Fireflies: re what I said earlier about LH surges - the gynae's point was that there's some evidence from some studies that after you start the LH surge, which could be found immediately by a blood test, there can be a delay of 'X' hours before it shows up in your wee (i.e. on an OPK). But, (perma baby brain) I'm afraid I did mangle the exact number of hours delay in my earlier post. I dug out some cryptic notes I made that say "8 hours" delay.
So I just asked Dr Google and came up with same type of idea, like: "... there is some evidence for a delay of 6 to 7 hours in excretion of LH into urine" and "[out of] 33 patients ... the detection of the onset of LH surge was simultaneous in plasma and urine in only 11 cases. In two thirds of the patients, the urine LH surge onset is delayed by 3 to 21 h as compared with plasma LH surge onset ..."
Overall, once you factor in not knowing whether your OPK has caught the start or end of a surge, some insurance shagging before your +ve OPK does seem advisable.
The bit about eggs perhaps only being viable for around 10 hours after ov I'd also heard before from an IVF clinic (prior to having DD). So maybe there's something in that, who knows.
Hi to Rosie, and a virtual (((hug))). I reckon we can all relate to that all consuming longing for a baby (or another baby). Today I ruined for myself a perfectly lovely Saturday with DP and DD walking in the park then pottering round shops, with the silent anguish of counting other people's children and guessing the approximate age of those with bumps.
You seem young to me (I'm 45), but a private fertility clinic sounds like a good move. Just by taking that control, hopefully you'll feel a bit better. Then once you've had baseline blood tests and an antral follicle count scan you'll have a better idea where you are. Missing a period is bit of a mystery isn't it? Assume you've ruled out being pregnant??? Years back (like clockwork now) I occasionally missed a period that seemed due to stress, or when v underweight. I hope NewEra wasn't suggesting it might be menopause! Don't use the effin 'M' word!!! I doubt it, and I've heard of people re-regulating periods when they de-stress (yes acupuncture is good idea) or if treated for PCOS, or by taking 'Provera' (I think?). As for the mention of donor eggs, if it's important to you, why not at least give IVF with your own eggs a try first? And if you don't like the clinic, there's usually a second opinion available.
Personally I've found that clinics locally wouldn't even entertain me trying IVF with own eggs purely because I'm 45, but two reputable (if expensive) clinics in London said they would, plus Serum in Greece (although the logistics of Greece seem almost insurmountable). So we might try IVF in Feb-ish if no luck otherwise. Or if my head hasn't exploded by then.