Hello all,

This is my first post here (well 2nd I've posted the same in the ovulation kit forum). Please excuse my embarrassing ignorance about my own menstrual cycle and conception in general - a byproduct of my Catholic upbringing I think - I've spent my entire life terrifed of getting pregnant and now that I want to, I'm reading books but still confused!

So last month for the first time in my life ( I measured my cycle length. Until now I've always thought that I am a regular 28 day kinda girl but haven't paid much attention. Anyway - it was 22 days! Which seems pretty short to me. My husband and I started trying "properly" last month, which basically meant BDing around about day 14. I did try looking for egg white type mucus but couldn't really find any.

This month I started using a OK from day 6 (as advised on the instructions), but now I'm on day 13 of this cycle already and there's nothing - only ever one line on my stick.

Now I realise I am probably worrying very prematurely, but is this a bit wierd?

Do some people not ovulate at all - could I not be ovulating? Can our ovulation days occur at massively different points each month? Can my cycle be completely different each month (ie 22 days one month and 30 another?)

Any advice gratefully received - I can see that there's a great deal of knowledge on here. I'm now looking back on all those times that we "took risks" and wondering if it wasn't a case of "luck" that I didn't fall pregnant, or something else?

Hi, welcome to bnb!! If your cycles are 22 days long (and you won't really know if that is your 'norm' until you've noted down a few cycles) then you're probably likely to O before cd14. Most women start their af (period) 10-16 days after they O, so you could have O'd on cd4 (unlikely, but possible) or cd12, or somewhere in between obviusly. Or you may have a short luteal phase (period of time between O & yr next cycle) in which case this needs looking at as anything less than 10 days is considered to short for a fertilised egg to have time to implant. I think if yr cycles do turn out to always be 22 days, you should talk to yr doctor about this as it does seem quite short.

As for the opt's - some women never get positives even though they are ovulating, or might have just missed the surge if they're only testing once a day (yr surge could happen and then be gone in a few hrs in which case if you don't happen to test at the right time, you'll miss it)

Good luck, sending lots of your way

ooh.. thanks very much - that's a very helpful post.. I didn't realise that I could miss the surge. So I may have already ovulated? God - I can see that these sticks are going to become an obsession and a potentially expensive one at that!

I guess I need to relax about it this month and count my cycle again to see if I really am always 22 days and then maybe next month do a couple of tests a day!

didnt wanna read and run....welcome to Bnb xxxx lovely girls on here. xx we are all after the same thing so dont be scared to ask anything u like xxx

Yeah you may have already O'd, but I say keep as you might not have yet!

You can get cheap opt's off Ebay - I got 50 for about £5.00, maybe a little bit more. I've never had a positive either (but blood tests have confirmed that I am ovulating), but I've only ever done 1 a day & have sometimes missed days, so now I am doing 3 a day!!

u arent doing these opk with first morning urine r u ?

I'm not no, tend to do them at lunch time, late afternoon & evening

no.. I started doing them at about 6:30pm-ish and the last few days mid-morning as I've had a week off. I'll go back to early evening from Monday when I'm back to work.

You should consider charting your temps. From what I've read, you could miss the surge with opts, and that's much more likely if you don't use fmu. Charting gives a better idea of how long your cycle is and how long your luteal phase is (and it's cheaper ). Your luteal phase is constant, but the follicular phase can vary from month to month. So if you o on CD10 this month and you have a 14 day luteal phase, your cycle will be 24 days, but next month you might o on CD 20, and it will be 34 days.

Good luck

I posted this reply on another one of your posts...not sure if you read it
I'm not an expert, but I can tell you about my experiences...
I started keeping track of day and figured I am between 27-29 days. But I didn't know when I O-ed. I wasn't very good at "feeling" when I O-ed (slight twinges and the whole CM thing doesn't turn my crank!) So I signed up for Fertilityfriend.com to track my temperatures. I found that helped, because it tells you bang on! The only thing is it wonb't tell you until 3 days after it's happened because you need 3 days of high temps before it clicks in.
As for the OPK's I bought a whole bunch of IC's and found that what time of day you pee on them (sorry TMI) is key. My first morning urine brought up nothing. Sometimes my 1pm would and sometimes it wouldn't. But The 5 pm test was pretty much always a positive for the 3 days around my o-time. (you can check out my chart at the bottom of my sig!)

But just because I got a Positive OPK and my temperature spiked, doesn't mean I actually released an egg. We'll see in 9 days!
If you go on to FF you can search for charts like yours and see Positive pregnancy results for people that have a 22 day cycle, so it can happen!
FX for you!
Hope you like it on BandB!