant help with the cm though as i have no clue about it!

As clear blue got v expensive with uneven cycle I used these. Cheap and cheerful. Kept an old cup in bathroom to pee into so they were in the wee long enough www.amazon.co.uk/Highly-Sensitive-Ovulation-Fertility-Strips/dp/B001G7P62S/ref=tag_stp_s2_edpp_url

Once I worked out ewcm seemed to coincide with a positive I mostly relied on that. Worked ( I'm now tentatively thinking about ttc 2 which s why I lurk) my cycles were v uneven too.

Sorry no clue how to get a link to work from an app so here it is from internets
www.amazon.co.uk/Highly-Sensitive-Ovulation-Fertility-Strips/dp/B001G7P62S/ref=tag_stp_s2_edpp_url

qazxc

That length of cycle would be seen as irregular because a "normal" cycle is a cycle length of between 21 and 35 days or with less than 4 days of variation from month to month. OPKs would not be of any benefit here with such cycles anyway.

I would be looking into having blood tests done to see what your hormone levels are like; there may be some sort of underlying hormonal imbalance here. You initially need a day 2 test to check and compare your LH level against that of your FSH level. LH and FSH are two very important hormones because they kickstart the ovulation process; if these levels are awry then ovulation will be affected.

You can get EWCM several times in a cycle as your body tries to ovulate. You only know it has actually happened after the event when you see the rise in your waking temperature. So whether TTC or avoiding pregnancy you treat EWCM as potentially fertile but you don't presume you've ovulated unless you see the temperature shift too (and what constitutes a shift takes a bit of explaining so I won't go into it ).

www.tcoyf.com is really helpful on this stuff if you want to know more on that or ask more questions on their forum.

Though having said that the difference is only really important if you're avoiding pregnancy. But I wanted to clarify that EWCM doesn't always mean impending ovulation. It just usually does