Trying to conceive after coming off the combined pill.

[JadeyEmx]

In need of some advice here! I was on the combined pill for 12 years, and came off at the end of the packet in May this year. My first period after coming off was 9 days late, but the second in July was bang on time. I am now one day late starting my 3rd period, taken a pregnancy test and it is negative.

This is really starting to affect me as I have no idea if I am ‘ovulating’ when the Flo app says I should be, and if my periods are back to normal. Any advice would be most welcome ☺️x

Your second and third periods are only one day out. So that’s starting to be a pattern but I still wouldn’t rely on an app for ovulation.

Your luteal phase could be longer or shorter than the average person. The app is just guessing without extra information such as lh tests or bbt.

Try using lh tests or bbt for a few months to know this information? Otherwise just keep dtd every 2-3 days throughout.

For a lot of people periods are not late, ovulation is. The luteal phase is a fixed length.

Oh the other thing you could try if you don’t want to actively track ovulation is use cervical mucus. It’s not exact and it will depend on if your body gives the typical pattern on if you can reliably use it.

The very first time I came off the mini pill I used it to concieve. Mine was very predictable at the time - 6 days of cervical mucus, with the last two being ewcm. However it ended in a mmc, I think we dtd 4/5 days before ovulation. Again, complete guess.

After the mmc I had a cycle of crazy cervical mucus, and then it was slightly harder to predict. Sometimes 3 days and sometimes 8+ days. So I started tracking ovulation to know for sure if I was ovulating. The second time I conceived the cervical mucus looked predictable, but the lh test went positive 4 days after the CM had disappeared. That’s the cycle I conceived because I was testing. Resulted in ds. I don’t trust cervical mucus much anymore, but it did work that first time when my body was showing ‘textbook’ CM.

Your periods and cycle seem to have returned to normal fairly quickly. After I came off the pill I didn't have a period for about 4 months. Even after that my cycles were all over the place.

Hi, sorry your comment interested me on this thread. I came off the pill after 15 years last April, I didn’t have a period for the first 3 months and mine are still now all over the place and irregular. I’ve started hormone balance vitamins so hoping that helps but just wondered if you managed to sort yours out at all?

I conceived 4 months after getting off the combined pill (10 years).

I was on the combined pill for 13 years and it took about 3 months for my periods to become regular - my first two cycles were 40 days long. It sounds like yours are already falling into a pattern.

I started using ovulation strips and tracking bbt and that helped me to really understand what was going on with my body. The apps are just guessing so I wouldn’t completely rely on those.

Hi! I can't remember exact timings and I had to just wait it out but I ended up getting pregnant about a year later when I just stopped tracking my cycle and forgot about it. I can't comment any more because after my little boy I had a coil and don't have any periods anymore. I don't want any more children though so don't need to worry about future fertility or cycles.

I had my DS 3 years ago. Stopped the combined pill after around 16 years and conceived on the 2nd cycle. My cycles were around 28 days but I had a short luteal phase which I found out from LH tests and BBT. I was taking a conception vitamin (pregnacare or seven seas, can't remember which). When I found out I had short LP I started taking vitamin b6 (highly recommended from research after stopping the pill) and used pre-seed on the 2nd cycle. I have very little CM so I think the pre-seed definitely helped.
Went back on the pill after having DS, so around 3 years ago. Stopped it a few months ago. Cycles were around 24-25 days after stopping and again had a short luteal phase (7-8 days) found from LH testing and BBT. So did the same (conception vitamin, vitamin b6 and pre-seed) and fell pregnant on the 2nd cycle again.
I definitely recommend testing LH so you can see when your LH surge is in relation to your cycles. Short LP post-pill is very common (and in my case happened both times after stopping it)
Everyone is so different so everyone may have different stories on what worked for them post-pill, but my main piece of advice is to test LH and track BBT so you can see what's going on

My periods and cycles were irregular for more than a year after stopping the pill but I managed to conceive DS in this time. I needed to track my ovulation from symptoms like cervical mucus etc and used the easy @ home strips. It got easier to spot ovulation symptoms over time though. My cycles varied between 28 and 40 days, it’s likely yours just havent settled yet.