Am I ever going to ovulate, or am I already!?

[PumpkinEverything]

I feel so confused, and I’m trying not to stress about it, but it’s hard! A little bit of background, 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 TTC this month, 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 :( 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...

Sorry for the long post, but I’m driving myself crazy! And I’m really really scared of blood tests so I don’t want to just go straight to the doctors right away.

Hi @PumpkinEverything Sounds like you could be missing your peak OPKs... it very easy to do! I have missed the last two months too. Some people have a very short peak, sometimes late at night.

If you are genuinely concerned you are not ovulating why don't you have a go at charting your basel body temperature? You can buy a cheap thermometer on Amazon for about £10-15 (make sure it reads temperatures to two decimal places) and test consistently before you wake up (I set an alarm for 6am). If you are ovulating then you should see a rise in your body temperature on the day (thereabouts) of ovulating. This would be about a day or two after your peak OPK (if you catch it).

If you chart and find that you are not ovulating then you should speak with your GP.

@PumpkinEverything hmm this sounds kind of like me. I came off the pill in March, since then my cycles have been: 30 days, 37, 55, 32 and now i'm on CD21 with no positive OPK, no ovulation etc. I chart my BBT and so far in all those cycles off the pill i can only confidently confirm ovulation in one cycle. Like you I've had cycles where I get stop start EWCM, last cycle I had it for over two weeks until AF arrived, so think my body maybe gave up on the idea of ovulating. I've just been for blood tests today, although the doctor did say (as expected) that it can take a while to get back on track.

Which OPKs are you using? The Premom ones? I've had a similar cycle to you this time round so far - CD16 I got 0.57 reading on an OPK, darkest so far along with EWCM for a few days, then back to faint readings again and EWCM stopped for a couple of days. Now it's back but am getting faint lines on OPKs until today where it's a bit darker again at 0.38.

I might be wrong, but it sounds like your body is potentially trying to ovulate and not quite making it, I believe this has been happening to me too. Would advise charting BBT to be clear as to what's going on, as in my long (55 day) cycle I did ovulate in the end, but not again since x

@Kay00 I actually have one of those thermometers, but I haven’t used it yet! It seemed like a little bit of effort, but I now sort of regret my decision to not use it the last few months, so I think I should start using it now to see.

@MintGreenLife I’m really glad to hear you’re in the same boat as me! Have you still been getting AF as normal this whole time? I really thought that meant I was ovulating normally, until I read this week about anovulation :(
Yes, using the premom ones and the app. My ‘high’ ones of 0.53 have been on cd16 this month too. And then also cd23 and cd26 was the same result. I think you’re right, when I look at the chart it looks like my body is trying, and then it’s not working and trying again. And then because I’m back down to 0.2 today I think it’s just given up.

@PumpkinEverything yep been getting AF. Did mean to say also as above think you said about one bad AF and then the rest the same as when you are on the pill - the one more 'normal' AF I had was in the cycle that I know I did ovulate. It was much heavier and I had cramps with it. Where as all my other AF's have been really light, no cramping etc. I was the same - my first cycle off the pill was 30 days and I felt really excited that I was back on track. We started TTC on my second cycle off the pill, and I started using OPKs and charting my BBT, and then came to realise things weren't looking so great after all.

I think the saving grace in this is that you haven't actually started TTC yet, as I'm now five months into TTC and feeling pretty deflated. Hopefully you might just need another month or two and you'll find you settle down. You could almost even use the first cycle as a bit of a practice run and just try to enjoy DTD every few days, best not to get too worked up about it if you can?

I thought it was most likely the Premom ones, they do seem to be one of the more sensitive brands so I find I do get random results that seem higher even though possibly nothing is happening? But who knows! I'd be happy to share with you some of my OPK results and charts etc for you to look at and compare with yours if you think it might be helpful?

Also happy to let you know the outcome of my bloods, seeing as you seem to be responding in a similar way to coming off the pill as me x

@MintGreenLife why are our bodies so mean! I was pleased when AF arrived the first time too. I thought great, it didn’t take as long as I expected it to. There seems to be way more to it than I expected. Looking back now, I think you’re right, and that heavy cycle was probably the one where I did actually ovulate, and not the rest. I thought I was just lucky that it stayed the same from when I was on the pill, but apparently not!
This is our first month of TTC, and now that I know I likely haven’t ovulated and it won’t have worked, I feel deflated already. It’s actually what pushed me to sign up and post on here myself, as I just felt so alone with it, and my husband doesn’t understand. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling after all these months, and waiting to see if you’re actually going to ovulate or not!
Yes please, I’d love to see your charts! I wasn’t sure if I was able to post a photograph of mine because I couldn’t see a button for it anywhere lol. Still learning how this forum works! And please, I would love to know the outcome of your bloods too so that I can try to mentally prepare myself. Even the thought of going to get mine taken makes me feel like I could faint, and I’m starting to think I’m going to end up having to go at some point :(

@PumpkinEverything it's really upsetting, but try not to worry too much. You never know, what's been going on with me may be very different to what's going on with you and you possibly have been ovulating, so try not to panic. It's good in a way that we have some similarities though so at least we don't feel alone :)

I've found this site a god send as I overthink all of this stuff and find a need a daily rant about it all. We have a lovely group on here, the thread name is 'Post Pill TTC Party' - two ladies in the group have had their BFP recently, so it can happen :) you should join in.

Oh gosh I totally know what you mean, we try to keep up DTD every other day just in case, but half the time I'm thinking it's probably pointless. I've spoken to a few ladies though that were having trouble with their cycles after stopping the pill, and they did just that - DTD every 2-3 days and got pregnant, as it really can just take one egg and one sperm, so you never know.

I'll gather together some images of my charts and what my OPKs have been looking like and share them shortly. If you're using your phone there's a little paper clip icon to attach images, on desktop it's just under the box where you type your message, however I think if you are a new user you can't add photos for 24 hours or so.

Of course, I wouldn't start worrying about bloods yet. If you get a bit further down the line and things aren't getting better you could have a conversation with your GP but explain you'd prefer to avoid having tests if possible, they may be able to help another way or give you some advice :) x