I posted earlier about whether I should have them do a UA for pregnancy being that I'm only 9 DPO. They ended up running one..it was negative BTW.
BUT my Dr. (who is pretty young, delivers through one of the best women's hospitals here in the city of Chicago and is generally NOT old school about anything) told me not to bother with temping. At all. She said it's pretty "old school" advice, doesn't give that great of data, and she said that none of the RE's that she works with recommend bothering with it.
She just wants me to have sex every other day from CD10 - CD19 for at least one more month, then we'll start testing. Definitely NOT every day. And also suggested I get the POS-type OPK's as while they are more expensive, they are a bit more accurate and easier to use while I'm traveling/out on appts all day.
It felt good to get some real advice, and I trust her so I'm going to go with it...I just thought it was so interesting that she was so against the temping. Anyone else's Dr. say that same?
Interesting! I haven't seen my RE yet, and my OB didn't really know anything about, well, anything, it seemed. I've heard that advice, to use the smiley kind of OPKs because they may be easier to interpret. I'm comfy with Wondfos, so I don't mind it, but I don't have the added issue of travel that you do.
Love of my life baby boy born 11/11. One and done not by choice; 3 years of TTC yielded 4 MMC and 2 CPs, through 4 IUIs and 2 IVFs. Focusing on making the world a better place instead...and running.
Oh, and I'm not at all surprised that a urine test at 9dpo without first morning urine would be negative! I wouldn't count yourself out because of that, and I'm kind of surprised that they even bothered.
Love of my life baby boy born 11/11. One and done not by choice; 3 years of TTC yielded 4 MMC and 2 CPs, through 4 IUIs and 2 IVFs. Focusing on making the world a better place instead...and running.
Yeah, my doctor's nurse had this to say about temping, "Oh, honey NO ONE does that anymore....just use OPK's." It hasn't stopped me.
I've known people have had surges confirmed by OPK's...only to find out later they didn't actually ovulate. I'd rather keep temping just to confirm it did happen. Plus, being the data nerd that I am, I like having the charts for reference. My acupuncturist also likes looking at my charts every week. He feels the temps relate to hormones and wants to see the data.
I will say using the OPK's with the smileys (not the flashy smileys) is something I like. I do Wondfo's too alongside them. It seems to me like the Wondfo's catch the surge as it begins for me and the digitals confirm it as it's leaving. A lot of my charts seem to show that.
Huh, that is interesting. I guess for most women it is as easy as just having sex. I can't imagine not charting at this point. Even after babies I'll probably keep charting to avoid since I can't take BCP anymore.
Post by Blackout81 on Jan 30, 2015 19:06:07 GMT -5
I get it. I hear the loud and clear and constant "only temping can confirm O" but unless you have some weirdness going on, why is there any reason to doubt that you have O'd? Most women will ovulate within the time frame that an OPK show. Sure, there's not 100% money back guarantee on a positive OPK, but unless there is reason to believe there's something wrong, they're pretty damn accurate. The advice totally makes sense to me, but charting helps soothe the lack of control with readable, relatively accurate data.
Post by tiptoetulips on Jan 30, 2015 21:02:46 GMT -5
My ob told me not to do it. It is the only thing that has kept me sane especially with 60+ day cycles it kept me from thinking well my left eye is twitching so I must be pg! There was no egg therefore no period. I also have (up until this cycle) been Oing in the 20-25 day range, in fact I got my bfp from Oing on cd 25. It frustrates me that they discount it as much as they do.
I thought charting and opks helped together. The opks showed when I was about to ovulate. The temping show when I did. When I was just charting we were stopping too soon or getting tired of it by CD 17/19. I used opks one month, discovered I ovulated three days after first positive opk. Next month, it was less stressful.
My OB brought up natural methods to me at my very first appointment with him, so if he was okay with charting to avoid, he would probably be fine with charting to conceive.
I have a long cycle and more then one doctor has told me to have sex ED from CD12-17 and I'll be golden.
Well I O fairly consistently on CD 25-29, so having sex on CD12-17 is not going to get me anywhere. Lol
THIS is another reason. All it takes is for stress or sickness to kick in and someone's regular O date gets pushed back....making you miss it.
This is definitely me. I always O at least a couple of days later if I'm stressed. I don't bother temping though. OPKs have always worked well for me, but my 4 (failed) pregnancies confirm that I do ovulate. I think if I had months of positive OPKs, good timing and no BFP, I'd be temping for sure.
I know in the UK, doctors recommend OPKs over temping for TTC simply because temping can only confirm you have already ovulated and your best chance to conceive is to have sex before O.
ETA: This is assuming the patient is just starting TTC. I have no idea what they'd recommend for those who take longer to conceive.
Post by aprilsails on Jan 31, 2015 18:34:51 GMT -5
I am so glad I temped. The two months in which we got pregnant I was sick during my fertile period and my O was pushed back by 4 - 5 days. We might have stopped but I kept on waking up and not seeing a temp rise.
Also, I never once got a true positive OPK in 9 minutes of temping. I gave up on them completely.
If I hadn't temped or used OPKs and only did EOD from 10-19 I wouldn't have known that I typically ovulated on day 21 or 22. I still 100% think it's worth doing.
I think it's still worth doing, especially since it's not super laborious. After my chemical pregnancy my O date was pushed back by 4-5 days for months and I kept getting positive OPKs for many many days in a row which was very confusing. It wasn't until I got my temp rise that I could say for sure I had ovulated.
RE's don't worry about temping because once you get a positive OPK you go into their office and they confirm that you are ready to O with an u/s and trigger you.
So, they replace the need to temp to confirm O with monitoring.
Is this doctor an OB? Because my OB and my RE absolutely used my charting to discern LP issues and ovulation patterns.
I'm a bit At "oh just have sex, temping is worthless" because there are a lot of reasons temping is used, especially if you need to confirm O to start progesterone etc.
Do the manufacturers of OPKs have any influence on ob/gyns? Like perks, etc., in the same way as pharmaceutical sales reps? Honest question. Because I can't figure out why doctors would discourage temping when it's pretty much free, and not that onerous. Sure, it only tells you when you HAVE o'ed, not when you WILL, but it's not rocket science to find the pattern. I have even started associating symptoms with a range of days that in retrospect I know based on temping are roughly O-2 to O. Now I can pretty much tell when I am going to O based on the symptoms, although it's not as concrete in months I don't temp.
I found temping to be easier than the opks. With temping, I just grabbed the thermometer first thing in the morning. I didn't change my wake up times and still could figure out my pattern. With opk, I had to remember to take one to work, remember to stop drinking a lot of water in the afternoon, go to the bathroom discretely with the test, pee into the empty wondfo package, wait for the test. It was best to do both, though.
Post by EllenGriswold on Feb 3, 2015 20:52:46 GMT -5
I think most doctors, especially ob/gyns don't really understand the value of temping. They think since you are trying to get pregnant OPKs are better at letting you know O is getting close, so you have a better chance of having sex in those days. Since temping only tells you after you have O'd, its sort of useless as a way to decide when to bd. For "most" women this is probably true and good advice. HOWEVER, a lot of ob/gyns don't have the first clue about fertility related things, particularly when it is taking longer than "normal" to get pregnant.
I think temping is probably not really necessary for most women who are TTC, however, if it is taking a while, or you have irregular cycles or other reason to believe you might have an issue, temping is a pretty easy, cheap way to get a lot of good info.