Long Cycle, Early Positive OPK, Late Period. Could I be pregnant?

wrote:
In response to one of the earlier messages, I'm 31 and my husband is
39. I feel like we don't have the luxury of time while trying to
conceive.

Your husband's age doesn't play much of a role in it. Men can father
children up until they die of old age at 110. They could do it even
before Viagra...

As for your age - relax! My aunts had kids when they were 42 and 43.
You've got LOTS of time. You're only 4 years past your peak fertility
(at age 27). Big whoop.

Having the attitude, "WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!!" isn't going to help
you get pregnant.

Like most women, I thought I would have no problem getting
pregnant, but that hasn't been the case. I think we'll keep trying the
full year before we look into infertility options.

If you haven't been trying for a full year, you aren't having a problem
getting pregnant. Again, thinking that you ARE could be causing the
problem. You've tried 9 times. When you think of all the things that
have to line up ***just*** right, in order to conceive, giving it 9
shots seems like very few. I'll bet you didn't start charting your
temperature and stuff right away, either. You probably just had lots
of sex for the first few months, and when that didn't work, you started
looking into TCOYF, etc.

It's kind of hard
too because since I have such a long cycle, I get 3 less opportunities
a year to try (since my cycle is about a week longer than the average
woman, I lose 3 months a year).

So, you've only tried 6 or 7 times, then. RELAX!

I'm not giving up.

Of course not, you've barely started!

We'd like to have 2 kids if time allows.

Pffft... You have time to have 10.

Ok, I'm 29 and due in August with my first. We started trying when I
was 27 (peak fertility, my ass). It was about 18 months before we
conceived - we found out we were pregnant the day before our first
infertility appointment (which was fun, because we went in and said,
"Wow, we didn't know you could fix this stuff over the phone - all we
did was call for an appointment, and poof!" )

I drove myself nuts for 18 months. Even though I know that I didn't
listen when people gave me advice, I'm going to give you my best
how-to-conceive advice.

1) Switch your husband to boxers, and tell him to use a desk or table
for the laptop for a while (heat). Have him take vitamins and get
exercise.
2) Live like you're already pregnant - take prenatals, don't drink or
smoke or use drugs, don't take medications that you wouldn't be allowed
to take while pregnant, eat really well, avoid all the crap you're
supposed to avoid while pregnant, etc.
3) Throw away the OPKs and all the rest of the junk until you've been
trying for 15 months (12, normally, but you have long cycles).
4) Have sex every two days.
5) Try not to think about having a baby. (I know, you can't do that,
but you have to try. It's a rule.)

After 18 months, we conceived when we had stopped trying (and now I'm
due in August. Brilliant. When it's 9000 degrees with 400 percent
humidity where I live...). I used to want to hit people when they'd
say, "As soon as you stop trying..." but it's true. You can't ovulate
if you're stressing yourself to death over it.

As Dr. Phil would say, "You've put this on project status..." and I'll
bet that's what is getting in your way. CHILL, already. Think about
it from an evolutionary standpoint - your offspring are unlikely to
survive if they're conceived in times of great stress, and you are less
likely to survive if you're pregnant in times of great stress (famines,
stampedes, etc.) so your magical body protects you from that by NOT
letting you conceive when you're under stress.

And do not tell me that you're not stressing about it, because I can
totally tell from the tone of your posts that you are.

You have eons left to conceive. You're just a baby yourself. Your
husband's an old man g, but that doesn't matter. Throw away all the
conception junk, get back to enjoying your sex life and your marriage,
and I'll bet you're expecting by the end of the year. If not, post
again, and we'll talk.

Oh, wait - your period is late. Well, calm down already. I hope this
is it. If not, take the conceiving thing off of Project Status for a
while, and see if that doesn't help.

And do yourself a favor, if you're not, and wait until AFTER Christmas
to see the fertility doctor - the last thing you want to be is 8 or 9
months pregnant in August, which is exactly what happens when you
conceive in November and December. I have Flinstone feet from the
edema. It's gross. There's a reason why very few people have two
late-summer babies.

Take care,
Amy

cycle, but an early ovulation (day 12-16) that had a positive pregnancy
test AFTER day 35? I would have expected to see a positive pregnancy
test by day 30 at the latest if I was pregnant. Every day that AF
hasn't arrived gives me hope that maybe I am actually pregnant and not
just late.


I have known women who didn't trigger pg tests until they were 3 months
pregnant. For me, though, I tend to trigger them within about 48 hours of
implantation. Late implantation can indicate a less "robust" pregnancy--loss
rates for implantation 12 days after ovulation can be higher than 80%, vs. a
loss rate of 13% for pgs which implant 8 days post ovulation (as measured by
detectible HCG in the blood.)

With the pg I miscarried, FRER did not show a positive test until 18 days
post ovulation, and even that was ridiculously faint. Dollar tree tests had
turned positive a couple days earlier. I only used dollar tree tests the
next time and got a positive result (faint) at a whopping 8 days post
ovulation. That "positive" is now napping in my bedroom...

The testing roller coaster is Not Fun... but you're on the right track.

Jenrose

wrote in message
oups.com...
In response to one of the earlier messages, I'm 31 and my husband is
39. I feel like we don't have the luxury of time while trying to
conceive.

If you were, say, 37 instead of 31, I'd agree with you. But at 32 I got
pregnant twice in three months...

Like most women, I thought I would have no problem getting
pregnant, but that hasn't been the case. I think we'll keep trying the
full year before we look into infertility options.

Good plan.

It's kind of hard
too because since I have such a long cycle, I get 3 less opportunities
a year to try (since my cycle is about a week longer than the average
woman, I lose 3 months a year). I'm not giving up. We'd like to have
2 kids if time allows. Like it was mentioned earlier, I'm hopeful that
eventually we will be successful because I know that we did conceive
once and that's a good sign.

And miscarriages are *extremely* common--and yes, it should be reassuring
that yes, you could concieve. That means that your tubes are open enough for
egg to meet sperm, that you have egg and he has sperm.

I have not been charting temps.
You learn a LOT about your cycle by charting. DH would pop the thermometer
in my mouth when he got up, then write the number down. I charted on
Fertility Friend, which made things crystal clear.

I started out charting my CM, but my
OB/GYN said that method wasn't as reliable as OPKs, mainly because it
can be mistaken for fluids generated during intercourse.

You might as well chart that... it, too, can be helpful to let you know
what's going on.

So, I've been
doing only that method. I have been reading many posts about the
Taking Charge Of Your Fertility book, so I think I will take that
advice and get it today. I think I'll probably try charting my temps
too.

I don't think I ever did get a positive OPK with ovulation, though I did get
positive OPK's when pg...lol! (the molecule the OPK test detects is closely
related to hcg and hcg will trigger an OPK test while ovulation will NOT
trigger a pregnancy test.) For me, temp was a much, much better indicator.
And for timing sex, cm was vital.
Jenrose

On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 12:48:43 -0700, dayna.abell wrote:

Oh, and does having a long luteal phase complicate conception at all?
I'm wondering if this has anything to do with why we haven't had much
luck conceiving up to now.

I have no experience myself with long luteal phases, rather the contrary.
However, I was wondering if you have been monitoring your cycles from
before starting to actively TTC (try to conceive). If not, you may have
been experiencing more than one very early miscarriage, which lengthens
your luteal phase by several days. These pregnancies terminate since the
fertilized egg cannot properly implant for whatever reason, and so they
often don't result in a positive HPT.

The long luteal phases in itself would be a good cause to start looking
for a good reproductive expert and discuss this.

--
--I
mommy to DS (July '02)
mommy to four tiny angels (Oct '03 - Oct '04)
guardian of DH (age classified)
expecting twins (boy/girl) in August