Day 1.When do you count?

[cloudlessskies]

Hi everyone. I'm ttc and work out my fertile window but not sure when to count as day 1.
Whenever I have a period I always have 2/3 days of brown discharge (sorry, tmi!) before any proper blood comes through. But should I count the discharge as day one or the blood?
My past two cycles I counted the blood as day 1 and then we were dtd regularly during my supposedly fertile window but then didn't fall pregnant.

Thanks

I was always told to class the first day of proper flow as day 1, so not the spotting. You might not ovulate when you think you do though, it's not an exact science for everyone so if you're not doing OPKs etc, you can't really know when your fertile week is just based on dates!! Good luck

Thanks Malbec. I did OPK's for the first time last cycle and didn't get a spike in LH at all, so I think I may have not tested early enough. I'm going to test earlier this time.

Most people ovulate around 14 days prior to their period rather than after their last period so in a 28 day cycle it would be day 14 but in a 24 day cycle day10 or in a 34 day cycle day 20.

I usually ovulate around 10 days before the start of my next period so if I stopped trying 14 days before I probably wouldn't get pregnant. Obviously cycles change as well for a lot of people so it's hard to say it'll be the same every month. That's why the NHS recommends DTD every 2-3 days all month but if you don't want to do that you'll have to track your ovulation! It might be that you tested too late or it might be that your wee was too dilute etc. Try again next month and do the OPKs regular around when you'd expect to ovulate!

Okay, thanks for the info :)