CM Questions

[hopeful2797]

Bear with me everyone, but this is the first month I am trying to chart my CM. I was worried at first that coming off of birth control may have messed me up since I was not noticing much CM at all. However, I think maybe I am just having each stage for a while? I'm not sure how it works. I have noticed creamy, almost lotion-y CM for the past 4-5 days or so, gradually becoming more abundant. Is this normal? I'm not sure how long each stage of CM is supposed to last. I am currently on CD 18.

Any help would be appreciated. This is all so confusing!

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

Hi hopeful. How long are your cycles usually? Is this your first cycle charting anything ever or have you been charting temps but not other signs? Do you know if you've O'd yet? Can you post your chart?

 

[KatBar]

Bear with me everyone, but this is the first month I am trying to chart my CM. I was worried at first that coming off of birth control may have messed me up since I was not noticing much CM at all. However, I think maybe I am just having each stage for a while? I'm not sure how it works. I have noticed creamy, almost lotion-y CM for the past 4-5 days or so, gradually becoming more abundant. Is this normal? I'm not sure how long each stage of CM is supposed to last. I am currently on CD 18.

Any help would be appreciated. This is all so confusing!

I googled the different types of CM you are supposed to see at different stages of your cycle.. most websites say pretty much the same thing. I will link one in below for you.

I am tracking my CM too, but I do find it hard sometimes.. this month I definetly got the wet/sticky/clearish fertile CM (second most fertile), but I didn't see any egg-white CM (which is the most fertile). Now I am back to lotion/creamy style.

Hope the link helps - good luck and lots of baby dust

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/conception/cervical-mucus-can-indicate-ovulation-fertile

 

[butterfly1808]

I have read that some people may not experience Egg white CM and that anything to do with wet/clearish to make it like it is your most fertile time, so you don't miss your O date. Good Luck! And Temping is a very good indicator of when your O day is.

 

[babytry]

I have only 2 - 3 days of ewcm, and other girls have plenty! But if you want to know when you ovulate, I'd advise temping - tracking cm is not enough!

 

[hopeful2797]

My cycles before birth control were all over the place. They usually ranged from 30-45 days. I honestly didn't think I even ovulated. Obviously I did though. The last period I had before my pregnancy was in April of 2012. Then I got pregnant in November of 2012. Sadly I lost that pregnancy in April. I had a normal period in May, and then went on birth control. That regulated my cycles, but I can't stand the thought of a chemically altered cycle like that, so I quit birth control this month. Actually, I missed 2 pills in August, which led to horrible spotting for 2 1/2 weeks, followed by what I am assuming was my period (it was heavier than spotting and about the time that I should have been getting my af). After that, I never started the bc again, so I don't know what my cycles are doing right now.



I haven't been temping because that really confuses me. I know you're supposed to do it when you wake up, but I wake up a few times every night, so it seems like I never get a good 2 hours of sleep without waking up so I am not sure that my temps would be accurate.

Sorry for a lengthy response, but it seems that this morning I woke up and my CM is back to almost dry. Maybe a little bit watery, but mostly scant. I think my cycles just don't have any rhyme or reason!

 

[azure girl]

I never saw ewcm. In fact I was a week off on dates, meaning I ovulated cd7 off birth control. I just found out I goofed an entire week. No signs of ovulation and I didn't temp as I own a temporal artery scanner and didn't want to buy a bbt thermometer (can't stand "traditional" thermometers). As I never temped, I didn't know ovulation was early. Temping is one of the few ways to pinpoint ovulation.

 

[hopeful2797]

Thanks for all the replies!! I guess what I will do is wait for AF to arrive (whenever that may be since just stopped bc) and then try to make myself sleep long enough to get temps next cycle.

I am getting very discouraged about myself as a woman. My cervix is incompetent and my cycles are irregular. Oy vey!

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

If you don't have it already, one of the best resources out there to utilize is Toni Weschler's Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Excellent book! While you're charting your CM you can figure out your basic fertile and infertile patterns. Some women never have EWCF, some women never have "dry" days, etc. You've got to figure out what's up with you to make sure you can discern what's your normal and what may indicate an issue.

I have found that even if I wake up as long as I fall back to sleep fairly easily it doesn't seem to affect my temps. Even if I get up to answer the call of nature as we are apt to do things still seem fine (especially encouraging if I still get 3+ hours of b/w then and temp time). Some women, the slightest things affect their temps while others can do headstands while temping and still get accurate temps . On the zzz's front, switching up your exercise routine and diet might help you get more sound sleep. GL! I hope things start to even out for you!

 

[hopeful2797]

I'm just not sure if my cycles could have changed since my pregnancy or since coming off of bc. I used to have great EWCM (even though I had no idea what it was and thought there was something wrong with me! ). I never paid much attention to when it came and went though. I wish I would have known then what I know now so I could have been keeping track.

Thanks, guys, for all of the suggestions!

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

Oh, and don't let the crappy terminology the medical community uses to describe our issues mess with you on top of what all you have to deal with. My sister has an "incompetent cervix" and she has to have a cerclage during her pregnancies. Will that be an option for you next time?

 

[hopeful2797]

According to my last visit at the doctor, if I do fall pregnant again (which she says she thinks will be tough for me due to the irregular and long cycles), they will probably do a cerclage around 12 weeks, just to be on the safe side.

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

When I was younger and had no idea about fertility stuff I had no idea what it was either . Oh the ignorance!

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

Are your cycles irregular in any other ways (heavy bleeding, scant bleeding, severe PMS, etc.) in addition to length?

 

[hopeful2797]

Well, they have always been on the heavier side. I always need a super or super plus tampon (sorry for the tmi). But it has been that way forever, so I don't know if that is an irregular symptom or not. I have hardly any PMS symptoms.

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

Well, they have always been on the heavier side. I always need a super or super plus tampon (sorry for the tmi). But it has been that way forever, so I don't know if that is an irregular symptom or not. I have hardly any PMS symptoms.

I like to ask women how heavy their cycle is b/c I had always thought it was normal for me to bleed as much as I did in a period but a friend of mine was shocked when I told her how much blood I was loosing and turned me on to what menorrhagia is. Thus began my road to figuring out why I was having so many problems conceiving and keeping a pregnancy after two uneventful, healthy pregnancies and births. My search has lead me to hormonal imbalance and everything started falling into place. How long does it take you to soak a super plus tampon? I use a menstrual cup and figured out I'd been bleeding around 700mL+ each period over the last year (menorrhagia is defined as anything over 80mL with the average amount of blood being lost 30-40mL). My cycles have always been 26-28 days in length but the bleeding and PMDD was no good. My flow has always been heavy but nowhere near like over the past year. I just didn't know that these things weren't normal! Now that I'm working on treating what I believe to be estrogen dominance/low progesterone, I'm feeling sooooo much better. If your cycle is irregular and your flow is heavy during AF it might be beneficial for you to look into hormonal imbalance and see if anything lines up for you.

 

[hopeful2797]

Thank you for another great suggestion! It really just depends on the day. Some days it feels as though I soak one in 4 hours, other days I can wear it the full 8 hours and it's fine. Usually anywhere 4-6 hours though is all I can wear a super plus, depending on the day of my cycle.

Is this something I should see my OBGYN about? Would she have any suggestions or is this one of those things where doctors just want to put you on birth control? That was the problem with my last doctor. She believed all of my problems should be solved with birth control, but I don't WANT to be on birth control!

 

[SweetPotatoPi]

I think it depends on your Ob/Gyn honestly! Some take a more holistic approach and work on treating what's really going on, not just making the symptoms go away. I've found that quite a few doctors who's main focus is Western medicine believe hormonal birth control is a virtual panacea for our issues regarding our cycles and that's just not the truth. W/o looking for and treating the cause of the issues we will keep dealing with square one (not bashing Western medicine 'cause that's some good stuff for the right problem! just believe in balance).

Maybe you could look for a different Ob/Gyn that takes a more whole being approach or if you like your doctor for everything else and prefer to keep going there perhaps you could seek out a naturopath and/or accupuncturist and/or a doctor that uses Traditional Chinese Medicine in addition to the doc you're seeing. At least those are options that I would look at if I were in your shoes. What I did was research, research, research, hormonal imbalance, menorrhagia, Vitex, estrogen dominance/low progesterone, etc. and started myself on Vitex. That's one of the best decisions I've ever made, hands down. Not an herb for everyone but for those it works for, magnifique. If you don't want to go the HBC route I would definitely seek out a good alternative practitioner or a practitioner that's open to options other than HBC and see if I could get some help. We don't necessarily have to live with all the crazy they tell us we do!

 

[mara16jade]

I remember reading this post yesterday and wanted to pass this along.
https://www.babycenter.com.au/l1047500/what-cervical-mucus-looks-like#/0

ETA: I guess I'll put a warning. The link contains actual pictures of someone's (not me!) CM.

 

[hopeful2797]

Thank you! I just get so confused because I read somewhere that you get the creamy CM before ovulation (before wet and/or EWCM). That website says after ovulation. I wish there was just a chart that said when I am supposed to be having a certain kind of CM and how long it's supposed to stay around.