Ovulate Sooner

Now you have your postpartum period back, you might be taking supplements. Or you have decided to try reducing your nursing sessions with your child. I will assume your child is past a year (since babies up to the first year of life need breast milk or formula for the full first year). If you are trying with a baby under a year, don't cut anything out just yet to lengthen your luteal phase. They still need mommy's milk when they are not getting solids. You're probably in a place of now what?

 If you're like me, you're probably concerned how is breastfeeding affecting your fertility or any fertility problems you might already have in addition and so you see your gynecologist or specialist for any information who may be for or against helping you while you are breastfeeding. I did go in and see my gynecologist because my husband and I tried for 8 months and 1 week to catch the first egg while breastfeeding before my postpartum period returned at 17 months postpartum. When I went to see him, my husband and I were finishing up our fifth cycle after having five postpartum periods while breastfeeding and still not pregnant.  It was not a great visit. First, we got the bomb about it not being a good idea for us to try to conceive a child while I took a cadaver lab for my university's Nursing Program, due to the fact the chemicals could cause birth defects. He also said he would not give me anything while I was breastfeeding, but would put me on Clomid if I was not pregnant 3 months after I quit breastfeeding.  Next, when I told him I have been recording my cycles and my luteal phase looked a little short, he said I needed to be ovulating sooner. My cycles were sometimes long or regular length, but I was "ovulating too late" to get pregnant.

If you have a gynecologist say that to you and you're wondering what that means, I've discovered "ovulating too late" in your cycle goes hand in hand with your luteal phase being short. As my luteal phase increased to the minimum I needed to get pregnant, I started ovulating in a normal range.

Below is an example of how my luteal phase changed when I was trying to conceive my 2nd.

Month	Postpartum Period	Cycle #	Length of Days	Luteal Phase #	Ovulation Day	B6 Vitamins
April 2012	Period 1	Cycle 1	36 Days	8 *	Cycle day 28	No
May 2012	Period 2	Cycle 2	32 Days	8 *	Cycle day 24	No
June 2012	Period 3	Cycle 3	28 Days	9	Cycle day 19	No
July 2012	Period 4	Cycle 4	30 Days	9	Cycle day 21	Yes
Aug 2012	Period 5	Cycle 5	28 Days	9	Cycle day 19	Yes
Sept 2012	Period 6	break	31 Days	9	Cycle day 22	Yes
Oct 2012	Period 7	break	29 Days	No Ovulation	No ovulation	Yes
Nov 2012	Period 8	break	32 Days	10	Cycle day 22	Yes
Dec 2012	Period 9	Cycle 6	Pregnant!	12 DPO/ HPT + on cycle day 28	Cycle day 16	Yes

 * I may not have not ovulated on those days.

This is how my luteal phase changed when I was trying for my 3rd.

Month	Cycle	Length	Ovulation	Luteal Phase
June – July 2014	Pre Period	48 days	None	None
Aug 2014	1	39 days	None	None
Sept 2014	2	37 days	Cycle day 32	5
Oct 2014	3	32 days	None	None
Nov 2014	4	37 days	None	None
Dec 2014	5	31 days	Cycle day 27	4
Jan 2015	6	26 days	Cycle day 20	6
Feb 2015	7	32 days	None	None
Mar 2015	8	34 days	Cycle day 24	10
Apr 2015	9	27 days	Cycle day 18	9
May 2015	10	Pregnant	Cycle day 19	11 DPO + HPT

Please don't confuse ovulating later in a cycle to be the same as ovulating too late, too late means short luteal phase. You can ovulate later in a cycle with a minimum to normal length  luteal phase and still become pregnant. While cycles are usually around the same, breastfeeding can cause them to become irregular and even women who aren't breastfeeding can have cycles vary by a few days. Prenology says, "Cycle length can also vary from month to month, with up to 8 days variation between cycles still considered as a regular menstrual cycle." Depending on what literature you read, such as American Pregnancy Association says, "Average cycles can be considered to be 28-32 days and women with those cycle lengths can ovulate on cycle day 11 - 21." Some fertility literature says if a woman has cycles 30-35 days long, she will ovulate much later than cycle day 14.  Prenology says, "The medical term for cycles with intervals exceeding 35 days is oligomenorrhea. Long cycles are usually associated with ovulation problems, no ovulation (anovulation), irregular ovulation or inadequate egg quality." Women who have ovulated what they considered to be "late" 17-22 days, have still gotten pregnant and had full term pregnancies. How people define "late" varies, some may consider anything from cycle day 20 + to be late while others may consider anything after cycle day 21 to be late. It seems some fertility literature, such as Wise Geek.com and Prenology.com, considers anything after cycle day 21 to be considered late ovulation. Wise Geek says the most common reason for late ovulation is a luteal phase deficiency. 

There is talk among online trying to conceive and miscarriage boards that maybe ovulating late increases miscarriages due to the egg losing quality. Basically some believe if you ovulate later in our cycle, your egg is already too old before it is released so this increases the chance of miscarriage and the lining of your uterus may be too old to support implantation. Probably, because articles such as Wise Geek says, "First, the quality of a late egg is generally not as good as it would have been had it dropped on time. This isn’t necessarily problematic, but may be linked to various birth defects and problems with a pregnancy. Second, the lining of the uterus may be too old or too dense to support implantation at the time a late egg finally implants. Practically speaking, a later-released egg also means fewer chances to try to conceive." However, it seems to point more to ovulating too late and having a short luteal phase. Many of these posts talked about ovulating as late as cycle day 30. If  a woman did ovulate on that day, but only had a 38-day cycle, she would have a luteal phase of 8, which would increase the chance of miscarriage if she did become pregnant, because she has a short luteal phase.

Below is an example of what days I ovulated during my pregnancies:

Pregnancy #	# Cycles	Ovulation	Full Term
1	3	Cycle Day 22	Yes
2	6	Cycle Day 16	Yes
3	10	Cycle Day 19	Yes

Bibliography

"Ovulation, Day by Day - Pregnology." Getting Pregnant. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 July 2015. <http://www.pregnology.com/ovulating.php>.

"Ovulation - Understanding Ovulation Cycles." American Pregnancy Association. American Pregnancy Association, 23 Apr. 2012. Web. 15 July 2015. <http://americanpregnancy.org/getting-pregnant/understanding-ovulation/>.

"What Is Late Ovulation?" WiseGEEK. Conjecture Corporation, 2015. Web. 15 July 2015. <http://www.wisegeekhealth.com/what-is-late-ovulation.htm>.