Hi

Can someone please help me understand if i am still ovulating, as having had a hysterectomy 5 years ago with my ovaries in tact, i am keeping a diary of symptoms now for 7 months and still cannot figure out if i'm ovulating. I can only work on when and if my breasts get sore or if i have ovulation pain which is not much and by discharge, i still get the constant pms and feels like it lasts the whole month.

Since my op i am now totally confused, sometimes my breasts are sore for up to 2 weeks other times a few days.

Can somebody please share some light on this PLEASE.

Monica

If your ovaries are intact..you CAN still ovulate, one of the ways to check is to get one of those fertility checks from the drugstore (measures LH surges)..one of the ways to know for sure is to have hormone levels checked after [suspected] ovulation..If progesterone levels are around 5 or above..you've ovulated..if they remain around 1 or below..most likely you have not.

Another inexpensive way to check for ovulation and progesterone production is to take you temperature every morning before you get out of bed with a good thermometer that reads every tenth of a point (like a digital thermometer, a mercury thermometer reads in two tenths). Chart the results and watch for trends.

If you chart you temps you will notice that before ovulation your temp is lower than after ovulation. If you ovulate and produce progesterone your temp will jump up and stay up for about 14 days then go back down (and stay down until ovulation). My temp runs about 98.2 and then after ovulation it jumps to about 98.6-8 and stays there. Some months I think that I possibly tried to ovulate but it did not happen because my temp stays low the entire month.

Progesterone causes us to be warmer. If we made progesterone due to ovulation our temperature will be higher than those days when we do not have progesterone in our system.

This will not work if you are taking progesterone the entire month because progesterone causes a rise in temp. If I do not ovulate and decide to take progesterone that month, my vaginal progesterone causes my temp. to go up. Occasionally, you can have a reading that does not go along with the other readings but the trend is what to look for. (You could have an off reading because you were sleeping with your mouth open cooling down your mouth). You can read more about this by searching temperature method ovulation birth control.

I just started charting my temps a few months ago and the information that I am gaining has been sooooo helpful to me. It has really been worth the effort.

Kathy

Thanx Kathy

Funny thing is yesterday i got ovulation pain on my right ovary and i felt warmer, i will get a thermometer and take it from there, my cycle has really been messed up since my hysterectomy. its difficult to follow even though i keep a daily diary of my symptoms but i just do not have a pattern after 7 months.

Taking your am temp. may be enough extra information to see more of a pattern. Even though you have your ovaries the blood supply can be reduced from surgery causing a sudden or gradual decrease in ovarian function.

Kathy

Thanks for the info Kathy! I am going to give the temp thing a try. Just another way to better understand what's going on with our bodies! This morning mine was 97.7, and it's day 4 of my cycle.

Just make sure and always use the same thermometer. I have two different digital thermometers and they are off by 0.4 degrees!

I know I keep saying this but charting my am temps has been so helpful to me and has been a huge eye opener. Now I know if I am producing my own progesterone so I do not have to take a dose of progesterone and get overdose symptoms from the double dose. I also know approximately when my period should start and why some months I spot early and other months I do not spot at all. I would have saved myself quite a bit of grief/anxiety if I would have been doing this all along, but at least I know now.

97.7 would indicate to me that you probably do not have any progesterone in your system now. You will have to look at the trend though to make sure. If you can compare your thermometer to a mercury thermometer you may be able to tell if it is properly calibrated. My beige thermometer gives me the same reading as a mercury thermometer but my green thermometer is 0.4 decrees under.


Good luck!

Kathy