BFP Insight Please!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

I did the test today and my levels were 796. What does this mean? Two days ago they were 361.

It means we all do a happy dance because that is exactly what we want to see.

[Nessa84]

I am so excited!!!!! Sounds like I have a sticky Bean!!

Purple, I am glad you gave me a heads up as I am new to these symptoms and would have been very grateful to have caught an issue early on. I hope all goes well in your pregnancy. Fingers crossed for you!!

[atomic sagebrush]

That is what we are all for but have to issue the standard reminder that there is no guarantee with this and people do have perfect HCG levels and do still have losses. The odds are very good that all is well with your pregnancy and you shouldn't worry, but I just feel like people are blindsided sometimes - a misconception that if your levels are good and you hear a heartbeat or whatever and then they are shocked when they have a loss. So please be happy that it is good news and all seems to be progressing well, just that it's not a guarantee, that's all.

[Nessa84]

I totally understand. I will feel better once we reach 12 weeks. The doctor wants to check on my levels again next week. The spotting has gone away and the back ache has lessened. I almost suspect the back pain being my ligaments loosening or something of that sort. Anyways, I will update next week!

[Nessa84]

Actually now I'm curious... If we DTD on Friday June 24th and one week later on Friday July 1st my OPK reading said High Fertility.... Was it in fact reading my high HCG levels as if it were a pregnancy test? So basically 7 days after we BD I got my positive reading I guess that I was pregnant...
I remember being confused too since that high fertility reading lasted 4-5 days before a peak. So again I guess it was almost acting like a pregnancy test at this point since I was already pregnant. So assuming I ovulated June 24th (even tho OPK said low) I would have a HCG read on the OPK around 7dpo?

[atomic sagebrush]

I totally understand. I will feel better once we reach 12 weeks. The doctor wants to check on my levels again next week. The spotting has gone away and the back ache has lessened. I almost suspect the back pain being my ligaments loosening or something of that sort. Anyways, I will update next week!

your body starts making a hormone called "relaxin" and this can cause your ligaments to start loosening up almost right away (esp. with subsequent pregnancies) This is also why some of us develop heartburn and aching from varicose veins and constipation in early pregnancy too (because the baby is miniscule and not putting any pressure on anything yet, it's the relaxin making that stuff happen)

[atomic sagebrush]

Maybe, but more likely it was the "secondary estrogen surge" which is a burst of estrogen your body releases about a week after ovulation. This helps maintain the lining a little longer before AF arrives (since if you are not pregnant, the corpus luteum starts breaking down at this point). This makes many people have "high" readings or even peak, and can also have EWCM and increased libido at this stage.

While fertility monitors and OPK can be used as a kind of primitive pregnancy test, they would not start to register until AFTER you would get a reliable positive on a pregnancy test (12-14 DPO). So it's much, much more likely this was the estrogen surge you were seeing on the sticks.

[Nessa84]

Would I have gotten that secondary estrogen surge even though I was pregnant? I just can't seem to make sense of the days. At all.

[purple]

Yep, you get it normally in all cycles, pregnant or not.

Have you recorded all the days you dtd? It would be easier to see if you had a FF chart so we can visulise when AF was and when you got positive tests etc.

[ksmom]

You can definitely still get another estrogen surge while pregnant. With this baby I kept getting high readings on my OPK which prompted me to test. It was right around 7dpo that the high reading started and I got a BFP the next day.