TTC GIRL after early MC

[AHAM23]

Hey Atomic!

I’ve been on the Le diet for a while and have tracked my cycle since February. My husband and I got pregnant in August but miscarried at 5.5 weeks. My OBGYN gave me the green light to try agin this month but now I have NO clue when I’m going to ovulate I literally ovulated on day 17 every time prior to the MC! What would your advice be for this months BD?

I have OPKS and the clear blue digital if that helps!

[atomic sagebrush]

I would either do every 4 day method in the Monday/Thursday or every 72 hour pattern (this is the same thing, just whichever explanation is easier for you to understand!) OR you can do the OPK and have one attempt at first positive OPK. Since you've been at this a while I'm inclined to have you do the e4d, but it's your call to make.

So sorry to hear of your loss.

[AHAM23]

Thank you so much, Atomic!

We actually just tried starting in August and thankfully got pregnant! We did FR (not inside of me) and then the ONE attempt. We needed up having a 2 day cut off because my husband is a fireman and that’s what worked with his schedule.

I’m going to track with Pregmate and Clear Blue digital ovulation. Do you think we should BD the first smiley I get since I’m not sure what ovulation will look like?

[atomic sagebrush]

I always recommend trying at the first solid smiley. Not at ovulation, I've never recommended that because BD at ovulation is much poorer results than a day or so before (which is where the solid smiley falls)

[AHAM23]

Atomic,

Do you believe abstaining or FR sways one way or another?

[atomic sagebrush]

Our results over time have indicated that they don't matter. MAYBE if we had a big group of people doing nothing else to sway, they may make some minor difference, but as a part of n otherwise thorough sway, they just don't seem to add anything at all, and may even undermine sways for some people due to cutting odds of conception so much that people give up on swaying in a panic and then start doing everything to boost their fertility. We see this all the time among people who sway super strictly...they don't get pregnant for months, panic, and drop everything and end up having a boy.

[AHAM23]

Atomic, you’re awesome!

With my miscarriage my doctor explained that sometimes it just happens because the egg or sperm quality were not that great. We did frequent release (or my hubby did) for several days. The day of our attempt he released that morning and then we BD that night. I was honestly surprised we got pregnant because I didn’t see how he would have any sperm left. Lol Would that have anything to do with the quality of his sperm? He’s 31 years old. How long does it take his body to produce more sperm after a release?

[atomic sagebrush]

Nope, it doesn't tell us anything about sperm quality. A guy can make huge numbers of sperm and they're mostly duds. Another guy can make a small batch with high quality. Strangely enough, either guy can get women successfuly pregnant! We have even seen men who were making only a million sperm, many of which were not heatlhy, per batch (sounds like a huge amount, but is really not very much at all) get their wife pregnant in the end. Just takes longer. It may have been just that you guys had great fortune this month, or some guys can shake off the FR and still get their wives pregnant (after all, if it prevented pregnancy totally I'd never recommend it for TTC!!)

the pace at which more sperm is made varies wildly by individual and by situation. A LOT of things - diet, overall condition, exercise, even the type of underwear he's wearing - can affect sperm numbers and a guy can have a small batch and a huge batch under seemingly identical circumstances. So you really can't extrapolate this experience to in general. Over the course of time (even if you got pregnant under harsh circumstances before) you should still gradually ease off of things like FR to boost odds of conception...we often have people think "but I know we got pregnant doing this before" and going on and on for a longer time than I'd prefer doing strict sways. Just, do be willing to still relax and drop things even tho you got pregnant doing the FR once.