Ovulation help/experiences. Very long cycle

[babylove24]

Hi ladies
Currently on cd 49, still waiting for ovulation :-(
Anyone else experienced a super long cycle while swaying? It’s realy getting me down and I feel like I am ruining my sway by trying to eat more to encourage ovulation.
Anyone else had a cycle this long and still gone on to get a positive opk and even bfp? I need some hope right now!

[ksmom]

What's your diet like? You may not be eating enough calories or fat. Are you exercising? Breastfeeding?

I went through the same thing when swaying. A few years back I stopped ovulating in July and didn't ovulate again until October! I had to cut down on exercise and up fat and calories to get ovulation back. We did conceive that first ovulation but I miscarried. That's not to say the same will happen to you. I do get worried though when pink swayers stop ovulating because it usually means something isn't right with diet. Don't feel bad about eating differently to get ovulation going again because if you're not ovulating you can't get pregnant, and if you can't get pregnant you have no chance at a girl or any baby for that matter.

[babylove24]

I am vegan, I am breastfeeding 2-5 times a day (son is 18 months), And I was exercising 6 days a week but brought that down to 3 times a week now (worried that may sway blue) maybe I should give up exercise all together?
I increased my calories to 2000 on Atomic’s instruction, and fat to 50-60g. But having quite a few cheat days where calories are way over 2,500 which I know is really bad but I am just giving up hope!!

Sorry to hear you had a loss. Must be so awful. Big hugs.
Did you do anything to resume ovulation? Were you breastfeeding? I don’t want to have to wean.

[MrsEnglish]

Is it new for you to have long cycles? Were you ever regular?

I have thin PCOS and since getting my period 13 years ago, I have never had a regular cycle for more than 9 months in a row. So I was in your position 2 years ago trying to get pregnant but not ovulating. When you have such a long cycle, one of two things can happen:
1. You don't ovulate, but you eventually get your period anyway, which hopefully (but not definitely) resets things.
2. You ovulate late -- and you can get pregnant from it!

You MIGHT want to look into a medicine that induced ovulation like Clomid or Femara. A bonus is that they sway girl. BTW I recommend NOT trying herbs that are supposed to induce ovulation like Maca, Vitex, Soy isoflavones -- I tried them all and none helped me.

[Ohdeer]

Hi, I have thin PCOS too and just wondered if you managed to conceive pink without meds? You might have answered this before so apologies if you have.

Are you using any meds for this attempt? What worked for you last time?


Is it new for you to have long cycles? Were you ever regular?

I have thin PCOS and since getting my period 13 years ago, I have never had a regular cycle for more than 9 months in a row. So I was in your position 2 years ago trying to get pregnant but not ovulating. When you have such a long cycle, one of two things can happen:
1. You don't ovulate, but you eventually get your period anyway, which hopefully (but not definitely) resets things.
2. You ovulate late -- and you can get pregnant from it!

You MIGHT want to look into a medicine that induced ovulation like Clomid or Femara. A bonus is that they sway girl. BTW I recommend NOT trying herbs that are supposed to induce ovulation like Maca, Vitex, Soy isoflavones -- I tried them all and none helped me.

[ksmom]

I am vegan, I am breastfeeding 2-5 times a day (son is 18 months), And I was exercising 6 days a week but brought that down to 3 times a week now (worried that may sway blue) maybe I should give up exercise all together?
I increased my calories to 2000 on Atomic’s instruction, and fat to 50-60g. But having quite a few cheat days where calories are way over 2,500 which I know is really bad but I am just giving up hope!!

Sorry to hear you had a loss. Must be so awful. Big hugs.
Did you do anything to resume ovulation? Were you breastfeeding? I don’t want to have to wean.

I introduced one serving a day of full fat dairy (I'm convinced this is what helped), dropped exercise from 6-7 times a week to 4-5. I also increased calories a little (from like 1500 or so to around 1800). I was breastfeeding my 1.5 year old at the time but I managed to resume ovulation without weaning just by doing those things I stated above. Being vegan your diet may be too carb-y and some people don't respond well to that and stop ovulating. Were you vegan when you conceived your son?

[MrsEnglish]

Hi, I have thin PCOS too and just wondered if you managed to conceive pink without meds? You might have answered this before so apologies if you have.

Are you using any meds for this attempt? What worked for you last time?

I conceived my daughter on my first ever round of Clomid. I was able to get Clomid from a doctor because I'd go months without ovulation. I got pregnant on my 12th month of trying, and of those I had only ovulated about 6 times.

I'm using Clomid again now. It's still from the prescription that I bought last year, doesn't expire until 2019.

[babylove24]

I introduced one serving a day of full fat dairy (I'm convinced this is what helped), dropped exercise from 6-7 times a week to 4-5. I also increased calories a little (from like 1500 or so to around 1800). I was breastfeeding my 1.5 year old at the time but I managed to resume ovulation without weaning just by doing those things I stated above. Being vegan your diet may be too carb-y and some people don't respond well to that and stop ovulating. Were you vegan when you conceived your son?

No I wasn’t vegan when I conceived my son. I am only vegan now as he has allergies which mean because I am nursing I can’t have the dairy and eggs. And then I cut meat out 4 months ago for the sway. I do have a very high white carb diet and a lot of sugar. I can’t really afford to lose anymore weight so hard to know what to do.
I do have a doctors appointment today though so hoping to have some bloods done.

[babylove24]

Is it new for you to have long cycles? Were you ever regular?

I have thin PCOS and since getting my period 13 years ago, I have never had a regular cycle for more than 9 months in a row. So I was in your position 2 years ago trying to get pregnant but not ovulating. When you have such a long cycle, one of two things can happen:
1. You don't ovulate, but you eventually get your period anyway, which hopefully (but not definitely) resets things.
2. You ovulate late -- and you can get pregnant from it!

You MIGHT want to look into a medicine that induced ovulation like Clomid or Femara. A bonus is that they sway girl. BTW I recommend NOT trying herbs that are supposed to induce ovulation like Maca, Vitex, Soy isoflavones -- I tried them all and none helped me.

Thank you. It’s hard to say as been on contraceptive pill for most of my time! But when not being on it they are 32-45 day cycles, obviously with this one being a lot longer. After my son they seemed more regular but now this. I am confused! Unless it’s my own fault for swaying too hard, although I didn’t think I was!

I have s doctors appointment today so I will see what they say.

[LA_Girl]

Hi babylove24!

I’m vegan too. The longer I was on the diet (PCOS version) the long it took for me to ovulate. I then took Clomid which brought my ovulation closer, but shortened my Luteal Phase. With hindsight (and advice from Atomic), I can see that I swayed too hard and lost too much weight. I’m taking a month off to gain a bit of weight back before trying again.

I’ve read about seed rotation to help balance hormones which I’m trying. You have 1T ground flaxseed and 1T pumpkin seeds a day to help with ovulation, then once you’ve ovulated you have 1T sesame seeds and 1T sunflower seeds a day to increase progesterone (which would help maintain a pregnancy). I’ve only just started so can’t yet comment on whether it’s successful, but I needed to increase my fat intake so this seemed like a good way to help with that too.

I saw my doctor about my low progesterone but she was useless. I asked if I could do anything to help increase my progesterone levels naturally and she just said ‘no’. I’m a firm believer in that your diet and lifestyle determines your health. Sometimes it’s just a matter of working out what exactly the issue is. For me I think it’s that my fat intake was a bit too low.

Let us know how you get on.

[ksmom]

No I wasn’t vegan when I conceived my son. I am only vegan now as he has allergies which mean because I am nursing I can’t have the dairy and eggs. And then I cut meat out 4 months ago for the sway. I do have a very high white carb diet and a lot of sugar. I can’t really afford to lose anymore weight so hard to know what to do.
I do have a doctors appointment today though so hoping to have some bloods done.

You may have lost too much weight and that's why ovulation is delayed. Your body may think pregnancy isn't the right idea at the moment so it's holding off on ovulation. It sucks, I know I've been there. I lost way too much weight the first few months of swaying.

I'm also thinking it's not just the weightloss but the diet that's delaying ovulation. If you absolutely cannot afford to lose anymore weight and are only exercising three times a week then you should drop it. The PCOS version of the diet might be better for you in terms of helping ovulation to get going again. I'm hoping Atomic will see your post and give her two cents.

[babylove24]

You may have lost too much weight and that's why ovulation is delayed. Your body may think pregnancy isn't the right idea at the moment so it's holding off on ovulation. It sucks, I know I've been there. I lost way too much weight the first few months of swaying.

I'm also thinking it's not just the weightloss but the diet that's delaying ovulation. If you absolutely cannot afford to lose anymore weight and are only exercising three times a week then you should drop it. The PCOS version of the diet might be better for you in terms of helping ovulation to get going again. I'm hoping Atomic will see your post and give her two cents.

Thank you so much! Atomic has been chatting to me on my private forum so she is aware :-) she suggested not changing my diet for the moment. I will just have to keep up my calories and be patient!

[babylove24]

Hi ladies, thank you for your replies. My doctor sent me for lots of blood tests so will see if they come back showing anything. Although now there has been a new development! - I have some pinkish/red/brown mucus (sorry tmi!) so not sure what this may be. I definitely never got a positive opk. But it also doesn’t feel like my period is coming. Will just have to wait and see.

[babylove24]

Hi babylove24!

I’m vegan too. The longer I was on the diet (PCOS version) the long it took for me to ovulate. I then took Clomid which brought my ovulation closer, but shortened my Luteal Phase. With hindsight (and advice from Atomic), I can see that I swayed too hard and lost too much weight. I’m taking a month off to gain a bit of weight back before trying again.

I’ve read about seed rotation to help balance hormones which I’m trying. You have 1T ground flaxseed and 1T pumpkin seeds a day to help with ovulation, then once you’ve ovulated you have 1T sesame seeds and 1T sunflower seeds a day to increase progesterone (which would help maintain a pregnancy). I’ve only just started so can’t yet comment on whether it’s successful, but I needed to increase my fat intake so this seemed like a good way to help with that too.

I saw my doctor about my low progesterone but she was useless. I asked if I could do anything to help increase my progesterone levels naturally and she just said ‘no’. I’m a firm believer in that your diet and lifestyle determines your health. Sometimes it’s just a matter of working out what exactly the issue is. For me I think it’s that my fat intake was a bit too low.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks LA girl! It’s so disheartening isn’t it. But yea I think we probably swayed to hard. Does Atomic think the seed rotation is a good idea? Will be interesting to see how it helps you :-) I have my fingers crossed for you :-)

[atomic sagebrush]

No, I don't think seed rotation is a good idea.

Flaxseed has firstly delayed ovulation for blue swayers who were using it. Secondly it was supposed to sway BLUE. And thirdly, flaxseed has been recently shown to be harmful during pregnancy and thus I am very wary of having any of you guys use it since we don't know how long the effects last.

I strongly, strongly, STRONGLY recommend that non-vegans use the 1 serving full fat dairy a day/4-6 eggs a week (plus salmon or red meat for some people who have been on diet a really long time, but I don't use that for everyone.) to help raise progesterone.

Vegans need coconut oil or palm FRUIT oil (not palm oil or palm kernel oil), olive oil, avocado and avocado oil. Eating some more seed and nuts is ok but I don't think there's any magic to eating large amounts of some seeds at some times of the month and large amounts of other seeds at other times because those lignans and phytoestrogens they are talking up can actually INTERFERE with your hormones. Your body gets confused by phytoestrogens, they act like estrogen in the body but they aren't estrogen and so you can actually end up with lower estrogen because the phytoestrogens not only compete with real estrogen for the estrogen receptors, but your body detects the phytoestrogens and makes less estrogen thinking "eh I have enough of that already."

Sorry I have to continue this on another post, my computer is being a brat today

[atomic sagebrush]

Now sometimes, for SOME people who really were too high in estrogen to start with, this can translate into more raw materialls to make progesterone with, but the vast majority of people doing the LE Diet have low ESTROGEN EVEN when you have a short luteal phase. Why?? Because the way your cycle works, is that you only rely on progesterone alone for 7 DPO at which point the corpus luteum starts to break down and so your body releases a big burst of estrogen yet again that helps to maintain the uterine lining another few days until a pregnancy can signal to the body to stop the CL from breaking down and start making progesterone again to sustain a pregnancy.

That estrogen during CD 7-10 is CRITICAL. So flooding your body with things that supposedly "raise progesterone" (which sorry but I'm with the doctor on this - there is nothing you can do during the LUTEAL PHASE after ovulation that will help make progesterone, it's too late at that point - diet can help but NOT something you eat after ovulation!!!!)that may interfere with your body's ability to make estrogen will be like throwing gasoline on a fire. Your LP will get shorter, not longer.

I know this because I have seen it happen with people taking soy, vitex, EPO, flaxseed and flax oil, B6, various herb teas, Clomid, and several other progesterone miracle cures. They have a shortish LP of say 10 days (totally long enough to conceive with) and then suddenly their LP goes to 9, then 8, then 7 days. Because their prog is fine, it was always fine, they just didn't have enough raw materials to make the secondary estrogen surge happen.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you so much! Atomic has been chatting to me on my private forum so she is aware :-) she suggested not changing my diet for the moment. I will just have to keep up my calories and be patient!

Yes I had gone over a lot of this already in babylove's forum so I was putting off replying! Sorry for confusion.

[LA_Girl]

AAAAARGH! I've already had seeds today too! OK, I'll stop that then. I'm already on CD9 so I'm hoping I haven't messed up my cycle this month.

I also seem to have a natural affinity to do things which sway blue! Before I knew about diet and lifestyle swaying I was totally eating the HE diet. My AIM was to maximise my nutrient intake:eek:

I can easily switch to avocados/olive oil for my fat instead of seeds.

It does make me wonder if I can possibly have a girl, given that I seem drawn to do everything the blue way!

Thanks for the input Atomic.

[atomic sagebrush]

Just run it past me first, LA Girl! That's what I'm here for, it doesn't bother me at all, and honestly it totally HELPS me to realize things that people are doing or considering doing so I can add them to the Complete Index.

SOME seeds are fine (well except the flax which is ok in occasional dietary use only) but just not in medicinal quantities.

Trust me, that's how so many of us boy moms are - we want to do things the best, healthiest way, just our nature. But we can still get girls!