CM changes after 2 weeks of LE diet

[allison]

I've been on the LE diet for about 2 weeks now, but I have not done the acidifying parts of the diet (crystal light, aspirin, etc). I've lost about 2 lbs, and I didn't have much to lose to begin with. I am at a point in my cycle where I usually have lots of creamy cm, and I have not had anything yet. So I'm wondering if CM can still change in amount/consistency without really working on the pH part, or if I have affected my fertility so that my body isn't preparing to ovulate. I'm hoping the diet is just doing it's job, but i also wouldn't be devastated about having to eat a little more. Ha!

ETA: Nevermind....Im just not thinking! I'll just use an opt in a few days, and have my answer. Tried to delete my post, but couldn't figure out how.

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh no, not at all! It's a good question!

The diet DEF. can have a very big effect on CM. CM actually has nothing to do with pH, it has to do with hormones and since diet can affect hormones, diet alone can trigger changes in CM. Honestly, I think diet sways a zillion times more than anything having to do with pH, it's just that since the supps that affect pH are easy enough to include, why not??

Diet can affect ovulation negatively, but it's very unlikely that 2 weeks would be enough to do that. However, sudden changes in diet can delay O just because your body is thinking, "WTH is going on here - maybe I better not O until I'm sure everything is oK" and may hold off on Oing for a few days. This is just a temporary delay and will correct itself in a few days/weeks, once your body realizes you've still got a good amount of food resources coming in.

[allison]

Oh....I see! I had gotten the impression that pH is what caused cm to become more watery, and ladies were working on their pH to decrease the amount of ewcm. Thank you for clearing that up. I'm very excited to see that the diet is working! Fingers crossed that it makes a girl!

[Gentle]

Hi I'm like you, fairly new to the diet and for me the usually abundant ewcm over 3-4 days before o hasn't materialised at all! I had a lot more to lose and am blown away by the immediate effect on my cycle! I've still o-d but unsure exactly when as I messed up with opks. Hope that anecdote is reassuring!

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh....I see! I had gotten the impression that pH is what caused cm to become more watery, and ladies were working on their pH to decrease the amount of ewcm. Thank you for clearing that up. I'm very excited to see that the diet is working! Fingers crossed that it makes a girl!

Nope. CM gets watery because of hormones creating things called "mucins" in your CM that allow water to thin it out and the mucins sort of arrange themselves to allow the sperm to make it thru the mucus to the egg. When you approach ovulation, you make more estrogen, and one of the jobs of the estrogen is to make the EWCM thin and plentiful so a lot of sperm can get up inside your body to reach the egg.

EWCM is higher in pH (7's) because ALL mucus is high in pH. So when you approach ovulation, pH goes up because you're making more mucus, not the other way around. The pH of the vagina is naturally very low (4-5) and sperm cannot live long at all in such a low pH. The only reason pH is ever low naturally is because of lack of EWCM. Around ovulation, the EWCM comes down from above and meets up with the low pH of the vagina to raise it and to provide a medium for sperm to swim thru. That's also why semen is naturally high in pH.

When you make semen and CM pH very low by artificial means, you are really just killing sperm. For reasons we do not know, lower numbers of ALL sperm, both X and Y, seems to sway pink, and higher numbers of all sperm both X and Y, seems to sway blue. X sperm do not "love" low pH or otherwise they'd never leave the vagina because that's the only place the pH is actually ever 4-5. All sperm thrive in pH in the 7's.

[allison]

Thank you to both of you! It really is amazing to me how there is no cm! This makes me a believer in the LE diet. I'm still waiting for O. My tests are showing a line, but still no surge. Hopefully I'll get that surge in the next couple of days, so I can get on with my cycle and start ttc next month. I am ready to get all this over with.