Back in the hut . . .

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

I'm back, and dear gods, I was bleeding like I had fibroids or some such this morning. I have never had cramping so hard. I'm going to pick up some red raspberry leaf tea later to try to handle all this.

I'm thinking about charting not for purposes of conception (I'd have to ovulate to conceive) or contraception (I'd have to ovulate to conceive) but to see what I have -- I suspect a luteal phase defect.

Has anyone successfully charted for hormonal purposes only?

Comments

[haela.livejournal.com]

Why aren't you ovulating?

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

Because I'm just lucky like that.

I've been extremely irregular since I started. I was put on birth control pills for the first time at 13, which certainly didn't help with determining the cause of the irregularity or what it would have settled into as a natural pattern.

I went without birth control pills of any sort with my fiance and then husband for two years and failed to conceive, between the ages of 16 and 18. At eighteen, when we were trying to have our second child (I adopted his older one), I was prescribed Clomid and ovulated and conceived on the first cycle.

I don't know quite *what* is going on, but I'd like to work it out -- I'm 21 now. I've been off the Pill for, hmm, about six-eight months? I'm starting to cycle a bit more frequently now -- it's 7 weeks this time, much better than my usual 4 months plus. I'm hoping that things will get regular on their own.

I'm going to start charting so I can actually see if I'm doing anything resembling an ovulatory pattern. Birth control isn't an issue -- my husband is vasectomized, and I use latex with other partners -- but knowing what is going on would be nice. :-)

[haela.livejournal.com]

If you're having periods you might be ovulating and you just don't know when. Not everyone ovulates at the same point in their cycle, but to have a period you usually have to have ovulated at some point because the corpus luteum that produces progesterone, is what leads to your uterine lining building up and then being there to shed when you have a period. Charting might be a good idea to check it out! Have you ever read the book "Taking Charge of your Fertility" by Toni Weschler? It's a great book about female fertility and put to rest a lot of myths that I had previously believed about charting, gynecological stuff, and my body in general.

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

I highly doubt I'm ovulating if I fucked twice a day for two years during the absolutely bar-none most fertile period of my life and never got pregnant and one cycle of Clomid got me pregnant. I'm sure I COULD ovulate occasionally, but I doubt that I am with any sort of regularity. It almost feels like I ovulate when I'm just . . . hmm, full? I tend to get very crampy for a couple of weeks before I DO finally menstruate.

I have TCOYF on my shelves but have only read a small part of it, I found it way too oriented towards pregnancy. I don't need to be pregnant, and I only want to know what my hormones are doing so I can look into treatment options. I figure if I can figure out exactly what part of my cycle is wacky, it can be medicated, either herbally or pharmaceutically.

[haela.livejournal.com]

If you are honest-to-god not ovulating, I don't think charting is going to help you at all. I chart to monitor my hormones, but I already know what's causing me not to ovulate so I'm taking herbs to get my cycle to be more regular. The charting helps me to know when I do ovulate, which in turn helps me know that my period will be 2 weeks later. It kind of helps me know what to expect... but if you don't know what is causing you to not ovulate then I don't think that charting can diagnose very much.

Basically, if you are truly anovulatory, you don't HAVE a cycle, in the hormonal sense. Your temps will just go up and down every day or two and maybe shift up or down once in a while but you won't have a definitive "cycle" of temperatures. You can't have a luteal phase defect if you don't ovulate, since the luteal phase is the time between ovulation and menstruation.

[perplexxi.livejournal.com]

i'm curious as to why you want to be "medicated" and urge your body to ovulate if you don't have an intent (nor desire) to become pregnant? or has it nothing to do with ovulating, and simply wanting a 'regular' period? as far as i know (which is very little), treatments for LPD are geared to those who wish to conceive (i.e. taking a progesterone supplement during the luteal stage, and as you mentioned, clomid).
have you had any sort of hormonal blood test, ultrasound, and/or endometrial biopsy?

[jpallan.livejournal.com]

Not quite.

If I had normal hormones, I'd have a period every 25 - 33 days or so. But I don't.

I'm concerned primarily because I have a *lot* of other hormonal problems (or possibly hormonal -- lots of exhaustion, mood symptoms, et cetera) and because of that, I want to get an extremely exact idea of where my hormones are deviating from the norm. I'm not necessarily feeling that I should ovulate, but I want to know why it don't, could the reason for it not happening have a lot to do with my other issues? If so, could it be medicated?

You know?

I've had hormonal panels, all of which come out vaguely indicative of PCO but not strongly so -- in particular the blood glucose and the testosterone -- both of which are high but still WNL. Same with prolactin -- I've had prolactinemia since I was at *least* 15, when I first started to come out above normal limits. (No, I don't leak, but I had one hell of a milk supply for my daughter.) But none of it really closely fits, and I'd like to get a comprehensive picture.

I figure if I can figure out WHAT makes my periods so wacky, I may be able to medicate and correct it and that may correct a myriad of other symptoms. If it doesn't, I'd happily go back to my old ways. But it's possible.

The endocrine system is crazy.

[seren.livejournal.com]

(Sorry that this is an old post now.. I have only just joined the community and am reading backwards :>)
I am doing the charting for hormonal purposes. We're hoping to try for a baby next year, but for now I just want to get the birth control pill out of my system and get to know my cycle and identify any problems early on. If you have a short luteal phase it should be pretty obvious in the chart.. so one month and your suspicions would be confirmed either way! Got to be worth it :)