Understanding Ovulation Pain & Conception - A 28-Year-Old's Concerns

Question
Hello! I am a healthy 28 y/o female, trying to conceive. My cycle is 26 days, and that is the norm for me. I've been using the ovulation calendar, but, the past month when using it, I still have not gotten pregnant. I'm trying not to get discouraged, seeing we've only been trying since September, I just thought I'd get prego immediately. My question is, when I'm experiencing the one sided ovulation pain, does that mean the egg is dropping or is about to? Sometimes this pain can be excruciating enough to the point sex is unspeakable! But if doing so will increase my prego chances, I'll do it! I've discussed this pain with my OB/GYN, she said it was completely norm. Thanks so much for taking my question!

Answer
A 26 day cycle is too short.  If the post leutal phase (after ovulation) is less than 11 or 12 days there is not enough time for the fertilized egg to implant and there are not enough pregnancy hormones to sustain a pregnancy.  

This can be caused by several things such a thyroid problems, Vit B6 deficiency, low body weight, low fat intake, etc.  If you want to go the natural route, I would suggest taking Vit B6.  When I was trying to get pregnant with similar problems, I took 1000 mg. per day.  I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, just my experience and the experience of others that I've read about in doing research.  You could get your thyroid checked, you could take Omega 3 fish oil capsules, you could make sure there are no lights at all in your bedroom at night during sleep.  

There are a lot of natural nutritional approaches you can take to get this problem reversed.  Check out mercola.com as one resource and ccli.org as another for non-invasive, non chemical approaches to your difficulty.  

You probably are ovulating since you have the pain but that isn't the only factor that needs to be considered.  If you are charting your temperatures you can determine if you are ovulating and how long the post leutal phase is.  This you should do and show it to your doctor.  If she doesn't know anything about NFP and reading temperatures, then find another doctor or ask the experts at the CCLI website for some direction.

Thank you for your question.  I hope this helps.