Help! Too low pH, too little cm??

[Tindra]

I'm on the 3rd cycle ttc a girl, and have been eating all the supps including cranberry. The first 2 months we used Rephresh, but decided to try without this month as I'm starting to feel that falling pregnant quickly is more important than having a girl, as I turn 35 this summer. I check my pH daily using pH strips (not digital). My partner's pH is about 8 and mine seems to like around 3.8. I was surprised to learn that during ovulation cm is supposed to be alkaline! The highest mine will go is around 4.6-4.8, but that is the morning after BD. Towards the afternoon it's back down to 4.4. Will we really fall pregnant at all with pH this low?

Also, when you ovulate you're supposed to have loads of fertile cervical fluid , but I seem to have the most cm 5-6 days before ovulation (egg white consistency), then two days before before O there's not a lot and just seems watery? I don't get it.

Tried leaving mooncup in and testing the contents of that, to ensure I was testing cm and not vaginal secretions, and still ended up with a pH of 4.6.

Help! Will we ever fall pregnant???

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, that's too low. Anything under 6, there will be NO motile sperm in the cervix - not X and not Y. The idea that "X sperm love low pH" is not proven and is biologically implausible. http://genderdreaming.com/forum/gend...ph-pickle.html

It's normal to have a big burst of CM a few days before O like that. People have never bathed/showered daily until very recently and that CM tended to hang around and help conception. Watery CM is still fertile, though.

My advice is to drop the cranberry and see what happens. I'm not a superhuge fan of cranberry anyway, I don't think it's safe in the way that people take it http://genderdreaming.com/forum/ttc-...echniques.html

[Tindra]

Yeah, definitely dropping the cranberry, and also thinking about getting some Conceive Plus lubricant (which is a bit like Preseed), as I used that to conceive DS2 last year. He was conceived on the first cycle, so hopefully that ought to do it. I was a total believer in PH until I read your article, Atomic. I only wish I had read it ages ago, before I started all this Rephresh rubbish!

It's funny you should say about showering etc, as I only shower once or twice a week atm, so I dont think over cleaning has anything to do with the lack of CM.

I know it's pretty much impossible to reach into the cervix and pH test the actual CM in there. Do you not think there's a chance that the stuff I've been PH testing is vaginal secretions, if my CM is scant? Would vaginal secretions drip into the mooncup? There hasn't been a lot in the mooncup, a couple of drops, maybe a 1ml? Hoping that maybe the CM in the cervix is at least a vaguely decent PH so this month isn't a write-off too. Should I just give up hope? I'm 2DPO at the moment and really want this to be our month.

[Tindra]

Just wanted to add that this morning I tested the contents of the Mooncup (bd the night before, and ovulation took place the day before), and the pH was 6.2. Now, I put this mainly down to semen being deposited and Mooncup inserted straight after, but do you think that would have been enough to help them survive?

[atomic sagebrush]

I wouldn't add conceive plus until you've tried for a month off the cranberry.

YES I 1000% believe that what you are testing is very probably vaginal secretions and not CM. That is actually my suspicion about pH all together - people start taking supps and doing diet and that dries up CM, then of course their pH seems lower. But it's likely that they're testing the pH of their vag. secretions and whatever jelly they put up there.

The semen is kind of like a life raft - it's meant to keep the sperm alive to make it into the cervix. So the semen itself can make up for a lack of CM in the VJ, and then if there's something in the crypts, that's all that matters.

6.2 is a heck of a lot better than 5.2! Don't give up hope, I've seen people get pg with sways so strict it seems like it was immaculate conception!

[Tindra]

Haha, thank you so much! I feel much calmer now.

I'm 5 DPO today, fingers crossed this is our month. This is the first cycle without Rephresh, so hopefully that should have done it!

[atomic sagebrush]

Good luck!!

[Tindra]

BFP!! First cycle without Rephresh did it, sooo happy!

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you for updating!!