My Ovaries Decided To Give Me A Rain Check

What, with all that has been going on recently in my life I’m lucky the pair didn’t give me a “closed until further notice” memo. However, between the two of them, they decided my current stresses were enough to force a delay in the climax of my cycle.

Now, if you ask most people what the climax of a woman’s reproductive cycle is, they will probably tell you it is menstruation. And it’s no wonder. Advertisements for feminine products bombard magazines and television commercials, like we will forget what we have to go through each month. And don’t get me started on what it’s like around men. Our periods need to be a huge secret lest we want them plugging their ears and blurting out “La la la I can’t hear you”. That time of the month can also be an emotional time and some ladies loathe the arrival of the monthly gift because of the pain and discomfort it brings. Others celebrate because it means they did not have an unplanned pregnancy. Before trying to conceive I was right up there with most of the general population. I now disagree.

Aunt Flo is no longer the bright and over-rated star on my stage. Sure, she is essential but without ovulation she would not exist.

Ovulation is my knight in shining armor. In fact, it is such a hero for the world and receives so little credit. For without ovulation, sperm would have no egg to fertilize. And without a fertilized egg there can be no baby.

In reality, ovulation is the climax of a woman’s monthly cycle. The two weeks prior are spent nourishing and maturing a few follicles so one can present an egg (sometimes two!) to create a human being.  It's a shame our society has become so accustomed to suppressing ovulation with hormonal birth control because it truly is a miraculous thing.

Now swing to the beginning of this post, the most critical point in my cycle was dangled in front of me like cheese in front of a mouse. In the trying to conceive world, it is common knowledge that life events can cause a woman’s body to put off ovulation thanks to stress hormones. Yeah, you could say I was stressed. If you remember from my last post, we found out earlier this month that Chris will be getting out of the Air Force sometime in the next few weeks. Hearing that caused me a great deal of worrying during the days following the news. Yup, stress.

So when my normal time of ovulation came and no signs of ovulation came with it I started to worry. I worried that I would not even ovulate at all this cycle. I worried that since things were messed up I might miss it. I was afraid that I had done something wrong since I am changing my eating habits and taking the herbs Vitex and Red Raspberry Leaf. Honestly, other than those few days where I was consumed with worry, I didn’t feel stressed so why was ovulation not happening?

I guess those three days were enough to cause my dear little ovaries to reserve their energy until I was good and ready to ovulate. The morning of cycle day 17 I got a smiley face on my OPK (ovulation predictor kit) test which meant I would ovulate in the next 12-48 hours. Three days later my BBT shifted dramatically to confirm ovulation had occurred! Imagine my relief.

I did ovulate after all. I just needed to be patient. Now I’m in the waiting phase called the two week wait. In roughly eleven more days I will know if we succeeded or not.  I am going to desperately need some more patience.

Please pray for us.