QuestionQUESTION: Hi Suzette - I recently read a post by another lady who had a similar situation to myself, but thought i would ask your advice as i am a little confused about a recent sitaution in my last cycle.
Im 31 years of age and my cycle lentgh is usually between 27-28 days, always on time 99% of the time, and if anything am usually late, sometimes by up to a week. Never early. Around a year ago was diagnosed with mild endmetriosis as part of investigation to mid-cycle spotting and possible interruptions with my fertility (my partner and i have been trying for a baby for 2 years). my partner also has a few issues on his part. Although we have been told to look at assisted conception (IVF,IUI) as a possible alternative, we have decided to try and give the natural way a chance first, by means of changing our lifestyle (eating healthier, excersisng more and taking vitamin suppliments) These small changes appear to have helped, particularly my partner who has improved morphology stats in a recent semen analysis. Well, we thought 'let's keep on trying' for a bit beacuse you never know! For the past year or so i have been monitoring my fertile window through means of Ovulation Kits. I recently looked in to charting, although adimit i never liked the idea, because felt it was technically involving and would get in the way of the romantic notion of trying 'au naturale' without the added preassure of charts and temp taking. But as we so are desepearte for a baby, like so many others, I thought we should give it a go. Last month i joined a fertility site, which allows me to monitor my BBT, via a graph. I found this to be more usueful in detecting my actual ovulation day. Funnily enough while recording my first graphical stats, and symptom changes i experienced two of the most strangest things. Firstly around 3 dpo i had a sudden onset of cold which became full blown cold (and im very good at not catching the cold!), secondly i noticed a very bright yellow cm over 3 consecutive days (something which i have never seen in any of my cycles). By this point, i let my excitement get the better of me and thought 'we had cracked it'but tried to contain myself for a few days for the actual test! Then at 8 DPO I felt a sudden gush of fluid, running to the loo i thought it would see the abudance of cm (as experienced by a lot of women as an early sign of pregnancy) but instead to my dread, I appeared to have had a sudden onset of bleeding, of medium flow in nature. Well as you can imagine i was devastated. But then i thought maybe i was not pregnnant at all, perhaps by period has stared early. My period was not due for another 4-5 days. The very strange thing is that this occurence has never happened before, as i am never early and as with every period i have had, almost always start with tender breasts, slight cramping and a spotting pattern for a few days before (a definite sign AF is on her way) then i go in to light- medium flow to a heavier flow etc. The strange thing about this bleeding it was very sudden, and immediatley heavy-ish, then the flow appeared to became light on the same day, and was almost like spotting the following day, then at around the time af was actually due, it went in to the normal sequence (light, medium heavy etc). Looking back at my chart and those few days, although it was my first chart, my temps appeared to remain elavated although i was experiencing bleeding, then only dropped at the time i was due. It appears as though i experienced an abnormal bleed for around 3 days, which eventually went in to my normal cycle of bleeding, making it appear like i had a long period, that started early. I am now wondering whether it was in fact an early sign of miscarriage? The sudden onset of abnormal 'heavy flow' which started and stopped over 2-3 days, the elevated temperature during that time (which would not be elevated had it been my real period) coupled with the fact that it started 4-5 days before i was due, did not correlate to my usual menstrual pattern, I am wondering if this was in fact a pregnancy that miscarried very early on? The other thing i was unable to take a PG test as i felt it was too early for any HCG to be detected. The only thing that stuck with me was the bright yellow watery cm on day 5,6 and 7 dpo, the sudden cold and the sudden 'early' on/off bleeding. I was also oddly extremely upset and very tearful on the day i was bleeding, something which is not me. I suppose on reflection, beacuase that hope had dissapeared in a blink of an eye. Although when discussing about this event with my partner, we seem to to look at it as a positive way, in that we may have become pregnant naturally, even it it was short lived, we at least know that we 'possibly' can, what do you think?
Thank you for your time and apologies for teh long-winded story!
Anna x
ANSWER: Hi Anna,
It is so devastating to be trying month after month after month for years. Usually the guidelines are if you are under 35, they want you to try on your own for one year, before they will refer you to an infertility doctor. You and your husband are well past that at two years now. I know that you two still wanted to try the natural way, however, it gets pretty impossible to keep things romantic when you manage to get yourself so fixated with getting pregnant. It is so hard not to get obsessed with it. Trust me, I have been there.
At this point, maybe you should consider seeing an infertility doctor. Even if you aren't sure you want to do the full IUI or IVF, they will run tests to see where the problem is. Sometimes, it can be a simple fix and then you two can get back to the romance. Think about it. I also don't think your cold had anything to do with anything. Good luck!!
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thanks for the reply. In fact It was just this year that my patrnet and I were both referred to a fertility sepcialist - hence the reason for me having the laproscopy/hysteroscopy investigation which identified the mild endpmetriosis.
More importantly would be grateful if you could kindly answer the part of the question which was my main issue. The symptoms I experienced between 5-8 dpo, could these have been a sign of miscarriage?
Thank you again.
AnswerAnna,
Any bleeding during especially early pregnancy is so frustrating because a lot of times we don't know where it comes from or why. It is also a signal that we could indeed be miscarrying. It is hard to say. I would think that the bleeding would have continued if you were miscarrying. Sorry, that's not a very reassuring answer.
Suzette
