I can't believe this is happening to me :(

[lovemy2blessings]

I feel like this must be a nightmare...here I am on week 15 of LE and CD28 with still no O sign (sigh)...I have dropped Rephresh, abstain, peppermint tea, j &d, and now down to 4 days of exercising. I regret starting off so strong with the LE diet and exercise (which made me lose 11 lbs) which I wish I had now. I just saw my OB-gyn almost 2 weeks ago and he said I was pretty much underweight and that's why I'm no ovulating. He wants me to gain 11-15 lbs. back. I feel so discouraged, mad, frustrated, sad, and stressed with this whole situation.
I got into it pretty bad this morning with my poor dh who has been extra supportive and told him "I quit and that we should just be happy w/ our 2 DS!" I have been crying these past few days because I just want to quit knowing that perhaps I won't be able to get pregnant anytime soon, but a past of me feels that I have gone so far to just quit and most importantly I have been praying day and night and I know God will bless me soon. I feel like calling my doctor tomorrow and asking him to put me on Clomid,(although he said he wanted me to TTC a whole year before giving it to me) also I'm so afraid of twins. I wish that all this was just a nightmare and that my ovulation would just get back on track. Is there anything else I can do Atomic and other GD's? Someone please bring sanity back in me, TIA
Currently doing 60 min of cardio 4 days a week, 1800 calories, 1600 mg of Folic Acid, using opk's twice and a ferning microscope.

[missmegrn]

Although I am not a pink swayer, I can't offer much advice. I can however tell you that maybe your body is too stressed and that is why ovulation is late or not happening. Last month my ovulation was delayed by 10 days, which I believe is a first time for me as I am pretty regular with my cycles. I believe it was stress related because there was a lot going on in my life in that month. This month it was back to normal for me. I understand how you feel, especially when everything is going against your sway, because that's pretty much the way it is for me right now too. Hopefully an expert can chime in here and give you some advice. I just wanted you know, you are not alone in this and it's ok to feel frustrated at times. Good luck and I hope you get your +opk soon.

[lovemy2blessings]

Thanks missmegrn! I just need to vent and.get some advice.from all of you wonderful ladies. It seems that either I.don't ovulate or.I just ovulate extremely late. Opks never pick up a surge since starting TTC journey. When conceiving my 2 DS I got pregnant on my first month trying (dtd with a positive opk) and now I've lost weight onthe LE and exercise that I'm underweight and.perhaps not ovulating ;(

[missmegrn]

Are you using the cheaper opks or digitals. I pretty much have stopped using the cheapies because I had a bad batch earlier in the year and I missed by ovulation because I couldn't tell I surged from the cheapies. Although the digitals are more expensive, they take a lot of guessing out if it. This month, I starting using clear blue digital advance opks. Again they are pretty expensive, but they measure estrogen and lh instead of just lh and they tell you when your fertile days leading up to ovulation are, and your lh surge as well. The only thing I hate about them is they use fmu and your surge usually shows up the morning after. I instead used the original clear blue ovulation digitals ( which can still be purchased online) during the day when my fertile period started and I could catch my surge in the afternoon instead of the morning after.

Are you temping? Temping will tell you if you are ovulating or not. After a few months you may or may not see a pattern of when ovulation occurs, but it does help to see the temp shift upward to confirm you have ovulated.

Well I am on HE and on my 7th cycle ttc, and yes it is very frustrating. I don't want to give up either, as I too have put too much effort into this to just quit.

Good luck, and we are here to listen when you need to vent

[lovemy2blessings]

Thanks! I use dollar tree opks which I have always used with no problems and I do temp, but now that I have fallen underweight my cycles have gotten wonky ;;( I have long 35-45 day cycles with no pattern in ovulation. My ferning microscope picks up sometimes but then the next day there's nothing ;( I really don't want to try Clomid yet and I certainly don't want to give up I've gone too far to just quit cold turkey!! When you conceived your dd where you doing LE or something similar...no meat/chicken? Did you Dtd on certain days or patterns?

[missmegrn]

When conceived both my dds I was never on LE, but more than likely ate an LE diet. I really didn't know what swaying was until weeks before dd2 was conceived and at that point it was too late to start. I am and always have been overweight. I was and have always been a dieter, calorie watcher, fat watcher. My lowest weights have been when I basically was starving myself, pretty much only eating one solid meal a day, a few snacks here and there. My job makes it hard too. I am an RN who works 12 hr shifts, caring for patients Before I started making myself snack, it was typical for me to go from 530am(breakfast) to at least 2 or 3pm (lunch) without eating anything, and sometimes depending on the day I could go from 530am to 8pm without even eating. I was a heavy drinker of diet coke, and alot of things I ate or drank had sugar substitutes in them (asparatime). As for exercise, I walk a lot with my job and I also do exercise when my kids cooperate so I can, but I don't have a strict exercise schedule and I never have. As far as dtd goes for both, dh and I dtd maybe every 4 or 5 days and my fertile week we would dtd 3 to 4 days in a row, which is more consistent with boy frequency, and I also used preseed for both dds (go figure). Dd1 took us almost a year to conceive, as I had a mc before her and my cycles never regulated back until a few months before she was conceived. Dd2 was conceived the first month we tried to get pg.

If I were you, I would keep testing and temping. If this month is a bust, I would purchase some digital ones next cycle. They are more expensive but they can determine a change in excreted hormone levels, which may be of a little more help than the other ones.

[Adia]

Sorry honey, this is so frustrating. I have been TTC forever too.

I don't have any good advice for you...maybe take a break and gain the weight back you lost + extra and then use the LE to lose it. The stress can't be good for your Testosterone levels either.

I used Clomid last month and it turned me into the Clomid creature. I would keep trying naturally for a while longer before you try that for many reasons, twins included.

I am alot like missmegrn in my eating patterns. It is just how my body naturally gravitates.

I would not worry too much about OPK or get the good one like Meg suggested. The opk have been hit and miss for me. Who the hell knows if I really ovulate like they say.

Hang in there....it took several people on here a year or more to conceive their desired gender.

[lovemy2blessings]

Thanks Adia and Missmegrn, for your input can you all send all your pink dust to me and I'll send you my lovely blue dust lol :) WOW!!! I can't even imagine how you feel Adia you have been ttc longer than I...are you having issues with O? Or is it other issues too? I can't believe Clomid didn't get you a bfp! I wish I could gain some weight back, but atomic has advise me that is best not to...it sways blue :(

[missmegrn]

Atomic is pretty much a genius at this swaying stuff, so it may be advisable to NOT gain the weight back just yet and see if your cycles regulate. If in a couple months your cycles are still crazy or you definitely aren't ovulating, you may need to slowly gain some back, because at the end of the day if you aren't ovulating you can't get pg. Obviously, none of us (that I know of) are doctors so giving you the right advice of whether to maintain or gain, is a little tricky and at the end of the day its your decision. The best person to answer that is Atomic, and I would suggest sending her a pm if she doesn't respond to this post in a few days or so.

[atomic sagebrush]

Your metabolism will adjust over time - when I lost a lot of weight and was exercising a lot, I had three months where my ovulation was screwed up but then it fixed itself. I ran out of weight to lose and I plateaued, and over time my body worked to fix things.

Now, I know you don't want to wait that long and that is fine. What I would have you do to try and fix things is to up cals to 2000, continue the cardio 4 days a week, and make SURE you are getting the upper level of fat. 60 g a day, and Omega 6 fats may be better for your sway than Omega 3/saturated fats (so margarine, corn, canola, soy oils and NOT animal fats or fish oil or olive oil). You do NOT need to gain the weight back. You need to give your body time to adjust and the minimum of raw materials it needs to fix itself and it will.

You may want to also add in 8-15 mg zinc 3x a week and 150 IU iodine because if you've been dieting quite strictly you may be depleted in these. I don't know that it will help restore your ovulation, this is meant to be better for your overall health.

[atomic sagebrush]

Your metabolism will adjust over time - when I lost a lot of weight and was exercising a lot, I had three months where my ovulation was screwed up but then it fixed itself. I ran out of weight to lose and I plateaued, and over time my body worked to fix things.

Now, I know you don't want to wait that long and that is fine. What I would have you do to try and fix things is to up cals to 2000, continue the cardio 4 days a week, and make SURE you are getting the upper level of fat. 60 g a day, and Omega 6 fats may be better for your sway than Omega 3/saturated fats (so margarine, corn, canola, soy oils and NOT animal fats or fish oil or olive oil). You do NOT need to gain the weight back. You need to give your body time to adjust and the minimum of raw materials it needs to fix itself and it will.

You may want to also add in 8-15 mg zinc 3x a week and 150 IU iodine because if you've been dieting quite strictly you may be depleted in these. I don't know that it will help restore your ovulation, this is meant to be better for your overall health.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thanks! I use dollar tree opks which I have always used with no problems and I do temp, but now that I have fallen underweight my cycles have gotten wonky ;;( I have long 35-45 day cycles with no pattern in ovulation. My ferning microscope picks up sometimes but then the next day there's nothing ;( I really don't want to try Clomid yet and I certainly don't want to give up I've gone too far to just quit cold turkey!! When you conceived your dd where you doing LE or something similar...no meat/chicken? Did you Dtd on certain days or patterns?

OK so what I think people ought to do in the case that they are not detecting ovulation but are still seeming to have some kind of cycle (as evidenced by AF coming at somewhat normal time) is to start DTD unprotected, every 4 days. Then in addition, ALSO do OPK and if you get a positive OPK, you have a decision to make...if you are at the outer limits of the every 4 days (so you had DTD 3 or 4 days before), then have another attempt. If you JUST had an attempt (so you had DTD 1- 1 1/2-2 days before) then stick with just that attempt. if you're in the middle range (had DTD 2-3 days before) then you can do either - if you felt like your attempt was not so good you might want to have another attempt, if you felt like you had a great attempt then you might want to stick with the one. And if you can't decide, then flip a coin!!!

[Adia]

Thanks Adia and Missmegrn, for your input can you all send all your pink dust to me and I'll send you my lovely blue dust lol :) WOW!!! I can't even imagine how you feel Adia you have been ttc longer than I...are you having issues with O? Or is it other issues too? I can't believe Clomid didn't get you a bfp! I wish I could gain some weight back, but atomic has advise me that is best not to...it sways blue :(

Yes girlie, I will send some pink dust your way, you should get it soon as we are both in the Lone Star State! ;o)

I only suggested gaining weight IF you were going to take a break but once we are swaycessed, its hard to take a break.

I have no clue what my problem is. I saw a fertility doctor for testing, and she said everything was fine...but insurance won't cover treatment. I think i am just old and thyroid, progesterone, etc are off.

I've given up a bit, but we're still trying, just not holding my breath during the 2ww every month!

Good luck, I have had episodes in my life where I was very thin, (not many mind you!) and it has messed with my cycle a bit so maybe a month or two with the suggestions Atomic gave you will help.

[lovemy2blessings]

Ah! Thanks for replying atomic! I just went into myfitness pal account and realized that I'm hitting at 30-40g of Fat. I'm always looking into protein, 1800 calories and sometimes sodium...never fat until now! Well now that I look back I'm going to aim at hitting the 60g any suggestions on what will help without going over my protein intake? I will also switch my olive and vegetable oil to corn oil only. I will stick to the dtd 4 days like you previously advised and continue w/ opk's. Thanks for brining sanity back, I will continue to have faith and stay positive:)

[atomic sagebrush]

mayo
margarine
butter
salad dressing
dip
sour cream
whipped cream
avocado
baba ganoush or punjabi eggplant spread
hummus and cream cheese have a pretty miniscule amount
nut butter does have some but just use it sparingly

[lovemy2blessings]

Awesome suggestions, thanks!