Ovulation?

[TaniaLl]

Hello all!! I am fairly new here and it's my first month actually TTC. We were going the HT road but we are very skeptical and decided to try one month and see if we get our girl the natural way. I have purchased a plan and I'm doing the LE diet and taking the supplements. This is my first month taking Vitex and today is CD 17. I usually get a positive OPK on CD 18. I have not gotten a positive OPK yet but last night, in the middle of the night, I had very sharp pains in what I assume is my left ovary. They were very painful and woke me up but only lasted a couple of minutes to half an hour maybe. Right now I am cramping like AF cramps. They are bothersome and my breasts feel sore.

My question for you ladies is, could I have missed my surge? I took 3 OPKs yesterday and they were all negative; took one this morning and still negative. Could I be ovulating? I have used the same bag of OPKs for 3 months so I know they should work. We are having one attempt this month and really don't want to miss my window. My husband leaves for work at 1 pm! He won't be back until 1 am, he works long hour. Has this happened to any of you? Do you usually have side ovulation cramps close to positive OPK? Thank you in advance for your help!

[atomic sagebrush]

You can miss your surge, but OPK are way more reliable than O pain is. You can have pain before, during, and after O and for many of us, the pain on the side we don't ovulate from is actually worse than the side that we do (because both ovaries make eggs and get very swollen, and ovulation can relieve pressure leaving the other ovary the sorer one.)

My philosophy is, when in doubt, ATTEMPT. I would have an attempt now OR when your husband comes home if that is possible, and then keep taking the OPK. It may be that you get your pos tomorrow and you can just sit with the one attempt becasue that is still a good time for conception. or it may be that you don't get a pos for a few more days and you can have another attempt at that point. If you are inbetween and not sure what to do, you can just flip a coin as to whether to have an attempt or not.

[maidentomother]

I think you are probably feeling what I call 'ovary twinges', and which I believe are due to the follicles swelling as they mature. I don't usually notice these twinges when I'm not actively TTC, but since starting my girl sway in Dec, I notice and mark all these twinges on my FF chart. Usually the twinges are pretty mild, but sometimes they are as bad as you described. Twinges usually last minutes to an hour, maybe 2 hours sometimes. My severe O pain (whichI believe occurs within 6 hours of actual O) lasts around 6 hours and is much more intense.

I also started on Vitex a month ago, and I've had sharper twinges than usual this month. So it could be the Vitex. I am also anxiously awaiting my positive OPK but it's not quite there.

Good luck with your sway! I really don't think you missed O.

[atomic sagebrush]

I also had pretty intense O pain on vitex.

[maidentomother]

Thanks for that, atomic. It makes sense to me that Vitex could affect O pain/twinges. I'm definitely finding it interesting being on it.