Could it be the vitex and has anyone experienced this?

I've forever had a short cycle (23days) but pre kids, I O on CD9 so I had a 'perfect' LP.

After DS, my cycles were crazy and I was a hormonal mess.

My AF now comes every 20 days!

I have been taking Vitex for a few months now and was temping while on it just for some charts and to put things in motion for the attempt.
I noticed that I O on CD17 and AF would arrive on CD20 - 3 DAYS AFTER O!!?!
I then began to spot before AF, something that I never experienced before, and the last time the spotting occured it lasted for 5 days before AF actually was here.

I went and had U/S done and an AMH blood test done to see if all my hormones are ok as this seemed like a low progesterone issue?
Everything seems normal in the hormone dept. I'm smack bang in the middle of where I should be, so ATM this is all unexplained.
(Of course, 3 GP's I have seen dont believe in LPD).

I have been of Vitex for 2 months now and the last cycle I had was 23days and O seemed to occur on CD14 or 15. No spotting either.
This cycle, O temp rose at CD16 and I am currently at CD24 and AF is on her way.

Do you think that the Vitex is causing my cycles to be shorter, O to be later and the spotting??

It's only just occured to me now that I have stopped it for 2 months. Has this happened to anyone else?

Slightly disappointed as I wanted to use it in my pink sway! :sad:

You need to see a different doctor (I'm sorry, I know it's a PITA), not a GP but a real doctor that specializes in fertility. I cannot say if it was the vitex but something is obviously out of whack. I have never heard of anyone having this problem with vitex and in fact many people have these types of issues FIXED by vitex but that doesn't mean that the vitex didn't trigger some hormonal issue to rear its head that was sort of flying under the radar before. Esp. after 2 months - if it was the vitex, you would think that it would have gone away when you stopped the V so that makes me think there's something deeper going on, esp. since you tend to have unusually short cycles anyway.

With your short cycle, my concern is that the doctors may have been testing you on the wrong day. If your cycle is different than the norm, you may have to test on different days (and I would suspect any doctor that "doesn't believe in LPD" would not be savvy enough to realize that.) So you may very well have low prog issues and it's just not been diagnosed because they were testing on the wrong days.

Since stopping the V, my spotting has stopped, Temp rise is around CD14-15 & not CD17 & AF is arriving at CD24-25 opposed to 20!!
That's what made me think it MAY have been V.
I hope its not as I really wanted to take it.
I will book in w the FS as I have a referral from GP & hope they can come up w something better.

I do want to take all that you suggested (B6 etc) but do you think I should hold off until after FS app? Can taking supps change my results, therefore making my levels look 'better' than they may be??

Thanks, your always a help! :)

If it's clearing up after going off the vitex, then that makes sense to me too.

I would hold off on supps until after testing just to be on the safe side.

Ok, so today is CD25 & AF is not here yet (def on the way).
I have had tinged CM yesterday, so no actual spotting like the other times & I O'vd on CD13 which has given me a LP of 12 days so far!!!
This is the longest cycle & LP I've had in 1.5yrs.

Do you think it's a possibility that the few months I have spent on Vitex has actually worked & corrected my cycle? Im not sure if V can 'fix' cycles once not being on it?!

Oh, it absolutely can. Vitex works in mysterious ways and I wish more researchers would study it because I think it could shed light on a lot of the mysteries surrounding ovulation.

The vitex may have temporarily aggravated things with your LP by suppressing levels of some hormone(s), progesterone and others, triggering your body to compensate by making more hormone to make up for it. Your body then overshot the mark (possibly because you had stopped the V or possibly it would have happened anyway) and now may be making more of whatever it wasn't making enough of before. Or, it could be that the vitex simulates the action of prog and/or causes more to be released, but while you were taking it, somehow was interfering in how the prog worked. When you stopped it, your body "wanted" to maintain what it thought were higher prog levels and since the vitex was no longer interfering in the action of the progesterone, you began to make more prog and also the prog you did make was more effective.

I hope this is an ongoing trend!! :)

This was my first month back on V after my 2 month break.
I O'd on CD13, started spotting CD19, AF arrived CD24.
(without V, AF was starting to arrive CD24, but no prior spotting).

So all I do know for sure is that V is the cause of the long spotting prior to AF starting, although normally on V my cycles are around 20days so this time it's lengthened.

Im going to stick it out, every day until June. I'll then do AF-O and that will be my first attempt at TTC.
Hope it doesnt mess O around too much!!