Something is Working- But Not Enough

I am one messed up science experiment. I have so many confounding variables it is impossible to identify which of my many actions should be credited with results.


Since trying to conceive, I haven't had one cycle were I ovulated before CD20. In general, my cycles were 37 days. My doctor said anything over 33 was considered too long.

I started monitoring ovulation in August, my first cycle after fibroid surgery. I got a high on my Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor or CDs 13 and 14. On the evening of CD14, I got a positive OPK using ClearBlue Easy Digital Ovulation Predictor. On CD 15, I got the blessed Peak on my monitor. To say I was in shock is the understatement of the century. I came out to the living room where my husband was contently engrossed in baseball game and did a happy dance for everyone on our street to see (and we get quite a lot of pedestrian traffic).


I was so thrilled to see I was heading into the normal range of cycles. I felt more confident that I would have what my doctor refers to as "a strong ovulation" resulting in ample progesterone production.

To recap, here is what I have been doing since I last monitored ovulation to help lengthen my luteal phase.

Had my Fibroid removed. My doctor said that fibroids don't affect hormones or cycle length. I am not sure I agree.

Seeing a reflexologist every two weeks. She focuses on my endocrine systems and tries to bring my hormones into balance.

Been on Atkins diet for 4 months which controls insulin which should balance out hormones

Take B-6 Vitamin

Exercising 5 days a week (with the exception of fibroid surgery recovery for 6 weeks)

And clearly something if not the confluence of all these factors worked.

A huge benefit that normal-cycled ladies could never understand is not having to wait forever and a day for the next cycle to start. When your cycles are long, it is even more upsetting to get a BFN because you know you have to wait so long until your next opportunity to try. I also can use fewer Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor Sticks. I only used 7 this cycle (I stop testing once I get a peak).

I went in 7 days after my initial positive OPK and had my progesterone drawn. I previously had never been above 8.4. A reading of 5 shows some sort of ovulation but weak ovulation. 10 is what the doctors want to see for normal ovulation. I came back at 13. I was triumphant. I just felt everything had fallen into place because of all these steps I had taken.

Everything was looking rosy until 10dpo when I started spotting. By 12dpo, it hadn't stopped. The fertility doctor told me to come in to get another progesterone draw. I got the results 3 hours later. My progesterone had crashed to 4.8, a level so low, it didn't seem pregnancy could be sustained. I did however, make it to 14dpo, before my next cycle started, which really is great news. My longest cycle since last year had only had an 11 day luteal phase.

My doctor said that it seemed the corpus lutem gave up to early. She explained that a luteal phase defect can manifest in two ways. The first way is your period starts too soon. The second way is that you progesterone drops significantly, too early.

Since my ovulation was good, she doesn't want to treat with clomid right off the bat. Instead she wants me to take progesterone starting 3dpo. Hopefully, that will do the trick.

Anyone use progesterone to keep there levels up throughout the whole tww?

Not following rules

I know that the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor instructions tell you not to read the sticks, but I was alerted to this website that shows pictures of the sticks at low, high, and peak times in the cycle. There seems to be a consistent pattern

http://forums.ovusoft.com/tm.asp?m=982014&p=1&tmode=6

This is great news for people like me that have had a couple cycles where you don't get a peak, the beloved egg, on the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. In those months, I charted and had a clear temperature shift, so I know I ovulated.

Check this out and let me know what you think. I am going to pay attention to the sticks now.

Getting Back to Good

I still contend that it takes the precision of a rocket scientist to get pregnant (unless, of course, you are a teenager and scared to death of having a baby). Despite the work involved (temping, charting,OPKs, fertility monitoring, and let's be honest, doing the deed as a command performance) I kind of missed it.

The last time I new everything anyone would ever want to know about their own cycle was March-the month I got pregnant. After the miscarriage and my doctor's edict "do not get pregnant", I found it liberating not to set my alarm to 5:30am seven days a week to temp, not to pee on a stick 20 mornings a month, and not to date rape my husband after an uneventful and not particularly romantic dinner.

But now that it has been 5 months, I kind of miss it. I want to know if all my efforts have paid off. And let's call a spade a spade, I didn't take my fertility efforts in moderation. To recap I am seeing a reflexologist about 2x a month (though we will up once I can start TTC again), I am taking B-6 vitamins in an effort to lengthen my luteal phase, I started Atkins to help regulate hormones and hopefully help my long cycle, I started exercising 5 times a week without fail, I lost a bunch of weight and I had the mutant fibroid extricated from my body. Now, with the exception of fibroid, these other efforts have been consistent for 4 months and no longer a shock to my system.

I am seriously looking forward to setting the alarm early for my temp (though I got a 20 minute grace period from my DH, he agreed to never set his alarm before 5:50am), using my overpriced but well-worth it monitor, tracking my luteal phase, and of course inviting daydreams of my BFP back into my every day life.

I guess you don't appreciate what you have till it's gone.

The Power of Information

Yesterday, I wanted to see what I could find out about the DaVinci surgery. You might know what it is if you watch Grey's Anatomy. In the 2009 season finale, the Chief bought one of these robotic surgery machines and it was a huge deal.

Now, I am not in the habit of researching the latest medical trends, but lately when I have been on hold for my doctor, I kept hearing one of their ads that 2 doctors in her practice now perform the DaVinci surgery. I then found that it can be used to remove big fibroids.

In fact, recovery is 4 weeks for the Da Vinci surgery versus 6 weeks for the open, c-section surgery. I asked my doctor about it. She and the fertility doctor that she has been consulting with are determining if it would work for me. That's why I needed an MRI.

Knowing that it could be an option, I did a search for fibroids and DaVinci surgery. I found a great website with hundreds of testimonials. I found it so incredibly helpful. You can also YouTube a video and watch a surgery being performed. Don't know why you would want to, but if you wanted to, you could.

This really got me thinking about how much my fertility process has been influenced with the Internet.

I started reading online months before TTC what I needed to do. When I started trying, I googled pregnancy symptoms, I joined babycenter.com and learned more than I ever thought existed about pregnancy, until I was fluent in the language (DH, DD, TTC, TWW, BFN, BFP). I learned about the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor and read tons of reviews before I bought it. I then learned how to decipher it with a chat group. I charted my fertility with fertilityfriend.com. I researched people who had bleeding during miscarriages, miscarriages, trying to conceive after a miscarriage.

What I learned was many people, including myself, were just looking for hope. Someone who had their symptoms and turned out to be pregnant or someone who lost a baby but went on to have 3 healthy kids. Now I am looking for success stories of people who had their fibroids out after having miscarriages and went on to uneventful pregnancies.

It is funny how we learn to trust strangers in similar circumstances more than we sometimes trust our friends and doctors. I also wonder if I would even know how to get pregnant without the Internet. I have to be honest, I didn't remember much from Human Growth and Development in fifth grade and I think they were trying to teach us how to avoid, rather than achieve pregnancy.

I feel like this information I have garnered on the Internet has given me the power to make better decisions.

The Clearblue Fertility Monitor

A bunch of my friends have asked me to explain how the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor
works and if it is worth the money.

To understand the investment, it costs about $150 for the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor itself which should last you years and shouldn’t need replacement. Then you need to buy the Clearblue Easy Fertility Test Sticks. These come in a pack of 30 and they say that most women need 10 a month. I always need 20 because I had a long cycle. The machine will either ask you to use ten or twenty, but no other number. Therefore, I was buying 2 boxes every three cycles. They also tell you not to mix boxes, but I did and it worked. Also, once you get your first peak, you can stop using the sticks. It will automatically give you a second peak the following day, a high the day after that, and low fertility the days after until you finish your set of 10 or 20.

What makes the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor
different than conventional ovulation sticks (side note: I always recommend digital over regular because your need a PhD in hieroglyphics to decipher the lines on the regular ones) is the monitor measures two hormones, estrogen and LH. The regulation ovulation sticks just measure LH.

So what does all this mean?
· When your cycle starts, your estrogen level is low and there is just a trace of LH in your system. This would read as “low fertility” on the monitor, just one bar. At this point, you have little to no chance of getting pregnant.

· As you get closer to ovulation, estrogen levels increase, but the LH hasn’t surged yet. This is considered “high fertility” on the monitor and you will see two bars. It means your might be fertile, so your should seize the opportunity by doing the baby dance, or as they say in the baby-making biz, BD.

· The last thing your body does to gear up for the big day, aka ovulation, is release a surge of LH in your system. This is what generates a positive OPK (ovulation prediction kit) or a “peak” reading on the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. This is designated by a beautiful egg in the third bar. When you get it, you will spontaneously break out into the happy dance and mandate your man to be amorous that night.

I had an interesting experience with the monitor and totally believe in it.

When I started using the monitor, my cycles were between 35 and 39 days. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to figure out when I ovulated. I believe the machine says it is effective up to 42 days. If your cycle is longer, I think you can beat the system by testing later (if this is a concern of yours, shoot me a comment and I can explain further).
The first day of your cycle, you set the monitor to day one. Be careful when you set it because when you press the button you are setting a 6 hour test window for that whole cycle. Miss this window and you can’t test that day. I made mine for 6am. That way if I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I would be covered starting at 3am and if I slept in on the weekends I would be within my window, up to 9 am. The first month it will ask you on day 6 to start peeing on a stick. Each morning you turn on the monitor, a test stick symbol shows up on the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor screen on the days it wants you to test.

After the first month, especially if you cycle is longer, it will start asking between days 9 and 11 for the first stick.

My first month, I didn’t get a peak at all. It could be because LH surges often take place in the afternoon and the monitor might have missed it. I think this is uncommon. The odd this is, I did ovulate because I got pregnant that cycle. If you read my earlier posts, you saw that I thought I had gotten my period, starting my next cycle, but in fact, I was pregnant. I honestly wouldn’t have known if the monitor on my second month hadn’t gone straight from low fertility to peak. The pregnancy hormone, HCG, can often mimic LH. This also happened with my second pregnancy.

After the miscarriage and the time off we took, I started using the monitor again. My peaks coincided with my temperature shift (which I documented on fertilityfriend.com). I found it to be very accurate.
The last time I used the monitor, I thought I would peak day 20 or 23 and I didn’t. I figured I didn’t ovulate that cycle. Finally on day 27, I got a peak and as a result I got pregnant. Had it not been for the monitor, we wouldn’t have been trying at all. The monitor was the only reason I got pregnant. Sadly, lost that one too, flipping fibroid.
If you are in a rush to get pregnant, nervous you might not be ovulating, have irregular cycles, it really might be worth the investment. I know the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor
gave me peace of mind.
Once we start trying again, I will absolutely use it.