Can you have a period without ovulation? Anovulatory cycle q?

[naturallyspeaking]

I've been reading Taking charge of your fertility book and it got me thinking...

I had a late period this past cycle.  In the book it said sometimes women do not ovulate due to lack of the right hormone even though there are ovulatory symptoms because the body is trying to ovulate.  This made me think I didn't ovulate for sure (even with EW fluid) but after a few days, boom, my af came.  Does this mean I just ovulated late for whatever reason or did I even ovulate at all?

My ppaf came maybe 6 month ago and I'm not sure how regular my cycle is now. (and age doesn't help either- just turned 40 this month).  I sure hope I am ovulating...

[lilmom]

Once you start charting, you will be able to tell if you are ovulating or not, and the more time goes on you will be able to tell just from the signs your body is giving you as well.

but to answer your question..there could be lots of reasons for one late period. Stress, hormones, late ovulation, no ovulation.

I have anovulatory cycles often, due to PCOS. Have always had crazy cycles ever since I was a teenager. But still, I managed to have DS, and am ttc more children. No need for you to freak out over one late period. But, I do think charting is a great way to see what your body is doing, and to learn more about what is going on with you, especially if you want more babies.

[Jaimee]

Yes, start charting fully and that will really help take the mystery out of what is going on.  If you use www.fertilityfriend.com you can post your charts so that we can help you decipher them.  :)  You could be having anovulatory bleeding or you could just have a really short LP right now.  After I had my first child it took a full year for my cycles to return to "normal" with a fertile length LP.  Without past ovulation issues (like the pp mentioned such as PCOS) I would guess delayed ovulation with a short LP is much more likely than an anovulatory cycle.

[JMJ]

You can have bleeding without ovulating, but strictly speaking, it is not a period, but rather some other hormonal bleeding.  This happens often in people with PCOS and in women who are returning to fertility postpartum.  A long cycle doesn't necessarily mean that it is anovulatory.  It usually means that ovulation occurred later, and so your period did too.  Charting CM only makes it hard to confirm ovulation because your body can build up to ovulate and then not... several times.  Charting temperature as well lets you know that you did actually ovulate.  If you want to go by CM only, I recommend meeting with a Creighton instructor.  They know a whole lot more than I do about telling if you actually ovulated by CM only.