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1st Trimester
PrimRoseMama
member
TTC while BF-- question about OPK.
PrimRoseMama
member
Greetings & congratulations on your pregnancies! I have a TTC question for anyone who has tried to get pregnant while breast feeding & used OPK.
This is my first month using OPK for active TTC. Also my first active cycle BF while trying to see if I can get a +OPK.
For those that have experience (if any have) -- does BF make it next to impossible to get a +OPK? Mine have been stark white if not a super faint line.
I'm using wondfo (finally!) & am still WTO. I know you don't have to have a positive OPK to ovulate or conceive, but I'd like to see one.
If you are BF while TTC (or have been in the past) did you have trouble with OPK?
This is my first month using OPK for active TTC. Also my first active cycle BF while trying to see if I can get a +OPK.
For those that have experience (if any have) -- does BF make it next to impossible to get a +OPK? Mine have been stark white if not a super faint line.
I'm using wondfo (finally!) & am still WTO. I know you don't have to have a positive OPK to ovulate or conceive, but I'd like to see one.
If you are BF while TTC (or have been in the past) did you have trouble with OPK?
Re: TTC while BF-- question about OPK.
It would make sense to me that, if you're ovulating, you would turn a test since the same hormones need to be in play to actually ovulate, but I'm no scientist.
According to this, women who breastfeed on demand may take longer to have an ovulatory cycle than women that don't. In a nutshell, it says that breastfeeding won't prevent pregnancy or cause miscarriage, but it can take longer for a lactating woman to become pregnant even if she is having a period because her cycles may be anovulatory. Also, once the placenta is delivered, FSH and LH are in play again, but not enough to actually do much of anything.
This study says something similar. According to this, LH is greatly disturbed by BF, and in women that participated in the study that exclusively breastfed their babies, their cycles didn't return until after solids were introduced and suckling decreased, and it took some time after that to have a normal, ovulatory cycle.
This is a 7 page study that I don't have time to read right now.
Based on the first two, I would say that no - if you are ovulating, despite breastfeeding, you should still turn a positive OPK. But since you may not actually be ovulating, you may need to test every day.