If there is 1 thing I regret about my trying to conceive journey, it would be not tracking my full fertile window.
Mark and I started trying two years into our marriage when we were both settled in our careers. My best friend went through IVF so in the back of my mind I had some unsettled nerves that I would face infertility too.
Mark is an airline pilot and is gone on average 2-3 nights per week. We initially were tracking my cycle using ovulation predictor kits and found that without fail, nearly every cycle, he was gone when my LH was rising. By month three, I would cry when I’d see my LH soar when he’d be gone. I debated taking time off from work to travel with him, but with 2 dogs and a busy career of my own, it just never worked out as I didn’t have that much flexibility in my schedule to spontaneously leave when my LH rose. Without fail too, the stress of “performance” when my LH rose when Mark was around would result in failed attempts. There is something about the pee tests that caused undue stress (and obviously, didn’t work for us).
After I read some books on fertility, I learned about the “fertile window” which is a term I hate, but actually is super important. You’re fertile for 5 days each cycle, and many of these days fall before your LH rises and 4 of which fall before ovulation. I learned that I am actually more likely to conceive if I focus on all of the days before LH starts rising than if I only focus on the 24 hour window after the rise.
This was earth shattering to me because I quickly realized we were missing plenty of opportunities when Mark was home. We were also assuming I was still fertile well after ovulation, which clearly wasn’t working for me.
Mark, my tech savvy guy, suggested we use our HSA funds to get some tech to make this easier. To be frank, my tears with each failed cycle motivated him to research fertility tracking devices. After doing our research we decided to go with kegg.
We chose kegg because it seemed to be the most convenient and cheapest device to use. It doesn’t require a subscription or test sticks. It also doesn’t require first morning urine which I learned is amazing. We quickly learned what the data was showing, which was the fertile window, in the shape of a valley in the kegg readings.
We got busy somewhere along the valley (and the cycle we got pregnant, it ended up only being ONE time 1 day before my LH rose). What is super interesting about kegg is it is testing your cervical fluid. Since cervical fluid is what keeps the sperm alive, I think that tracking your cervical fluid to know when to get busy makes a lot of sense.
For some reason, Mark did not have performance issues while using kegg (versus relying solely on LH strips). I think there was less pressure because he knew we had 5 days and mentally, that alleviated stress for him.
So, what worked? We got pregnant on our 3rd cycle of using kegg. On the cycle we conceived my readings had trended down so I was confident I was in my fertile window. We got busy on that one day, then Mark had to go fly. I actually wasn’t too worried about missing my LH surge since I read in the kegg Facebook group that many gals have gotten pregnant on any of the days in the valley so I thought “well, at least we have a shot!” Mark was supposed to be home the day I ovulated but ended up getting delayed due to the weather, so it really was a one hit wonder that cycle.
We got pregnant! I really was shocked (as was he!). Samuel is now 14 months, and we are just starting to try to conceive again. So far, we are only using kegg because we have it, and it doesn’t cost anything, so might as well! Hopefully, it will happen quickly again.
