Luteul Phase and Vitex Q

[Sassy]

Just a quick one I hope someone might know the answer to. As you know I had perfect cycles before going to town on the supps! So this cycle I O'd on CD15 instead of CD14 which was fine, but AF has arrived today CD27 putting my LP at only 12 days instead of 14. Is this a problem? Could this be due to Saw Palmetto or Vitex?

Any insights would be apprecited!

[rainbowflower]

it isn't necessarily a problem. I have an 11 day LP (without taking supps), and I conceived twice with that both times within 3 months of TTC

[atomic sagebrush]

No, a 12 day LP is perfectly fine for conceiving. 12-14 days is ample time for a bean to implant.

[XXdreaming]

yeah 12 lp is fine to conceive a healthy pregnancy, but I thought vitex was to raise progesterone and kind of help your lp?

[ttcboy2011]

I sometimes have a LP of 10-11 days and wonder if that's normal. I hope so...

[atomic sagebrush]

I sometimes have a LP of 10-11 days and wonder if that's normal. I hope so...

That is a bit on the short side...you might want to take some B6 to lengthen it. You should still be able to get pg, but it's not as sure of a thing as with a 12-14 day LP.

[atomic sagebrush]

yeah 12 lp is fine to conceive a healthy pregnancy, but I thought vitex was to raise progesterone and kind of help your lp?

Vitex can help with LP but whenever you alter your hormone balance, the results can be unpredictable.

[zanacal]

How do you count your LP - is it the number of days after O you get AF or the number of days in between O and AF (not including either!)?! Also, if you had say a 28 day cycle would you get AF on CD28 or on CD27? I suspect I've been counting my cycle length wrong all these years!

[atomic sagebrush]

Follicular phase is AF-O and it can vary in number of days dramatically without affecting your ability to get pg. You can have many weeks, even months or years between AF and O and still be capable of getting pregnant.

Luteal phase is O-AF and it should be between 12-14 days for best odds of pg. The fertilized egg takes a certain amount of time to move into the uterus from the Fallopian tubes and implant, and if your LP is any shorter than 12-14 days, it may not have enough time to implant and begin producing the hormones that keep the lining from disintegrating. When this happens, it's a chemical pregnancy...the egg tried to implant, enough so you even may have gotten a pos pg test, but something went wrong and the egg was shed with your uterine lining.

Unfortunately, even having a 28 day cycle, you can still have a short LP. If you O on CD 18,19,20 and then get AF on CD 28, you will have a short LP of only 8-10 days which is not usually enough time for the egg to successfully implant.

When counting days, you include the days of AF (so CD 1 is the first day of REAL bleeding, not spotting) and start counting your LP the day after O.

[zanacal]

Thanks for the information Atomic - so in a 28 day cycle you get AF on day 29 (which becomes day 1 of the next cycle) and the number of days in your LP are the number of days before AF (not including the day you get AF)? I think I've asked badly again, I hope it makes some sense!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes! I understood that and the answer is yes.

[zanacal]

Excellent - in that case scrap what I've said in the past about having a regular 28 day cycle, it was a regular 27 day cycle :D

[Sassy]

Thanks so much for the replies - I feel much better knowing 12 day LP is ok. I'm actually wondering if I may have had a chemical this month which may be why AF came a day early. I got a +OPK 2 days before AF after a dip in temps and noticable pains - I thought my cycle was stuffed and I may be Oing. But then AF arrived a day earlier than expected. Who knows!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, I'm sorry, that does sound like a chemical to me as well.

[Sassy]

I thought so. We weren't actually trying last month, however in hindsight it would have been a pretty good sway! At least vitex isn't the culprit.

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm sorry Sassy. :(