LE Standard or PCOS?

[onelittlewish]

That’s what I thought too..this morning I got a test line darker than control line on my OPK strip and still a low fertility on the clearblue monitor. Never happened before usually both are in sync. Anyway, ovulating anytime now and hopefully we catch the egg!

[atomic sagebrush]

The Clearblue monitor can sometimes be tricky, since it's measuring changes rather than straight LH levels. So if your LH rise isn't dramatic (meaning that there's not a shocking change, even if LH is high enough to trigger O) sometimes it doesn't detect that, even when a regular stick DOES. I would still keep using the Clearblue too just to see, and then if you get a positive on that one, have another attempt.

[onelittlewish]

I used my last Clearblue stick this morning and fortunately I got a peak (CD15, low from CD10-14), and still a blazing dark positive OPK strip (3rd day). We had an attempt yesterday and can't have one tonight because we have guest in town..I guess we will just carry on with e4d until O confirmed by BBT. Will keep you updated!

[onelittlewish]

Still blazing dark pos OPK in the evening and really bad O pain this evening...extremely bloated and crampy never in my life. Feeling super wet and loads of EWCM too. Could it be that the OPK strip caught a surge but I didn't actually ovulate? but wouldn't clearblue have caught that too if the first was a proper surge? Those are all legit positives right? I really hope O comes ASAP or my attempt would probably have been too early.

IMG_5183.jpg

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes. What can happen is that the hormone is coming out and your body is ovulating, just on its own timeline. The hormone doesn't MAKE your body ovulate, it more just sends a signal like "ok now's the time" and your body can then still take 24, 36, 48 hours or even longer to ovulate after that point. Then in addition, yes, you can surge and then not ovulate from that surge at all and surge again and then ovulate. This can happen in short order (and honestly probably does happen more often than it taking a week or more to have that second surge). I can't say which is happening, but just keep going with that e4d and it's all good.

[onelittlewish]

You body does all sorts of weird things while TTC don’t they! I think I have something new every month! When I want to BD on the first pos I can’t find the right one argh!

This morning OpK went neg, CM dried up and my temp this morning is higher than the last six but not yet in the real high temp zone, putting my last attempt probably at O-1 or O-2. Send me all the baby dust! Now officially in the TWW

[atomic sagebrush]

They really truly do, that's why I'm always (annoyingly) urging you guys not to read too much into patterns of symptoms, because so many people have them changing in all these weird and unexpected ways!!!

Baby dust headed your way!!!!

[onelittlewish]

We did the sperm analysis this morning and the results are back, my doc says its not good and referring us to the andrologist. She suggests that natural conception would be difficult with this result. Can you take a look for me how bad it is? And what do you suggest when the husband's sperm quality is low? I am very lost now as to what to do. Is there still chance to conceive naturally (like with more attempts)? Or is IVF the only option?

Abstained for 3 days
Concentration 6.188 10^6/ml
Count 21.04 10^6/ejaculation
Time to liquefaction 180min
Viscosity 3 cm
Progressive Motility 23%
Non progressive motility 15%
Morphology 1%

And what I couldn't understand is how is this possible when we conceived 2 without any fertility challenge. Life style & diet change?

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh gosh so sorry to read this, but at the same time I'm glad because it helps us fix the problem.

It happens all the time that people a) conceive with terrible sperm quality or b) have good sperm quality that then tanks for some reason. In many cases it does recover in subsequent testing (it is possible to have a single bad test result and have normal sperm, but that you guys haven't conceived leads me to believe there's a bigger issue.) Please don't panic though, we've seen people with way worse test results than this go on to get pregnant.

You can still conceive without IVF. In fact we've had some people who had worse results than this, who tried and failed with IVF, who went on to conceive normally.

So tell me more about your husband, was he doing or taking anything for your sway, what is his overall lifestyle, that kind of thing?

Would you be willing to try a couple fertility boosting supps and tricks?

Straightaway, let's have him switch to boxers, avoid hot baths or sauna, stop jogging or biking if he was doing that, and have him "cleaning the pipes" every 2-4 days. These small things actually make a big difference!

[onelittlewish]

He is not doing/taking anything for our sway, so eating normally and no supplements. He is a meat lover esp red meat (beef/pork). He drinks 2 cups of coffee a day (for years) and tons of tea (since last year or two so that's a change but i don't think tea can damage sperm?). He doesn't smoke and rarely drinks (more when I was drinking when I started swaying but stopped when I stopped). He used to go to gym and exercise regularly (weight and running) until the pandemic started in 2020 then he started cycling a few days a week since Sept last year but has stopped after a few months due to the rainy season. So pretty much no exercise at all in 2022. He has always worn tight underwear, do hot shower but not tub bath nor sauna.

We have booked an appointment with an andrologist this saturday and will see what are the treatment options. Now that we actually have the need we are open to IVF again but since it has not been decided I still want to continue trying naturally. Can you tell me more about the fertility boosting supp and tricks? Do they sway blue? But I guess my top priority is to conceive right? Can we still sway while battling fertility challenge? I am sorry I have so many questions. I just never expected this to happen. I mean I knew something was off and expected the sperm count to be lower but not low on everything sigh.

In terms of my diet, can I continue what I am doing or do I need to change anything? Also I read that you wrote breakfast isn't the deal breaker but the total time of the day without food. Is there a difference between eating at 7/11/7 (with 12 hours fast but longer time between meals) and 9/11/7 (longer overnight fast but shorter time between meals)? I always have the idea that it's better to push breakfast for a few hours but because I need to eat lunch with my kids I don't feel hungry at all if I eat my breakfast at 9. My diet had been all over the place in the last few months... trying to be a tiny bit more disciplined now that we need to do a few things to boost fertility.