Baffled by ovulation

[Pee0nAStick]

Hi all

Been lurking for a while but this is my first thread. I'm utterly confused by ovulation!

A brief history. I'm 32 and have been on Depo for 5 years. My last injection was in early October 2015, which means it should start clearing my system by December. My periods had totally stopped on the injection, but I got them back in early April. I was surprised to then get another one just two weeks later in mid April. I think this second one was my first "proper" period. I then has a normal month gap and had another period in mid May.

I download an app and (assuming I have a 30 day cycle), I should be ovulating about now (day 13 cd). I've been using cheap One Step strips but have never had a positive result for LH surge.

Yesterday, I ended up totally confused. I've been tracking physical symptoms and was convinced I was ovulating. I think my temperate raised (although I don't have a proper history yet as I was accident my testing at night, then realised that was wrong and switched to morning, so not really comparable yet). I was bloated, had egg white CM etc.

I took a One Step strip which was negative. Although I then realised I was getting it muddled up with pregnancy tests and I was wrongly using the first morning pee, when it should be afternoon. I thought maybe this was causing the negative results.

Then by mid morning I was pretty annoyed to find I was bleeding. I thought it was another random period (although this was unexpected as I thought I'd fallen into a regular cycle again). However the app suggestedthat spotting can also be a sign of ovulation. It was light yesterday, a little heavier today. I don't think it's enough to be a proper period but I still don't know if it's an ovulation bleed or a random light period

Feeling fed up, I went an forked out on some ClearBlue dual hormone digital tests. I'm not sure if this helped or not. Firstly One Step say start testing on Day 13 and use afternoon pee (as does everything on the Internet). But ClearBlue says start on Day 10 and use morning pee!!!

Problem here is, I'm Day 13 so I'm testing late for ClearBlue and I have no idea what sort of an impact those few days will have? Someone online suggested that the first stick is a baseline which other tests are set against, so not sure if I've messed it up. I decided to test yesterday afternoon anyway and got a negative result on ClearBlue. I realise I didn't follow the instructions so can't set too much store by this.

I tested with CB this morning and got a flashing smiley High Fertility face. I don't know whether to trust this result though, if it's measuring against yesterday or if I'm testing at the wrong time in my cycle (say I'm already ovulating when I start testing and not before. Will this mess it up as there is no rise to detect?). The One Step test was negative again and I'll test again this afternoon.

I don't know wether to keep testing or give up on this cycle and stop wasting expensive CB tests. I don't know if I can trust any of these tests (which are both conflicting with themselves and my symptoms). I don't know whether to trust my physical symptoms. I don't know whether I'm having a period or not!

All I want to know is whether I've started ovulating again after the Depo and I'm feeling absolutely confused Sorry for the long post, I would really welcome any advice.

CM is best indicator for ovulation. More CM around fertile time, egg white, sticky & stretchy around prime ovulation time.

Too many factors can impact temps, plus temps are low before ovulation, rise after.

Thanks. Does anyone know if you only get egg white CM if you are actually ovulating? It can I get it without actually releasing an egg?

I know that you can have periods without actually ovulating and I just really want to establish whether I'm realising eggs yet or not.

I learnt a lot from this site and from reading the book

Taking Charge of Your Fertility

Thanks. I had a read of the website but im not sure the info there, while helpful in a general sense, really applies in my situation given that I've come off of Depo.

Am I wasting my money on these CB ovulation tests or are they helpful?

Would welcome any other advice

If it is a CB dual hormone one then you def need to use FMU and also you need to start earlier in your cycle because the test device needs to establish a baseline to then compare later tests with. I'm not sure about the standard CB ones as haven't tried those. I've tried temping, cheap Opks, monitoring CM and cervix position and the whole caboodle but what I've settled on now is a second hand CB monitor from eBay (which is basically like the CB dual hormone tests but remembers up to 6 cycles) and I find that less stressful than all the other stuff. It is totally a personal choice though, I just found I was getting a bit stressed with all the temping etc. And I had no luck with the cheap Opks - never got a positive so then got all worried I wasn't ovulating.

Personally I have found the CBs good, and when I did do them alongside temping etc things did seem to tally, so that reassured me. But they are expensive.

Maybe just BD every other day for the next week or so to hopefully cover ovulation and then try the CBs for next cycle following the instructions to the letter?

There is no way to be truly certain you're ovulating apart from an ultrasound where you can see the egg, but CM, temping and OPKs all give you an indication it is happening. Or if you're really feeling anxious about it you could ask your GP if they could do some tests to put your mind at ease?

Try not to worry, which I know is easy to say!

Ah I feel your pain. It's a whole load of unknown just starting out. I stopped my pill in March and have just had what I think was my first 'real' period. But it came with no warning (usually I'd get sore boobs and cramp etc) and was much lighter. It came Friday and was gone by Monday. So have no idea at all if I'm ovulating at all or when. If that was an AF, I'd only be cycle day 5. I bought a load of ovulation tests from Amazon (they were only around £8 for 50) and my plan is to test every day when I finish work and keep an eye on CM plus DTD as regularly as we can. Every one is different so it's so hard to say what to do but I totally understand your frustration at not knowing and waiting. And waiting Really hope things get clearer for you soon x

I think you are worrying yourself silly which won't help things. If your periods only started again last month your body will be just getting itself back into a routine whixh might take a while.
My advice would be to step away from the pee sticks for a few months and just have lots of sex.
Sometimes people get so stressed they stop listening to their bodies.
Sorry if tmi but my biggest indicator for ovulation is being really horny for 2 or 3 days which coincides with rise in temp etc.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the replies and feel a lot better now.

I think, as this was my first month tracking, I've just got myself in a pickle. I was doing my temp and ovulation tests at the wrong time of day, and by the time I worked that out, I could well have missed the window.

I've been feeling really sad today, and having done some more reading, there's apparently an oestrogen drop directly after ovulating which can make you feel rubbish. You can apparently also get headaches/migraines with oestrogen spike, and I had one hell of a headache yesterday (still did the BD though lol!).

I might be reading too much into it all, but those symptoms combined with feeling really frisky on Sunday, egg white CM and (what I think is) ovulation bleeding, I feel like there's a good chance I ovulated.

I think I'm just going to stop testing for this cycle, and maybe BD a few more times for good measure! Then I'll see how we feel next month, maybe we should hold off with the sticks for a bit because I can tell they are going to drive me crazy.

Husband has been really good, bless him. Suitably sympathetic to my whining about the fact I'm bleeding for the fourth time in eight weeks! Came home to a big hug, a surprise bunch of flowers and he's cooking me a yummy dinner. I took the dog for a walk in the sun then had a nice shower, feeling a lot better for it all.

Thanks again everyone. Guess I'll just have to see if AF turns up and, if so, what the next cycle brings.

Awww top hubby there! I'm sure you'll figure things out. I went a bit loopy the first couple of cycles but I'm way more relaxed now. Am expecting it to take a year, so if it happens sooner then great, and if it doesn't happen then I'll make an appointment with my GP and get advice. Obviously I have my moments of complete lunacy when my hormones turn me into ttc-zilla, but mostly I'm fairly sane! Good luck and have fun! :-)

My bleeding stopped today, so one day light spotting and one day medium. I'm fairly sure it was ovulation bleeding. Sod these bloody judgmental sticks definitely made me stressed. I've stopped testing for this cycle, and I may well skip it for a few cycles. I'll see how I feel next month. But not peeing on a stick this morning felt like a big relief!