The length of your cycle when TTC

[starz01]

Hey everyone

I'm currently TTC and out of curiosity I was wondering whether women with a longer cycle are more disadvantaged and have lower chances of becoming pg?

I have a 31 day cycle. I've always had that length even when I was taking the pill and it has carried on (except for last month as I had an early m/c in March so I had a 34 day cycle).

There seems to be a lot of women on here who have 28 day cycles and from what I understand that is a good thing but what chances do I have at conceiving soon with a 31 day cycle?

All that I know is that obviously those who are on 28 day cycles will ovulate more often because of the cycle is shorter however does this affect ovulation for me being on a 31 day cycle? What is the real difference?

[alish]

in my opinion..as long as you work out when you ovulate it shouldnt be a problem,
i have/had a 31 day cycle.. i tried for a year when i fell pregnant (ectopic) fell pregnant 3 months later (blighted ovum) then couldnt fall pregnant.. after 5 months of testing my obgyn and i finally found out when i ovulated and i fell pregnant the next month!

i used the maybe baby saliva ovulation test, im not sure how others feel about it but i loved it

thats my opinion anyway.. good luck!

[PumpkinZulu]

It's only 3 days, I don't think that's particularly abnormal The thing is to work out when you are ovulating; even women with a 28 day cycle may ovulate in different days.

[Lily Dust]

Ive always had a 28 day cycle and ovulated without fail, took 5 years to get pregnant! You should be O'ing most months (provided all is ok), whether is be day 10 or day 17. I did read an article when TTC about if you O later than day 16 not to TTC but I doubt that is factual so much as someones personal opinion iykwim. Also remembering that a 'normal healthy couple' on average, take 6 months to conceive. So there are huge variations on that. Hope it happens for you soon, hun

[PumpkinZulu]

Ive always had a 28 day cycle and ovulated without fail, took 5 years to get pregnant! You should be O'ing most months (provided all is ok), whether is be day 10 or day 17. I did read an article when TTC about if you O later than day 16 not to TTC but I doubt that is factual so much as someones personal opinion iykwim. Also remembering that a 'normal healthy couple' on average, take 6 months to conceive. So there are huge variations on that. Hope it happens for you soon, hun

That's really weird on the not TTC if you O on day 16 or later! I assume it meant if you have a 28 day cycle and O on CD 16, as that gives you an 11 day LP...I have LP defect and it would vary between 10-15 days, took us two years to get a sticky pregnancy.

I would start with simply charting your cycles, it's pretty easy and not too time consuming, it's the beat way to get a good picture of your own cycle.

[alish]

i think i was ovulating on day 17 or 18.. it seems that long ago but it wasnt

everyone is different babe.. try not to stress too much on things.. but as pz & i said, try to start charting, it really does help! x

[Lily Dust]

That's really weird on the not TTC if you O on day 16 or later! I assume it meant if you have a 28 day cycle and O on CD 16, as that gives you an 11 day LP...I have LP defect and it would vary between 10-15 days, took us two years to get a sticky pregnancy.

It is really weird PZ, I cant think what its called but there was an entire e-book written by an american woman based around not TTC if you O late. She claims that along with a lot of other stuff created her miracle children. Interesting but yes, a little odd

[Trillian]

So long as you still have a good luteal phase, you should be fine on a longer cycle. I have a cycle that varies between 34 and 36 days - sometimes even 38 days and I had absolutely no problem getting pg because I still had a 'normal' 14 day luteal phase

[starz01]

So long as you still have a good luteal phase, you should be fine on a longer cycle. I have a cycle that varies between 34 and 36 days - sometimes even 38 days and I had absolutely no problem getting pg because I still had a 'normal' 14 day luteal phase

I'm actually not sure how many days my luteal phase is. How would I go about working that out?

[PumpkinZulu]

I'm actually not sure how many days my luteal phase is. How would I go about working that out?

You'd count the days from when you ovulate to when you get your period. The 'average' is 15 days from ovulating to the day you get your your period, which makes a 14 day luteal phase. I agree with trill, cycle length doesn't matter so much if you have a good LP. Like I said before, mine was always off and was anywhere between 10-15 days.

[Trillian]

It is the length of time between when you ovulate to when you start your bleed. Have you used OPK's at all? they can help you predict when you are ovulating if you don't have many signs like cramping or EWCM. If your cycle has always been 31 days, then that is your 'normal', just as mine is 34-38 days and some women have 28 days. But all women should still have a 14 day LP, but those of us will have longer between the start of our bleed (cycle day 1) and when we ovulate.

[Mumma T]

Starz,

I may be restating what has already been said so if so I apologise.

The overall days of a cycle can vary widely and it by no means determines whether you can get pg or not. The main days to get familiar with are when you O and when your AF starts. The Luteal phase each month should be the same, which for alot of women is 14days, but can be as short as 10 or 11. O day can vary from month to month but alot of women find that it will be within a few days every month. As the LP is the same each month the day you O will be the factor to any difference in cycle length. I for example O in CD 14 every month and have a 13 day LP hence a 27 day cycle. Using this alone you and I both have the same chance of conceiving in any given cycle. Of course there are many other factors to consider such as DH's swimmer numbers etc but thats a whole other ball game lol

HTH

[starz01]

A big thank you to everyone who has given me their advice and knowledge on here. It's been extremely helpful

I've been a bit worried this month because last month my af went from a 31 day cycle to 34 day cycle and my due date for af has come and gone this month already so I'm waiting until Monday to see if I'll be on a 34 day cycle from now on. It has been such a weird couple of days I could have sworn I was going to get af like clockwork on the 31st day but absolutely nothing. All of my cycle changes has really made me worry that I'll be disadvantaged at falling pg now but from reading everyone's posts I don't think I should be too worried just yet.

I'm pretty sure that I O'd on either the 25th or 26th as I was definitely feeling pains and I haven't started bleeding yet so I guess that might make my luteal phase 17 days so far. That seems a bit long though... so maybe a little shorter than that...