No positive ovulation test?

[DSPurple]

We seem to be the poster couple for strange situations in our IVF/ICSI journey.

For context - Following my previous posts (1 failed fresh transfer overlapping into a failed natural pregnancy) we were given the option of natural or medicated for our next transfer (embryo 2 of 4). We opted for natural as my cycles were fairly regular and consistent. Of course my body then threw me under the bus and gave me an elongated cycle at 31 days (no positive pregnancy tests so not likely to be chemical pregnancy, initial 1 week of spotting not counted as my period and then 6 days full bleeding).

Next step was to test for ovulation from day 8 twice a day - I am now on day 18 with no positive and I feel like I'm losing my mind - have I stopped ovulating? Did I miss it? Will we need to await another month to do this transfer? It feels like soooooo long since our first transfer in January 😟

[Greenleaves1]

It'll come in time, I remember feeling the same and got so stressed about it. Are you seeing any build up in the lines?

[DSPurple in reply to Greenleaves1]

I was using the Clearblue smiley face which has always been empty. I got an error in that on Mon evening so I grabbed some cheap ones and they showed a faint line then and in the morning. I had more Clearblue arriving so went back to them yesterday and they've stayed blank. I did another one with lines before bed last night and it was totally blank. I just wish I knew what was going on in there 😅

Did yours run quite late too?

[BlahBlah55 in reply to DSPurple]

I have found that the pee sticks are more reliable than the digital tests. It allows you to really watch the progression of the LH in a way that you can't on the digital.

Sounds like your ovulation just hasn't happened yet, and I'm sure it'll come any day now!

Having done a few natural cycle IUIs I know how anxious it can be trying to catch ovulation as the surge can happen very quickly.

On one cycle I did both the CB digital and the 'easy at home' pee sticks and the digital one totally missed my ovulation, it just had the blank circle every day, whereas the pee stick test was visibly getting darker and caught my ovulation (which was confirmed by a scan during the IUI). Sorry if that's an unhelpful thing to say at this point, but just sharing it might be worth doing a back up pee stick alongside the digital tests.

[DSPurple in reply to BlahBlah55]

No not at all, I appreciate you sharing for better or worse! I am wondering if I have missed it, just so typical that usually my cycle is so regular and this time I had a really long previous cycle which seems to have shifted things.

[Greenleaves1 in reply to BlahBlah55]

When you take the stick out of the digital you'll see the build up on the strip the same as the cheap ones. It's what I used to do before I decided to stop wasting money lol.

[Greenleaves1 in reply to DSPurple]

Probably by about 4/5 days later after my first IVF cycle. Now my cycle is around 27/28 days.

[WillowPark]

Hi DSPurple. I'm dealing with the same thing. Tested day 10 to 24 of a 28ish day cycle for our first natural FET (6th embryo transfer) with the clearblue tests. We abandoned the cycle on day 24 after discussion with the clinic and no smiley face. My period arrived on day 27 and we had no positive ovulation test despite testing every 12 hours. I definitely didn't miss it, it wasn't there to see! x

[DSPurple in reply to WillowPark]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. It does make me feel better to know that maybe I didn't miss it either or do something wrong somehow. No pressure to answer, but did you move straight on to a medicated cycle or do another natural cycle? I would love to stay with a natural cycle, but I don't think I can do this all over again.

[WillowPark in reply to DSPurple]

I'm doing another natural FET but with additional scans and blood tests to see if they can track the ovulation this time. This is our sixth cycle and after 5 failures and over a year on and off the medication we were really keen to try to make it work with less medication, so are giving it another shot. I wouldn't have gone ahead with another natural without the additional checks though as it is so disappointing to have wasted another month! Plus the pressure of it being my body which has let us down...

[DSPurple]

It arrived!! Updating in case anyone else sees this post and is worried - positive ovulation test yesterday evening on day 19!