Cold Womb And Other Things

I decided we should take a break from ttc and go on a 3 month pre-conception  plan to heal/boost both our bodies and with the thinking that if we're not actively trying to conceive that should take away some stress. But hubby decided we should dive into it head on instead. After the disappointment of this month he's taken it upon himself that we must do everything we can to conceive next month.

Yesterday we went herb and vitamin shopping. We saw a Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist who diagnosed me with cold womb, bad circulation and poor kidney function. She snorted when I told her I was prescribed a diabetic drug for a hormonal imbalance. The last one I saw told me GP's were a bunch of bumbling idiots. I chucked it down to a civilization thing, I'm not in the mood to get philosophical about the East VS West approach to health. I'm sure my GP too would snort if I told them I was prescribed herbal teas and acupuncture to help me conceive.

I'm a huge sceptic and will not partake in anything unless there are no red flags in my research. The acupuncture I didn't mind as long as the needles are sterile (I quite enjoyed it!), the herbal teas, well I did a bit of Googling on those. And most of the ingredients came up as high in anti-oxidants with positive effects on the kidney, liver and spleen functions. Which is good. Still, I'm halving the dosage because even too much of a good thing ban be bad.

That being said I do see wisdom in a lot of what the Chinese claim. For instance, modern medicine mostly  concentrates on the side effects and very rarely gets down to the root cause of the problem. Thanks to Big Pharma that is only intereted in making money off people on recurring prescriptions. Let's take Metformin commonly prescribed for overweight PCOSers to help reduce Insulin Resistance. A lot of women have been taking it for years and are still battling the problems it was prescribed for. I've never heard of a woman with PCOS that took Met for X amount of time and stopped because she was cured. It's not even a cure in itself, because without appropriate lifestyle changes a woman actually finds that as time progresses, her symptoms will get worse and she'll need even more medication to tackle those.

I don't mind giving alternative remedies a try, especially those that claim to go to the root of the imbalance that led to the problem. The Chinese method is more holistic where lifestyle changes go hand in hand with herbs. To improve my chances of success they recommended I drink lots of water and herbal teas after meals, stay away from sweets, chocolates, cakes, crisps, chips, deep fried foods, roast nuts, seafood, dairy products and red meat. Thankfully western medicine confirms these things to be detrimental to those with PCOS.

Anti-oxidants are beneficial in improving the body's functions including reproductive functions. A diet that's high in anti-oxidants will improve your PCOS. Drinking at least 2 cups of green tea a day is a good start! Green tea contains flavonoids which has anti-oxidative properties and is also anti-inflammatory. Besides tea, you can get your anti-oxidants from citurus fruits, brightly coloured fruits and vegetables, dark chocolate, whole grains, nuts and seeds, berries and cherries.

Ovarian cysts can be reduced by improving the lymphatic function of the body. Click here for 10 tips to boost your lymphatic and liver function.

I'm writing this for anyone that's considering forking out £95 for one session of acupuncture and 7 days worth of herbal teas. I'm not 'killing' it for you, but if you're already doing all of the above in addition to acupuncture and you don't notice any changes, then I highly doubt the the Herbal teas will do much good.

If you are overweight with PCOS and most of your weight gathers around your mid-section, you will benefit more from regular exercise and the low GI diet than any medicine or herb. If you are not overweight, I would still recommend the low GI diet and regular exercise AND elimination of endocrine disruptors, a diet plentiful in fruits and veggies preferably organic, essential oils and fatty acids, anti-oxidants and and over the counter herbs like vitex to help regulate the cycle. It's important to not take herbs continuously but give oneself a week break (preferably during AF) out of every month to give the body some rest.

Now I'm off to drink more tea...

More Waiting

This brought a chuckle despite my cramps. 

There is so much unpredictability with PCOS, one month things are good and you're hopeful that your condition is improving, then the following month it's screwed up again. You go from no periods to too much periods. It's a constant hormonal roller coaster.

I started cramping and spotting chocolatey clots on Monday. Then yesterday at a job interview (her Royal Monstrosity couldn't have chosen a better time) I felt 'stuff' rushing out of me and had to literally sprint to the loo. The cramping was horrible and has been on and off ever since. I've had a cyst rupture in the past, this pain is nothing like it.

I saw the GP today to complain about the pain and clots. As usual I got the paracetomol, ibuprofen story, but then he was surprised they've left me on my own this long without monthly monitoring. He said seeing a reproductive endocrinologist once was not enough that I needed to see an infertility expert who will regularly monitor my hormone profile, carry out an hysterosalpingogram to make sure my tubes are open, and have Dh thoroughly checked out.

We are now waiting for an appointment which should be any time within the next 2 - 6 weeks. The waiting continues. 

TTC Au Naturel

My last cycle was the best I ever had in terms of pms symptoms and af. I didn't have any cramps and my pms symptoms were tolerable. Last month my bbs certainly didn't go twice their size in a matter of days to the point where I had to dig up my old bras that I'd abandoned after loosing weight (even right now the darn things are still throbbing and my lower abs are still tingling. STFU already!)

I'm trying to look back on what I did differently to make my PMS symptoms worse than when I was at my heaviest.

For one there was the Metformin, which I started taking in May and stopped about 2 weeks ago. It's supposed to help not worsen symptoms. Then there's EPO which I have been taking regularly for nearly 6 months. I also take Vitex daily and recently started consuming cruciferous juices. Once a day for almost a week then once a week afterwards. It's meant to reduce oestrogen dominance which I believed was the main cause of my pms.

I can't pin point the exact cause of why things went awry this time around. I went from best cycle to worse cycle in the space of just one month! The only thing I can maybe blame is the Met. My energy levels plummeted and I actually piled on more weight because I wasn't exercising as regularly as before and wasn't getting enough calories due to loss of appetite. 

I cannot categorically state that any of these herbs have been particularly useful in combating my pms. I'm even more disappointed with the EPO than anything else. I did see some improvement initially, but now, I don't feel it's effect any more. The only thing I can state with confidence is that I benefited most from regular exercise and the Low GI diet than I ever did from taking herbs and drugs.

I'm taking a break from online ttc and pcos forums. I can't differentiate how many hours I've spent obsessing while 'educating' myself.

I want to be more gentle with my body, not batter it into giving me a baby. I'm thinking of going all natural this month because I'm crazy like that. No herbs, no EPO, no vitex, nothing. Just proper nutrition, zero sugar and refined carbs (Met messed that up for me), good multivitamins with all the essential micro nutrients, regular exercise and lots of sunshine.

I'll decide after af, if she's anything like the monster I'm expecting. The thought of those monstrous blood clots are already making me depressed.

*sigh*

Lessons To Learn From This Cycle

* NEVER throw the rational part of your brain out the window at any point during your ttc journey

* No matter how pregnant you 'feel' you are, you either are or aren't

* No amount of obsessing will change that fact

* Stop wasting money on hpt's!

* Save yourself the stress and wait it out

* Listen to your hubby when he says 'wait it out', you'll thank him later for it

* Stop torturing yourself by reading up other people's daily dpo symptoms

* No two women are the same, so, comparing yourself to other people is a waste of time

* Stop dwelling on your own dpo symptoms.

* Stop dwelling altogether! Peeling up your blouse every other hour to look at your bbs will not make you feel better

* Paying extremely close attention to your body will make swear you can 'hear' your food being digested

* Sometimes you don't know your body as well as you think you do

* No two cycles are the same, just because you are having different symptoms in this one does not mean that you are pregnant

* TTC forums do more harm than good

* Again, never forget the golden rule; you either are or you aren't and the most sure-fire way to know that is to wait until AFTER af to test.

Finally, when things don't turn out the way you wanted, thank your Creator, learn from the experience, pick yourself up and move onto what you can do to improve your chances in the next cycle.

Saw Palmetto For PCOS Hair Loss

Saw palmetto is a nutritional supplement extracted from the berries of the saw palmetto tree.

It is widely used for the treatment of enlarged prostate glands in men. Prostate glands become enlarged partly because of a male hormone called dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.

Women with PCOS tend to have higher levels of DHT than other women. Therefore, if saw palmetto works for men, it may work for women.

Excessive levels of DHT in women has been linked to acne, hirsutism (hair growth in the "wrong" places), and female pattern hair loss.

Female hair loss is one of the most troubling and difficult aspects of polycystic ovary syndrome. It is caused in part by DHT, which causes the hair follicle to shrink and thus causes the hair shaft to be discarded. The result is thinning hair on the scalp.

The Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine published a study showing that saw palmetto may slow down this hair loss process. This was a small study of ten men. Six of the ten men taking saw palmetto had reductions in their hair loss.

The type of hair loss that men have is similar to the most common type of hair loss that PCOS women have. Therefore, if saw palmetto works for men, it should also be helpful for women who have PCOS and hair thinning.

Because of its inhibitory effect on the male hormone DHT, saw palmetto should be useful for acne and hirsutism in addition to hair thinning.

Source: Natural Health Solutions For PCOS.

12dpo... BFN!

I thought all my symptoms had disappeared but there seems to be a rhythm to them. Since my sleep cycle is messed up (I sleep from 4am to noon) I think my circadian rhythm is out of whack. One thing is for sure I'm still having symptoms that I am absolutely not making up. They vary in intensity and frequency from day to day.

- heavy, full, painful bbs. I sometimes feel a 'pinch' or a sensation that can best be described as electric currents running through certain parts, or just maybe a particular vein throbbing somewhere under the skin. The stretch marks on my bbs are more prominent.

- extreme fatigue. I'm useless during the day. My business has taken a nosedive as a result

- lower abdominal bloating

- I had af-like cramping yesterday, made me think she was coming, but then she didn't. Otherwise its just a pulling, stabbing pain, especially after I've just eaten.

- headaches that haunt my waking existence

- lack of appetite. I literally have to force myself to eat.

- gassy. I've been expelling deep guttural belches up and down the house like the proverbial inebriated sailor. As far as Dh is concerned I've lost all vestiges of womanliness.

- a flu that refuses to manifest into a full blown flu going on a week now. I get stuffed nose when I wake up and runny nose during the day

- I often alternate between feeling hot and cold. The dodgy feeling in my throat is still very much there. Yesterday morning I gagged and threw up while brushing my teeth

- nausea. On and off, not to the point of throwing up, just uncomfortable

- heightened sense of smell. Thankfully it only lasts for about 10 minutes, and I only experienced it yesterday and a couple of days prior. I almost gagged in the bus when peoples breath was for some reason magnified beyond what an ordinary person should smell. When the smell hit me I gagged and jumped out of my seat. I just hope the guy I sat next to didn't think I was a racist or some religious freak with a sudden pang of guilt.

- weepy. While I was waiting at the bus stop a man walked past me. I didn't think much of him until I saw him again 5 stops away. I figured he was too poor to afford a bus ride, felt sorry for him and started crying. I'm not a hard women, neither am I exactly 'in tune' with my emotions. So I found that strange.

- otherness. I feel like I'm not myself, like someone else has entered my skin and is living as me. I know it's weird, but that's how I feel. I feel uncomfortable, short tempered, impatient and everything irritates me. Dh bears the brunt of it all. I felt like punching him yesterday, poor guy.

Icky as I feel, so far all my hpt's are negative. I'm still hoping, although at the back of my mind I won't believe anything until I get a positive confirmation. I keep thinking I'm either suffering from the worst PMS symptoms in the history of my 28yr existence on earth or my hcg is still too low to be picked up by my supposedly sensitive test-from-the-first-day-you-feel-pregnant hpt's. Sheesh!

Know Your PCOS

There are a lot of classifications of PCOS, but I found this helpful article that simplified it into two types. From what I gather if you have Type 1 (like me) are overweight, and particularly if you tend to accumulate your weight around your tummy/waist area, you may be able to reverse your PCOS trough a low Gi or the Insulin Resistance diet and regular exercise without the intervention of medications like Metformin or the pernicious pill.

I see a lot of cysters on online forums that are ttc with fertility treatments without first considering the weight loss option. I have stopped peddling my 'loose weight' mantra because I get the feeling women with PCOS are tired of being told to loose weight. But it is in fact the best, easiest, natural and most healthy way to effective deal with symptoms on a long term basis!

Fertility treatments are not very effective for women that are overweight. I was put on clomid 2 years ago to help with ovulation. Unfortunately at that point I was at my heaviest and reacted badly to it so I stopped after two rounds despite my doctors protests. I wanted a baby, but I just didn't feel I was getting anything out of it and I also knew there was a number of times one can use it before one has to stop. I didn't want to ruin my future chances. 

If you are a 'slim cyster' there are dietary and lifestyle changes that you can still implement to improve  your condition. Either ways PCOS is not a 'death sentence' and while each person is different, I believe in the natural approach first before resorting to drugs/medication as a final resort. Help your body help itself, :)

Two Types of PCOS.

One of the reasons that there is so much confusion about PCOS is that it is not one condition. PCOS can be divided into 2 main types. This is important, because each requires a different treatment. What type are you?

Type 1 PCOS: Insulin-resistant

Classic PCOS has the symptoms of weight gain, failure to ovulate, infrequent periods, infertility, facial hair, acne, hair loss and a predisposition to diabetes. They key feature is high testosterone on blood test.

The high testosterone is actually the side effect, rather than the cause.  In type 1 PCOS, The real underlying issue is insulin resistance.  It is insulin that inhibits ovulation and causes the ovaries to produce testosterone.  It is insulin that is the main cause of weight gain. The symptoms of excessive testosterone, such as acne and facial hair will improve when insulin sensitivity improves.

Insulin resistance is caused by:

• too many carbohydrates in the diet (about 30% of the population cannot cope with a "normal" amount of bread and sugar)
• damaged vegetable oils called trans fat (see below)
• smoking
• environmental toxins such as BPA (see above)
• birth control pill

The correct treatment for Type 1 PCOS is to improve insulin sensitivity.

An endocrinologist will prescribe weight loss with a low GI diet and exercise, as well as a blood sugar lowering drug such as Metformin.  This is approximately the correct approach, but metformin does have side effects such as nausea, diarrhoea and abdominal bloating.  Fortunately, there are natural alternatives to metformin. In my experience, the natural supplements lower blood sugar as well, if not better, than Metformin.

TREATMENT SUMMARY FOR TYPE 1 PCOS.

Diet - When the body is insulin resistant, it simply does not remember how to use carbohydrates for energy.  It can only store them as fat.  At the same time, an insulin resistant body does not have the ability to burn fat stores for energy.  The solution is to restrict carbohydrates for six weeks to "remind" the body how to use them for energy.  You may need to go down to 30 or 40 grams of carbohydrate per day, but you still must eat vegetables for their fibre and nutrition.  Your best source of calories during this time is fat, not protein.  Protein puts a stress on the kidneys, and is also converted easily into sugar, whereas fat is simply burned for energy.

• Eliminate refined sugar from the diet
• Magnesium and chromium - Minerals to improve sensitivity of the insulin receptor
• Gymnema, Fenugreek - Herbs to improve sensitivity of the insulin receptor
• Homoeopathic Insulin & Leptin (See Insulin article)
• Peony & Licorice herbal formula to lower testosterone, which will alleviate acne and facial hair.
• Indole-3-carbinol to assist with oestrogen metabolism and clearance
• Detoxify environmental toxins such as BPA that may be interfering with the insulin receptor
• The Pill is absolutely not an appropriate treatment (see above).

Type 2 PCOS: Non-insulin-resistant

What if you have confirmed PCOS, but your insulin and blood sugar are normal?

The ultrasound may show multiple, undeveloped follicles. LH may be elevated, and periods do not occur regularly.  Testosterone may be high or normal. If testosterone is normal, the acne and facial hair exist because oestrogen is too low (compared to testosteorne). Body weight can be normal.

In insulin-resistant Type 1 PCOS, the ovaries were prevented from ovulating because of insulin.  In type 2 PCOS, the ovaries are prevented from ovulating because of something else. But what?

Here are some possibilities:

• History of the birth control pill (see above)
  
• Vitamin D deficiency
• Hormone disruptors are environmental chemicals that mimic oestrogen (see Sensible News 27)
• Trans-fat (see below)
• Adrenal stress which disrupts ovulation (see Stress article, Low Blood Pressure article, and Sleep article)
• Thyroid disease
  
• Low fat intake
• Leptin imbalance. (Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat stores, and can be deficient, especially if there is a history of an eating disorder. See see Sensible News 40 and 42.)

Metformin is not a treatment for Type 2 PCOS. Nor is the Pill. The Pill will induce monthly bleed this is not actually a treatment. For those women whose PCOS has been caused by the pill, continued use will only worsen the problem.

TREATMENT SUMMARY FOR TYPE 2 PCOS.

• Do not take the birth control pill
• Correct vitamin D deficiency
• Reduce exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals. 
• Detoxify to repair any hormone damage
• Avoid cow's milk to reduce inflammation and clear acne
• Herbal medicine to normalise adrenal hormones
• Homoeopathic folliculinum to induce ovulation
• Peony & Licorice herbal formula to lower testosterone, bring on the periods, and alleviate acne and facial hair.
• The herbal medine Vitex (Chaste tree) can be used with caution. It can aggravate PCOS symptoms in some patients.
• Indole-3-carbinol to assist with oestrogen metabolism and clearance
• Homoeopathic leptin
• Natural Progesterone to suppress LH secretion (from the pituitary) and allow ovulation to occur. For this purpose, a low dose progesterone cream (1%) should be used intermittently. Consult with one of our Naturopaths for more information.
• Bowen therapy or acupuncture to induce ovulation

[Source: http://www.sensible-alternative.com.au/female-hormones/polycystic-ovarian-syndrome]

Shucks!

I actually feel better this evening, almost all my symptoms have disappeared, just like that. I feel a bit better. 

I had a niggling feeling it was all too good to be true. Maybe something is 'trying' to happen but my body hasn't fully healed to carry it through. I don't feel any better emotionally anyway. The whole thing sucks!! I'm going to bed.

8dpo

I woke up this afternoon extremely tired and went back to sleep for 3 more hours. I'm still sleepy with a raging headache pounding away in my head. Yesterday I almost dropped dead due to tiredness. I wish I could sleep all day.

Also started having some sharp pains in where seems to be my left ovary today. I still have the 'balloon' feeling in my lower abdomen. The butt pain, not so much as before.

The right sides of my bbs started hurting yesterday. I've been expecting it but they don't usually hurt this much until a couple of days before af starts. They also seem to have grown bigger and definitely feel heavier.

For the past 4 days I've had what seems to feel like a sore throat. But it's not really a sore throat. Feels more like that scratchy feeling you get in your throat when you're about to have a cold/flu. I feel feverish. My temp is a bit high.

As for cm, it literally feels like the sahara desert down there. It's been that way since I ov which is different because I only go dry a week to when af starts.

I'm trying not to be too excited about feeling this useless, but I would definitely feel miserable if all my symptoms suddenly stopped. Can't wait for my 2ww to be over with. All my hpt tests have come back with a bfn... the whole experience is nerve wrecking to say the least!

5dpo... reeling out the symptoms.

I'm only writing this for the sake of the future so I'll know how I felt during this particular lp. I only have a couple of symptoms so far. The butt pain is not as frequent and persistent as it has been the last few days. It's been coming and going since I woke this morning, lasting only a few seconds and it didn't bother me at all during the night unlike previously when it woke me up a couple of times. I love my sleep, and for something to wake me up, well, I wasn't happy about it!

The twinges are also not as palpable, but I still feel like someone inflated a little balloon and placed it in my lower abdomen. I feel like my belt is too tight when it's where it's always been. General feeling of discomfort down there with an occasional dull aching.

I don't have any cravings or food aversions, though I could very well manufacture them if I wanted to. I've gone through some websites like TwoWeekWait and some of the symptoms are just dodgy. How can you get symptoms when the potential baby is still a bunch of undifferentiated cells clustered together?

Yes, I know I'm a huge critic and the rational part of my brain overrides the emotional part sometimes. I'm just wondering because I know when I'm feeling something and when I want to feel something. I prefer to err on the side of scepticism.

All my symptoms could mean nothing. Dh travels a lot and whenever he's gone for months and we bd I always get dodgy pains afterwards - different kinds of dodgy pains I must say. I wish I had documented last months lp when we hadn't bd so I would know exactly how my normal lp's felt so as to have some kind of yardstick.

Still, the waiting continues!

4dpo... err... I meant 3dpo!

I actually think I ov on Tuesday 13th, so I'm 3dpo. I started having the pain in the butt again today and felt some fluttering in my lower abdomen. It could be nothing. I mean, when you're 'expecting' something every single detail is registered. It's probable I felt the same last month but didn't pay any attention because I wasn't 'expecting' anything. But to be on the safe side, I've stopped taking all my herbs. Just my folic acid and multivits, eating healthy and doing what I've been doing for the past 5 months.   

To be honest I won't be surprised if I get a bfn because we hadn't done the bd in over a month and Dh got back on Sunday, so we did the bd on Sunday and Tuesday. I didn't want us doing it everyday because it turns out he has low sperm count!!!!!! This came as a surprise because he told me everything was okay. I insisted that I had to see the test results myself; he's got just 6 million; that's below half of 'normal' (20 million). I couldn't believe my eyes! 

Where in the world is that 'okay'????? I'm such an idiot. I so wanted to believe everything was okay I didn't bother asking what the figures were. I was pissed off, I still am pissed off, but I'm keeping it in because that will be counter productive. If I had let it rip we'd have ended up having a huge fight and not doing any bd, and Lord knows we can go for days without talking to each other when that happens.

It could be attributed to stress, says the doc, if that's the case (and I hope it is) then there is still hope. We've both been under an incredible amount of stress lately, I'm even surprised I ov in spite of it. It turned out my crippling headaches were stress related not met related because all my blood work came back normal.

It's been bad, seriously, there was a point last month when we thought we wouldn't have a roof over our heads this month. But our prayers were answered at the last minute. The financial crisis hit us HARD. Things have been tough with a capital T. Makes me wonder if I'll have the emotional countenance to carry a child through this trying period. 

I pray for strength!

Butt Pain Extraordinaire!

As far back as I can remember, I always get an incredible butt pain around the time I ov. It's hard to understand what my rectum has to do with my ovaries, but for some weird reason when I'm ov-ing they ARE connected. It's so painful the first few hours that I can't sit down, poop or fart.

For many years now no doctor has been able to tell me what's going on. They usually tell me it's just my hormones and tell me to take pain killers and have a lie down. So I gave up asking for an explanation. But this time the pain has lingered now for over two days, not as intense, but there none the less.

I've been doing some online research, and my symptoms seem to echo those of endometreosis.

Ovulation pain can occur in women who do not have Endometriosis, but this pain will normally be a small twinge. In women with Endometriosis, ovulation pain can be rather acute. Pain usually begins 12-24 hours before ovulation and may last for a few days. It results from the normal enlargement of the ovary during ovulation which causes stretching of endometrial implants and adhesions lying on the surface of the ovary. The pain is often described as ‘stabbing’ and it may radiate throughout the pelvic area and into the buttocks and thighs. 

 I don't WANT to have endometreosis, in fact, I'd rather not have it, but if I did, it would explain the pain and give me some peace of mind - in terms of knowing what the heck has been going on all these years.

My main fear is that it'll affect my chances of conceiving. This won't be the first time that we did the bd while I had ewcm AND the royal pain the butt and nothing happened. If nothing happens this cycle, I'll have to fight to have myself checked out for endometriosis. I'm not going to be told in a patronizing tone to swallow two pills of ibuprofen and lie down!

I don't know why some doctors treat you like a whiny two year old when you complain about menstrual problems. It's like they think it's all in my head and I'm making up stories. Honestly which woman with her head screwed on correctly wants to make up wild stories just so she can have a total stranger poke around her lady bits?

Anyway, I've officially started my 2ww. I already feel miserable, thinking the worse... I pray for strength!

Metformin!

I've been suffering from crippling headaches, fatigue and the shakes for the past week. I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried sending a text on my phone. I couldn't type it out because my fingers were trembling so badly. I halved my Met dosage, but, still no change, so I had to stop taking it altogether.

My body is still adjusting. The shakes have stopped, but the headaches and fatigues haven't. I've had to start eating some sweets just to get my blood sugar back up.

I should have listened to my body. I should NOT have started taking the Met. The consultant didn't test to see if I was IR, he just assumed I was. Not entirely his fault. I'd read how many women ov while on met so I myself was giddy for it. But I really didn't need it. My blood sugar was already under control (eating oats everyday will do that to you).  And whatever insulin resistance I may have had prior was under control and my hormones were balanced and I ovulated just 9 days after I started taking the Met, so I don't believe the Met caused me to ovulate.

I was already living a healthy lifestyle, eating low GI meals, loosing weight and exercising regularly. My cumulative weight loss in a whole month of taking met is equal to what I used to loose in just one week before I started taking Met!

I saw my GP on Tuesday. The first thing he said was to cut the dosage. I told him I already did that a week ago. Then he said I should stop taking it. I told him I did that a few days ago. So he ordered a blood test, just to see if there's any other cause for the low blood sugar. Should get the results in about 10 days.

OV Charting Continued...

3rd to 5th July 2010

Not much change.

6th July 2010. 

I noticed the second line had started darkening so I did two tests just to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. When you pee on a stick (poas) often, you eye tend to start seeing phantom lines. And the second test confirmed that my LH is starting to circulate in my system. Which is good, because these particular tests are extra sensitive and are not recommended for women with PCOS because LH is persistently high which always gives a positive result even though there is no ov.

7th July 2010

A little contradiction here... then again, I don't think I held the pee in for two hours before I did this one, so it's a bit diluted.

8th July 2010

So that's about it for now... according to my Pregnology OV Tracker my extra fertile period starts in a couple of days, meanwhile Dh is still awol. I'm hoping he'll be back in a couple of days because if I do ovulate, I wouldn't want it to go to waste. I've started taking a tbsp of Guaifenesin daily to improve my CM, just in case we do get the opportunity to bd before I ovulate. 

My temping (or my thermometer) is unreliable at the moment. From the look of things I'm a cold blooded mammal with an average (basal body temperature) BBT of 35.5C!

OV Charting 1

I've started ov charting so I can see the progression of things this month. Usually I preferred the don't-ask-don't-tell policy. But now I want to know every single thing that goes down. I'll try and do it at the same time everyday and see how it goes.

2nd July 2010

Gotta keep an eye on this baby so when I do get a LH surge (fingers crossed) I won't think I'm crazy.

For my charting I'm using a opk and also checking my cm.

I'm not sure about temping though. My sleep cycles are erratic, even though I'm trying to even them out. Since I work from home I pretty much work at night and sleep during the day. Which is not good because I don't think I'm getting enough sun light and the unpredictability of sleeping times may have a negative effect on my hormones. But I have to say, I've been finding it hard to regulate myself. I'm naturally a night person... all I do is make sure I get a solid 8 hours of sleep regardless of when I sleep, so I pray that helps.

We definitely want to ov this month! Even though Dh is not back yet... gonna rant about in my next post.