Post # 1
Member
441 posts
Helper bee
The first two months I charted, I had a 28 day cycle. In Cycle 3, I had an interview on the day I was supposed to ovulate, so I was a little late. I attributed the late ovulation to stress about the interview. Then, in Cycle 4, my cycle was way out of whack, and I didn’t ovulate until CD26. I thought it was a fluke, but this month I’m on CD24.
Cycle 1:
Cycle 2:
Cycle 3:
My Ovulation Chart
Cycle 4:
Cycle 5 (so far):
My CF is really unreliable because I don’t have much of it, and I have a hard time distinguishing between the different types. I’m guessing I have low progesterone judging by my short LP with lots of spotting. I’m planning on getting a blood test to check that out. I just can’t figure out what is going on with these extra long cycles. There isn’t any reason I can think of that would cause such a drastic change. I know it’s normal to have anovulatory or unusually long cycles every once in awhile, but twice in a row? Any ideas?
ETA: hopefully these charts show up
Post # 3
Member
2554 posts
Sugar bee
What are you normally like?
For me, I was always irregular when not on the pill. I’ve been charting since December and I’ve discovered that I’m not as irregular as I thought. It was just that my cycles were so long that without charting they seemed more random.
So maybe you just need to keep charting to get a better picture. Over my 5 cycles, 2 have been ovulating on day 28 and 1 on 24 so I feel like this might be my normal. The other two cycles were realy long and really short.
Post # 4
Member
542 posts
Busy bee
I had very irregular cycles too, anywhere from 29-48 days. I also really couldnt rely on CM as it wasn’t great quality/quantity either. I started using OPKs to help me figure out when I would ovulate which helped a lot. I got my BFP on a cycle where I O’d on CD 32 so don’t let long cycles get you down! Id still go to see the doc tyou’re you’re worried about low progesterone. Good luck!!
Post # 5
Member
441 posts
Helper bee
@NewfieBullet: I was on BCP from May 2007-Nov 2010. I didn’t start charting until Mar 2012 since we waited a year to TTC. Before BCP (as far as I remember) and for the year until I started charting, I was pretty regular as far as I know. I never had a pregnancy scare, and I never missed a period until Octob 2011.
Normally, I’d say my cycles range from 26 to 31 days, with 27-28 days being most common. I believe Oct-Nov 2011 was an anovulatory cycle because I only spotted that month. Nov-Dec 2011 was a long cycle of 41 days, but it was around the holiday season, and we traveled, which could account for the delayed ovulation. Dec-Jan 2012, Jan-Feb 2012, Feb-Mar were 27, 26, and 30 days, respectively. I wasn’t charting yet at the time, so I have no way of confirming ovulation.
Since I’ve been charting, I’ve had 28, 28, 31 (I had a job interview in the middle of the cycle, likely delaying my ovulation a couple of days), and 35 day cycles. Perhaps it’s normal for me to have 4-5 “regular” cycles averaging 27-28 days and then a couple of longer or anovulatory cycles. Who knows. I know it takes a couple of months to detect a pattern when charting, but I’m halway (hopefully) through cycle 5, so I thought a decent pattern would be emerging. I know not every woman has a 28 day cycle with O on CD14; however, it is fairly normal for me to have a 28ish day cycle, even though my O date is usually closer to CD16-17 since I have a short LP.
@Kalamaz17: Thanks for the encouraging words! I haven’t tried OPKs yet since my first weirdly long cycle was last month. Before that, I was pretty good at predicting O with the help of FF and the occasional CM. I figured last month was a fluke and things would go back to normal this month, but this one is also turning out to be really long. I guess I’ll wait and see what happens.
Member