Advice on ovulation after loss

[Parying4agirl]

Hi,
Hope you are well.
I’m looking for some advice please.
I lost my 16 week gestation baby end of October and had my postpartum bleed for about 40 days which followed by my period straight after (lasting a week).
2 weeks after that I had another bleed which I believe was another period.
So since 23rd Jan I have looked out for ovulation signs to se what my body is doing. I experienced the discharge changes and started opks, although the opks were neg I did get a second line but this was always faint for a few days and then they disappeared and discharge disappeared. Im guessing I didnt ovulate at all. Is this normal?

[atomic sagebrush]

Again, I'm so very sorry to hear of this. :heart:

Did they seem to feel this amount of bleeding was normal?

Yes, it's very normal after a loss, particularly one where you were so far along, to have "practice" cycles where your body gears up to ovulate, and even has symptoms, but it doesn't ever release an egg. So I suspect your body thought about ovulating and then decided the time just wasn't right and decided not to.

Are you trying to get pregnant right now?

[Parying4agirl]

Thankyou.
Sorry what did u mean by ‘this amount of bleeding ok?’
I really would like another as my ‘due date’ nearing im feeling the loss evenmore.
I’ve started skipping breakfast and stop snacking lightly but tracking my body to see how I feel at the time. Is there anything I should be doing this time round if I do make my attempt?
My body has alway been ‘on it’ but now im scared everything is messed up.

[atomic sagebrush]

I mean, you had bleeding for forty days, then a period, then only 2 weeks later another period. Are your doctors aware of this? Did they seem to think it was ok that it had carried on so long and so much right in a row?

I'm sorry if I'm being dense, I'm just trying to suss out if you're planning to try this time through or if you plan to wait longer. It sounds as if you may try this time so I'll answer accordingly.

It is not at all unusual to have goofy cycles for a bit. Please don't be scared that everything is messed up.

I would suggest the e4d because for now you may ovulate at any time and we simply don't know if you'll even get a positive OPK. Sometimes people don't, and by continuing to have regularly scheduled attempts, you'll ensure you're always in with an attempt in every month.

[Parying4agirl]

Sorry. It wasnt discussed with the dr as such. The 40 days was spotting for over 10 days at the end or so. The midwife did mention I may get a period straight away which I think happened. Not sure what happened with the 2 week after period. I had to have blood transfusions so not sure if that effected me in any way.
Will I still get a period when period is due or will it be delayed? I think maybe id like to have a period and try again, the rest of this month is stressful with a wedding and diet cheats will happen. Is e4d actually attempts with no protection each time?

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh ok good as long as it hadn't gotten to the point of too much blood loss, which is not likely since you'd had the transfusions.

The reason you had a period 2 weeks later is that it wasn't actually a period, was either more bleeding from being postpartum or else is breakthrough bleeding from a sharp drop in estrogen.

You will get a period about 10-14 days after you ovulated. So if you didn't ovulate, yes, you won't have a period at that time.

Yes, e4d is unprotected sex every 72 hours or so, or think of it in the "Monday/Thursday" pattern. It doesn't need to be any set distance of hours apart, the "72" just describes how you count the days. Some people start off with 96 hours (Monday/Friday) instead, which is lower chances of conception but possibly a better chance of pink, altho we still get good pink results with the 72 pattern.

[Parying4agirl]

Sorry had family over. I have just started my period which is a month from last month so im guessing i did ovulate at some point? Is there a reason why opk would not have picked it up? So the day after period i should begin this 72hr pattern? What happens if i miss the 72 hr attempt, would i have an attempt as soon as possible and continue the 72hr from that attempt. Hope that makes sense. I find out today the info from drs re my loss, if they found anything from their investigations/tests.

As im still unsure how i wana go about things do u think I should monitor my body again and see if i get a positive opk? Ive had a few cheat days (diet out the window) with breakfast etc, so would have to get back on track again.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, your period coming at a certain point when expected, is generally a sign of ovulation (with very high confidence, occasionally people will have a weird cycle where it's not ovulatory but they still have a bleed, like their body just "expected" that. Doesn't happen much tho)

OPK are simply not that helpful. We have both false positives and false negatives with them. So the OPK just didn't detect the surge, but it likely still happened.

If you miss an e4d attempt, yes, just have the attempt ASAP. As for what to do about the pattern, use your best judgement. If it was just a little late, I'd probalby just keep going with the original pattern, it's really not that precise. If it was a couple days off, then yes, reset the pattern.

With the e4d it doesn't matter if you get a positive OPK or not! If you're ovulating, you'll ovulate even without the positive OPK.

A few days off diet (particualrly before period comes) is super common and not a big deal. Just resume the diet and go from here.

[Parying4agirl]

Thank you for the advice.

I got my results back and although all the tests for infections came negative which is a good thing, the sample they took for the genetic testing which would have told me the gender was not sufficient enough to confirm which I am totally heartbroken by. I really hoped finding out the gender would allow me to deal with this grief and give some identity for baby. They have given me advice to start aspirin at 12 weeks should I fall pregnant again incase there were some blood clots that formed in the placenta as a precaution.

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh gosh I'm sorry you weren't able to get the closure you were hoping for.

I strongly advise you to have testing done to see if you have one of the diseases that causes blood clots to form, instead of just medicating yourself without a diagnosis. While aspirin can be highly beneficial for people prone to blood clots, when people take it who do not need it, their blood can become too thin. Bleeding in pregnancy is just as negative a development as clots forming is and newer evidence is coming to light indicating that aspirin in people who don't need it may actually cause more miscarriages than it prevents. And another study done by the NIH showed that aspirin gave no benefit for most people (exception being those with a proven clotting disorder. So you're incurring a potential risk for no benefit.

https://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/aspirin-during-pregnancy-how-much-aspirin-can-cause-a-miscarriage

This also meshes with my observations that women taking daily aspirin are having massive side effects (bleeding, bruising, super heavy periods, etc), more chemicals, and more SCH than those who are not taking it.

If you do decide to proceed I urge you to take only 2-3 per week and see how you react to that before continuing. That way if you do have any side effects you can decide what to do at that time.

[Parying4agirl]

The various tests they do show I had antibodies to them and the loss was not caused by any infection etc. I will be getting a detailed report from the hospital will check about the blood clots. They did say the only thing that may have happend but again not certain is that cause I caught covid it may have made tiny blood clots in the placenta restructing blood flood but again this is a maybe and not for sure.
Thanks for the info on aspirin as I would have never know the negatives.

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, that is a possibility and also that the pregnancy was affected negatively in some other way by the Covid as well.

I'm happy to oblige, I suspect that within the next ten years they're going to realize the harm aspirin can cause and stop having people take it without medical cause.

I hope and pray your next pregnancy goes perfectly smoothly without any complications. Please let me know how I can help.

[Parying4agirl]

Thank you for everything

[atomic sagebrush]

Please let me know how I can help.