Help please - TTC (new to Mumsnet)

[Ruby24F]

Hi everyone I'm new to all of this. Posted before but no reply.

Partner and I are trying to conceive have been since last October. I suffer with irregular periods so don't know when ovulating and docs won't test me until a year being off the pill.

Apart from the absolute obvious lol does anyone have any tips for TTC? Did any try for ages and then so something differently and fell pregnant?

We are keeping this a secret from everyone as we want it to be a surprise so I literally have no one to speak to. Please talk to me lol xx

Hey @Ruby24F ! Welcome to mumsnet, you'll find loads of information here

Having irregular cycles must feel very stressful. Your best bet is to get some cheap ovulation test sticks (try One Step on Amazon) and test every day to try to pinpoint ovulation. Then just make sure to DTD when that is positive.

If you want to get even more information, there are apps you can use to track fertility using your temperature, cervical mucus texture and other bodily variables (tiredness etc) ... the risk with trying to record too many things is that it is stressful though (which impacts on your cycle too!)

I was tracking and stressing for 13 months then I stopped trying and fell pregnant. I say just relax and enjoy it 😘

If you aren’t already start using ovulation year strips.
I was trying for 3 months before testing with OPKs I thought that with a 30day cycle I’d ovulate around day 15/16 but turns out i ovulate around day 20 so I was missing my window by almost a week.
I started taking folic acid and my cycles lengthened to 32-34 days and I got pregnant 2 months later, I lost it at 8 weeks and been trying since but had been slacking on my Ovualtion tests as i knew that I ovulate at CD20 so what is the point.
Then I started testing again last month and I think the miscarriage has altered my cycles as I now ovulate around cd14/15
Long winded response but trying to say don’t rely on the app for ovulation prediction.
Test, take folic acid and have sex

Hi 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’ve been TTC since October too. Not pregnant yet so can’t give any advice other than make sure you keep it to yourself, most people know I’m TTC and I hate the constant questions!

Hi Ruby24F
I suffer with irregular cycles too and I'm finding it super frustrating!
I've been using a variety of apps to track and monitor my cycles as I'm trying to figure out which one works better for me and I have also started using OPK's as well.
I've found that there is quite a big difference between the apps and all have different fertile windows. So at the moment, I'm using them purely to look back and see if there are trends and not relying on them to tell me if I'm fertile.
So far I havent found a peak on any of the OPK's but I do think that is a better way to monitor things.
Maybe use an app to track your symptoms, get some OPK's and just relax (feels easy saying that when I'm symptom spotting all the time!)

Sorry what is OPK? Xx

OPK is an ovulation prediction kit. Basically test strips, like a pregnancy test that helps to pin point when you ovulate. They just need to be dipped in urine for 10 seconds or so (brand dependant) and take up to 10mins for a result.
You can pick them up quite cheap on EBay or Amazon or Clear Blue do digital version (not tried these).
As I am irregular I was advised to test daily from day 10 of my cycle until I start to get a positive, then twice daily until I hit a peak.

Ah okay Thankyou for this and is there any particular apps
You use?

There are lots of apps out there to track things. I downloaded Flo which is nice and easy to use. On peoples recommendation I also downloaded Ovia and Fertility Friend. I'm still really new to using them so wouldnt make a recommendation yet. They all differ in their predictions, but as I say, I've not been using them that long.
I'm sure lots of people have their favourites and would suggest others as well

@Ruby24F I'm new to TTC, I do have a 5 year old but he was a lovely surprise haha! I've found out so much information by using MumsNet. Last cycle I just went with the flow but this cycle I've bought ClearBlue Advanced Digital ovulation kit so that will tell me when I'm ovulating, u can buy cheap OPK strips from Amazon & log them into an app so they will also tell u when u are too. I think tracking ovulation is your best bet, especially if u cant always DTD every couple days or like me I dont have a clue when I ovulate.

Great apps to use are Flo, Premom & Femometer (but other girls will be able to recommend others, there just the ones I use)

Also if u come & join us on the June bus u will get lots of support of us all TTC for the same month 😊

I got pregnant using the clear blue ovulation sticks. (Digital). More expensive but worth it as so easy to interpret. I had a flo app but realised it was predicting my ovulation incorrectly when compared to the sticks, which makes sense as it’s based on algorithms.

I use natural cycles app (which is a paid for app) I like it, but too early to tell how well it works (needs a few months of data to inform the algorithm)

So the last couple of days I have been so moody.
Yesterday my right boob was so sore and sore to touch.

I have been feeling so so tired and sleeping for roughly 14 hours each night waking up sweating!! And having the most strangest of dreams!

Could this be my
Early symptoms? 🧐🧐

It could be!

Is this line or evap? I'm hoping it's a line couldn't believe it when I seen it!