Help

Yeah, you need at least 11-12 days between ovulation and your period. How are you confirming ovulation? Are you tracking basal body temp at all? Or just LH strips?

If you are able to confirm ovulation and your luteal phase is shorter than 11 days, it's worth reaching out to your doctor for advice. They might be able to do some hormone testing to identify the cause of the luteal phase defect.

I’m just using LH strips. When I’ve looked into the basal body temp it sounds quite demanding in terms of doing it at the same time everyday?

I think my luteal is definitely shorter than 11 days. It’s only been my last 2 cycles it’s done this though so very strange.

OK, I have a temp drop, which makes taking BBT super easy. But it's a little expensive. I didn't find it too difficult to do with just a normal oral BBT thermometer. You just do it first thing when you wake up every day. There will just be a little more variation in your numbers if you do it orally. I only mention it b/c it's a much more reliable method to confirm ovulation. It might be a good idea to just try if for a cycle or two to get a sense of whether it's actually that your luteal phase is too short or maybe that you aren't ovulating when you think you are.

but if I’m having positive LH strips? Surely that means I’m ovulating?

the LH test isn't a test of ovulation unfortunately. the LH peak is what signals to your body to start ovulating, so you get the positive LH before ovulation is supposed to happen. In order to confirm ovulation youd need a blood test in your luteal phase from the GP

thank you! It’s getting an appointment during that luteal phase is just going to add to my list of problems haha

the GP wont be likely to help you unless you've been trying for a year.

I think that’s really unfair tbh. The problems I’m having atm are not normal for me. And I know I’m not going to get pregnant if I keep having them 🤷🏼‍♀️. I’m not waiting a year

unfortunately that's the criteria for fertility testing across the UK. I think they would count this as a fertility investigation

My GPs saw me after 6 months of trying (I was 28 so not seen early due to an advanced age), they ran tests and confirmed my progesterone was low in my Luteal Phase. I was referred to a Fertility Consultant and had my 1st appointment at just under a year of trying. She ran further tests on both me and my husband before starting me on Clomid which did temporarily lengthened my LP slightly but after 6 months on it I didn’t fall pregnant. My husbands blood tests showed he had poor sperm morphology, however, they do not do any further testing on the NHS for men, it’s all focused on the woman so we were put on a waiting list for IVF. We were due to start IVF in Dec ‘23 and decided to pay privately for an Andrologist who found that his morphology issues were due to a strep infection and he started a course of antibiotics. We never started IVF as we fell pregnant naturally in September and now have an 11 week old.

Push for testing and if you have to, lie about how long you’ve been trying 🤫

thank you 🤞🏻 I have a phone appointment next week to discuss ultrasound results so I’ll push for it then

hey I was wondering if you had any success with a referral through the GP/testing? My luteal phase is 6 days which seems insane!

hey! Yeah my ultrasound was fine and since then I’ve actually had private blood tests etc which have all come back fine. My boyfriend has just had a private semen analysis and his results shows some abnormalities so waiting for a consultation on Thursday to confirm our next steps

what abnormalities came up for your husband?

low volume and his sperm is an odd shape too. So being referred to another specialist to see what next steps are. He’s been recommended to take proxeed (I forgot to ask how long he needs to take it for though) and also impryl was mentioned but we haven’t gone for that one yet.