Cycle 38 (CD1-25)... Stress, anyone?

Since last cycle, I have:

• moved to a different country
• started a new job, which I am at for 10-12 hrs/day five days a week
• completely changed my sleeping schedule
• started exercising regularly (cardio 5-6x/wk)
• changed my diet
• had two family members pass away

So, I'm not particularly surprised that it's now CD25 and my temps are still sub-97.0. I tried triggering ovulation last week, with no luck... though now I have had a few days with lots of cervical mucus, so I'm going to be trying again starting tonight. Our new home is in the country, so natural lighting streaming in from the open window is not really an option -- it's pretty dark out. I'm going to be trying out a night light and seeing how that goes. Hopefully I'll also be able to spend time outdoors these next few days, which I've not gotten a chance to do in awhile. So... we'll see how this goes.

Day 77 (CD22) - An example of how travel can mess up your temperatures!

So who wants to take some bets about when/if I've ovulated?

CD20 - woke up at 3am (EST) after getting about 4.5 hours of sleep
CD21 - woke up at 6am (CST)
CD22 - woke up at 4am (CST)

All three of these nights were following very long, stressful days, and I've had lots and lots of EWCM throughout, including today (CD22).

Option 1: Completely unadjusted temperatures, no ovulation yet... might have to mark CD21 as disturbed later to get an accurate shift
Option 2: Adjusted temperatures, showing a shift, but no ovulation because of my continuous ewcm
Option 3: Adjusted temperatures & put on "temperatures only" setting, shows ovulation on CD19

#1 #2 #3

Put your votes in now! ;)

Day 69 (CD14)

CD2 - indoors / CD3 - 96.8
CD3 - AM walk / CD4 - 97.1
CD4 - AM boating & PM hiking / CD5 - 97.1
CD5 - indoors / CD6 - 96.8
CD6 - PM walk / CD7 - 97.1
CD7 - indoors / CD8 - 96.8
CD8 - AM walk (obviously wasn't enough sunlight... it was shorter than usual, and overcast... maybe that's why?) / CD9 - 96.8
CD9 - AM walk & PM walk / CD10 - 97.0
CD10 - indoors / CD11 - 97.1 ... there goes my predictable pattern
CD11 - indoors / CD12 - 97.1
CD12 - indoors / CD13 - 96.8
CD13 - indoors / CD14 - 97.0
CD14 - AM walk / CD15 - ???

So... the pattern that I thought I was developing isn't really as cut-and-dry as I had expected. With today's observations, however, I definitely entered the fertile phase of my cycle, which I've found is a whole different ball game anyways. I had a LOT of very creamy cervical mucus today, so I'm hoping my body is preparing itself, as I'm really hoping to trigger ovulation on CD18 (Jul 19, the day after the full moon). So that means two more nights of wearing the eye mask for me!

Day 67 (CD12)

My theory about light during the daytime affecting my morning temps now has a hole in it.

CD10 and 11 were days that I spent basically indoors, without even our normal morning walk. The following mornings, however, were both temperatures of 97.1, which I had previously associated with adequate sunlight during the previous day.

Now, I know a lot of hypothesizing is going into it at this point, but perhaps this means that my body is finally getting used to my Lunaceptive seratonin/melatonin levels? I was also surprised to feel distinctly wet vaginal sensations so early in my cycle (CD11-12), a symptom which I normally don't experience until at least CD14.

Previous cycles with more than one day of wet vaginal sensation as of CD13:
c26 - wet on CD12-14, ovulation on CD18
c25 - wet on CD12-13, ovulation on CD16

Perhaps my body is preparing itself for an earlier-than-normal ovulation!

Day 59 (CD4)

Assumption: Low (under 97.0 degree) temperature on CD3 was caused by an excess of melatonin, produced by lack of light exposure.

Theory: By increasing the exposure to light during the daytime on CD3, I may be able to counteract the excess melatonin and help my body balance out these hormones, resulting in a more normal (over 97.0 degree) temperature on CD4.
Process: I spent about an hour in the sun right away in the morning on CD3, as well as about 45 minutes later on in the morning. Temped again on the morning of CD4 to compare.

Observations: Temperature on CD4 was more normal (over 97.0 degrees).

Further study: On CD4, I spent most of the morning and afternoon out in the sun.

Prediction: Temperatures continuing in normal (over 97.0 degrees) level, perhaps even raising to the 97.3 which it was on CD1 and 2.

Day 56 (CD1 of cycle #37)

When I took my temperature this morning, I immediately flung myself out of bed to the bathroom. After days of temps around 97.9 degrees, today's 97.3 could only mean one thing -- menstruation. Sure enough, within minutes, my period had arrived, and within an hour, the cramps had begun.

I was a bit disappointed at my 12 day luteal phase the past cycle. When I thought more about it, however, I realized that my sleeping patterns had been very inconsistent, and that there were a handful of nights in the luteal phase that I fell asleep on the couch for a few hours before actually going to bed with my eye mask on. Also, on a few nights, I've been waking up without my eye mask on -- looks like it's time to tighten up the velcro again. Hopefully next month I can be more consistent with that to try to get a longer luteal phase again.

Also, it should be noted that my period arrived the day before the new moon.

My plan for this cycle is to try to use light to trigger an earlier-than-normal ovulation on cycle day 18, so that my next period won't arrive at an undesirable time. We'll see how that works.

Day 54 (CD43, 11DPO)

Over the past few days I've been enjoying very consistent basal body temperatures, right around 97.9 degrees.

I've also been enjoying my daily red raspberry leaf tea, and am hoping for a less painful menstrual period later this week because of it. Though the luteal phase is my favorite part of my cycle, and I'd like it to be 14 days again to his cycle, I am looking forward to starting out a fresh, new cycle and seeing what the next part of my Lunaception journey brings.

Day 51 (CD40 - 8DPO)

Though I appreciate the benefits nearly every day, there are some days when I am particularly glad that I use the fertility awareness method of birth control. Today is one of those days.

I am on cycle day 40. If I had no idea about how my body worked, I would think that there was something very wrong with me for not having a 28 day cycle. But because I am aware of my body's natural signs and keep track of my menstrual cycles, I know that this isn't completely abnormal for me.

My average cycle length is 34 days. If I were not using the fertility awareness method, I would likely be freaking out, worrying myself sick, and spending an exorbitant amount of money on home pregnancy tests, cursing them all because, well, if I'm not pregnant, than why isn't my period here yet? I may even turn into one of those women on Yahoo answers asking complete strangers whether or not I was pregnant and panicking about what I was going to do if I actually was.

In reality, however, I do use the fertility awareness method, so I know that my body did not ovulate until CD32 (ten days later than usual). So instead of stressing out, I'm calmly sitting here sipping raspberry leaf tea in preparation for my period which won't be arriving for at least another five days.

It's the little things that make me happy.

Day 47 (CD36 - 4DPO)

Observation: I fell asleep on the couch last night and slept there until 4am (without my eye mask on, and with lights on in the room), before actually crawling into bed (with my eye mask) for another few hours. During both times, I noticed that I had very bizarre dreams, despite the difference in light conditions.

Pondering: I wonder if my temps are going to raise another 0.1 degree and even out at 97.9 for the rest of my cycle like they did during my last luteal phase.

Day 46 (CD35 - 3DPO)

I got my third high temp, which verified ovulation on CD32. Interesting things to note:

- This was my latest ever recorded ovulation. It seems that the extra melatonin produced by sleeping in dark conditions was enough to suppress ovulation.
- This was my lowest ever recorded coverline. It seems that the extra melatonin also lowered my core body temperature.
- Ovulation occurred on the day after my first light night. That, combined with extra sunlight during the daytime seemed to have triggered my ovulation, or at least balanced out my melatonin/seratonin levels enough that I was finally able to ovulate.

Day 45 (CD34)

Finally! My temp this morning was a 97.6, the highest I've seen in quite a long time. Between that and less-fertile mucus and cervix position, I'm fairly confident in a third high temp tomorrow, verifying that I ovulated on CD32, officially my latest ovulation ever.

Last night I did sleep with my eye mask on again, and was glad that I did; I felt quite well-rested in the morning. My plan during this luteal phase is to be sure to get sun every day to hopefully balance out my seratonin/melatonin levels before beginning the next cycle. I'm hoping for a fourteen day luteal phase again, which would put my next menstruation on Friday, July 4th.

Day 44 (CD33 - third night of light)

Though I did sleep a bit better last night, and though I do now have one temperature above the coverline, I do have a few concerns...

• Perhaps this temp shift is just an even-ing out of my temperatures now that my melatonin levels are getting back to normal (and excess melatonin is not causing them to be lowered). If so, how will I distinguish that from ovulation?
• My temp for this morning was barely above the coverline, and -- in fact -- at the same level as the previous days which I had attributed to too much sun. Knowing I didn't get sunburned yesterday, I want to think that this is really an ovulatory shift, but I'm still skeptical.
• My cervical mucus signs today were a bit difficult to interpret. I marked them as creamy, since it was very lotion-like, but it was unlike any creamy mucus I've had before, and in some parts seemed globby like post-ovulatory mucus, but also seemed a bit elastic like fertile-time ewcm. Overall, since it was definitely of less fertile quality than yesterday, I marked it as creamy.
  
• With it being cycle day 33, I don't know what my chances are of ovulating anytime after this if I did not actually ovulate yesterday.
• Since last night was my last light night, and I did not have a temp shift that screamed "Congrats! You ovulated!" I'm a bit uncertain as to what to do tonight -- go without the eye mask for one more night? Or return to my "dark side"?

One reassurance, however, is that either ovulation has happened, or it hasn't. Since it's not a lengthy process (taking as little as 15 minutes - see it here!), it either happened yesterday or it didn't, and nothing I do today can change that. If I do use the eye mask tonight (which is what I'm leaning towards) then I should still get a high temp tomorrow. And that way I'll know if it was a raise induced by a decrease in melatonin, or if it was a genuine shift... well, that along with the mucus dry up and cervical position returning to the infertile stage. So, we're still waiting, but we're remaining optimistic!

Day 43 (CD32 - second night of light)

Last night: Second night with no eye mask. Falling asleep with the additional light was not any easier last night than the night before, and I slept quite restlessly. I'll be very glad to use the eye mask again on Friday night.
This morning: Still no temperature shift. I spent a few hours this morning (between rain showers) out on my balcony trying to soak in as much sun as possible.


I think that I've been producing too much melatonin to ovulate. Perhaps going from our normally-light bedroom to the complete darkness of the eyemask was too drastic of a transition? So, of course, I had to do a bit of research:

The effect of melatonin on reproductive systems can be summarized by saying that it is anti-gonadotropic. In other words, melatonin inhibits the secretion of the gonadotropic hormones luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary. Much of this inhibitory effect seems due to inhibition of gonadotropin-releasing hormone from the hypothalamus, which is necessary for secretion of the anterior pituitary hormones. (link)

That same article states:

In various species including humans, administration of melatonin has been shown to decrease motor activity, induce fatigue and lower body temperature, particularly at high doses.

In my research, I found a couple of other articles as well that also explained that melatonin is probably the cause of my drastic decrease in BBT this cycle (my average coverline is 97.7 - this cycle it is 97.2) (link, link)

So... what I'm going to do about this? Besides trying to get as much daytime sun as possible, I have no idea.

Day 42 (CD31 - first night of light)

Today marks CD31, which has, up until this point, been my latest recorded ovulation ever. With that in mind, last night I experienced my first "light" night of my Lunaception journey.

Going to bed without my eye mask on was a bit weird. I hadn't realized how much I had gotten used to it, and I had to consciously keep my eyes from opening every five seconds to look around. We get a lot of light into our apartment at night, since we are city-dwellers, and since we have so many large windows. Even without a single light bulb on, after my eyes adjusted to the lack of light I could fairly clearly make out everything in the room. With a combination of moonlight and streetlights shining in from the large window beside the bed, I hoped that would be enough to trigger ovulation.

I didn't sleep well at all, which I guess was to be expected. I know I tossed and turned quite a bit, even after I fell asleep (which took longer than usual). In the morning after I took my temperature I was so tired that I rolled back over and slept another two hours... not a very restful sleep. I don't remember having any dreams, either.

Just in case that wasn't enough light, I sat out on our balcony this morning for nearly an hour before it started raining and I had to come in. All day, I've been trying to get as much light as possible -- at least, as is possible while still getting stuff done around the house and while it's raining outside.

Tonight is the full moon, so I'm really hoping for ovulation today or tomorrow. I had all of the classic ovulation signs today -- eggwhite mucus, a wet vaginal sensation, an open, high, and soft cervix, and even a dip in temperatures. This afternoon I thought I may have even felt a twinge from my left ovary (which would be VERY odd, since I never have ovulation pains)... of course, maybe that was just wishful thinking.

I'll keep you updated.

Day 41 (CD30)

It is now CD30 and I still have not ovulated. This does somewhat concern me, since my latest ovulation ever is CD31. So, I just did a bit of quick research about melatonin and delayed or anovulatory cycles. Apparently too much melatonin can cause anovulation. (Great, NOW you tell me)

Melatonin receptors have been found in all male and female sexually responsive tissues, indicating that melatonin has a significant role in normal reproductive capacity. Exogenous melatonin can suppress the release of gonadotropin releasing hormone and lutenizing hormone, leading to anovulation and changes in steroid responsive tissues, especially in higher doses (link)

Abnormally high or pharmacologic concentrations of melatonin in women are associated with altered ovarian function and anovulation. It is believed that the hormone also has antigonadal or antiovulatory effects in humans, as it does in some seasonal and nonseasonal mammalian breeders. (link)

As much as I enjoy the better sleep, I may be getting just a bit too much melatonin, which is suppressing ovulation. So... not wanting an anovulatory cycle, I'm going to go with light for the next few nights... as much light as DH can stand!

Day 40 (CD29)

No ovulation yesterday. I think that if I don't have a definite temp shift tomorrow that I'm going to go without my eye mask for the next three nights to try to trigger ovulation... CD31 was my latest ever ovulation, so I'm getting a bit sick of waiting and anxious about inadvertently turning this into an anovulatory cycle.


Also, I've been talking with some other Lunaceptors recently and one very unexpected side effect that we've all been noticing is very vivid dreams, so I did a bit of research about the link between dreams and darkened sleeping quarters.

As we know, the light/dark during the night effects the production of melatonin (link). It's been noted by others that people who take melatonin pills to help them sleep very often also experience very vivid, bizarre dreams (link). We also know that our most vivid, easily-remembered dreams take place during the REM cycle of sleep, which is enhanced by melatonin (link). So basically, it all comes back to the effects of melatonin on our sleep. I find it so interesting that I think I'm going to include in my chart next cycle the nights that I have vivid dreams.

Day 39 (CD28)

No ovulation yesterday, but things are looking up for today!

CM - I had the mother lode of EWCM today! I'll spare you the graphic details, but let me tell you, I experienced a lot of fertile mucus today -- hoorah! This (along with a lower BBT today - more about that later) has pretty much killed any idea that I ovulated earlier this cycle, but hey -- it may be coming soon!
CP - More fertile than yesterday!
BBT - At first, I was disappointed at my 97.0 this morning. Then, as I started looking at my last week's temps, I'm considering marking both CD23 AND CD27 as disturbed -- both were higher-than-usual temps that took place immediately after a day in the sun where I ended up getting somewhat burnt. I'm not entirely sure of this theory, since I ended up more burnt on CD24 than 22, but had no disturbance in temps that day.

Thoughts? Have you noticed a sunburn/higher BBT correlation?

In other, related news... I was considering trying to go without my eye mask tomorrow night to try to trigger ovulation on the full moon (Wednesday). But with my increased EWCM today, my body may be ovulating on its own anyways, in which case I'll probably just let it do its thing.

Day 38 (CD27)

I might have ovulated yesterday(?)

With a BBT of 97.5 this morning (though it was 1 hr later than usual, so it could be adjusted to 97.3), that puts me for sure over the ridiculously low coverline of 97.0. So, we'll see what tomorrow brings. And, in the world of cervical mucus, I'm still experiencing the same creamy mucus with internal checks, nothing with external.

Which brings me to my next point... after commenting about my lack of mucus to a Lunafriend (since increased ewcm seems to be common among Lunaceptors), I decided to do some digging and found similar lack of mucus on more of my previous cycles than I had expected:

c14 - only one day of ewcm; 3 total wet or lubricative days
c15 - no days of ewcm; 3 total W or L days
c19 - 1 day ewcm; 4 W or L days
c22 - 1 day ewcm; 2 W or L days
c24 - 1 day ewcm; 3 W or L days
c28 - 0 days ewcm; 1 W or L day
c34 - 1 day ewcm; 5 W or L days
c36 (so far) - 0 days ewcm; 4 W or L days

I'm still trying to determine if any conclusions can be drawn from this data. C14-15 were summer of '06, C22 and 24 were spring of '07, and C34 was spring of '08, so perhaps an increase or change in heat/humidity may be the cause? My other theory has to do with diet/water intake, but I really don't have any personal data to back that up. I am, however, going to cut back on my soft drink intake and see if that helps; I know I've been drinking far too much this cycle, and it's very possible there's a correlation there.

Day 36 (CD25)

This is both confusing and annoying. My body is acting as if it's already ovulated -- with a low, firm cervix and drying-up mucus patterns (it was creamy this morning, but some drier sticky/gummy mucus this evening), but my temps are saying "nope, you haven't ovulated yet!"

So, we'll assume that my body tried to ovulate, but then did not, due to:

• travel
• stress
• heat exhaustion
• any combination or all of the above

Day 35 (CD24)

And now I'm just confused.

My cervical mucus and cervix position are both looking quite infertile, but my temp this morning was another super-low one. Possible interpretations:

1. I did not really ovulate on CD22. The high temp on CD23 was brought on by sunburn from the day before.
2. I did ovulate on CD22. The low temp on CD24 was a weird fluke of sorts or part of a very drastic fall-back rise.

And it looks like we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.