Clear blue fertility monitor

[greeneyes]

If using a cbfm to conceive, will I miss o if I wait until after the high reading? I only have used it 1 cycle and got pregnant with my son on it. It went from low to high, high again, then I believe low... just thinking abought abstaining and o+12. Thanks!

[LacePrincess]

O+12 is extremely difficult to conceive on (if not impossible, really) and almost impossible to time properly. You have no way of knowing the EXACT moment you ovulate without an ultrasound machine in your bedroom! And, timing barely sways if at all so if you're doing a GD style sway don't even worry about the timing.

The CBFM, like other OPK methods, detect the LH surge. The peak of the LH surge triggers ovulation but LH peaks anywhere from 12-36 hours before the egg. You just have no way of knowing when your egg will pop. The CBFM also reads surging estrogen. The estrogen surge is what shows High on your monitor, and estrogen surges should trigger the LH surge. The LH surge shows Peak on your monitor. However, you can have many days of High before showing Peak.

Have you seen this graph? It should be in the booklet that came with your monitor. It illustrates perfectly how the hormones relate to each other.



It's possible to get many, many, many days of high and no peak, or many days of high and then peak, so if you're wanting to only do one attempt you need to wait until you see Peak (with the egg symbol) before bd'ing. Your monitor will go from Low, to High. High can last for many days. Then it should go to Peak when you get your LH surge. You'll see two days of Peak and then one day of High after that, then Lows. So if you only want to bd once you need to BD on the FIRST peak day. NOT the second because if the monitor catches your LH surge late, if you don't bd until the second peak day you could miss the egg entirely.

You can feel free to look at my FF charts (link in my siggy), you can see from my older charts how sometimes you have Highs forever before getting a Peak.

[afy]

Wish I could answer this green eyes.. I have the cbfm too and have not yet used it waiting for my cycle day 1.. And I'm quite nervous how I should start using it did it pick up you LH surge the first cycle you used it? as some people have said it needs to take a little time to recognize your LH surge your Clycle etc..

[afy]

Wow lace princess you couldn't have said it any better!
Just made a whole bunch of things clear.. I'm TTC a boy and I haven't used the monitor yet just need to wait for my cycle day 1 then can get familiar with .. I believe the same would apply for those TTC a boy, BD on the day you get PEAK day ..even if we had many many HIGH days should we still wait for the PEAK day to come and then DTD

[greeneyes]

Afy, I got my peak reading with the first cycle using it. I was expecting the high readings to keep going, but I had an early ovulation on cd 11 and the monitor caught it. I was shocked!

[greeneyes]

Laceprincess, yeah, I've heard of the high readings going on several days and how it doesn't work well with pcos or estrogen dominance. The one time I used it that didn't happen, but I do have ED issues. I forgot that I read I should temp and do okps 2xs a day to catch the surge. The second temp wouldn't be as accurate but would give a better idea/comparrison as to when I might have Oed.

If I didn't/don't do the o+12, do I still just do the one shot attempt? I don't want to risk frequent release...

[LacePrincess]

Afy, for boy frequency you'd ideally want to bd every other day from the first High day until your monitor reads Low again. You wouldn't want to wait for a one-shot attempt for boy, as abstinence reduces sperm count and the health of the sample. Every other day is ideal as it ensures lots of healthy sperm up there for the egg, and DH has plenty of time to recharge in between attempts.

[LacePrincess]

Laceprincess, yeah, I've heard of the high readings going on several days and how it doesn't work well with pcos or estrogen dominance. The one time I used it that didn't happen, but I do have ED issues. I forgot that I read I should temp and do okps 2xs a day to catch the surge. The second temp wouldn't be as accurate but would give a better idea/comparrison as to when I might have Oed.

If I didn't/don't do the o+12, do I still just do the one shot attempt? I don't want to risk frequent release...

Do you have PCOS? The monitor might possibly not work well if you do. Ladies with PCOS not only have estrogen dominance (and thus the monitor will think you're always High) but also can have high levels of LH all the time and the monitor again might read a Peak falsely.

What I do since the sticks are so $$$$ is I will do 10 sticks and then quit using the monitor for that cycle if I still don't have a Peak. The monitor will ask for up to 20 sticks per cycle, and that's a lot of $$ to blow in a single cycle! I monitor in other ways like temp, CM/CP, and OPK's so the monitor is just another way of reading my cycle. The CBFM wants FMU too, which doesn't make much sense because the LH surge is highest in your urine between 10am-8pm. So really, multiple OPK's if you have the cheapie ones are a better way of finding the surge but you'd have to know your signs well enough to know when to test (ie. increased CM, that sort of thing). In fact if you look at my current chart, you'll notice that I got a positive OPK the day BEFORE I got a peak on my CBFM, so the CBFM actually missed the beginning of my LH surge. The CBFM only asks for sticks until it gets one Peak reading, then it'll automatically show a second Peak day, a High day, and then Low, it's programmed that way. So if it catches the tail end of the surge then you really don't have a shot after the first Peak day. Hope that makes sense!!

You don't have to do just one attempt. You can do multiple attempts, in fact a lot of us are BD'ing right through Ov. Why don't you want to do FR? FR for girl sway is having DH release 7-10 days in a row before your fertile window, then BD right through ov. Having DH release so many days in a row reduces his sperm count quite a bit and that's what sways pink but also means you aren't putting all your eggs in one basket. Are you a Dream Member? Atomic has written some great essays on frequency strategy but I believe they're in the Dream Member section.

[greeneyes]

I'm not a dream member. We did fr with our two boys. I want to avoid that. I had 3 girl with my ex and I don't think he released, at least not like dh does! LOL (I know, tmi). Plus I remember seeing the post that 90% of couples swaying pink end up with girls and they're the ones doing FR. Anyway, just want to do it different when we try. This is THE last baby (ds2 was going to be, but I really want to give dh a girl of his own.

I chart cm and temps, but mostly just cm for now as I'm bfing and haven't gotten my 1st PP af. I usually chart temps, sometimes I'll do saliva ferning, the fertility monitor, sometimes I'll do cervical pos (but that's really inaccurate for me. Its usually opposite from what its "supposed" to be.)

I don't have pcos, but I do have estrogen dominance. ED sways blue, right? I need to get my estrogen down buti'm not sure how without risking screwing up O. (Like using natural progesterone cream before O...) any other suggestions there?

[LacePrincess]

As Atomic has said, just because you did one thing to get boys doesn't mean doing the opposite thing will get you a girl. Frequency is not a big sway factor, nor is timing. You obviously *can* conceive girls though (lucky you!) so you might want to think back to your eating habits and diet and if that's different. Also, your weight. Have you lost or gained weight since you had girl babies? Have you lost or gained bodyfat? Higher bodyfat sways blue, because higher bodyfat = higher fertility. Mother nature likes that and reads it as 'good times' and makes boys, or so goes the theory anyways.

You didn't mention how old your DH is, but if you're planning to do a one-shot attempt just watch that DH doesn't abstain too long. Abstaining 7-10 days is a girl strategy too, but not a good one if DH is over 35 or smokes or drinks or has any chemical/radiation exposure, because abstination damages the sperm. And if he's older anyways then there could possibly be a risk of birth defects with abstaining. This is why you'll see more ladies do a FR strategy.