AF once again landed today. What makes this AF different from all other AF's before is what I know now about my cycles. Info is empowering yet so so so evil. They weren't kidding when they said "Ignorance is bliss".
Here is what I know (or what I think I know):
* I ovulate late. 19th day.
* My luteal phase is on the cusp of what's considered to be abnormal. 12 days.
* My period's never irregular. I never ever miss, never early or late...always 30-32 days.
* CM is weak. At least it was this past cycle. Some months I just want to put a diaper on all day because of so much CM, but this past cycle...just 1 day of it. Noticed during only 1 restroom visit. One!
So....knowing all this, my question is...am I suffering luteal phase defect and didn't even know it? The 2nd time I was pregnant, my doctor had me on progesterone suppositories before I m/c'd because it was so low. Could this have been because of LPD? I should throw that on the above list too...low progesterone. Is 12 days of luteal phase considered short?
I'm inching closer to making that call to the doctor to take the next steps she recommends. However, there's a stubborn side of me that's pulling me back wanting another shot at it this cycle before we seek medical help. I bought primrose oil at Target today. I don't know if my CM (or lack thereof) is the problem so I'm gonna start taking them. I'm also thinking about buying vitamin B6 supplements tomorrow to help with a possible LPD. I know these supplements are not harmful, but there is a part of me that's worried about taking new foreign pills. I'm self-diagnosing myself these days and I don't know if that's safe. I know I should just go to the doctor but I keep thinking, this cycle's it. I know more now. It's the CM. It's the short LP days. I know these things that I didn't know before so let ME try to fix things w/over the counter supplements. It's worth a try, no?
Am I just being stupid? As excited (and worried) as I am to try new things this cycle, I wish I never knew about them. See...I told you...Info is empowering yet evil. Wish me luck. And yes, just tell me if I'm being stupid, because really, I want to know if none of these things will work and what I really need is professional help. But you know, I also know doctors and hospitals get paid to tell and give me things I could've easily found out myself. I just want to do everything within my power first.
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I am a firm believer in the power of self-diagnosis. My doctors wouldn't have recognized my cancerous growth following my molar pregnancy unless I had engaged in my own pee-stick experiments and speculation. MY obg even yelled at me (seriously) for 'experimenting' with my own body but at least I knew way ahead of time that my hcg wasn't going to zero. Doctors not only are paid to tell us things that we could find out on our own, but they get defensive sometimes if we go ahead and find them out on our own. People probably come to them every day with hairbrained ideas that they got off a message board and now seem to have a blanket resistance to any mention of the 'internet.' But there is plenty of good information to be learned out there too.
ReplyDeleteTwo things I've heard that maybe weigh against LPD: One is that from what I understand, 12 is plenty long. It is well into the normal range. I think 10 is when you start to be concerned. Mine is 11 - I was a little worried about that but we've gotten pg twice in four tries. Second is that I heard on one of these blogs that doctors say it's really really uncommon and that way more people think they have it than actually have it. That said, it might be one of the many fertility phenomena that are poorly understood by doctors and maybe some women implant in proportion to the length of their LP and some don't regardless of whether their LP is in the 'normal' range because their LP would need to be longer than 'normal' for implantation. The frustrating thing about doctors is that there's always a risk that they won't have any idea.
It certainly wouldn't hurt to use the LPD concern to get in to see your doctor. It's a perfectly legitimate concern and even if it's not that, it will get your dr thinking about other issues and causes and you might find something out that you otherwise wouldn't have.
I'd say go now if you have the time this cycle, or, if you don't, don't stress about waiting a month. Your cycle sounds a lot like mine - similar O day and length, similar LP. Similar varying CM. So I'm hoping one of these times it's going to happen.
As for CM - have you tried preseed? I used that TTC every time and like I mentioned, we had pretty good results. No babies yet of course, but it got us past that first hurdle.