Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Ovulation Confirmation

Warning: I'm about to talk about ovulation and cycles and (gasp!) relations with my husband. Feel free to skip this post if this isn't your deal.

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Still here? Ok, here goes.

This has been my first month using an ovulation monitor and trying to chart with the Marquette method. I did get ovulation confirmation, or as close to it as you can get on your own at home, I suppose. However, it was on CD 20. I often have really long cycles, and they have varied anywhere from 28 to 40 days. I call that 40-day one the biblical cycle.

When Husband and I first learned STM, we were avoiding, and we regularly found ourselves abstaining for over two weeks, as opposed to the week or so that the method advertises. I often thought that I must have been charting wrong. We were being very cautious and looking back, we probably could have not abstained quite so much. But all I knew was that CM was showing up right after my period ended and not going away, and that my temp didn't rise until really late in the game.

So in some ways, I'm comforted by the fact that the monitor indicated that my high fertility started on CD 9, but didn't indicate ovulation until CD 20. Though I fretted about it starting from, oh, CD 13 and onward, my hormones indicated that I did eventually ovulate, just super late. Vindication! My body really is kind of crazy.

On the other hand - is this part of the problem? That I ovulate so late? Given that my cycles most frequently last 32-36 days, that's still about a 2 week window for the luteal phase. But am I always ovulating late, even when it's more like 28 to 30 days? That seems like too short a timespan to me.

Another interesting thing is that CD 21, the second day I got the little egg picture, I woke up with a very uncomfortable abdomen. All day long, it felt...tender. And occasionally, well, the best way I can put it is "ouchy." Husband and I made love in the morning before work, and holy mackerel, talk about pain during intercourse! This is not the first time that any of these things has happened, and in fact I went to my primary care physician complaining of all of these things last summer, before I officially started investigating my IF, and they did a pap smear and a urine test, declared that I wasn't sick, and sent me on my way. What?!

Oh, sorry, I meandered a bit there. I was going to say that this is not the first time any of these things have happened; however, it is the first time that I could see that they happened right smack dab in my ovulation window. I don't know if that's medically meaningful, but to me it lends credence to the symptoms that I have been feeling. I have never pinned down when they were happening, other than usually in the second half of my cycle, and except for that first time when I went to the unhelpful doctor they haven't lasted more than a few days. Despite reading about symptoms for different conditions of which infertility is a symptom, I don't know what they feel like. That was real pain I was having on CD 21 and 22, and today on CD 25 I still feel a tiny bit tender. Whatever this means, I'm kind of relieved to have located them somewhere definitive in my cycle. And I think I feel more ready to keep investigating what's going on.

In the mean time, hope is not all lost and the 2WW is upon me. Here's hoping that next week's appointment with Dr. C exactly 2 weeks after Peak is filled with happy tears and not tears of frustration and fear.

-January

5 comments:

  1. I'm not sure what it all means. I have used the clearblue fertility monitor in the past, and I think when you first start using it, it is very cautious and starts giving you fertile readings early on until it learns your body. As for the pain, perhaps endometriosis? Have you ever discussed that with your doctors? Hoping you get some answers soon!

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    1. I am also thinking endo. It seems to be what my doctor suspects already, and I plan to talk with her about it at next week's appointment.
      I was a little worried that I wouldn't get any real readings this cycle because I took Tamoxifen CD 3-7. I don't know if that affected anything.

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  2. Endo was going to be my first thing - because of the pain.

    The delayed ovulation could also be due to PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and I suppose PCOS could also cause pain. OR it could be due to stress, in women w/o physical issues, stress is a big cause of delayed ovulation (good or bad stress).

    Prayers during your 2ww!!!!

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  3. I had an endometrioma,which caused relations to hurt. But I would think that the pain and discomfort in your belly you felt were due to ovulation? I'm not sure about late ovulation every month, but it could be. I guess I'm not much help, but I understand how frustrating it is to wonder why all the discomfort. That shouldnt be normal.
    I'm praying for good news here soon!!!!!

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  4. Praying for you during your 2ww. A few more cycles charted may show if your luteal phase is fluctuating a lot or if you are ovulating at different times in your cycle. And hopefully you can start narrowing down that fertile window too! Endo, PCOS... all things to think about. Praying you get answers (or just a wonderful positive test would be nice, right?).

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