Advice please! When to test?

[MamaO88]

Hoping to get some insight from other people as feel like I'm going a bit crazy trying to work this out!

Long story short - I don't know when to test.

We're TTC #3 and I had my mirena coil removed on the 22nd September. Previously to this I had no periods at all while on the coil (5 years), and then randomly had a 6 day bleed from 7th-12th September.

First question - do I class 22nd September as day 1 of my cycle, or should I be working from that bleed, or something else entirely?

Next problem is as well as not knowing when to expect a period, I also am not sure when I ovulated. I have been trying to track on an app and do have notes of watery discharge with a hint of pink on the 2nd October, with some cramping and discomfort, and then proper ewcm on the 9th and 10th last week. Do I assume the latter was ovulation?

Second question - how do I know when to test? As I don't know when to be 'late' and I don't know how many dpo I am?

It's been a long time since I've had to pay attention to this stuff, and feel quite out of my depth! As of right now, I've got that full/achey feeling and by abdomen feels quite firm when I press it. Small waves of nausea and lower back pain. Feel like either something is happening, or I'm about to get the mother of all periods 🙃

1. cycle starts from day of bleeding
   1b) if you have a typical 28 day cycle, ovulation is generally around two weeks from when period started. But in reality, without ovulation stick tests, you'll never know for certain when ovulation is most likely to occur.

2. Bsst time to test is when your period is due, or late.

Ultimately as you've gone so long without cycles, you can't at this stage no for certain how long your typical cycle would be, making all the associated factors less predictable.

Get some ovulation stick tests to help guide you.

I know I can't know for certain, that's why I'm asking for advice haha

Even for testing, I don't know when to expect a period. Prior to the coil my cycles were anything from 35-49 days, but that was post being on the pill for a prolonged period, so I'm not even sure if that's my "normal" regarding cycles.

So I guess what I'm asking is, if you were me, when would you test?

You could test now for pregnancy as it’s been around 4 weeks since the first day of the bleeding. I would also start testing with ovulation tests each day just so you know where you’re at but at this stage I’d probably just wait til you’re next period and then go from there. You would have a better understanding of how long your cycles are and can start a fresh with ovulation tests and write dates of everything down like first day of your period etc and cycle length so over the new few months you can compare and roughly work out your cycle. It could take a few months to all settle down, so I’ve heard with the mirena coil.

Ideally after taking the coil out it's good to start doing ovulation tests to identify a peak, you don't need to have a period first to ovulate after removal. It's a bit late for that now though as I would presume the EWCM was pre/during O.

For this cycle test around two weeks after the EWCM.

For Future cycles, use your ovulation tests and if you don't find a peak it is advised wait 21 days after unprotected sex to test as will show by then.

I'd take a hCG test two weeks on from when LH tests indicate you've ovulated.