Can you still have a very regular period and not ovulate?

[SpongeCake23]

Hi,

I'm 28 and my partner is 36, we stopped using contraception a few months ago.

However, I'm not sure if I am ovulating. I bought some OPK strips and have been testing when I thought I was ovulating.
On month three now, I never seem to get a dark line...
The line has appeared variably, but it's usually quite faint

The thing is, I have a very regular period every month. I'm on around a 26-28 day cycle currently, according to my app.
I usually get some brown discharge/blood before my period starts for a few days and I also have pain and cramping for a few days before my period starts too.
My periods are very clotty (tmi) and very painful on day one and two, especially during the night - so I can't rarely sleep through the pain, I get horrid leg and pelvic cramps then the pain eases off and the rest of my period is pain free.

I'm supposed to be ovulating at the moment, but, a few days after my period ended, I realised I had some stringy CM. When pulling it between finger and thumb (sorry, tmi) it stretched a little way before breaking.
I also had very heavy boobs around this time.

I've been taking pre conception vitamins with folic acid for the past month.

We've been having sex at least once a day!

I think I might have PCOS or Endo, or maybe both. Never been tested as I'm scared of anything medical (health anxiety) and especially any intrusive checks, e.g vaginal.

If anyone can help, that would be great

Yes you can have regular periods and not ovulate, and you can have all the other ovulation symptoms (including positive opk etc) and still not actually be ovulating. Only reliable measure is the basal body temperature thing

Maybe try sex every other day to give your partners sperm a chance to refresh!

Yes you can, it's called Anovulatury Bleeding.
I have PCOS and when trying to conceive 2nd, doctor told me this was probably why nothing was happening. I was astonished that you can bleed without releasing an egg!
But the only way we managed to conceive was with Metformin making me ovulate.

Honestly just go to the doctor. It sounds like you have the same thing and you could be at it for years. Just go get some drugs and get on with it.

(It took 9 days to conceive once we revived help btw... compared to 9 months of nothing before help...)

Good luck!

Spongecake - yes you can have normal periods without ovulation but for MOST people this is not the case (just to give a bit of balance)...

I too would suggest try taking your bbt.

When are you testing with the opks. With your cycle, I would suggest starting about cd7/8? with a likely positive by about cd11... based roughly on your cycle length of 26 days.

As others have said it is possible to have periods and not ovulate. I would recommend taking your body basal temp every morning ( I did it vaginally) that dramatic change in temperature after ovulation is the only way to really tell you've popped out an egg.

@widdsters does that drug have side effects? Due to my health anxiety, I get very anxious about taking any kind of prescribed drug. I do take them but I always do loads of research first!

Thanks all, so shall I get a normal thermometer then? And can I take my temperature orally? e.g. under my tongue?

It's all so confusing. I thought an anovulatory cycle was a light bleed, different from your usual period. That's what my GP said to me before when I thought I'd had a weird cycle one month.
Mine are always fairly heavy and very similar in their symptoms and flow etc.

@SpongeCake23 you'll need a basal thermometer to 2 decimal places.

But yes, you can use it orally under your tongue

Sure, ok. Well I've just read the label on some I have left here - it just can cause an upset stomach for the first week or two. Other than that, no. However we did end up with twins (due next week) which apparently isn't a side effect and totally unrelated... but a bit of a bloody coincidence if you ask me

I always found OPKs inaccurate as you can miss your peak if you're not taking them at the right time. Also they only tell you if you're about to ovulate, not if you actually have ovulated. Try a digital ovulation test as they are easier to read and will tell you for definite if you have ovulated. But for me I found the easiest way to check for ovulation was by tracking my CM.