Soy Isoflavones..yay or nay?

[moly39x]

Been doing some research on soy isoflavones & I didn't know what people's opinions are?

I have a 35 day cycle, ovulate between CD17-21 - currently 7th month in of TTC after 1 early loss at 5 week in October.

Do people have any experience with taking them? I read the following on an old thread here about with CD to take them..

My concerns are; I have little/none EWCM (have conceive plus lube) but I get positive OPK every month (temping just stressed me out which I decided would do more harm?!) and I'm sure soy iso is to help ovulate? But now I've read the below, it looks as though it can help the egg. I'm cautious about messing up my cycle so was just looking to hear other people's experience.

Here's the info I've read here (have lots more saved in my notes if people want to see about the dose etc if interest) :)

Thank you x

1-5 = you produce more eggs, and ovulate sooner, with a stronger ovulation.

2-6 = you produce more eggs that usual, but not as many as taking it 1-5. Eggs may be more mature, and ovulation will be slightly more strong than 1-5.

3-7 = The best of both worlds, a few more eggs, and all eggs will be strong & mature, and ovulation will be alot stronger than 1-5.

4-8 = No more eggs will be produced, but the ones already there, will be matured alot more than usual, and ovulation will be very strong. Ovulation may only be brought forward a teeny bit.

5-9 = You'll have one very mature strong egg, from the ones you already produced on your own. Ovulation will either happen when it usually does, or a few days later, but your egg will be of great quality.

@choccrumpet ours was done through nhs but at a private clinic, so we just had to ring the clinic and had a specific time to drop it off and it had to be done within the hour before that so had to produce the sample and zoom off in the car to the clinic!

Just had my scan and had hoped she would tell me if I've ovulated or not but she said she couldn't say and to ring the doc in a week for results 🙄 thought that may help to know but all she would say is I didn't see anything untoward 🤷🏼‍♀️

@acaciabluebell sorry I thought you meant boob pain around ovulation. You've also got boob pain at 9po, hopefully that'll be something positive!

@Marvellouslymadmum yesterday and today sounds good 🤞

@Marvellouslymadmum we've been told about the 1 hour zoom 😆 but nothing else. I've left a message and will wait for them to get back. Nothing was mentioned about an appointment, I'm sure my partner would rather we get it done right the first time than have to do it twice, sounds intense 😅

That sounds frustrating.. hopefully your GP will give you more info. When I had my ultrasound where the tech discovered my bicornuate uterus, I don't believe they shared the scan with my GP so my GP couldn't give me any more info which was frustrating. I don't know why it wasn't shared

@choccrumpet there was certainly a lot of pressure in timing the act correctly accounting for nerves for the fact that it's being done on demand but not too quickly 😂 she just said she will write a full report and send it to the gp and the go told me to call for a chat once the results are in so I'll see what she says then request a copy of the report anyway so I can see what it says for myself

Well, cycle 2 of soy isoflavones failed again. The wicked witch is here 😔

My luteal phase was 11 days this month which is my usual LP length, so I'm glad about that. Although I was hoping for a longer LP as I've been taking 100mg of Vitamin B6 daily, but I guess it doesn't work for me.

Don't really know what to do now, if I should try the soy for another month or not.

Ahh no @acaciabluebell I'm sorry that's not good. I don't know if the B vits worked for me either, but I'm for now continuing with them. And the vitamin C for progesterone.

Its hard to know what to do re: the soy also, if you feel its not been benefiting you there might be better things for you to try

@acaciabluebell I tried scrolling down to see why you were taking soy in the first place but it was too far down and I gave up 😆

I'm still waiting for my ovulation on cycle 2 of soy but have a feeling it won't move my ovulation forward, may actually delay it more again, I'll probably have a stronger ovulation same as last time and hopefully normal LP but not expecting much else to change.

My cycles were also "normal" before soy, late ish ovulation according to OPKs so can't be sure of course, and most likely an okay LP. So I wonder if we'll ever see any "improvements" like others have here on soy because our cycles were okay without (I think I remember you mentioning yours was but correct me if I'm wrong). 🤷🏼‍♀️ I won't be taking it next cycle and am interested to see what that will be like.

Although I had a look at previous cycles today and there were a few were I gave up testing with OPKs because it got so late so I either didn't ovulate or it was super late so it looks like my ovulation is a bit all over the place. And maybe soy is helping to make it more consistent. Who knows 🤦🏼‍♀️

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 I’ve been taking B6 complex 100mg for about 5 months and it hasn’t lengthened mine, I had a 10 day LP last month :(. I’ve started taking 1000mg of vit C for progesterone too as I’ve read good things about it .. do you feel it’s increased progesterone/ extended your leutal phase at all?

@Slk3558 I honestly don’t know about the vit C, I am still taking it at a similar level to you. But I started it at the same time as the soy, plus the B vits, so 🤷‍♀️. My luteal phase has consistently been 12 days since soy, B and C. My temperatures are high in luteal phase which is meant to indicate high progesterone. I stopped taking the vit C last month just before period due (as I was away) and I had spotting again the day after missing a 1000mg dose. So could it have been because I didn’t have the vit C and progesterone dropped? 🤷‍♀️

I’ve hit CD90 today and still no sign of AF, took a cheeky test this morning and it was a BFN which wasn’t surprising. I’d had my last blood test done thinking AF was around the corner but still no show. My Dr has decided to just refer me on to see a gynaecologist without waiting for more tests so I’m honestly thrilled to get the ball rolling!

I’ve decided not to use soy again but wishing all of you lovely ladies the best and hopefully you’ll all have more luck than I did

@Riverskye that's great news! Good luck! CD 90 is insane, you must have been beside yourself.

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 yeah don’t think it does any harm to take b&c it can only help I’m sure ...I got a positive opk yesterday morning cd17 but only bd Sunday night so hope I have caught the egg. I’m ovulating a day or two behind what I used to before the mc’s. Had a kind of half temp rise this morning so not quite sure what’s going on there, normally get a clear temp shift but could just right in the middle of ovulation process maybe. I’ve come to the conclusion that the body does it’s own thing regardless

Might consider taking soy next cycle if not successful this cycle as I’ve noticed something a bit odd. I’ve been using clear blue advanced and I normally get a day or two of flashing smileys and the a static. However last two months I’ve had the static on CD 15 and CD 14 - but when I took an OPK strip same time the opk was always negative (slightly darker than usual) so I’ve come to the conclusion that those clear blue advanced you a static when they detect a small rise in LH. (They use unique algorithms from your previous days results).

I just thought I’d share this with everyone because the static smiley gets stuck on the screen and as it turns out I’m ovulating today CD 18 when I got my static on CD14. So just something to be weary off if I would have BD on CD14 only that would have been too early.

The other thing could be I have an issue with LH And it’s rising too slowly or my body is struggling to produce that surge. Maybe SOY Could help with that?

CD34 here. No idea if I've ovulated or not, I have what I would normally consider ovulation symptoms today for the 3rd time this cycle... No idea when AF will come.

I could cry

I won't be trying soy again as I'm now worried it's just making my cycles longer. God knows how long TTC will take. Feels like such an uphill battle. I thought I'd cracked it this cycle, and now my body is just fucking with me

@Slk3558 I'm wondering if I have the same issue as you following the miscarriages. I've only been temping for three months, the first two of those I took soy, and ovulated CD14, one positive opk, and then a temp rise the next day. This month no soy, got several days of positive opks (I use the Clearblue ones that just track LH, and follow it down to zero) but my temps showed I didn't ovulate until CD 17. CD17 was my first negative opk after the positives also. So I wonder if maybe our bodies are trying to ovulate a couple times before they actually do it? Or what might be an LH problem?

@katewitch I'm so sorry. What cycle days were your first ovulation symptoms, and what symptoms do you have? Have you tested just in case? How long is your normal cycle?

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 thanks for always replying, makes me feel less alone! I get increased CM that is clear, verges on EWCM, and it always makes me very tender down below (TMI!). Cycles are usually anywhere from 32-52 days, but recently have been around 40-44...

The first time I had this was CD10-12 complete with what felt like ovulation pains. I had medium-high OPKs but no peak.

Next was from around CD20 to CD24 which would be normal ovulation for me but only light lines on OPKs and I tested over the whole week

Now again on CD34. No usual pre-AF symptoms at all. My most recent BFN was on CD25 when I ran out of ICs, only DTD once since then.

I just wish I could be one of those women for whom TTC isn't so depressing I know I'm not alone here but had hoped SI would be the miracle for me that they seem to have been for others, and now I'm worried they've just made things worse! I guess it helps to have those of us for whom they aren't a magic bullet on the thread too...

How are things for you at the moment?

Hey @katewitch do you temp using a bbt thermometer?

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 yeh, before my mc i used to get a LH surge and then ovulate the next day (ov pains) and then get a clear temp shift the day after! Like clockwork.
Since my second mc ovulation has been later, the LH surge has been longer like you lasting 2-3 days before I ovulate. But I’ve tried high dose vit C, Omega 3 and vitamin E, vit D and vitamin B complex this month but appears to have made no difference.

I will temp until I get my temp rise and then am going to start on my progesterone cream and then I’ve decided not going to temp again for rest of cycle as I start getting paranoid about low leutal phase temps!

@Slk3558 I don't mainly because I often wake it the night to pee which would scupper them, and I'm a very sleepy person so don't fancy any reason for an earlier alarm! I'll be starting at the beginning of August if things are still so messy though...

@katewitch I know what you mean but going to pee in the night shouldn’t make that much of a difference, I get up once or twice a night to pee as well but as long as you get a couple of hours of undisturbed sleep and you take your temp at roughly the same time every morning that should be enough to give stable temps. Even if you take it when you normally wake up that’s fine too doesnt have to be at the crack of dawn. As long as you’re taking it at the same-ish time everyday. I would recommend you start as it will enable to you to feel more in control of your cycle rather than being in the dark about where you are in terms of ovulation.

@katewitch I think we are well past tmi on this thread 🤣 That's really frustrating about the period irregularity. Have you had hormone tests run by the doctors? A friend of mine has been put on metformin for a similar thing, but after all of the tests.

I second what @Slk3558 says about temping - its the one thing that's made me feel more in control, as I can actually see when I've ovulated. The first month you have to be strict with timings to establish a pattern, but after that I'm just strict around ovulation time, and the rest of the time if I fancy a one off lay in or whatever at the weekend I just use a BBT adjuster on google for that day.

And I think to be honest soy has been pretty mixed on this thread! 😂 Not very many bfp's. I read earlier on two separate threads people had used soy and become pregnant, and I'm wondering why none us us have! Sigh. Patience isn't a strength of mine. Have you been trying for long @katewitch and @Slk3558?

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 patience definitely isn’t my strength either! I came off the pill in august after 9 years of being on it, got pregnant in December after starting on the vitamin B complex then had a MMC at 7 weeks, got pregnant the next cycle without a period in between and miscarried at 6 weeks again. So i naively thought id automatically get pregnant again and I’m now on cycle 3 ttc1. Had a 11 day LP first cycle and then 10 day last cycle. Frustrating about the LP but some people say 10 days is enough.

All I can do is be patience but as you said easier said than done! On the one hand having gotten pregnant straight away after MC makes me think it’s ok it will happen it’s happened before so it will happen again, but on the other hand cycle 3 now is making me paranoid there’s an underlying issue.

How about you?

@katewitch I'm so sorry that must be so frustrating for you!! Like others have suggested I think temping is the most likely thing to help you understand your cycle a bit more.

How long have you been trying for? In terms of finding ttc difficult, I'm right behind you! We are on month 10 and I've REALLY struggled up until now. But this month I've made a few changes, I've started exercising more consistently and it's helping me mentally. I'm lucky to be able to afford acupuncture but that is also helping me mentally. Im learning to accept where we are in our journey and that it might take longer than expected and I've started saying a few positive affirmations to myself daily. I'm trying to change how I think about ttc and I'm not 100% there yet but I just feel so much better this month. We have got the ball rolling on our investigations so that does help as well. Remember it's okay to feel crap about this because it is crap ❤️ and I'm not saying the above will help you as well but make sure you're still doing some things for you that benefit you physically and especially mentally. Don't forget to take care of yourself.

@Slk3558 I think we've mentioned before but we started trying around the same time (I came off my pill end of July). Are you able to have some investigations because of your MCs? My LP is 11 days and I think 10 and above is just about right. I have no patience, absolutely none and this is the hardest patience required thing I've ever had to go through.