Is this normal from an organs point of view

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Hello
I am new and not used to all the acronyms, bare with me.
We are wanting a baby! But I have not had a regular period since I was a teenager!
I had bleeding without a cause for long periods of time when I was 19-20. They did blood tests, they tried nothisterone (spelling?) they did an ultrasound. No dice, bled through the medicine, doctors puzzled. They put me on the mini pill and I stopped bleeding completely.
I came off the mini pill at 24 as I was struggling with depression and told this could make it worse. It’s been two years and I’ve had three “periods” since then (I’ve bled three times. Are they real? Dunno).

So I started to take those wee ovulation test strips, maybe I’m having a long cycle, maybe I can notice a pattern. The other day they had a ration of 0.1, then the next day 0.25, thinking we are heading toward ovulating, then yesterday and today we are suddenly at straight 0.

Is this concerning? What is happening in there? Was my body thinking about ovulating and just decided nope? Or is this a normal variation?

I am going to keep tracking for a while before going to my doctor for a chat, we are only just now starting this whole thing. Just thought this was strange and if it means anything? Do I know how ovulating works? :D thanks!

By “from an organs point of view” I mean is my womb doing alright, is this a normal thing or should I be at my doctors now asking them for tests?

If you’re not bleeding, there’s a chance that you’re not ovulating - but the strips don’t quite work like that. It’s normal for them to jump up and down, and you can’t really rely on the ratios - just test once or twice a day until they start getting consistently darker, and then test more until they return to your baseline.

I wouldn’t take going from 0.1 to 0.25 to be a hint that you’re getting towards ovulation, a change that small could just be hydration. Also remember lots of people don’t ovulate around CD14, and it’s much further on. I have a friend who conceived with 65 day cycles, somehow.

Are you using an app to store all the OPKs? That’ll be useful to look for patterns. Doctors typically want between three and six cycles to look at - three if the pattern is obvious, more if it’s not. If it’s a case of not ovulating at all; there are medications that can help with that, but they’d probably want to try and work out why first.

Also remember that if you do have a period, the OPKs will read higher around that time as you make the same hormone in the run up to a period, that throws some people off!

Best of luck with it, I hope you get some answers

Okay great! I have a wee app and I knew I’d need to be tracking it for a while before I went to the doctor, I just noticed this and thought it was strange.
Thank you! Here is hoping that a pattern or something emerges, or at least my doctor has some answers when I go to her after a few months :) I guess I need to do more reading about these tests! We have been doing so much talking about how we’d deal with a baby together financially, morally etc we haven’t hugely researched the making it part :D

If you've been off hormonal contraceptives for 2 years and have had 3 periods, go to the doctor now as you are not ovulating! If you ovulate you have to have a period (or conceive) so this would suggest you've ovulated 3 times or less in 2 years.

Some things to think about - are you very over or under weight? Do you exercise intensely? Do you under eat? Do you have a thyroid condition or diabetes? All these impact on ovulation

I am fat! I am losing weight before we try to have a baby as I have read this will make my periods more regular and the whole process much healthier. I have been tested for thyroid and diabetes and I’m good.

I was going to have a trail with the strips before I went to the doctor? Make it easier to see if there’s a pattern?

The problem is, you could take literally 9 months to see any peak on the strips if that's how irregularly you ovulate. Also my experience is GPs are not very interested in LH strips at all as they are only one indicator (and a positive strip doesnt mean ovulation). I would recommend you go back to the GP now, say you have had x periods in 2 years, that you are looking to conceive and they should refer you to fertility. Then keep collecting LH strips for the fertility clinic to review.

I'm saying all of this as someone who has very irregular cycles, doesnt seem to be ovulating, and is trying to conceive

Ah, the three periods have been on the last nine months, so it’s not quite as spaced as the full two years. I just didn’t have any for over a year coming off it. It’s still a long time though, I get that. I will ask them to refer me to fertility when I have my next appointment.

Ahh that is a bit better! Im at about that rate or perhaps once every 2mo myself. I'm also trying to lose a bit of weight etc too!

Yes, I was told if the period wasn’t back after a year to go in, but that year time came mid pandemic/redundancy/job switch so it got to 1 year three months and then it had come. Obviously not regular! But I was hoping with weight loss and time I could see some improvement.