I got pregnant with my first child all on my own. However, with my second pregnancy (which, unfortunately, ended up in an early miscarriage) and my third pregnancy, I used the OvaCue to help me determine when my most fertile day was each month. And it worked like a charm! For both my second pregnancy and my third pregnancy, I got pregnant on my very first month of trying. Needless to say, it is the best money I have ever invested.
It is important to note that this little miracle worker only works for women who have regular monthly periods. It is not cheap but it really is a gem of a product. It is the first and only ovulation predictor that I have ever had to use.
Below is a video clip about OvaCue. It is a little over four minutes long but if you watch the first minute you will get a sense of what it looks like and, more importantly, how it works. For more information, the product’s website is located at: http://www.zetek.net/
He was concerned about his inheritance or somethin…
Honestly, I don’t quite understand it. If its money, it wouldn’t be an issue. The child WILL be adopted by my partner within 3 months because we live in the great state of Illinois, Cook County in particular.
I was seriously disappointed for a day or so. Then I dusted myself off and started searching through donor profiles. I was a little disgusted that M wasn’t as interested to sort through them, but I realize that its still a little early. But when I ovulate, I get crazy–either extremely baby crazy, or just totally wild. Like I want to dress like a whore…grab my red lipstick and say “SEE YA!”
At first, I was so disappointed with the frozen donor options now. We very much wanted to begin again with a fresh outlook with the frozen donor. We’ve always wanted Colombian, but now I feel that its more important to just be Hispanic and preferrably taller. Our previous donors were hovering around “short” and maybe that just doesn’t work well with my genetics. I like tall men, period. But all of our donor options were slim or IUI only; I started to feel so cursed. And then we found a perfect option. At least, I’m convinced that he’s the PERFECT option and a belief in something so strong has to be positive for our outcome, right! He’s incredible. Tall, hispanic, creative…
That’s all we need.
And then today…I got a positive OPK for THE FIRST TIME!!! I’ve never had one of those fuckin plastic things smile at me about anything! Whew! However, the big downer is that last month I seem to have ovulated on Day 19…this month its looking like Day 22. That sucks.
Day 22 for a surge just really sucks. But my egg white was amazing, albeit a little early…and my temperatures are completely stable thanks to acupuncture.
Its the one month countdown to begin.
Welcome back Spring! We’re ready.
[roll the tape.]
See how this complicates things whether you want pregnancy or want to avoid it
And yes, stress has something to do with it
In the previous post, I wrote that we would suggest that the terminology that speaks of sub-fertility or reduced fertility is misleading. If you did not stumble over it wondering why, then I am glad for you (I should say, for both of you!). Because you “got it” and will now think of taking some appropriate steps, and those will NOT be to your insurance agent and/or – more likely – to your bank!
Because you understand that, until proven otherwise, your situation should be termed one of “instant conceptive gratification cannot be had probably due to wrong timing”. Nothing reduced or sub- about that! And, the adjective “conceptive” is meant to indicate that the hope is that the other kind of gratification has obtained. The one I referred to as physio-pleasure, but that would be a topic for another time…
Let me remind you of the gist of the previous article with this picture. -
Collage of 3 pics with 15-WordlegreetingsfrombioZhenasf-3
The collage is meant to be suggestive of the message from bioZhena. After some disappointments – if no steps were to be taken to determine the right time (aka kairos time, in the terminology of ancient Greeks) – with the help of our Ovulona you will get the pregnancy that you wish for.
This happy end is represented in the third part of the composite graphic, which part is what they call a wordle. It is a wordle of this here bioZhena’s Weblog, showing the first 15 most frequently used words in the blog as of a few months ago (the font size is a measure of the respective words’ usage frequency). I called the piece “15-Word(le) Greetings from bioZhena’s Follicular Waves”, as the waves are hinted at there, are they not. Learn about the follicular waves, or rather about Folliculogenesis In Vivo™ [FIV™], and you will get what you wish for.
Since you are not likely to have reviewed the menstrual variability references given in the previous post, I will document the notion of wrong time with our data. I mean the data from a small clinical trial carried out with a prototype of our core technology, the Ovulona™ for home use. This trial was performed by an independent group at Marquette University NFP clinic – with patients attending the clinic to learn NFP for one of two reasons: either because they experienced difficulties in achieving pregnancy, or because they wanted to learn NFP [Natural Family Planning] as a means of birth control. Or, maybe, they wanted to use NFP for both, at different phases of their lives.
We can look at data of 10 women, 2 cycles each, reviewing here the ovulation data obtained with said prototype of our Ovulona device.
The data are systematically documented (along with two reference methods for comparison) in the attached 1-page document (Variability of menstrual cycles), and I am doing my utmost to boil it all down for you to as brief a briefing as possible.
Listing of two consecutively detected ovulation days (ovulation marker detected by our device), and noting whether the cycle was subsequently categorized as regular or irregular, goes like this:
The list goes on, and you should know that “irregular” means “challenged”, and means something of a problem that our modern lifestyle presents to the biology of our women.
One patient provided data from her four cycles, and the variability was – not surprisingly – even more pronounced (-5 days, +5 days, -3 days):
Patient #9
18 (irregular)
13 (regular)
Patient #9
18 (irregular)
15 (regular)
The following table shows the wide spread of the differences between ovulation days in two consecutive menstrual cycles of 10 women attending said NFP clinic.
Summary of 10 patients, 2 consecutive cycles each
Patient #
Ovulation days in 2 consecutive cycles
Difference between those cycles
Regular cycles or not
Age
Has given birth already or not
1
16, 17
+1
both regular
35
mother
2
14, 17
+3
2nd irregular
33
mother
3
17, NA
NA
first regular
42
mother
4
15, 14
-1
both irregular
33
mother
5
20, NA
NA
first regular
30
mother
6
19, 18
-1
both irregular
38
mother
7
16, 15
-3
both regular
29
no children
8
21, 24
+3
2nd irregular
19
no children
9
18, 13
-5
first irregular
41
no children
10
10, 12
+2
2nd irregular
22
no children
Differences from -5 to +3 days are recorded in this small sample, and the one woman with 4 cycle records showed +5 days, too, which illustrates that the more cycles are followed, the larger the spread of ovulation days becomes (this is “cycle irregularity” in the conventional, usual sense).
Our meaning of regularity is indicated and documented in the attached summary, “Variability of menstrual cycles”. Regular cycles are those where our ovulation marker is within 1 day of LH peak or of the day of Peak mucus (Pk).
Our meaning of irregularity is defined as those cycles where the ovulation marker day data is not within 1 day of said hormone-detecting parameters (LH and estrogen, respectively), and is always higher – signifying delayed ovulation (delayed with respect to the hormonal signals).
As I said above, “irregular” in our parlance means “challenged”, and it means something of a problem that our modern lifestyle presents to the biology of our women. More often than not, the challenge is stress, which I discussed in this blog earlier in at least two posts. Our FIV technology (aka the Ovulona personal monitor) detects the effects of stress, and helps to deal with the consequences in terms of its effect on fertility status.
George Robitaille, the TTC worker made famous by his accidental catnap on the job, was apparently something of a hero to the department in 1994.
According to the Toronto Sun, way way back in ‘94 Robitaille was a Wheel-Trans driver, and saved a man who had fallen inside his house and was slowly hemorrhaging in his lungs.
In addition to this seriously Awesome story, all of Robitaille’s fellow works say he’s a really nice guy.
Man, talk about feeling guilty for laughing. Why couldn’t he just be a douche?
2. New theories are out trying to explain the mysterious disappearance of bees in North America over the last couple of years.
If anyone saw that The Nature of Things episode about it, you’d bee just as scared as I am — according to the Toronto Star, bees, thanks to pollination, are responsible for one in every three bites of food that we eat here in Canada.
New research indicates that the mystery can bee attributed not to M. Night Shyamaramalama, or terrorism, or evil radio waves, but rather to a tiny crab-like mite no bigger than a pen dot.
Raise your hand if you think that’s Even More Terrifying.
Bees started disappearing in large numbers two years ago, but luckily since most things freeze here in Canada, bee populations were still sticking around and available to bee researched.
Newer theories now include: Terrorism using tiny mites to kill our food supply. Or, Aliens.
Bee Prepared.
3. A bus driver in Nova Scotia who took his wheels for a wash in the Tracadie River Saturday apparently has a history of automotive swimming.
Acadian Lines, the company that owns the bus, revealed that this is the second time in a year that the same driver has gone off course to more aqueous terrain.
The driver, Kenneth Mitchell, is in hospital recovering from his injuries, which are not life-threatening.
Maybe his “skills” would be better served at a different company?
4. From the Abilities No One Wants department, it turns out that men can use their sense of smell to find a woman who is ready for baby-making.
A new Florida State University study, which had undergraduate men smelling t-shirts worn by women who were ovulating and women who weren’t, found that the shirts coated with Eau d’Ova increased the testosterone levels in males, and were rated the most pleasant smelling.
Finding calls for gender-specific treatments for some diseases, researchers say
TUESDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDay News) — The brains of men and women handle stress differently and that alters the way their bodies experience chronic diseases such as depression, cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disorders, U.S. researchers report.
The scientists used functional MRI to monitor the brain activity of healthy men and women viewing stress-triggering images. The women underwent brain scans twice, once at the start of their menstrual cycle and once during ovulation.
At the start of their menstrual cycle, the women’s brain activity in response to stress was similar to men. But the men’s response to stress was much higher when compared to women during ovulation.
“We found that women have been endowed with a natural hormone capacity to regulate the stress response in the brain that differs from men,” study author Jill Goldstein, director of research at the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said in a news release from the hospital.
The most significant differences were detected in brain regions that control the autonomic arousal response. The findings suggest that gender differences in stress response circuitry are hormonally regulated through the control of arousal.
“The results were striking given that men and women reported experiencing the stressful stimuli similarly even though their brains were activating differently,” Goldstein said.
She noted that diseases affected by stress often present differently in women and men.
“Therefore, understanding sex differences in stress regulation in the brain can provide clues to understanding the nature of these chronic medical disorders. Mapping out sex-specific physiology in the brain will also provide the basis for the development of sex-specific treatments for these diseases,” Goldstein said.
The study appears online Jan. 13 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Today is CD25 and as yet, as the title says… no ovulation.
I had my pelvic scan on friday. They did the usual ultrasound through my tummy, then they did a transvaginal ultrasound which hurt quite a bit – I assume because my uterus is retroverted.
She said I had polycystic ovaries… and I told her I already knew that – do people ever read notes anymore? I was diagnosed with PCOS 5 years ago FFS.
Anyway, she also said I have either small fibroids or adenomyosis, which is – I quote, a “condition characterized by the presence of ectopic endometrial tissue (the inner lining of the uterus) within the myometrium (the thick, muscular layer of the uterus)”. It’s not endometriosis – although it sounds the same, apparently it’s a different thing altogether. She couldn’t say if it was that or fibroids because she said they both present as abnormal lining texture on the ultrasound. Now I’ve researched a bit, I’ve read both can cause miscarriage so that might be the diagnosis I was ‘looking ‘ for. I’ll have to wait to see the Fertility Specialist to see what she plans to do.
I also asked if she could see what was happening with ovulation because I was on cycle day 23 and there had been nothing happening to suggest I had or was going to ovulate. She said there is a dominant follicle, but having pcos it might not mature. Hmph.
I also got my bloods done, and they tested everything…. so I’ll see what happens there.
In other news, my temps are still low, and I have bits of egg white cervical mucus, but it’s scant and there’s also alot of creamy with it. It’s not how it’s supposed to be I don’t think. On top of that we haven’t had sex in a week, so… not great.
I always seem to feel like complete crap before ovulation. I can feel all of that estrogen building up and I am wavering between biting people’s heads off and feel just plain depressed. Luckily, I haven’t had any crying jags, but I’m sure those will come. Okay, I’m coming back to this post a couple hours later, and I have to report that tears have already made an appearance. Damn it.
Going back to work was just peachy today. (I know, the sarcasm probably isn’t coming across like I’d like it too…) I think my boss’s New Year’s resolution was to BUG THE CRAP OUT OF ME as much as possible. Ugh. Luckily, he’ll be traveling Thursday and Friday, so I’ll get a break from his obnoxiousness.
Good news is I did get a couple bites on the resumes I sent out last week, and may have even lined up an interview for the end of this week. Bad news is that DH is still negotiating with his hopefully future employer, but it may not work out after all.
I can’t really think about anything else except the fact that I’m super stressed, and that it’s cd13 and there is no indication (from cm anyway) that ovulation will happen soon. That would just be lovely if I had another delayed ovulation because of stress.
AARGH!
And my temps have dropped again – into the 96’s again instead of the lovely (albeit still low) 97’s like last month. Thank you stress.
Well, next week at least I get to see Dr. Jen again. This is the doctor who does integrative medicine and who ordered all of the saliva tests/bloodwork/urine load test (for iodine). I have the blood test results back, and am just hoping the others are finished before my appointment on the 13th. I called the labs to check before making the appointment, and if they turn out not to be ready I’m going to have to reschedule. I can’t afford to set two appointments, since I have to pay these out of pocket. I did give myself a week buffer in case things were running late, so hopefully everything’s done…
I’m pretty sure there was something else I wanted to write about, but it escapes me at the moment. Oh well, I need to go to bed anyway. Nighty night everybody .
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