Confused about O day, plz help!

[hopeful0913]

My cycle is usually 30-35 days. I've been temping for past 3 cycles and doing OPKs. I don't chart on FF, just write down my stats on my phone. I had never had a +ve opk but my temp used to rise on cd 18-19 and stay up. This current cycle I finally got a +ve opk (yay!!) on cd 18 (11:30 pm) and my temp went up 1.35 deg F morning of cd 19...but since cd 20 my temp went down again and today is cd 23 and it's been down. What do think is happening? Did I even ovulate? :(

[Cinss]

Its hard to say, if you were using FF it would give you a coverline which is the average of all of your previous temps, and then after the rise in temp, if your temps drop but stay above the coverline its all good.

[hopeful0913]

Yeah, I already figured my coverline when I started temping but then I gave up putting in the numbers online and just do it on my phone. I do know my coverline, it dropped below coverline day after the rise on cd 19 :(

[LacePrincess]

It doesn't sound like you've O'ed. One high temp doesn't indicate successful O, FAM (Fertility Awareness Method) rules required a sustained thermal shift of 3 days in a row to count.

You can also have fake LH surges and not O. I suspect that's what's going on here. If you're having big sawtooth patterns and multiple fertile CM patches, it can also mean an anovulatory cycle. Not much you can do but continue to monitor it, sometimes it's very hard to see if it is an anov cycle until it's over.

Also, it's possible that you charting just isn't perfect yet. It does take practice to get it right and to recognize your own body's idiosyncrasies. I always temp vaginally because oral temps for me were just too erratic and thrown off too easily, which can wreck a chart. It took me years to really know my body so if you're new to charting it may be that you just need more time to perfect your technique.

[hopeful0913]

Thank you LacePrincess. I am getting multiple CM patches which I thought was due to the Fish oil and green tea. Hmm, could be a anovulatory cycle. Btw, do people still bleed on their period on an anovulatory cycle?

[LacePrincess]

Eventually, yes. Most anov cycles end up excruciatingly long though, like 40-70 days or more. :( The multiple ewcm patches is your body trying to gear up to O and not quite getting there. So it resets and, tries again. And again. :P

I had a really busted up cycle like that 2 months ago, drove me insane. I finally DID ovulate eventually, but not till CD36. If this is a true anov cycle at some point it should end with a bleed, but usually lighter than a true AF (it's not really menstruation as there was no ovulation), and it's termed a breakthrough bleed. The advice is to go see your doc to get a progesterone trigger shot to bring on AF if you don't see signs of it by CD60, otherwise the uterine lining can build up really thick and you could have a really awful heavy AF when she finally comes.

FX for you that you'll O soon, long cycles suck!

[Cinss]

I had an anovulatory cycle, i think it was about 45 days long, then my next cycle after that was 12 days, totally wacked out. You may still O this cycle :fx:

[Violet_]

I have pcos and my history is that when I'm overweight, at my heaviest I was 112kgs, not sure what that was in pounds, I had very long cycles and wasn't menstruating or ovulating very rarely. The longest cycles I had was 5 months long, I'm not sure exact amount of days and when I did menstruate it was like a miscarriage VERY HEAVY, I wasn't pregnant as I'd checked with doctor, done tests and even an ultrasound (multiple ovarian cysts) to check. I lost about 10kgs and in that time, my cycles became more and more regular, from 100+days, 75days, 50days, 42days, and next cycle I got pregnant after 16 months of ttc DS3. For me, exercise dramatically increases my fertility and helps regulate my cycles, helps me lose weight and ovulate regularly. I'm not sure about everyone else's bodies but it took me until ttc my third child before I got a pcos diagnosis. Since having my third boy I lost a further 25kgs and was ovulating regularly (34/35 day cycles and ovulating on CD 20 or 21) (even while breastfeeding) before getting pregnant this time.

[LacePrincess]

Yeah, PCOS is a whoooole 'nother ballgame. Sorry to read about your difficulties, Violet!

I don't want anyone to panic though. It is perfectly normal to have anov cycles a few times a year for everyone. It's not a concern unless it becomes a norm and not an exception. It's also normal to have delayed O, delayed O does not mean anov. It only counts as anovulatory if you end up finally having a bleed but definitely haven't O'ed. An extremely delayed O is still an ovulatory cycle. Although, consistently abnormally late O's can be of concern and may need to be addressed.

Also, as we get older we just don't have as many eggs left, and we're more likely to pop out unhealthy ones too. Eggs that aren't Grade A Prime ;) can cause weird cycles too.

[hopeful0913]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I'm starting the get the pains that I usually get 4-5 days before my period. I have "mild" PCOS (that's what my Dr. said) but I've always had a period b/w 30-35 days, I've never skipped or had a long cycle. Let's see what happens with AF now :)