Inducing AF

[purple sky]

So I am on CD 35 today! I've had irregular cycles for the past 5years (hence ttc for sooo long) I don't have any signs of Af coming. I KNOW i'm not pregnant. I'm not even sure if I've O'd since I stopped temping.
My question is what can I do to induce af? that won't mess with my sway?
TIA

[DoulaMama]

I could go look in my Susan Weed's herbal book for childbearing women...not sure if that is something that interests you though? Also - Vitex could help. Start taking it 2 wks on and 2 wks off:)

[purple sky]

That would be great, Thanks. I just bought vitex, do I take it now for 2 weeks or wait until af comes? I also just bought an Ovacue fertility monitor but I cant start using that until af.

I have progesterone cream (just store bought not rx) I wonder if i load up on that for a few days and then stop if that would work. I did that years ago but i don't remember exactly how i used it.

[Out of the Blue]

I could go look in my Susan Weed's herbal book for childbearing women...not sure if that is something that interests you though? Also - Vitex could help. Start taking it 2 wks on and 2 wks off:)

Ohhhhh...Doula, that looks like a great book!!! I just looked it up on Amazon and it's really cheap!

purple sky, I would start temping and charting again to see if you can tell if you're Oing or not. I'm hoping that you are. That Vitex should help!

[rainbowflower]

if you do decide to take vitex be sure to do a pregnancy test the morning you start to take it, just to make sure...

[atomic sagebrush]

If you ovulated, you WILL get AF eventually, if you haven't ovulated, you CANNOT get AF (you can get "breakthrough" bleeding and cause your lining to slough off, but that's not AF, and it's not going to be the "hormonal fresh start" that AF is). Since you're used to dealing with this situation, I won't tell you to see a doc but I would under normal circumstances because they have drugs that can "reset" things.

What you really need to do, rather than triggering AF-which-won't-be-AF-anyway, is O if you haven't already, then that will set things right again.

I think that if you're 100% sure you're not pg, you can try the vitex. If you can, try to correlate it so that it corresponds to your AF-O cycle from the last time you ovulated even though that was some time ago. Sometimes even when we're not actually Oing, our body goes through the motions on about the same schedule that we were on before. 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

If you DID O, all you need to do is take a big dose of Vitamin P - patience. Try having sex with female O, hot bath, and/or drinking some raspberry leaf tea. Taking ONE baby aspirin may help.

[purple sky]

If you DID O, all you need to do is take a big dose of Vitamin P - patience.
lol So good news is last night my bbs started feeling sore and this morning very sore. Hopefully af will show her face within the next few days.

Also wanted to ask; What hormone is in play with sore bbs? Estrogen? I've never had sore bbs before af before until about a year ago. Now they ache for 5-7 days before af

[Hobbermittens]

I have heard parsley tea can bring AF, also stuffing a sprigg of parsley in your hoo-ha.

[purple sky]

also stuffing a sprigg of parsley in your hoo-ha.

OMG really?? as weird as this sounds i may just do it... lol

[Hobbermittens]

Let me know if it works!

[Doublechoc]

bit late, but i made ginger tea and it brought on af, add a little aspartame and it tastes actually quite nice. parsley tea does the same, but i found drinking the ginger for a few days made me feel refreshed and clean! just peel and slice up a large chunk of ginger then simmer for 40 mins or so with lid on the pan. hth's

[DoulaMama]

So sorry it's taken me so long!!! I've been really sick and a bit slow lately...

So, the ginger tea suggestion above is a great one!! Either ground ginger or whole ginger simmered and the sip like tea:) The Parsley suggestion is also great! Insert several sprigs twice daily:) Angelica root tincture is the last suggestion I have for you. 10drops, 3x a day. This is all taken from the book I mentioned.

Blue- it is a fabulous book! Cheap and useful! I've used it for 3 of my pregnancies and I love it:)
Keep us posted!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

lol So good news is last night my bbs started feeling sore and this morning very sore. Hopefully af will show her face within the next few days.

Also wanted to ask; What hormone is in play with sore bbs? Estrogen? I've never had sore bbs before af before until about a year ago. Now they ache for 5-7 days before af

Believe it or not, they don't know what causes the sore breasts and within my lifetime they used to tell women that cyclical breast pain was psychological.

Some research indicates that caffiene and calcium can contribute to it.

The interesting thing that I only just this minute realized is that when I am not breastfeeding I have terrible breast pain before AF and when I am breastfeeding, I don't have that pain with my cycles. That makes me think it could be even a physical pain that the milk flow is somehow relieving???