Line Judges

I used to silently mock people who uploaded pictures of a completely unnoticeable line on an HPT and ask others if they saw a line. But then came a woman on babycenter.com who has some innate ability and cool photography computer program who actual found lines where the human eye could not.

Since I was gearing up to go to Italy I had a lot to consider in terms of testing early.

I was leaving at 10dpo, still very early for an HPT.

I was planning to definitely test at 13dpo, because that day we were going wine tasting in Chianti, so I needed to know if I would partake. I also would test on 14dpo because I had to know if I should stop taking progesterone

If I did get a BFP early, I could leave behind my monitor, thermometer, and AF products

Then there were the symptoms or complete lack there of.

On 7dpo, I got this bizarre heavy feeling in my uterus, like a weight was attached to it and I felt very bloated. I knew it was my uterus because it felt similar to how I felt after fibroid surgery when I would go on a long walk. Not pain, just discomfort.

I remember seeing a post on babycenter.com called "heavy feeling in uterus", which is how I would describe what I was feeling. So I checked it out and the vast majority of posters ended up pregnant.

Other than that 8hr stance of weird uterus feelings, I have had zero symptoms.

I had been very tired and having extremely vivid dreams, but I knew this is from the progesterone.

So I thought back to the 2 times I was pregnant and I didn't have any symptoms until my 5th week.


On 8po, my temperature dips .3 degrees, the bare minimum to be consider an implantation dip.


On 9dpo, my temperature returned to my 7dpo level, proving I did have a dip of some kind.


The Results:

I took a dollar tree test (the Pee-in-a-cup kind) and was about to pass it off as negative, when I kinda sorta saw something, a second line. It really was as faint as a line should be. But it was there.

So then I went to get my luggage, where I had packed my First Response Early Result Pregnancy tests.

Luckily, I had used a cup. At the end of the test window I looked. At first glance, you wouldn't see anything, but when you held it just so, a second line appeared.

Part of me thought I made it up, but part of me knew I never made it up before and I have had many many many months of BFNs


What to do:

Given I won't be on American soil for 48 hours, I can't get two beta tests to see if my numbers are going up, but I did want to confirm it so I knew I wasn't crazy.

I called my RE's office on the nurses line.

I got called back an hour and a half later.

I have to say, the nurse was mean. She told me I should postpone my trip because they highly recommend not traveling until the baby is confirmed to be growing in the uterus and doing well. It could be etopic. I really hadn't been worried about it. She said four times there was no point of me going in to confirm pregnancy since I won't be heeding their warning by staying in town, which would allow them to see if my numbers double.

I finally convinced her to let me come in today for a blood test. On the phone I made it clear I was 9dpo so I tested very early.

Later that day, she called back and said, "You are pregnant but your number is very low, 22, so expect to miscarry." I said,"But I am only 9dpo, so that is a good number right?" And she said, "it is very low".

Sorry, but what a bitch. You work for a fertility doctor, anyone who is seeing you has been through hell already in this department, so don't be a world class bitch. I remember I had written a post about early pregnancy betas on my blog so I pulled it up from my phone and my numbers were totally normal. Also, most tests don't test below the number 25 which are designed to be read at 14dpo if not a day or two before, so clearly 22 wasn't a bad number.

I put a call into my doctor and she said since I conceived naturally have no worries about going to Italy and enjoy myself.

Back to the lines, it was really so light that I came out of the bathroom and said, "I might be pregnant". I really thought it could have been bad lighting.

OPKS- the Cheap Pregnancy Test?

Looking back at my own experiences, I discovered I was pregnant by getting a positive OPK. I knew it didn't make sense to ovulate so early in my cycle. I immediately took a pregnancy test and got strong positives.



Soon, after I get the doctor's okay, I will be back in the world of trying to conceive and had an idea. Could I use OPKs to test early (i.e. 10dpo, 12dpo) for pregnancy and if it looked promising, I could use a First Response Early Result to confirm pregnancy? Pregnancy tests are expensive. While OPKs aren't exactly cheap, especially the Clear Blue Digitals I use, they are less expensive.



Besides my personal experiences, I wanted to dig deeper to see if there is a reason a test that checks for LH could be used in place of a test the looks for HCG (pregnancy hormone).

• LH and HCG are both glycoproteins- they consist of a protein with a sugar attached to it. These hormones are comprised of two parts. If you were to break it down (I blocked out anything I learned in chemistry, but let's accept the fact that it can be broken down) the first part, the amino acid chains, are identical. The second part are extremely similiar in composition and function. This explains why some getting fertility treatments are given an HCG trigger shot to stimulate ovulation instead of getting an LH shot.


• HCG is more complex of a hormone, it has more parts than LH. Home pregnancy tests are supposed to look for these extra things, not in the LH. However, since they are so similiar, in many cases an OPK can detect HCG. However, a pregnancy test cannot detect LH because a pregnancy test is look for that extra part that LH doesn't have.

The experts point out there are reasons not to use OPKs as pregnancy tests.

• If you get a positive OPK, it is only detecting there is either LH or HCG in your system, you can't clearly distinguish which one is being picked up. I would argue though that if you are monitoring your cycle by temping or a fertility monitor, you would have a good idea.


• It could lead to false positives because you naturally have LH in your system throughout your cycle. The test picks up a surge of LH, but if the test is more sensitive you might get a false positive.


• Most pregnancy tests are more sensitive than OPKS so you would get a positive on a pregnancy test sooner than on an OPK.

Overall, experts agree it isn't a great idea to use OPKs as a pregnancy test. In my opinion, and please take it as just that, I think it might be worth testing.

Here is why. I like using First Response Early Result . They have always been accurate for me. Based on my previous post on pregnancy test sensitivity, you can get a positive by 12dpo. But I dread using them because they are costly.

After having two miscarriages, I am not sure I want to make a big deal to my husband or parents before I know this pregnancy is viable. Now that I am working with a fertility doctor, I can get an HCG beta test and get results the same afternoon. I don't want to waste a FRER on 10dpo, but I would like to know if I was pregnant. That way I could go in, get tested, and then retest on 12 dpo to see if my beta was doubling appropriately. If I did get an early positive on an OPK, which is much cheaper than a pregnancy test, I would use my First Response Early Result to confirm immediately. The downside to me is that if the OPK looks positive but is in fact picking up something else in my system.

Although, this all circles back to conversation about whether it is better to know before 14dpo so you don't risk the heartache of a chemical pregnancy.

What do you think? Would you try this approach?

(source justmommies.com)

Pregnancy Test Sensitivity

I came across a listing of how sensitive pregnancy tests are (not all tests are created equal). Sensitivity means how much HCG hormone do you need to produce to get a positive test.

It might be worth checking out. There are a tons of people that use "dollar store cheapies" while others swear by the First Response Early Result (my test of choice). First Response might be a little more sensitive but the dollar store tests seem to be at the top of the class. I was surprised to see that digitals aren't as sensitive. I figured since they were so much more money they would be better.

http://www.fertilityplus.org/faq/hpt.html

Peestickparadise.com has a list of people that reported when they got their BFP-so based on true accounts. The results show the First Response Early Result might not be as sensitive as we might think. It shows the earliest positive for FRER was 10dpo and all showed positives by 13dpo.

To me this proves that you can definitely get an early positive (before 14dpo), but is that best? What if it is a chemical pregnancy, is it better not to know?