Super long cycles - help and advice!

[MountainMummy95]

Need to hear positive and/or helpful stories. I am trying to ttc number 3, we have had no issues with the first 2, fell on cycle one both times with a 14 day ovulation both times. I was on the pill before that and had been on it for around 10 years due to heavy, painful periods and irregular cycles in puberty. I got the Mirena in after baby 2, and had it removed in March. Since then, my cycles have been getting longer and longer. Ovulation was initially on CD23, then CD25, then CD 26, and I'm currently CD 29 with no sign of OV. Any advice? Anyone able to conceive on super long cycles or have any insight as to why this is happening??

I have very long and irregular cycles I can go from 118 days to around 40 days and there’s no telling how long they’re going to be from one to the next ! I have 2 children conceived naturally and am now on CD 32 ( suspected OV was CD27 ). We basically just BD every other day at least 😅 because my irregular cycles are caused by pcos I can go through false ovulation where I get EWCM and all signs of ovulation but no egg is released. So for me I really never know for sure ! I’d say track your temps and BD as much as you can just to cover bases !

all that to say there’s definitely hope and it’s definitely possible it’s just a lot more guess work then the average woman might have to do ! Sending you baby dust ! ✨

Thank you for this! It's so frustrating. Appears to be getting worse. I had EWCM yesterday and today but my LH is very much at baseline. I am thinking I am going to have to start temping because the tests are damn expensive. How do you know when to test for pregnancy if you have absolutely no idea how long your cycle is or even if you ovulated? Does temping confirm ovulation or is it a bit like LH in that it's indicative but not a guarantee??

I think temping is more reliable then LH strips in certain people I know for me I get false LH peaks because my hormones are never doing what the ought to 😅 and I’ll get EWCM without ovulation so I can’t rely on that either ! temperature has been more reliable in the past for me personally! In terms of when to test I base it off suspected ovulation. If I get negatives 14dpo after my suspected ovulation I take a test every 2-3 days till period comes or I get a positive. Otherwise I have no way of knowing 😅 it is a pain but it does and can happen ! My first was a complete ooopsie and my second child was planned and took 2 cycles ! X

Hi both! I have always had long cycles (ever since I was a teenager - up to 8 weeks). I've had quite a bit of testing done which has ruled out PCOS and my bloods are fine so it's a bit of a mystery! I conceived my DS (who's now 2) on a cycle where I ovulated on CD30! And that was cycle 3 of trying. Conceiving #2 is a proving a bit more difficult and I'm now into cycle 5 and currently on cycle day 32 and only now is my LH starting to rise (like @Biscuitbaby2218 I've had a few days in the past few weeks with EWCM but no ovulation). My understanding is that temping is pretty accurate (e.g. last month my temp went from 37.1 to 37.3 the day my EWCM stopped) and then did get my period when expected. I take inositol (which is recommended for PCOS) which I think helps my cycles from being even longer, currently they are between 30-39 days long (though this cycle will be longer) but before I conceived DS they were up to 54.

I'm turning 35 this month so if nothing's happened for us by January I'm going to try and get Letrozole or Clomid privately to try and at least get a 28 day cycle so have more chances at conception and certainty over when ovulation might be!

Hi. Before I had my DD my cycles were 39 days with ovulation on day 26, but they were super regular as they were always the same length and ovulation always happened on the same day which made things easier. I was on the pill before so once I figured out that I had long cycles and used LH strips to pin down ovulation I conceived on my 4th cycle. So I've no idea why I had long cycles but didn't seem to stop me being able to conceive. Since having my DD my cycles are now a more reasonable 32 days with ovulation on day 18.

Thanks everyone!! I am a happy chappy today - CD31 and just got a smiley on my clearblue and a cheapie scoring 1.23, so I should hopefully ovulate tomorrow!! We did it last night, and plan again tonight and tomorrow so then its just the dreaded tww, but your stories are giving me hope!
@Biscuitbaby2218 how are you getting on? How many dpo are you now? Any symptoms??

@MountainMummy95 my cycle is almost identical! I'm CD32 and just got a positive ovulation test of 1.03. BD'd Sun and Mon and will again tonight, so fingers crossed for us both!

@Lgn90 Oh cycle twins!! Can we brave the tww together and support each other through it?!?

@MountainMummy95 Yes absolutely! Hoping if I do get AF my luteal phase will be a bit longer as last cycle it was only 11 days (have been SO stressed with work), although I think generally mine is only 12 anyway

@Lgn90 do you take progesterone? I actually have a long luteal phase of around 15 days. I start spotting on day 14 a little but my first day of flow is 15.

@MountainMummy95 no I don’t! Definitely on my radar if go down the testing route (which will do in January)

Try agnus castus

Thank you @chunkybear I have actually started that this month (will stop at ovulation - hopefully today) and I started using that the month I fell pregnant with my DS so fingers crossed that helps!

Ive never heard of it! What does it do??

@MountainMummy95 it's supposed to slightly boost LH (so not recommended for PCOS) and progesterone. Also called vitex.

As PP said, I had longer cycles and low progesterone, and I found it great for sorting out my cycle. It’s an old remedy but well used and some pre-pregnancy vitamins had it in when I was TTC nearly 20
yeaes ago! I bought the drops from A Vogel, you add them to water and drink … pretty meh taste but I didn’t care - I’d not had a pregnancy at the time for 14 cycles, prior to that I’d had a few miscarriages, but also had a huge cyst removed from my ovary, possibly the issue with TTC ?!, but took AC and fell pregnant the first month! Sadly I miscarried but started again, fell pregnant again after 1 period post miscarriage and fell pregnant with my now 17 year old DD
GOOD LUCK

1dpo - definitely had ovulation pain yesterday, which I haven't had since my cycles with my dd2 and dd1. I used to get it all the time but not since IUD removal, so hoping that indicates a better follicle and a larger corpus luteum. Not much to do now but wait. I hate this part. How are you doing @Lgn90?

@MountainMummy95 ooh I’ve never had ovulation pain. It’s hard for me to symptom spot because when I was trying for DS I used to get the worst boob pain before period (which obv then had the month I was pregnant) but I don’t get that at all now! So not sure what to expect (if anything). I’m actually going on hols on Sunday for a week so I’m going to make sure I don’t pack any tests and so am not tempted to test early - do you usually test early?

Oh that's a good distraction! I dont symptom spot either because I rarely get pms symptoms and with both my dds I didnt get pregnancy symptoms either. Having said that, yes, I am a serial early tester. I know it's not healthy but I wont even lie to myself and pretend Im not going to do it starting around 9/10dpo because I know I will! Are you usually an early tester? Or do you have more will power than me?

How old are you and how long have you been trying?

@Birdsongsingingagainandagain I am 30. This is my 3rd and final child I am trying for and I am on cycle 4 but thats been over 6 months as my cycles are super long and getting longer all the time. With my first two pregnancies, I fell first time, both times. So I have never had to wait before and it's a struggle.

@Birdsongsingingagainandagain I am 30. This is my 3rd and final child I am trying for and I am on cycle 4 but thats been over 6 months as my cycles are super long and getting longer all the time. With my first two pregnancies, I fell first time, both times. So I have never had to wait before and it's a struggle.

i just wondered as I had long cycles and had had miscarriages so they put me on a low dose of clomid with the aim of regulating my cycles. I was about 35 though and had no children so quite different circumstances. It does make it harder when you have to wait so long to try again. Good luck!