TTC with Irregular Cycles

[Anothercrazyyear20]

Hi all - I'm new to the terminology so bare with me..

Hope you may be able to help, myself and DH are currently TTC #2, DD1 came very easily on the first attempt, I wasn't tracking ovulation or anything or cycles we probably just got lucky.

My periods since having DD1 3 years ago have been all over the place, I've had a transvaginal scan etc as there was a period of time where I felt I was constantly on my period which showed up nothing. This time round I stopped taking my Cerazette in April. I feel a new person off it but I have quite a lot of PMS I've never really luckily suffered with before. My cycle lengths since have been 21, 43 and 24 days. Today I am on day 30 of cycle 4 and still no sign of period but a negative pregnancy test, both apps predicted period on day 28 (2 days ago)

It was only this cycle I used an app to track possible ovulation/fertile days but this was completely different on 2 separate apps. I didn't really want to get into OPKs but if my cycles are so irregular I'm not sure how I'll ever know.

Is anyone else with irregular cycles using OPKs? I have read more testing is required if you're irregular

Thanks

There's a few ways you can approach TTC with irregular cycles. It can make testing for pregnancy quite tricky though if you don't want to track ovulation as you won't know when to test.

The average person has a luteal phase (period of time after ovulation) of 12-14 days. So based on your data you probably ovulated on CD7-9, then CD29-31 and then CD10-12 in your most recent cycle. Ovulation day can vary a lot and is what tends to cause the variation between cycle length. Apps don't tend to estimate well if you're irregular cause they estimate based on cycle length (day of ovulation) staying the same.

The lowest effort (tracking wise) method to conceiving is to DTD every other day until your period arrives or get a BFP. Without tracking this will still mean you DTD the day of ovulation or the day before so is pretty much as good as you get even with tracking.

Alternatively you can buy a load of cheap OPKs and do them daily until you get a positive. I think the one step ones are something like 20p each? So not too expensive and will mean you then know when to take a HPT.

You could also look into taking your BBT daily?

I guess it all really depends how involved you want the process to be? If you have a need to fall pregnant quickly etc.

Good luck 🤞