Post Pill TTC Party

[TheDaydreamBelievers]

Come one, come all ! A thread for those TTC after coming off hormonal contraceptive pills.

Discussions typically include:

• Baffling temp charts
• Absent or oddly timed EWCM
• Whacky cycle lengths
• AF gone AWOL (current high score is 141 days post pill)

@Trying4one I didn't in my last cycle - I drank and ate naughty food but I didn't do anything to excess. But then... I didn't get pregnant, so I might try to be a little better behaved this time :)

@AMS19 sign of a good night clearly. my husband was like that on his 30th birthday a few years ago. He slept in the hallway so he could be closer to the loo to be sick. It was January so I had to go out a blanket in him. 🤣🤣 He swore he would never drink again. It didn't last long but he hasn't been sick from alcohol since 🤣🤣🤣🤣

@Kay00 I drank during my last 2ww as I was on a mini holiday to Wales and also went on a gravity rollercoaster (my lovely husband shunted into the back of me at the end). I was about 10dpo and was having bleeding from 8pdowhich I thought was implantation bleeding. Part of me wonders if it was and going on the rollercoaster stopped the egg implanting. So going to be less reckless going forward. Though I wasn't know that my husband was going to go Into the back of me like a bumper car 🤦

@Trying4one at 32 I really should know better! I think it was a mixture of knowing another lockdown is looming (i live in London which is on the watchlist) with thinking if I get pregnant quickly I've got 9 months of not drinking, that meant I took it way too far! Paying for it today, in back to back virtual meetings with work and I just want to curl up and sleep...

@AMS19 oh no I feel for you. I get bad hangovers and can't function well. That's why I generally try not to drink in the week or stick to spirits as hangovers tend not to be as bad on spirits (only worked that one out a years ago) 🤣.back to back meetings is never fun but worse if hungover. Have you at least got the webcam off?

Been trying to catchup with everyone! Im away at the moment so not been on here much but been reading everyones comments 

@Lavinder I came off the combined pill and my cycles (touch wood) have been ok so far and managed to get peak OPKs but haven't done temping so can't 100% say Ive ovulated but had all the signs. Best of luck, let us know how you get on 

@AMS19 😂 love it! Glad you had a good night. I have plenty of stories that end up like that and they've always been the best nights but the worst hangovers! Hope work was ok 🙈
I had a few drinks last night too, making the most of quality time with the two of us...shame these 2 days aren't over my fertile window...🤣

@Trying4one I don't, but thats only so i don't get my hopes up but I probably would be cautious of certain things. I like to run/workout but I am careful in the TWW and take it slow just in case but it does play on my mind it affects the TWW.

@Flowerkm I am not mentally thinking I am pregnant but I worry about whether drinking will affect implementation. I am going to miss alcohol whilst pregnant. I don't drink to.get drunk, I just like the taste of a rhubarb gin and ginger ale 😂 no alcohol free substitute taste the same 😂😂

@Trying4one Haha, yeah there are some substitutes that just don't taste the same!

@Trying4one I carry on as normal pretty much. Switch to decaf in the afternoons and try not to have boiling hot baths lol. But otherwise I carry on with life - considering I'm starting cycle 10 I don't think I would have wanted to restrict my life too much when it potentially takes a really long time to conceive.

and thank you for the well wishes girls! Although we moved out yesterday (finished at 9.30pm... I'm exhausted), we're not moving into our new house until the 30th this month so we're staying at FIL's flat in the meantime with BIL :)

@Juno231 I still drink the 2 weeks between period and ovulation but didn't know if alcohol affects implantation or not 🤷 but then again I have no way of knowing whether the egg has fertilised or not 🙈 and therefore doesn't matter

Just read it can prevent proper implantation so that is enough to stay teetotal for me. I know loads of people still conceive when drinking but I think it is one less thing for me to worry about/blame myself for. Alcohol free wine for me this weekend then 😂😂😂

@Trying4one luckily apart form one internal meeting the webcam was off. It was off for all the external ones thank god - or i might have got fired for poor company representation 😂😂

@Juno231 so quiet baby making for the next month then?! It will be like being naughty teenagers again! Are you guys moving far location wise?

@Flowerkm hows the trip?? Are you away in the UK or abroad (assuming you live in the UK of course)

@Lavinder I'm sat waiting for me. Patiently waiting. Actually not at all patiently 🤦‍♀️

@AMS19 Im in the UK, from Berkshire, down South :)
Its lovely thank you, having a staycation, only 45 mins away from home but after 2 canceled holidays we needed to just pack a suitcase and get away. Everyone seems to be following rules well so feels pretty relaxed 

@Juno231 glad the move went well and yes, quiet BD, that brings back memories...😂

@Flowerkm that's all we managed this year, a staycation!
Ah I'm actually heading your way next weekend for a spa weekend in Reading!!

@AMS19 Ah Im actually from Reading! If its the one by me then its lovely, theres a few spas but there is one in particular that is just lush! Xx

@Flowerkm its just a holiday Inn, but looks nice enough. We are heading into Reading Town Centre for dinner and cocktails though which should be fun. It is nice by the water outside the Oracle! Xx

@AMS19 Ah, yes i know Its lovely in there, have a lovely time, i just love sitting by a pool and relaxing, you'll really enjoy it.

Its lovely there, lots of cocktail bars and restaurants, the water is usually lit up as well, not sure how its working now with Covid but plenty of places to choose from :) xx

@AMS19 haha well spotted yes it'll probably be very quiet BD - if any at all! Wouldn't be surprised if this cycle is a write off.

@Trying4one I keep reading conflicting stuff though - in "it starts with the egg" I'm pretty sure it said it doesn't make a difference. I'm def one for taking the easy way out 😂

@Juno231 there is isn't there 🙈 I suppose part of me wants to take alcohol out of the equation and see what happens. Especially after having bleeding that I thought was implantation from 8dpo last month and then not being pregnant. I suppose it is for peace of mind

I was very careful with drinking the first six months of this year but it doesn't seem to have done much so I am relaxing a bit more now. Got properly drunk for the 1st time since december last month!(unintentional due to not eating enough & worst hangover I've ever had) Generally have between 1-3 glasses of wine of the weekend and that's it, so hope that doesn't have too much impact.

Reckon ov will be today or tmrw but decided not to do opks this month just so I don't panic about bding too much. Doing every other day this cycle, which suits us better than every day in a row for a week. Tmi but we always really enjoy it ha so I want to make sure it stays that way!

Hi everyone! Hoping I can join in here too after signing up yesterday and posting my own post until @MintGreenLife pointed me in this direction. It’s taken me two days to read all 30 pages so I could catch up :) I have laughed lots along the away, and almost cried at one point at how much better I felt reading the posts and not feeling just so alone anymore. I’m going to copy and paste some of my original post to give a bit of background on me!

I was on the pill for around 13 years, and stopped taking it in February. I don’t remember what life was like before the pill and whether I normally had a regular cycle, so this is all very new to me. We have only just decided to start TTC at the start of September, as I wanted a few months to try to get back to normal after stopping. Since I stopped my cycles have been 34, 45, 39, 34 and 40 days long. I started taking pregnacare at the start of August, which is when I then next had my 40 day cycle. (Side note - im vegetarian, so always took a multi vitamin, but the one I was previously taking didn’t recommend using if you were TTC or pregnant, so I don’t know whether stopping this and taking folic Acid alone will be good for me?) I’m now wondering if I shouldn’t have done that as I’ve read horror stories, and it seems like I’m not regular anyway and might be making it worse.
I’ve had a period all these cycles, or what I thought was anyway. One of them I had really bad cramps, but the others have been nothing I felt was overly bad, and they seemed mostly similar to the ones I had when on the pill (yasmin specifically)
Anyway! I’ve been using ovulation strips this month (and using the Flo, Premom and Ovia app to track symptoms) premom told me to start testing since CD14, so I tested once a day at dinner time, until it took me to start doing two a day, so I did once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Since then I’ve never peaked, and never got anything higher than a .53 sad which it has reached 3 times, and then lowered a bit, until now where I’m down to .22 and I’m CD29. It’s predicting AF CD39, so now I’m wondering have I completely missed ovulating, and I’m really scared I’ve just not been ovulating all this time, and still getting AF. I do get a day or two of EWCM each month, and I’ve had it today, Monday and a day last week, which I thought was a good thing. Now I’m not sure...

To follow up on my original post... I decided to swap from pregnacare to seven seas today after ordering it on amazon yesterday, so I took nothing yesterday. I’m CD30 today and have had my second day of EWCM in a row, yesterday my mood was all over the place and I felt down and frustrated. Today I felt a bit better and DTD this afternoon, and since then I’ve noticed I’ve had a few cramps this evening, and 3 new spots have appeared around my mouth and jaw. My head was also slightly sore when I woke up, but went away. Yesterday my OPK was 0.22, and today it has been 0.5 at dinner time, and when I did another one this evening it went up to 0.77, which is the highest I’ve seen it this month. I’m now wondering is my body attempting to ovulate again!? And I don’t know when I should attempt to test again, it’s all a little bit confusing...
p.s sorry for the essay on my first post!

@PumpkinEverything welcome! Definitely the right place for you. We are all at different stages. I've only just come off the pill and am waiting for my first proper AF. I'm taking pregnacare as a few friends suggested it helped regulate periods at the start when first coming off the pill, but then intend to stop and switch to just folic acid and vitamin D once I have had one or two periods given others comments around extending cycles. A few people on here have sworn by them in helping so really hard to know isn't it! For me, given I've been on some form of contraception for the last 15 years, and Mercilon pill most recently for the last 7 years, if it potentially helps me get to even a 30-40 day cycle I'll be very happy with that. I'm currently 18 days past with my withdrawal bleed and my BBT chart is all over the place, so don't think I've ovulated yet 🤷‍♀️ we were originally planning to TTC from December but following the further restrictions and fact I'm now not back into the office until at least spring, and given all the Xmas parties are cancelled (mainly that - i had proper FOMO about being pregnant during Dec), we've decided to get on with it as soon as I have my first AF. Which could get us to near December anyway!

Hi @PumpkinEverything welcome :) your situation sounds very much like my first few months off the pill, I have been lucky that my cycles have been regular 29-30 days but I think this is the first cycle I actually ovulated. It can take the body a long time to get back into the swing of things post pill, it seems it really messes with women’s bodies and they don’t seem to tell people before they prescribe it.

Once i started getting high readings on the test strips I was testing 3 times a day just because it’s so easy to miss mine came and went within a few hours.

Do you BBT? I think this is the only way to confirm ovulation...I don’t temp just because I don’t think my readings would be very accurate and I can’t commit to it to he honest, but lots of people use it and find it helpful.

Since you have been off the pill since Feb, you could probably start pestering your GP for some tests just to rule everything out and give yourself some peace of mind if you are worried.

I can’t help with the supplements I’m afraid I always buy them with good intention, take them for a few days then forget! I’ve only just recently managed to remember to take folic acid!

@AMS19 I wish we had started sooner too! We got married last October and decided we would wait until we went on a big holiday to America in May, that then got rescheduled to yesterday, and we obviously still haven’t been able to go, so I wish we’d just decided to try a year ago pregnacare is so confusing! I’m now wondering whether I should stick with it until I finish the pack!

@Sarahp2308 I really wish they gave more info when you start taking it, because there’s a lot more to it than I ever thought. It’s so annoying because I’d have loved these longer cycles a few years ago, and now I hate them!
I don’t temp yet, but think I will from my next cycle so that I know. I done another test after I posted last night and it shot up to 1.7, and then is 1.5 today, so I think I finally got my peak! I also had really sore left cramps when trying to sleep last night so I do feel like I’ve hopefully ovulated. Just wish I’d known this was coming now as we have only done DTD twice during this window as I had given up on ovulating this month!