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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

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Original poster

Friend not ovulating - can anyone advise

14 replies

Pinkjenny · 04/04/2008 12:26

One of my very good friends told me this morning that after tests, it has been discovered that she is not ovulating.

She is coming to see me this weekend, and I really want to be able to discuss it with her intelligently and offer as much support as I can (if she wants it - will take her lead of course).

Can anyone help with their experiences? Anyone have any positive words that I could support her with?

OP posts:

Anna8888 · 04/04/2008 12:29

Do they know why she is not ovulating?

I didn't ovulate for four years - too damn tired - but when I started having a calmer lifestyle and treating my body better it all started up again

Original poster

Pinkjenny · 04/04/2008 12:48

No I don't think they know yet, she's been referred to a specialist now after having been TTC for 2 years.

OP posts:

Anna8888 · 04/04/2008 12:58

Often not ovulating is a sign of being generally run down. Lots and lots of professional women in long hours and/or high stress jobs get this problem. Might that be the case for your friend?

Original poster

Pinkjenny · 04/04/2008 13:22

Possibly, she's certainly very dedicated to her career, although over the last couple of years she's definitely reprioritised.

OP posts:

Anna8888 · 04/04/2008 13:33

Try to find out whether she is in good health generally, eating properly and sleeping well.

When I didn't ovulate the doctors did zillions of silly tests. Whenever I told them how tired I was they weren't interested - they wanted to hook me up to machines, not tell me to go to bed on time

Judy1234 · 04/04/2008 13:41

What is her weight and height?

Anna8888 · 04/04/2008 13:45

Weight-for-height isn't necessarily much of an indicator. I was always within the normally slim range (BMI of 18.5 to 21 max) when I wasn't ovulating and when I was.

Original poster

Pinkjenny · 04/04/2008 13:45

She's a size 10 - fit and healthy.

OP posts:

JulietM · 04/04/2008 13:53

Hello Anna
There can be many reasons why some women don't ovulate - some of which have been mentioned above such as the women is either over or underweight (ballet dancers and marathon runners quite often come into the latter category), or being over-stressed even depressed, or certain drugs can affect ovulation, low thyroid (makes people very tired, lethargic), a hormonal problem (the luteinising hormone is not working properly for example) and so on.

I would recommend seeing a fertility awareness practitioner - unfortunately there are not many around. We have a couple in Edinburgh and the organisation Foresight in England might also be able to help.

Original poster

Pinkjenny · 04/04/2008 14:05

Thanks for all the advice. Anyone got any success stories to share, just to try and lift her a bit?

OP posts:

Anna8888 · 04/04/2008 14:07

Well I have a lovely DD (3.5) now, so 4 years of not ovulating wasn't such a big deal .

And honestly I know so many professional women that this has happened to that have gone on to have babies once they had calmed down a bit and led less stress ridden lives.

Judy1234 · 04/04/2008 17:31

It may be stress but more likely something physical and think of all those girls in terrible circumstances who still get pregnant even when they don't want to. But I do know that most of my brother's anorexic patients stop menstruating so that's obviously one thing to check but she's size 10 so that's not likely.

Foresight web site is worth looking at. I always ovulated so don't have any good luck advice on getting it going.

She could try getting more sleep, cutting out junk food, doing regular tests each month to see if she is ovulating or that in itself could be stressful.

Judy1234 · 04/04/2008 17:31

And am I right that even if you don't ovulate you still have eggs in there so technically they could be extracted and implanted in you?

arionater · 04/04/2008 18:27

Has she been charting her cycles (taking her temp etc?) If she has then she will know whether or not she never ovulates or just ovulates rather infrequently. A cycle or two a year without an ovulation is normal, so it's always possible they just caught her in a 'lull' - possibly caused by stress etc as suggested - though I suppose if she's been TTC for a long time then it's more likely that it's a long-standing problem. The doctors will probably start her on some drugs to encourage her to ovulate, and monitor her hormone levels to see if its working. You can take 'ovulation predictor' tests but these are a bit unreliable because you can 'prepare' to ovulate (so get a positive result) and then not actually do so. If you track your temperature too then the rise after ovulation confirms that you actually have ovulated - I think this is the most reliable indication short of having very regular and intrusive tests/ultrasounds. Definitely this is not the end of the road for her at all, there are lots of things they can try, and there are plenty of natural lifestyle things you can do to support the medical side of things as well.

Xenia - you're right but I think it's technically a bit complicated because they egg does need to 'ripen' as well as be released. They can do it but I think they will try lots of things to encourage you to ovulate yourself first.

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