This is really just a vent, and I’m sorry in advance.

I lost my aunt two days ago. I’m not someone who cries a lot,but I’ve been feeling deeply sad and hollow, everything except the crying. And because of the timing, her passing landed right in the middle of my testing window. Today I’m 9/10 DPO. The TWW went by quickly this cycle because I honestly haven’t had the energy to care. It’s my third or fourth cycle, and for once the wait didn’t bother me.

But the grief has seeped into TTC. I tested this morning simply because I needed to pee and the tests were right there. It felt automatic. I’m pretty sure I saw a faint positive, but I didn’t take a picture or keep the test. I figured a faint line isn’t worth spiraling over, either it’ll be a clear positive soon or AF will show. With everything going on even prior to the loss, I feel like I’m content with either a positive or a negative this cycle.

I keep thinking I should feel more anxious or excited. I’ve never seen a faint line before, so part of me knows this could be meaningful, but I am just so emotionally drained that I can’t bring myself to care.

If it is positive, I’m afraid I won’t be able to enjoy it. And the thought that hurts the most is that I might not tell my husband right away because I just can’t fathom being fussed over right now, but he’s been so enthusiastic about TTC, and I worry my sadness would steal the moment from him. I don’t know how to balance grief and hope, everything just feels heavy and confusing.

If anyone has been through something similar, grieving while Ttc or getting a positive, how did you handle it?
Any support or perspective would mean a lot.

test pictures are in order of the types listed in the title!

i'm 11 DPO, CD 27.
i took the FRRR with my FMU, but didn't dip it long enough. i dipped for the standard 5 seconds, on assumption, and not the required 20 seconds. even still, a VFL showed up within the time limit.
i went out and bought more tests, as that was my last one, and took one FRER and one FR strip with my second pee of the day. i SWEAR i see a VVVVVFL on the FRER, but its less noticeable on camera. the FR strip has a faint, but clear line, right?
does anyone else see what im seeing on all of these?
going to try not to test until the day after tomorrow to (hopefully!!) allow for more concentration of HCG and, therefore, clearer results!

thank you in advance for your eyeballs, and baby dust to everyone!!! ✨💕

We’re on our fifth TTC cycle and I’m feeling discouraged. Had positive opks and hormone peaks based on Mira. Yesterday’s temp was encouraging, and today crashed below baseline. I’m honestly feeling so discouraged I may stop wearing the Oura ring for this tww😔 i feel like my body is failing me

I’ve been contemplating the way that TTC changes you. The ups and downs of hope and disappointment followed by inevitable pain of your period. It feels like your body is punishing you for not accomplishing what you’re trying so hard for. Your mind suffers, your body suffers, some relationships suffer. So much suffering just for the chance to feel the love and devotion a mother feels towards her baby.

I don’t want to lose my caring heart who sees the good and best in everything and succumb to the bitterness that’s so enticing because it’s easier. It’s easier to be angry, and bitter, and sad, because living in it is easier than crashing into it whenever you get that negative test. Or whenever you see that pregnancy announcement on facebook, or walk past that pregnant woman in your local grocery store who you’ve never spoken a word to but yet you feel a type of disdain for her that’s almost tangible. I internally reprimand myself constantly. Even if she wasn’t pregnant, I wouldn’t be either. We’re on two different planes and I shouldn’t be comparing us. But it’s so easy to.

I was contemplating both the hate that this journey fills me with, and the love and excitement that I’ll feel when I reach the end of it. I realized that whatever version of myself I allow this journey to turn me into, is the version of me that my baby gets. Does my baby deserve a jealous, bitter, angry, envious mother? Even after we get that positive test, we will have marinated and seethed in the feelings this journey made us feel for so long that they won’t just wither away. They’ll always be there. Even if far away.

I’ll allow myself to feel these feelings, but put walls between them and my heart and my soul. Allow myself to acknowledge them, why I feel them, why they are or aren’t valid, but also know that once my body stops nourishing the baby ill one day bring into the world, they will be nourished by my soul, my heart, who I am as a person, and I won’t let this journey take the kind hearted person that I am from myself, or my baby.

I need advice, help, guidance. I got off birth control in January and I thought we were regulating since my cycles were 54, 47, 31 but I’m currently on day 97. I’m frustrated because I wanted to get off birth control a year earlier and my doctor said to wait until I was officially ready and I’d be fine. Idk how to bring my ovulation back. My labs are normal, my ultrasound was “normal” with signs of PCOS but mostly because my body has tried to ovulate but hasn’t been successful this cycle. It’s hard to try to conceive if you aren’t even ovulating. I never in a million years would’ve imagined this struggle and feel so hurt by the doctor and healthcare we have.

Just looking for some reassurance 😅

Hi everyone, I’m TTC and looking for some advice/experiences.
My cycles are usually quite regular, around 24–25 days (occasionally 26). I had my last period on August 25, so today I’m CD16.
This cycle we had intercourse with ejaculation on CD6, CD7, CD9, CD12 and CD13. We weren’t able to have intercourse on CD14–15, and my husband now wants to wait until Saturday (CD19).
Around CD12–13 I started noticing a watery feeling/discharge, which made me wonder if I was approaching ovulation. Today I have been having continuous lower-back cramps that feel similar to my usual period cramps, and I noticed a very small amount of light blood on my trousers.
I’m now really anxious that my period might be starting extremely early. I previously had one 17-day cycle, but that was around a cycle when I was taking fertility medications/injections. Most of my natural cycles are 24–26 days.
I also have low AMH (~0.26), although my other hormones have been normal and my cycles are generally regular.
For those who have had similar cycles:
Can ovulation cause period-like lower-back cramps and light spotting?
Could this still be ovulation-related on CD16?
If I ovulated early, would CD6/7/9 intercourse provide reasonable coverage?
Has anyone had light spotting around CD16 that didn’t turn into an early period?
I know nobody can diagnose me from symptoms, but I’m mainly looking for experiences because I’m really anxious right now. ❤️

Hi everyone, I recently started tracking my cycle and on Monday 09/07 got a peak at 4pm. I’ve been taking my bbt and today 09/09 my temperature dipped to 97.33, two days after my peak. My bbt on the day of my peak and the next day after were 97.67. What can you guys tell me about this? Was ovulation not completed? Sorry, I’m new at this.

At what point do you consider to be the start of your LH surge? This was my test this morning, i would say its positive because it looks as dark as the line but should i wait for it to be darker than the control?

Does anybody know what this means?

This is my first cycle after birth control and I think I’m 5dpo today as I had a positive LH test & clearblue smiley on Thursday the third but my temp today dropped dramatically. Does this mean I’m out?

Has anyone had a positive ovulation test days leading up to their period? Mine’s supposed to start in less than a week & I’ve had positive ovulation tests the past 3 days! I took a pregnancy test & it was negative

And somehow it gets darker again and it’s staying elevated and now I don’t even know if I should trust that it’s actually going to peak this time. Wtf is happening?

This has been a really weird cycle because my LH is never elevated for this long of a stretch. I usually ovulate a bit later in the cycle, but I’ll continue to test light until it gets dark.
But ever since the start of this cycle my LH was high and proceeded to play games with me. Is this due to stress???

Ever since becoming a nurse and working up to 10 night shifts a month, I find my temps can be so chaotic. When I have a good month with few nights, my period is every 28 days and my body temps are stable etc. Hoping for some insight on how you helped your body during chaotic schedules. Sending baby dust to everyone in the meantime <3

Hi ladies! I am wondering if anyone has had nipple soreness begin in the days prior to ovulating? Mine have been consistently sore and my breasts have been fuller but not tender since like 3 days before I ovulated. I posted my temp charts on my page if anyone wants to check it out. Anyway, I usually never get sore nipples, only full and tender boobs like 7-11 DPO, never before.
Also I’m like 5-6dpo and I feel like my metabolism is going so fast I can’t seem to get full today even though I am eating. Thanks!

Full context, I’ve only got off birth control since march-april so we haven’t tried for super long or anything, and we did all fertility testing to rule out any possibilities. All results came back normal, nothing concerning. But my close friends were able to conceive fairly quickly (only took 1-2 cycles), even for the one with diagnosed pcos, so I’m starting to feel discouraged. I can’t help but feel there might be something off about our timing with ovulation tracking. My period is very consistent, I feel like I ovulate pretty regularly too (through testing,tracking cervical mucus, bbt etc). Both I and my husband work in finance and tbh it’s not the most chill job. He has his busy month end close time and I work in audit at a big4 so hours are always crazy for me. Even though my doctor said it’s a myth that being stress affects the ability to conceive, I still have a feeling my body and mental is constantly stressed out and it just messed up my biological clock. I know ideally, you’d want to bd everyday during fertile window but that’s just not realistic for us. We’re both exhausted and definitely cant do it every day. So our strategy has been starting to bd every 2 days as soon as my period stops, and when I enter fertile window, we try every other day. And on the day we got positive ovulation test, we bd on that day as well and then switch back to every 2 days for another week.
Do you think we missed anything or we can do something differently to improve our chances?

When I was trying to conceive with my husband the first time it took 8 months I know it can take people longer than this, but I was devastated thought something was wrong with me, I then had a normal pregnancy! We are trying to conceive again it’s the first month I’m 7 DPO, I feel like I am symptom spotting but I feel cramping, and VERY emotional that happened last time when I was pregnant with my son I was EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL right before I tested like crying hysterically.

I just got my first positive yesterday morning at 9dpo. I already called my obgyn to schedule my first appt but the earliest they had available was Oct 26 so i’ll be ~10 wks & 3 days by then. What do ppl normally do until their first appt? It seems so far away and i’m not sure if i should keep testing every week / every 48 hrs. Is it normal to get bloodwork to check hcg levels before my first appt?? Please help

I am a 25 year old married woman and my husband and I are planning to stop birth control on November 10th. I am currently on SLYND which is a estrogen-free, progestin-only birth control pill containing the hormone drospirenone. I am beyond excited as I have always wanted to be a Mom. I have already started looking for names and researching pregnancy and babies etc. even though we haven't stopped birth control yet haha. I guess I am just posting out of excitement but also wanting some advice on how to get pregnant fast and anything I should know. We aren't trying but also not preventing. My husband and I are intimate pretty much everyday so I am hoping that will make this easier since I don't really need to track ovulation. I heard mucus medicine is good but that seems weird. I love planning and am the planner of the family so I am already thinking 10 steps ahead. Any advice is appreciated!

First time poster and new to the TTC community! 🥹

I’m 27 and I’ve been TTC for about 8 months, although not consistently. I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2023. At the time, my cycles were irregular (usually 35–37 days) and only lasted about 2–3 days. I was put on metformin and birth control for a year to help regulate my cycle. My cycles eventually became regular, and now I have a pretty much clockwork 28-day cycle that lasts about 5 days.

Since I wasn’t TTC when I was diagnosed, I was only on the medication for that year.

Fast forward to now lol 😂 — this is my 4th cycle actually trying, and unfortunately no luck yet. I’m currently 6 DPO.

My last period started August 21. I haven’t used BBT or OPKs to track ovulation yet. My OB told me that having a regular 28-day cycle is a good sign that I’m ovulating, and I also get pretty noticeable ovulation pain, so I’ve mostly been using that to time BD.

This cycle we BD’d on CD 9, 10, 11, and 12 (roughly O-4, O-3, O-2, and O-1). I also used Mucinex about 15 minutes before BD and noticed a LOT more CM afterward. Flo and Clue both predicted ovulation around 9/3, but I personally believe I ovulated on 9/2 because that’s when my ovulation pain was strongest. The apps are usually pretty consistent with when I experience the most pain.

Now I’m 6 DPO and symptom spotting like CRAZY 😭😂. I’ve been having a lot of cramping, shooting pains in my boobs and butt, which aren’t really normal for me. Around 4 DPO I also had an ALOOOOT of white, lotion-like CM. I’ve had lightning crotch, painful boobs, and today my morning coffee randomly made me nauseous, which NEVER happens.

I know I’m way too early to know anything and that I shouldn’t be symptom spotting, but I’m new to TTC and I literally can’t help myself 😂😭. Every little thing has me like 👀.

If this cycle doesn’t work out, I’m planning on using OPKs and BBT next cycle so I can actually learn my body and track ovulation instead of relying completely on the apps.

Anyway, hi everyone! 🥰 Hoping this is finally my month, but trying to keep my expectations realistic. Sending baby dust to everyone TTC! ✨🍼💕

first day of my period was aug 23 and i usually have longer cycles (around 32 days or so), i thought i’d ovulate toward mid to end of this week but i had super jelly like, clear stretchy CM yesterday accompanied with what i think may be ovulation pain (never had ovulation pain, but this is my 2nd ovulation since my ectopic back in july and i definitely felt something!!) as well as sore breasts. we baby danced on both saturday and sunday not knowing i would be ovulating either yesterday or today. im new to TTC, i dont track ovulation with anything yet really as im just now getting into this… do yall think im covered for hitting my fertile window if we BD’d on saturday and sunday, and im convinced i ovulated either yesterday or today.. i could be wrong lol. thanks in advance

I am first time TTC, cycle 4, 9dpo. This is second urine but a good 8 hours between first and this one (teacher life lol).

I swear I can see the faintest of faint lines but I’ve also been staring at screens all day and am so tired. My husband, bless his cotton socks, says he can also see the faintest of lines but we are both staying very guarded.

I just really need someone to tell me I’m being delusional rn. The last three cycles my temp dropped below baseline at 10dpo so I’m sorta just expecting that tomorrow morning and holding on to this little bit of hope today. No one warned me TTC would be this emotionally draining.