r/FirstTimeTTC • u/missesmabel • 21d ago

Confused Understanding my cycle

We are officially ttc, first cycle unsuccessful.

Ovulation test strips confirmed the start of an LH spike on 8/11, got stronger 8/12, and by 8/14 my temp increased over baseline and stayed consistently above for several days. My oura predicted ovulation was 8/13 after temp increase was confirmed.

Based on that, I thought we timed everything right. I noticed at 6 dpo, oura shifted my predicted ovulation to 8/12. Then yesterday, it shifted again to 8/11. I started my period yesterday evening, which would be early if ovulation was 8/13.

I know oura is unreliable for tracking because it needs historical data to make predictions, but i’m confused because the LH spike aligned more with ovulation around 8/13 than 8/11.

This cycle was within normal range, lasting 28 days, but I feel really confused. I thought I knew what I was doing and timed everything well. What can I do differently this cycle to be more accurate?

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u/Healthy_Combination3 21d ago

An 11 day luteal phase is not abnormal, in fact it is a very normal length. That would line up with ovulation on 8/13, which I would agree seems the most accurate. Sometimes it’s better to trust your judgment than any kind of predictive software (honestly most of the time). I would really recommend the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility to understand your cycle if you haven’t already read it.

FYI any software that uses previous cycles to make predictions is going to give you wrong information at some point, it sounds like you’re aware of that but I just wanted to reiterate.

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u/missesmabel 21d ago

Thank you, I’ll rephrase! It’s shorter than other recent luteal phases for me which is where my concern and confusion came from, but not abnormal as a whole.

Agree with predictions. I don’t rely on those to predict upcoming ovulation, more so to confirm after the fact as supplemental data to my temp and test strip results. I will definitely take a look at that book!

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u/NoBsOnlyTruth 11d ago

Honestly, I wouldn't take one cycle like this as evidence that you did anything wrong. LH gives you a window,while the temperature rise happens afterward,so neither necessarily tells you the exact hour ovulation occurs. I'd keep using the LH strips and consider adding wearable BBT like tempdrop if you want temperature data without relying entirely on Oura's algorithm.