Long time reader, first time poster!

Hi,

DH and I have been TTC for six months. I just turned 35, and I have one DS who is 9. We want to sway pink, so I’ve been doing the research and thought it was time to see if there’s anything I could do differently.

Firstly, I’m trying my first round of Clomid after two cycles in a row with no positive opk. I’m on CD7.
I started using OPK today to track.

I plan to BD once in my window when my OPK gets close to peak (hopefully). I take folic acid, but no prenatal. I’ve been drinking more milk, eating yogurt, not eating in the mornings. No red meat. Moderate amounts of chicken and shrimp. No caffeine. Avoiding sodium and potassium as much as possible, but not perfectly. I’ve been doing it for a few months, so
It’s not easy to be that strict. No weight lifting or strenuous exercise. And I checked the Chinese chart and I’m in a pink month! lol.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and find out if anything I’m doing might be outdated.

Hi and welcome!

If you've been trying for 6 months it's time to add attempts.

Can you tell me what you guy were doing for a sway?? We need to get to the bottom of why you haven't conceived yet, so fill me in and I'll see what jumps out at me.

You are not following the kind of diet we recommend here, so if you were interested in switching that up to something easier to stick to just let me know and I'll tell you about our Low Everything Diet.

We get fab results with exercise, cardio 60 minutes 4-7 days a week (more may be better) so if you were avoiding exercise for your sway, I'd pick it back up again.

Clomid is one of our best sway tactics so that's great. Did you take Clomid CD 3-7??? Just so you know, you can get false positives on OPK for about 3 days after taking Clomid, so if you just stopped your Clomid, you might test now and get a positive but it won't be a true positive. It is very rare to ovulate before 5 days after taking the Clomid. So my suggestion would be to start testing CD 11 and if you get a positive, have attempt,

No matter what, after your positive OPK attempt, I strongly advise you to do e4d method. This is where you have unprotected sex every 4 days (most people do this every 72 hours, so Monday/Thursday patternn - not those days per se but that is how you count the days). Sometimes you will ovulate later than you think on Clomid, and you can get a false positive OPK and not ovulate for several days later. Since you've been TTC for a while I don't want to rely on just one attempt in case of delayed O.

Chinese chart doesn't work of course but hey if it works, that's great. :)

Thank you @atomic sagebrush! I don’t really know what the LOw everything diet entails, so more information would be appreciated!

Every four days seems very doable! We had been every other day for the first couple months, but with no results. I think it was too much because DH is more happy to do it once or twice a week. He has a strenuous job that leaves him tired.

My best guess is that I haven’t ovulated every month. My cycles went from 33 days to 45- 50 days before my doctor gave me provera to bring on AF. I had an ultrasound and they said I had a couple small fibroids, but nothing that would cause problems. No PCOS or endometriosis or anything. I’ll get a 21 day blood draw to see if Clomid worked. Yes, I took it days 3-7.

I didn’t know about the false positive OPK with Clomid. I’ll keep that in mind.

I had an iud (copper) for nine years, but it’s been out for six months now. I’m not sure if it would cause issues with lining, but my ultrasound measured my lining and my doctor didn’t say anything about it.

DH did an at home semen analysis, and it was positive for enough sperm.

I have been doing cardio on the elliptical and bike at the gym, usually 45 minutes four says a week. I’ve onky been doing that the last two months though. I would take long walks before that. . I just haven’t been doing weights or HIIT because I read that raises testosterone.

I really appreciate the response! Please share your wisdom on the diet!

Our Low Everything Diet is here: https://genderdreaming.com/forum/try...l-version.html A lot of us, myself included, got a girl(s) after having failed sways with the dairy/sodium stuff. I have two FAQ's about diet as well: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...tml#post335985 , and then this one has a lot of explanation about the minerals and how they can't possibly work the way the old school sway gurus claim: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...s-edition.html

every other day is surprisingly not a very good way to get pregnant. It often ends up as only one attempt in the fertile window depending on when the attempts fall relative to ovulation, and it's not quite enough time for hubby to build up his sperm numbers. I f you're ready to boost odds of conception we can go to e4d plus one more attempt at positive OPK (this may be slightly more blue friendly) but I'd have you give e4d a go for at least a month or two first.

If you're getting your period, the odds are good you did ovulate, just not on CD 14. Did you stop having attempts at some point?? If so, you may have been stopping attempts too soon (this actually happens to people a lot with irregular cycles, they figure "well I had to have ovulated by now" and stop attempting and then they ovulate several days later!)

Studies have found IUD shouldn't impinge your ability to get pregnant in the long term. If you had an issue with lining, yes, the doc would have seen that on the ultrasound. It would definitely be the first order of business for you guys to try Clomid so it sounds to me like your doctor is helping you out in that department.

:agree: yes please skip HIIT and weights for now. I'd like to see you upping that exercise to 60 minutes. AFter 45 minutes, the body stops burning carbohydrates and starts burning stores of fat as fuel, and something about that process seems to sway strongly pink.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Our Low Everything Diet is here: https://genderdreaming.com/forum/try...l-version.html A lot of us, myself included, got a girl(s) after having failed sways with the dairy/sodium stuff. I have two FAQ's about diet as well: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...tml#post335985 , and then this one has a lot of explanation about the minerals and how they can't possibly work the way the old school sway gurus claim: https://www.genderdreaming.com/forum...s-edition.html

every other day is surprisingly not a very good way to get pregnant. It often ends up as only one attempt in the fertile window depending on when the attempts fall relative to ovulation, and it's not quite enough time for hubby to build up his sperm numbers. I f you're ready to boost odds of conception we can go to e4d plus one more attempt at positive OPK (this may be slightly more blue friendly) but I'd have you give e4d a go for at least a month or two first.

If you're getting your period, the odds are good you did ovulate, just not on CD 14. Did you stop having attempts at some point?? If so, you may have been stopping attempts too soon (this actually happens to people a lot with irregular cycles, they figure "well I had to have ovulated by now" and stop attempting and then they ovulate several days later!)

Studies have found IUD shouldn't impinge your ability to get pregnant in the long term. If you had an issue with lining, yes, the doc would have seen that on the ultrasound. It would definitely be the first order of business for you guys to try Clomid so it sounds to me like your doctor is helping you out in that department.

:agree: yes please skip HIIT and weights for now. I'd like to see you upping that exercise to 60 minutes. AFter 45 minutes, the body stops burning carbohydrates and starts burning stores of fat as fuel, and something about that process seems to sway strongly pink.

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Thank you for the links and the detailed advice!! I will definitely use your suggestions to help my sway!

As far as me ovulating, last month my cycle had to be brought on by progesterone. I gave up on OPK at day 34 I think. The month before I had mid cycle spotting when I thought I was ovulating, so I stopped testing after that week and only realized I must have o’d later when my period didn’t come. The three months before that were normal, but I wasn’t using anything other than an app on my phone to predict ovulation.

Yes those apps are not reliable, they can be ok if your cycle is regular but not otherwise.

Let me reread your thread to comment on any reason your cycle may have gotten goofy, but are you taking any herbal supplements or even drinking herbal tea a lot?

So do you see an association between changing your diet and your cycle getting strange?? Have you lost a bunch of weight and/or are you eating very low fat?? ARe you taking high dose B vitamins, especially B6? Vitex? Peppermint Tea? Licorice (please guys no one take licorice I beg ya) or Lydia Pinkham formula?

Yes! B6! I started taking that and magnesium and quit caffeine to help with anxiety, not my sway. It’s worked really well. I haven’t lost weight or restricted my diet in an extreme way, and I don’t drink tea.

Ok. B6 has been terrible for messing up people's cycles, delaying ovulation and making LP short for some people (even though it's supposed to make LP longer, it has the reverse effect for tons of people) My advice is to wean off of it by spacing doses further and further out till down to one per week, then you can drop it. It may take a couple months for it to course correct. If you want a girl, it's even more important to come off the B6, because as many of us found to our dismay, even though a couple other sites claim it sways pink, we've had overwhelming numbers of opposites with those taking B6. I got my 4th boy taking it after being told on another site (this was before I started doing research on my own) that it swayed pink, and another popular swaying site that's now defunct had also dropped it due to it making opposites independent of me doing the same thing.

How much magnesium?

I guess I should say I *was* taking b6 and magnesium. I read supplements sway blue, so when I ran out last cycle, I didn’t buy more. I can’t remember what the dose was if either one. I took each of them less than two months. I hope stopping them like I did doesn’t hurt too much. I guess it would explain why two months in a row my cycles were off.

Yes it's best to wean off stuff but you're likely in the process of adjusting now. I'd just stay the course, your body will want to fix stuff and so over time it will. Just that sometimes it takes a cycle or two (especially after having had the IUD for several years, that alone can make for some goofy cycles). Keep me posted and let me know how it's going.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Yes it's best to wean off stuff but you're likely in the process of adjusting now. I'd just stay the course, your body will want to fix stuff and so over time it will. Just that sometimes it takes a cycle or two (especially after having had the IUD for several years, that alone can make for some goofy cycles). Keep me posted and let me know how it's going.

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So I ended up with the flu during O week. My OPK didn’t peak until CD22. I didn’t get my 21 day blood draw because I was sick. The closest to O that I managed to BD was four days before O. I started spotting at 11 dpo, and I thought I might actually be pregnant, but then my AF came at 13 dpo, which means my luteal phase was shorter than usual. Is this common with Clomid? Or did I miss my peak earlier? My OPK wasn’t dark at all before, so i don’t see how I could have.

13 DPO is a normal luteal phase. That is nothing to worry about. Even with spotting starting at 11 DPO, that is no big deal at all

But YES you absolutely CAN have false negative OPK and so you can miss the peak, only getting a positive later on. You could have had your first peak a day or two sooner, just not had enough concentration of hormone in your urine for the test to register, but in your blood****** it was concentrated enough to trigger ovulation. YOu could have ovulated before you even got a positive on the test. All the tests pick up is hormone at a certain concentration in your urine, NOT whether or not you've ovulated yet.

Clomid for most people lengthens their LP. A few people, particualrly those who are not eating enough fat, can develop a shorter LP on Cloimd and the solution to that problem is being sure you are eating enough fat (50-60 g) and adding a serving of full fat dairy every day, and 4-6 eggs a week. Some people also add in a serving of salmon or red meat.

But I don't think you need to do that with a 13 day LP!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

13 DPO is a normal luteal phase. That is nothing to worry about. Even with spotting starting at 11 DPO, that is no big deal at all

But YES you absolutely CAN have false negative OPK and so you can miss the peak, only getting a positive later on. You could have had your first peak a day or two sooner, just not had enough concentration of hormone in your urine for the test to register, but in your blood****** it was concentrated enough to trigger ovulation. YOu could have ovulated before you even got a positive on the test. All the tests pick up is hormone at a certain concentration in your urine, NOT whether or not you've ovulated yet.

Clomid for most people lengthens their LP. A few people, particualrly those who are not eating enough fat, can develop a shorter LP on Cloimd and the solution to that problem is being sure you are eating enough fat (50-60 g) and adding a serving of full fat dairy every day, and 4-6 eggs a week. Some people also add in a serving of salmon or red meat.

But I don't think you need to do that with a 13 day LP!

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I’ve been eating mostly vegetarian with my fat sources coming from butter, olive oil and cheese mostly. I guess I’m just used to my 15 day LP. My doctor wants me to do another round of Clomid, so I’ll start that today.

Great! Keep me posted on how you're getting along!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by atomic sagebrush

Great! Keep me posted on how you're getting along!

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I’m on to round three of Clomid (going up to 100 mg). My 21 day blood test showed I ovulated, but I didn’t conceive this cycle. I never got EWCM any of my cycles. I was thinking of using preseed this month. Will that hurt my sway too much? I know Clomid can change CM, so I thought it might improve my odds of conceiving.

Tell me everything you're doing before we decide about the Preseed. Even if it seems unimportant.