Fertility Tests and BF

[traci5489]

Dh and I have been TTC for about 8 months and I am still breastfeeding my 27 month old (mostly just to get to sleep and in the morning when she wakes). AF finally showed up right before dd 2nd birthday and has been very regular (28 days) for the last couple of months. I was thinking about trying either OPK or maybe Ovulens, but read that breastfeeding may affect the results...anybody else read this or have any personal info to share in this regard?

Any help appreciated, I feel like I am just grasping at straws..I don't really want to stop bf my daughter but really want to get pg too.

[Mommiska]

I don't think breastfeeding affects OPKs, but then I've never used them.

I did have an Ovulens with my first pregnancy...ferning showed up at random times. I ended up getting pregnant my first cycle using it, but the ferning definitely didn't have the kind of pattern the literature said to expect.

I got another Ovulens for trying to conceive this time (a friend lost my first one), and it has never worked for me. I have had NO ferning at all, and I'm now 8-9 weeks pregnant! I'm really not sure what is up with it...if it's defective, or what...I lean towards that option.

Not sure if that is any help, but at least it's a bit of feedback. Good luck!

[naturalmama3]

Fertility Tests and BF

I bought an ovutech ovulation predictor (microscope lens) it's the size of a tube of lipstick off of drleemd.com. It is the saliva tester, about $30. After ttc for mos. we got pregnant on the next cycle. I was ovulating on day 10 early in my cycle and missing it. Compared to the price of OPK's it was well worth it.

[karenpl]

I am ttc-ing and breastfeeding and have been playing around with the saliva ovulation predictors. I haven't seen any problems because of the breastfeeding. What I did find out is that it often is better to get a cheap kiddie microscope than one of the 'official' saliva microscopes. I use both an ovulens and my old microscope from when I was a kid, and it is way easier with the microscope to detect my ferning.

I liked the ferning testing so much that I even made a web page about it, with more background and pictures and such. You can find it at http://www.geocities.com/~plomp/fertility/Ferning.html

Urine OPKs should work fine too, even when breastfeeding, they just tend to be expensive. although you can get cheaper ones on line .

Good luck! Hope you will be pregnant soon!

Karen