I don't know what's going on with my cycles . I'm not sure if there is something wrong or if my body is just still out of whack. DH and I are only 8 months into trying to conceive our first baby, which may not be that long in reality but feels like it's taking forever.

sorry if this feels like a long vent.

the story so far:

•Before my m/c my cycles were 28-32 days.
•I had a m/c at 5w 3d in early december with no complications.
•after my m/c my AF returned 28 days from when the bleeding stoped exactly. then the next cycle was 28 days with Ovulation on day 16. so it was all looking great!
•Next cycle I run out of OPKs on day 22 with no sign of ovulation at that point. My AF arrived VERY late at CD38 (10 days late!) .

So that brings us to this cycle. I'm on CD29, I haven't ovulated i think??? I've had darkish OPKs that aren't positive, and EWCM on CD22 and CD28. which is getting frusterating. I've felt hormonal and fatigued all month to varying degrees. I usually break out just before AF on the face- this time i broke out weeks before and now have terribly dry skin.

so it feels like my hormones are doing their own thing! It's been 4.5months since the miscarriage and I really want to feel like I have some control over my body and understand what it's doing. I should be back to normal by now shouldn't I? how long did it take you to have a normal cycle and ovulate after your early m/c?

I'm also not sure how many months I should wait without ovulating before i should see a doctor? I know I can be a bit of a worrier and it's still only early.

TIA!

I am so sorry about your loss. I had a miscarriage the Christmas before last at 6 weeks. My cycle was screwed up for about six months, including some very heavy bleeding and awful mood swings. It was like I was 20 again. I did go to see my GP about it all because I hadn't felt like I did for more than 15 years. It turned out that nothing was found to be wrong and the next month things settled back to normal. That was about six months after the miscarriage and a few months after that I was pregnant again. I am now 26 weeks along and impatient for July.

I would recommend having a chat with your GP, to get things checked out and to put your mind at rest. Your GP will be able to tell you if you need some help to get your body back to normal.

I hope that you can feel better soon.

Thanks Catherine3782. It's always helpful to hear from those who have been in your shoes. I might see how the next cycle goes (being the 5th cycle since m/c) and if I'm still having issues I'll head to the GP. I'm not too worried about the strange lengths of cycle, just concerned about whether Ovulation is happening. I'm getting darker lines tonight (CD29) on OPKs but I'm not convinced they're positives.

Feeling frusterated at those the people who told me "you always fall pregnant straight after a m/c"....what a load of rubbish!

Hi there.........I can completely understand how you feel right now! I had a MC last July and my cycles were screwed up for months afterwards. Before the MC I used to cycle regularly around 28-29 days, but afterwards I had two short cycles (around 24-25 days), one long one (40 days), then cycles got shorter and shorter until there were only 17 - 19 days in a cycle. I started seeing a naturopath who put me on Vitex and Maca herbs to help work on my hormone levels, and I think it helped because after 3 months I started cycling around 26 days again (a hell of a lot better than 17 days!!!!) However, during this whole time I had zero signs of ovulation (eg no EWCM, no ovulation pain, POAS tests all negative or only a very faint second line), so I got a referral to a FS who put me on Clomid (we've been TTC for over 12 months now, so it was time to try a different strategy anyway). I've only had one round of Clomid so far (in late January) but it certainly kick started my ovulation again. Cycles are also regular 28 days now. So all up it's taken 9 months to get back to normal after the MC.

Apparently it's not unheard of for ovulation to go missing after a MC. I'd definitely go to the doctor and ask about getting tested to see if you are ovulating. You know your body best, so you know if something's not right. The sooner you know what's going on, the sooner you can decide what you want to do about it. If you want to wait it out, or if you want to get treatment, it's up to you, but at least you'll know instead of wondering and stressing.

Good luck :-)

And I also hate hearing that old line about getting pregnant straight after a MC. Yeah, it happens to some lucky people, but it sure as heck didn't happen for me.

I would try taking Vitex.

thanks ladies, just to update I have started taking Vitex and have bought a basal thermometer to start charting properly.

Since I'm now on day 37 (so 10 days late) i went to the GP today. she's taken a whole heap of bloods to see if i've ovulated and how my levels are. results are back on wednesday next week and if it's not great then she'll send me onto a fertility specialist for Clomid.

if i get my AF in the next few days that will probably mean i'll miss the boat for clomid this next cycle so It would be a June start i guess.

I figured out the last time i *think* i ovulated was 12 weeks ago! so i'm keen to figure out whats going on and move forward.

hi spring chikadee
I also noticed after my miscarriage ( last October, at 11 weeks), my cycle has been alot longer, and i wasnt sure that i ovulated last cycle either... I spoke with my gp about it, and she got me to do a blood test to see my hormone profile at 21 days.... I m still waiting to get the results.

I'm also starting to see a chinese doctor/acupucturist,
and he said that it's a huge trauma to the body when you have a miscarriage, and in my case, i had a D&C procedure.
So the longer cycle (mine is 33-37 days) indicates that my body has not recovered yet. And the stress of everything is affecting my hormones and organs. First thing is we have to work on my stress levels, and get my cycle back to around 30 days. I'm really hoping that this will work.

Hey Spring Chickadee,

My DH and I started TTC in December and mc in March and I've only just got AF late last month..... 60 DAYS IN TOTAL!!! I've read so many different stories: yes, you will conceive straight after mc / AF might not return / AF might return.... Soo much conflicting info but I think that just basically says that everybody is different and there is no right or wrong. We tried again straight after mc (as I also thought you had better chances of conceiving) and our doc gave the go ahead as they recommend waiting in case you are not mentally ready to go ahead. I think I only had EWCM on CD24 and then no AF til CD60? Confusing hey!

I know how you feel, it feels like it's taking forever. DH and I were talking about it the other day and the way it works out .. if you have a mc and by the time things get back to "normal", potentially a long time has passed since you began "trying" - so does that count to if after trying for 12 months you should see your doctor as normal couples fall conceive within 12 months of trying? Because technically we've only tried once and it did work the first time but just didn't stick! Women's bodies are crazy hay

There is some light at the end of the tunnel. I was being really meticulous earlier on, counting days, peeing on a stick every 5 minutes but now I kinda felt as though when I paid too much attention, it was more stressful (because I knew too much if you know what I mean). This time, I'm going a bit more into shutdown mode and instead of freaking out counting, calculating, tapping my fingers waiting patiently for 2 blue lines, I have a rough idea of when Ov is due and we can just consistently BD (no complaints from DH). I have so many other things to do in my daily life......why am I spending all my time on this?!?! It's exciting when you first make that decision and you kind of think yep great let's make it happen NOW.....but really, there's no rush is there. My new theory is once I am pregnant, I will not have the same great moments with DH...they will still be great, but not the same. So we're enjoying every minute and having fun with the process!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!