Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Exciting vent
I had to vent somewhere and my BFF is not answering her phone. (Excuse the drama, please :P )
I have been testing and testing and testing for ages, and I finally got a positive OPK! With all the issues I had last year, my ob/gyn told me she didn't think it was possible for me to ovulate on my own, BUT bc of my age (25), she wanted me to try for a while before considering fertility options. so I've been doing at-home tests for a while, just so see "what's up", and every negative was getting me more and more down about it. Especially the weeks where the line would get stronger every day, as if it were leading up to it, then just drop off entirely.
Then today, I tested as usual, thinking to myself, "Don't even look at it right now, just walk away." I happened to see it out of the corner of my eye, and snatched it off the bathroom counter, and there it was, my first positive OPK!! It's not an EPT, but progress is progress!!
Re: Exciting vent
Yay for the progress!
Have you read "Taking Charge of Your Fertility"? There is so much info in that book. I was so amazed at how much I didn't know about my own body and the cycle in general.
I don't know if you're already charting, but I would think temping every morning would help you out a lot. Once you ovulate you will see a rise in your waking temperature, which will stay elevated until AF comes. You can use the OPK in conjunction with this to confirm your fertile days.
GL with everything!
I haven't read TCOYF even though I've heard about it, mostly because I haven't seen it in stores, but I do have:
What to Expect Before You're Expecting
Getting Pregnant
Plan to get Pregnant
The Fertility Journal
Went a little overboard, much? I did read them, and I have been charting and temping for a bit.
That's encouraging, Punky! I just convinced DH to come home for lunch
So here's hoping! 
Happy humping!
I second MrsC. Even if you decide not to chart, reading the first third of TCOYF was a huge eye opener. The rest of the book gets into lots of different scenarios, so you may or may not find that part helpful. I didn't bother reading most of the rest of it. I found it at Barnes and Noble with no problem.
Also, not to be a Debbie Downer, but keep in mind that just because you get a positive OPK doesn't mean you will ovulate, it just means that you have a strong enough surge to make the test positive. The only thing that will confirm ovulation at home is charting your waking temps. I know, I am the evil one for posting this. I do hope this is not the case for you and you did ovulate on your own! GL :-)
LOL jCam, you're not evil. After all this time, even if I haven't ovulated, enough of a surge to get a positive OPK is a really big deal. At least it means I'm on the right track, hormone-wise, and it's encouraging enough to keep me from researching fertility options 24/7, which can also be really depressing. I've been charting- and got a rise in temp a day or two ago, which is when I started expecting the OPK to turn positive, but the line just got lighter and lighter. So with that plus the positive, I'm at least reassured that it CAN happen naturally, even if it takes a while.
Since everyone raves about it, I'll go looking for TCOYF. The "What to Expect" book was really informative, and actually enjoyable, but there's no harm in being MORE educated.
I'm glad you don't think I'm evil :-) That is really good that you got your first positive, either way!
I hope this isn't too forward, but do you have PCOS? Just curious why your doc says you won't ovulate on your own.
I was in and out of the hospital most of last year for ovarian pain and initially the doc diagnosed me with PCOS due to tons of ovarian cysts that apparently would burst, causing the pain (and the presence of most of the other symptoms of PCOS). At a later visit, when I was having pain that couldn't be explained, she wanted to also do the surgery to check for endometriosis, but was hesitant to do it because of my age. I had been on BCP since about 16, which is the treatment for PCOS, so she said there was no real reason to take any action until we could absolutely confirm PCOS with irregular cycles and lack of ovulation when off of BCP. She wanted to take me off BCP for 6 months or so, monitor my cycles to confirm that I wasn't ovulating, and THEN check for endometriosis if I was still having unexplained pain, before moving on to hormone therapy for PCOS. I moved across the country shortly thereafter, and didn't get around to finding a new ob/gyn. All the PCOS programs I've researched have information you can read up on without joining, and the consensus seems to be that BCP actually "preserves your fertility", and starting them early, even if you have PCOS, actually leads to greater pregnancy rates later on.
So once I went off BCP, even if we weren't going to try immediately, I started charting and temping and bought a daily ovulation kit, and I've been tracking everything since then. I have a chart in my sig, but it's only sorta filled out, haha. It's linked to an app on my iPhone, and the web app doesn't always work right.
I was waiting to chart when my cycles were regular again, so I used OPK one month just to see if I would see a surge. We did the deed every other day to every 2 days and just got lucky.
Everyone is just sooo different. It's really too bad girls don't work as consistently as boys do. Considering we're so much better and all. LOL.
Yay, that's great!!!!
For real!! hahaha
Rynna - that sucks about the cysts and pain :-( If you need recs for doctors around here let us know! I have friends closer to you who could rec an OB, and another friend who is working with an RE that I believe she is very happy with and would recommend. Let me know if you want any names. And GL! I hope one way or another your body starts working right and you get a BFP soon :-)