Does Late ovulation affect egg quality or chances of getting pregnant ?

[Pinksworthy90]

Hi,

I have been TTC since Jan 2020, with a MMC in June. I have been trying to track my ovulation and DTD consistently since then, but no luck so far. I have used opks and recently started using digital ones too and I have observed I ovulate around CD 16/17, sometimes even bit further than that.

I have started acupuncture and Chinese herbs starting this year and the acupuncture lady tells me that late ovulation often ends up in a miscarriage as the egg quality isn't that great. I hoped I might be able to ovulate CD 13-14 this month because of the acupuncture, but I didn't get any peak on opks around day 13/14. In-fact I gave up on testing further as I felt really low that nothing is going to the plan. It has now started bothering me that even acupuncture isn't going to help bring forward my ovulation and I'm never going to be able to conceive again.

Did you try anything else that brought forward your ovulation or were you able to conceive and stay pregnant despite the consistent late ovulation every month ?

I don't know why I'm writing this, but feeling totally lost and helpless every day beginning this year. It just feels like there is no light at the end of the tunnel for me.

I don't have the articles to hand at the moment, but the gist of what I've read is late ovulation has no impact, but late implantation and early ovulation do. Early ovulation tends to indicate low ovarian reserve and poor egg quality. Late implantation drastically increases your chances of miscarriage (miscarriage rates shoot to something like 80% for implantation occurring after day 11). But from what I've read late ovulation tends to indicate hormonal issues but nothing necessarily about egg quality or chances of conception.

In your case, day 14 is absurdly early to give up. I regularly ovulate day 16 and ovulated day 18 when I got pregnant. It's not even considered late ovulation until after day 19. You need to keep testing longer.

The most common day to ovulate is CD16 so I wouldn't exactly call this late ovulation

Also no - early ovulation can mean immature eggs but there's nothing affect TTC from a late ovulation point of view. It doesn't mean that they're slowly rotting or anything until that point, it just means the maturing process started later.

Your CD16/17 ovulation is perfect and lots of women would kill to have that perfectly timed ovulation.

So sorry for your loss.

My first pregnancy ended in a mmc end I ovulated on cd22 and my second when I ovulated on cd20 resulted in my dd. I don't think it makes much difference.

Ovulation CD19 resulted in my son, ovulation CD14 ended in miscarriage so I don’t think so!

They might mean if you have a short luteal phase but if you ovulate later that doesn’t necessarily mean you have a short luteal phase, mine is always 13 days no matter when I ovulate (latest I’ve ever ovulated is CD21 and that was this month!) x

Thank you all for your responses. They give me a bit of relief. You are right, I shouldn't be giving up on testing until I get a positive. I guess it has been one of those months, where it feels like its not gonna happen at all no matter what I try and do.

I have started acupuncture and the Chinese herbs only a month prior, so its probably too soon to conclude it doesn't help. I always spot 3-4 days before AF, and the LP has always been 10-11 days if I take the spotting into account. The lady has said we need to fix the spotting issue first, so really hoping that I have some positive outcome either way, as the sessions and herbs are not cheap.

My DS is from a CD17 ovulation and I had a 10/11 day luteal phase at the time (no spotting, my period just started at 11/12dpo)

@Pinksworthy90 so if you don't take spotting into account, you have a 14 day LP pretty much? I think you need someone to shake your shoulders lady (and I mean this in the nicest possible way!) - basically you sound like you have a great 30ish day cycle and that you're worrying about nothing at all from that perspective.

However - if you have been TTC for over a year now, have you gotten the ball rolling on NHS investigations? Call your GP and ask for your day 21 and day 3 tests to be set up.

Purely anecdotal, but I never ovulate until at least CD20 (cycle length is typically 33 days, and I only have 10 day luteal phase after Ov) and I've had no problems falling pregnant each time. First took about 3 months and second 4 months which I think is quite normal

When you ovulate and if it's "early or late" really depends how long your cycle are. Now you've clarified, it doesn't sound like you have a major issue there but definitely speak to your GP as it's been over a year.

Fwiw my cycles were about 23 days, so tended to ovulate about day 11.

@polkadotpixie @HereWeGoAgainAgainAgain Thank you. Your stories give me much needed hope !

@Juno231 Lol, yes I know I'm a big time worrier. Seeing those BFN's every month despite having regular cycles and doing DTD almost every day makes me overthink.

However, as you and @HoneysuckIejasmine have mentioned, I will get the ball rolling with my GP for further investigations. I gave myself a year, well I think its now time.