# Three month's to go... How to lengthen luteal phase!?



## StrawBerry2

Hi Ladies 

Hope everyone's having a great day so far. I am having a lovely :coffee: and dreaming about :baby: 's (again!!)

Only four months to go before we will be trying to conceive!! (#1)

I am starting to get excited already! 

Since coming off the pill last year, my cycle length has been 26 days. I used OPK's regularly and noticed that I usually get positive OPK's on cycle day 15.

I have heard that taking Vitamin B Complex helps to lengthen ones luteal phase... (time between ovulation and menstruation).

Does anyone have any experience, advice in this regard?? 

Also/Or, Who else is waiting until September to TTC?? :happydance:

:flower:


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## MUMOF5

I have only heard of vitamin B6, and that its mean't to help lengthen the luteal phase, but if you went to your doctor and requested a blood test to check your hormone levels, then if there were any problems they could give you medication to help. :thumbup: Best of luck in ttc :flower:


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## sausages

I took B vitamins to lengthen my LP after i was breastfeeding DD. 

First though, i would suggest that you chart your temps to see what your ovulation is doing for sure. OPKs are a great tool, but they only tell you when your LH surge is and not only does that happen roughly 24 - 48 hours before ovulation, but it can also happen and then you don't ovulate after all. The ONLY thing that can tell you that you ovulated for definite without a trip to the doctors is charting your BBT.

I had a relatively short LP of 11 days the first four times i conceived. It's now randomly increased to 11/12 days after my last baby. It's on the short side, but nothing to worry about. 

It all depends on how regularly you use the OPKs too. That LH surge is brief, but how do you know that you caught it on the upswing or the downswing? When we're talking only a day or two being the difference between a LP defect and an acceptable length of LP it's really important to get the exact days here. I know ladies who are TTC with OPKs can sometimes take three OPKs a day, every day for a few weeks even to try to pinpoint the exact time of the LH surge. 

If your timeline is OPK on CD15 and AF on CD26 then to look at it you have a 10 day LP, but do you? OPK can be positive 24-48 hours prior to ovulation, so is your LP 9 or 8 days? Or do you usually catch it on the downswing, making your LP more like 11+ days, which is perfectly fine. 

Am i making any sense? I feel like i'm babbling a bit! lol! You have a few months left until September. I'd leave off the vitamins for now and get a baseline for your cycle with accurate info including BBT temps. If you need to use B Vits they do work pretty quickly. I was pregnant my first cycle of taking them. :)


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## StrawBerry2

sausages said:


> I took B vitamins to lengthen my LP after i was breastfeeding DD.
> 
> First though, i would suggest that you chart your temps to see what your ovulation is doing for sure. OPKs are a great tool, but they only tell you when your LH surge is and not only does that happen roughly 24 - 48 hours before ovulation, but it can also happen and then you don't ovulate after all. The ONLY thing that can tell you that you ovulated for definite without a trip to the doctors is charting your BBT.
> 
> I had a relatively short LP of 11 days the first four times i conceived. It's now randomly increased to 11/12 days after my last baby. It's on the short side, but nothing to worry about.
> 
> It all depends on how regularly you use the OPKs too. That LH surge is brief, but how do you know that you caught it on the upswing or the downswing? When we're talking only a day or two being the difference between a LP defect and an acceptable length of LP it's really important to get the exact days here. I know ladies who are TTC with OPKs can sometimes take three OPKs a day, every day for a few weeks even to try to pinpoint the exact time of the LH surge.
> 
> If your timeline is OPK on CD15 and AF on CD26 then to look at it you have a 10 day LP, but do you? OPK can be positive 24-48 hours prior to ovulation, so is your LP 9 or 8 days? Or do you usually catch it on the downswing, making your LP more like 11+ days, which is perfectly fine.
> 
> Am i making any sense? I feel like i'm babbling a bit! lol! You have a few months left until September. I'd leave off the vitamins for now and get a baseline for your cycle with accurate info including BBT temps. If you need to use B Vits they do work pretty quickly. I was pregnant my first cycle of taking them. :)

Thank you so much for your reply! You are making sense - to me anyway  hehe.

I will start doing my temps and charting!!:thumbup:

Thanx again for taking the time to reply ladies! :) :flower:


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## babyfevers

I heard it can work well for some women but not for me....I took vitamin b6 and b12 to lengthen my luteal phase and I had horrible results. My luteal phase stayed the same but my period was delayed for about 15 days making my cycle longer than 45 days!! I stopped taking the extra B vitamins and started taking 800mg of vitamin C which is also known to lengthen it. Still waiting to see the results.


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## Aurora CHK

Hi ladies. Hope its okay to join in. I'm confused at the moment about the LP and how long mine is. I just started seeing the Dr about not having fallen pregnant yet in two years of 'trying' (was NTNP until December and am now TTC in a total frenzy!). He seems to think I should be counting my period from when I start spotting. I thought you counted it from when you get continuous flow. For me, my temperature doesn't usually drop and the cramping doesn't start until after I spotted for a couple of days, so I have been counting AF as coming at this point, not with the spotting. (Hope I am making sense).

If any of you get spotting or chart your temperatures or cramping, when do you count AF as arriving to help work out the length of your LP? I was thinking I had a 10-12 day LP, but am now worrying that if I take spotting into account, its only 8-10 days :nope:


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## sausages

Aurora CHK said:


> Hi ladies. Hope its okay to join in. I'm confused at the moment about the LP and how long mine is. I just started seeing the Dr about not having fallen pregnant yet in two years of 'trying' (was NTNP until December and am now TTC in a total frenzy!). He seems to think I should be counting my period from when I start spotting. I thought you counted it from when you get continuous flow. For me, my temperature doesn't usually drop and the cramping doesn't start until after I spotted for a couple of days, so I have been counting AF as coming at this point, not with the spotting. (Hope I am making sense).
> 
> If any of you get spotting or chart your temperatures or cramping, when do you count AF as arriving to help work out the length of your LP? I was thinking I had a 10-12 day LP, but am now worrying that if I take spotting into account, its only 8-10 days :nope:

Silly doctor!! The first day of your cycle is always counted from the first day of full, bright red flow. If you've not read it already I would highly recommend the book Taking Charge Of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. It's like the total bible of natural family planning and fertility. :)

I've been pregnant four times with an LP of 11 days, so fret not about that. I hope you. Get your bfp soon Hun! Xx


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## poppy

Vitamin B6 is good at lengthening luteal phase. It can make you ovulate later and hence have AF later as well. Probably best to use opks as well if you are using B6. Good luck! xxx


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## Aurora CHK

Thanks ladies. That's what I thought! I have been taking B6 the last three months but it only seemed to help one of the months I tried it. I wonder if I need to take it more or use a better quality one. Hopefully I can persuade the Doctor to prescribe me a good one! 

So (sorry to be a bit dim) - do you think that even though I start spotting at day 9, a fertilised egg should still be able to implant and 'call off the pending AF'? Thanks so much xxx


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## babyfevers

So turns out the vitamin C 800mg worked!!! My luteal phase got fixed and I'm just over 4 weeks pregnant. Hope that helps~


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## mara16jade

I thought I had replied to this but I guess I didn't. haha

So I joined this site last year for two reasons, thought I had an oops and I was worried about my LP. The oops was just absolutely nothing (bittersweet I guess...). Anyways...

My LP was anywhere from 6 -11 days and I was having sometimes such short periods that I was beginning to freak out (like 20-21 day cycles). I really started paying attention to my cycles, my eating, my diet, working out and trying to de-stress. And it worked. My cycles have been pretty consistent at 25-26 days and my LP is almost always at 12-13 days. It was the stress for me.

I had to figure out what was stressing me out (and there is a lot, but there was one thing in particular). I wanted to get married. :blush: My OH and I started talking about a late summer wedding in February, and my cycles and LP started to get a little longer. And in early March he proposed. :thumbup:

OK, long story short... are you under a lot of stress? Physically, emotionally, etc.? Try to de-stress and take some vitamins (I'm actually taking a prenatal already). :hugs:


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## Aurora CHK

babyfevers said:


> So turns out the vitamin C 800mg worked!!! My luteal phase got fixed and I'm just over 4 weeks pregnant. Hope that helps~

Wow, congratulations! Happy and healthy 8 remaining months to you :kiss:


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## StrawBerry2

babyfevers said:


> So turns out the vitamin C 800mg worked!!! My luteal phase got fixed and I'm just over 4 weeks pregnant. Hope that helps~

Congratulations!! That is awesome news! Enjoy your pregnancy -all of the best for you and baby :baby:


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## StrawBerry2

Just an update... I have been taking multivitamins containing B12 and B6 Vitamins etc... and I am currently on CD28...still waiting for AF to arrive... as she used to show at around CD26 already... So I think it's working!


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## Aurora CHK

I made it to 12 days this month with Vitamin C and B6 :thumbup: (not that I got a BFP but one step at a time!)

Can't seem to get a B12 complex at my chemist but being referred to specialist this month so will see what they suggest.


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