Folic Acid and Ovulation

[Rockhopper81]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the correct board? But am looking for advice/opinions/help!

I’m planning to use a known donor with at home insemination to become a single parent. I have PCOS, so have been tracking ovulation using OvuSense for about 7 months now - it had detected ovulation in the first 4 cycles of using it, although it isn’t at the ‘normal’ place during a cycle, given my cycles are longer I’ve not worried about it. I taken Metformin, and my cycles were becoming more regular, albeit longer than average.

I started taking folic acid, to prepare for insemination, but haven’t ovulated in the two cycles I’ve had since starting to take it.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Could the folic acid be impacting on ovulation?

I have a donor lined up, but have had to cancel the last two arrangements for donations as I haven’t actually ovulated.

Any ideas/suggestions/advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Folic acid has no impact on ovulation. It prevents neural tube defects as the embryo develops into a foetus.

I know what folic acid is taken for - to help prevent neural tube defects - but I was wondering if anybody had any other anecdotal experience of folic acid having an impact on ovulation.

Obviously it's possible - as with anything you take - it can have an unintended impact on systems other than the one it is designed for. I'm not looking for, or expecting, it to have an impact on ovulation, I was just wondering if anybody else had experienced an issue with ovulation whist taking it.

I doubt very much that the folic acid tablets are having any impact on ovulation; its more likely that PCOS is causing you to not ovulate regularly, if at all now. This is why these ovulation type tracker things fall down; they are not really designed for PCOS.

Instead of using the tracker I would try and have some blood tests done to give you some up to date test results re your hormones pertaining to ovulation.

Most women don't ovulate every month.

Folic acid has no effect on ovulation.

The OvuSense tracker has the best success rate for PCOS that I’ve found, although I don’t claim it’s infallible. I’ve has blood tests relating to hormones etc. and started using this on the back of those.

It’s just odd that I was ovulating - and had the differences in CM associates with ovulation, so I genuinely think I was - up until I started taking the folic acid.

Thanks anyway.