Tips for TTC with long and irregular cycles

[FutureMrsD]

Hi all,
Gutted, just had a call from the doctors to say the bloods taken were negative - I’m not pregnant. I was so sure after the ‘symptom’ I was having and the little lines I was getting on the ICs...
Screw ICs, screw AF, screw the pill for messing up my cycles. God I feel like shit...
Anyway, onwards and upwards , let’s try not to wallow in self pity for too long..
Main reason for my post.. does anyone have any tips to conceive when you have irregular/long cycles? Or anything I can try to try and shorten my cycles?
I OPK (had 3 surges in this cycle), perhaps I should try and temp but a part of me doesn’t want to get the added pressure.
I am so gutted, I know TTC since January is nothing really and I sound ungrateful, but I just feel rubbish.
I think it’s the uncertainty of when AF will come... at least if I had a regular cycle I would know when AF was due and know if I’m late and to take a test, not just guessing. If I had regular cycles I not have this horrible wait of knowing I’m not pregnant and I’ve just got to wait it out.
I’m sorry for the essay ladies x

I can understand your frustrations- I've had long cycles since stopping the pill in March. What has been your longest one?

I agree the not knowing is very difficult. I have found using an app to record symptoms is very helpful- not for cycle prediction but I've been able to spot patterns already. E.g. I seem to get two lots of ewcm a week apart, and ovulate with the second. Perhaps that mirrors what you have seen with several LH surges? If you record that info you might be able to see the same thing each cycle.

Otherwise, I know it's tiring but DTD every 2 or 3 days through the cycle means you'll always be covered. I hope your cycles settle down with time.

I was the same with very irregular periods. I had been on the pill for 15 years. I stop counting one cycle when it went over 100days because it was too depressing. The Dr gave me metformin at first which did nothing to help me. Then they gave me progesterone to stimulate a period but that again didn't do anything to help me regulate or to ovulate. In the end I went private and after a few tests they gave me tamoxifen. I was very lucky, I conceived my DD that cycle. I don't think I would have managed if I'd waited for my body to ovulate naturally. My ovaries needed a bit of a kick! Sorry no other tips just my experience. Nothing else worked for me.

@Skyla01 thanks for your suggestions. I will try and log better, I used to but I got all annoyed and ‘what’s the point’-y when my last AF came. But I think it will be beneficial.
My cycles have been:
27 days (body lulling me into thinking that I had gone back into normal cycles straight away.. na!)
51 days
50 days
34 days
And now currently 41 days

@CatInADoghouse thanks for sharing you experience. Maybe I will do into the doctors and enquire if there is anything they can give me. How long were TTC before the doctors gave you the time of day?

Xx

It was actually only about 4 months but I exaggerated a little bit with how long we'd been TTC 🙊 but I was also quite pushy and persistent with them too. I think I fell really lucky with my appointments as well because I ended up with an appointment with a Dr who specialises in diabetes so gave me the metformin no problem. I gave that a few months and when it didn't work my appointments were with a locum GP and she was wonderful. She referred me to the fertility clinic and I kept going back asking about my irregular periods when she told me to give it more time. I asked how much time should I leave it before I should make an appt to come back...she gave me the progesterone there and then 🙈. I think she was fed up with me! The hospital were a bit slow too which is when I got fed up and made an appt with the private clinic which didn't take long. They had me booked in for the consultations and tests within days.

@FutureMrsD even if you have long cycles you are probably still ovulating, and therefore have a chance to conceive. Each ovulation is just more widely spaced. Which is annoying when you're in a rush to ttc. I would make sure your DTD as much as possible to give yourself the best chance each month. With long cycles we don't focus dtd too early on, but from cd15 we were DTD every other day. On the up side two of your cycles have been within "normal" length. You could try your gp but I'm not sure more drugs/ hormones are the answer here. Just patience..! I try and stay positive and think I have the opportunity to fall pregnant each cycle so try and maximise chances by DTD a lot. I do feel jealous of those with a shorter cycle- more chances to conceive than me! We'll get there it just might take a bit longer.

I tried metformin and clomid. My cycles were months apart and the doctor wanted them to be max 40 days apart. I had Pcos, but managed to conceive this way twice. Good luck. You'll get there!

OP just sympathy. Mine were 25-45 days apart. On top of which I was travelling abroad for work and my DH's sperm weren't great. In the end going private to a fertility clinic helped just helping me time it.

@FutureMrsD your post could have been written by me! I came off the pill in July last year after around 11years and my cycles have been from 27 days - 48 days this cycle (still waiting to come on) it's so frustrating! I've had my bloods done at the doctors but annoyingly they cycle was 28 days! And everything came back fine, so they said to keep trying.

@CatInADoghouse do you mind me asking how much it all cost to go private? I'm thinking of just going private to get something prescribed but worried about cost.

Xxx

@FutureMrsD also my periods are only lasting around 2 days maximum so that was my main concern when I went to the doctors, she wasn't concerned and said the length doesn't matter and doesn't actually mean anything, she said bleeding for too long is a worry but too short isn't a concern xxx

It's a long time since I went through this (my son is now 6 and it took 3 years to conceive him).
I had long and irregular cycles. My GP was utterly useless but I had a friend who was a medical herbalist and so while I was playing the NHS waiting game I had a consult and treatment with her. It helped regulate my periods from rougly 45 - 60 days! to a solid 33 day cycle.
If you do want to look into this pathway then you really must see a qualified medical herbalist and not be tempted to self medicate from high street health shops. I saw this approach as simply taking care of myself, I also had acupuncture. It was just to tide me over until the NHS decided I had been trying long enough.

I ended up under the NHS and with a diagnosis which was preventing pregnancy from being viable but surgery fixed that and the result is now bending my ear about Pokemon and ice cream.

For us is was about £1000. That was the procedure to check my tubes weren't blocked, a scan, blood tests and medication. They kept trying to push us into having artificial insemination but we wanted to try ourselves with the medication first.

The cost might vary though because it'd depend on what tests they'd need to do to try and figure out what the problem is before the medication.