2 vials of sperm; mixed fertility signs - any help?

mypalbabs · March 2012

We have two vials of donor sperm in a cryo tank in the kitchen (delivered yesterday).

My partner's signs all point to fertile: eggwhite mucus, cervix is high, soft, and open, and her temp has not yet risen.

We've been doing OPK tests 3x/day. However, we have yet to get a positive OPK (using Clearblue and Wondfos).

My questions: could we have missed a middle-of-the-night LH surge? How long does a LH surge last? Should we go ahead and inseminate?

I'll try to post her chart.

My Ovulation Chart

LolaBelle515 · March 2012

You obviously get to make this important decision--it's your family:) For us, the time that we conceived, DW didn't get a OPK+ on a Saturday morning... but she insisted we try that morning because of her CM. We tried a second time on Sunday night.

She got a negative on Saturday night, a + on Sunday morning, and a - on Sunday night. The other test (we used two different kinds) was negative every single time. Her temp didn't spike until Tuesday morning.

And here we are...32 weeks later:) She swears it was listening to her body that made it work that time around.

mypalbabs · March 2012

First - congratulations!

Second - thank you. All of this technology can be seductive but also maddening. Because her CM and CP look so great, we're going to do the first insemination this afternoon and probably the second on Saturday or Sunday.

LolaBelle515 · March 2012

Fingers crossed! I see you're also in the Twin Cities--let's hope all this warm weather and the signs of new life mean new life for you guys, too:)

ball.and.chain · March 2012

This input may be a little late but I just wanted to say -- if you are using OPKs 3x/day I don't think you could miss a surge. I've read that people can have 12-hour surges (which you could miss if you only temp 1x/day) but I think anything less then than 8 hours would be pretty unusual. Assuming the OPKs are accurate, that would mean she hadn't surged yet as of your post -- but I've also had occasional weird results with OPKs (one month I got different results with different tests, last cycle my b/w indicated I was surging but the OPK didn't pick that up), so if you are confident about her other signs, then go for it!

The only other thought I had looking at her chart is that the fact that she's recorded several days of EWCM and no days of watery makes me wonder if she's interpreting watery CM as EWCM. I don't mean to insult your (or her) CM knowledge and I have no idea how much experience you have with this, but I know I always get several days of W before I get to EW. Of course, every woman is different (and to some extent every cycle is different). The only other thing I wondered is how long she's been temping and whether this is around the time that she usually ovulates. I've had late and early ovulation but the vast majority of my cycles have all been CD 19 or 20 -- so if you are in the range of when she's detected ovulation in the past, that might be a good indicator too.

mypalbabs · March 2012

ball.and.chain:
This input may be a little late but I just wanted to say -- if you are using OPKs 3x/day I don't think you could miss a surge. I've read that people can have 12-hour surges (which you could miss if you only temp 1x/day) but I think anything less then than 8 hours would be pretty unusual. Assuming the OPKs are accurate, that would mean she hadn't surged yet as of your post -- but I've also had occasional weird results with OPKs (one month I got different results with different tests, last cycle my b/w indicated I was surging but the OPK didn't pick that up), so if you are confident about her other signs, then go for it!
The only other thought I had looking at her chart is that the fact that she's recorded several days of EWCM and no days of watery makes me wonder if she's interpreting watery CM as EWCM. I don't mean to insult your (or her) CM knowledge and I have no idea how much experience you have with this, but I know I always get several days of W before I get to EW. Of course, every woman is different (and to some extent every cycle is different). The only other thing I wondered is how long she's been temping and whether this is around the time that she usually ovulates. I've had late and early ovulation but the vast majority of my cycles have all been CD 19 or 20 -- so if you are in the range of when she's detected ovulation in the past, that might be a good indicator too.

We did an insemination Friday based on her cervical position and CM (both of which were great). We're using a Tomcat catheter for ICI and her os was nice and open.

Finally got a positive OPK this morning, so we did the second insemination, but found that her cervix had started to close already.

Inseminations were about 20 hours apart.

I feel like we have a good handle on CM (based on extensive studying). The perplexing part is that her OPKs over the past two months seem a little late to be helpful. (I say this because as soon as we saw the positive OPK we went in and found the os mostly closed and harder to navigate.)

She may be one of the statistically few for whom OPKs aren't the best signal.

I'll certainly keep you posted in two weeks!

mypalbabs · March 2012

LolaBelle515:
Fingers crossed! I see you're also in the Twin Cities--let's hope all this warm weather and the signs of new life mean new life for you guys, too:)

Absolutely! We took the dogs for a long walk in the park yesterday and were just stunned at how warm and pleasant the weather was!

ball.and.chain · March 2012

GL! Sounds like everything other than the OPKs is lining up, so hopefully you get lucky!

Want a personalized experience?

2 vials of sperm; mixed fertility signs - any help?

Re: 2 vials of sperm; mixed fertility signs - any help?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards