- I've never tracked my ovulation before.
This is where we need a gynaecologist.
I'm disappointed.
Is this an ovulation cramp?
Am I just imagining this cramp?
I did look down into my knickers today.
Out comes one egg.
(upbeat music)
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode
of the hormone diaries.
How would you like that new intro?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I really
should have got my shit together
and got the new intro all done and together
with the book branding before we launched this new series
but it was Christmas and new year and it didn't happen
but we got it for episode three.
And so I'm considering that a win.
This episode is all about tracking my oscillation, yes.
I tried ovulation strips, ovulation tests.
I did that whole thing.
If your new here, hello, I'm Hannah.
My partner and I are trying to conceive
and I have this series called the hormone diaries,
where we talk about periods, contraception and hormones.
And we're just doing a season two,
documenting this fertility journey.
I feel like I should acknowledge the ears.
This is for another video
that's on my friend Lena's channel,
that will be out in April.
And I didn't feel like taking them off for filming.
So we're sticking with them.
Maybe you can try and guess
in the comments what it's all for.
So before we dive into all of the vlog footage
of me tracking my ovulation
and the experience with all of that,
I thought I would explain what you're actually tracking
when you use ovulation tests.
It is a thing called the luteinizing hormone.
I do not know if I'm pronouncing that correctly
but we're just going to call it LH,
'cause that's what it seems to be referred to as.
So your LH peaks right before ovulation
and that's because it is the luteinizing hormone
that actually triggers ovulation.
It gets those little follicles
in your ovaries all active and out comes one egg, yay.
So the presence of LH, indicates that ovulation
is occurring or will occur in the next day.
Now I'm not sure if you could have a spike in LH
and maybe not ovulate.
I'm sure that that is probably the case with some people,
just because bodies do all sorts of weird things
that they're not supposed to do sometimes.
But it generally is the indicator
that you're about to ovulate.
You're are the most fertile
and most likely to get pregnant in the couple days
before ovulation and on the day that you ovulate.
So there's like a few days of a window, maybe even a week
because of the length of time that sperm can survive
up in the uterus, but like peak fertility,
probably just two or three days.
They do not tell you this shit in school.
So LH is what ovulation tests look for.
So this episode kicks off where we left off
in the last episode, post period, post wedding
and I will let past Hannah take it away.
Apparently I love doing all of my updates.
Just sat here, it's very comfy on the floor.
So got married, day four of period, it was fine.
Popped in the menstrual cup at the beginning of the day,
popped it out at the end of the day, no faff.
If we weren't officially trying before, we are now.
Obviously my period's finished now.
I still have no clue what's going on my cycle, honestly.
I did look down into my knickers today
and I saw some of that creamy white discharge.
So I'm gonna pop that in my app,
technically on day 10 right now.
Last month was only 30 days.
So again, that to me is not even a predictor,
like I can't even use that to predict
what this cycle's gonna be.
Maybe it's gonna be another 30 dayer,
maybe it will be 60 days, who knows?
Because my cycle is so God damn unpredictable,
at least from past experience
I would like, what if I bought some ovulation strips?
And so I did that, I just wanna know,
I love data about my body.
I don't really wanna use these every day.
I don't really wanna use it as like a,
oh my God, ovulating, go, go, go like that scene in Friends.
That's the only thing I have in my head
of like Monica and Chandler when they're trying for a kid.
It pains me to watch these next few clips
of me talking absolute nonsense about the ovulation tests
because I didn't realise how they actually work.
Now don't worry, I do figure out eventually.
So hold in your frustration, keep watching.
I do figure it out.
But I just bought them today
and I just did one of the tests now,
just to see what it was like, so I could report back.
But honestly, I don't think I'm gonna use another one
until the day that my boobs start hurting.
'cause I just wanna like, just see how things play out.
Honestly, I'm not quite ready to start gaming the system yet
but I wanted to try to see like
how the ovulation strip works.
And then the reason why I'm tempted to do another one again,
on the day that my boobs start hurting,
is because that's the day that I feel like
I go from pre-ovulation to post ovulation,
but I can't be sure.
So this is mine, it came out negative, as I expected it to.
This cup did have my pee in it,
but I poured it out for your sake.
But if you can see, so there are two lines on it,
and two lines does mean positive,
but because one is fainter, that means it is negative.
If both of the lines were solid, kind of like this one,
if both of them were like that,
then that would have been positive.
Oh, I think I can put in negative ovulation test
in the app as well.
I don't know if that changes its predictions,
but there we go, we'll find out.
We got back from our honeymoon last night,
and when I was getting ready for bed,
took my bra off and sore breasts.
So I'm kind of like, is this just my natural cycle?
Is this my like period is gonna come
in two weeks kind of sore breasts.
Or is it a pregnancy sore breasts?
Who knows, so, I did what I said I was gonna do
and I took into the ovulation strip test yesterday
but it came back negative, can you see that?
No you can't 'cause it's focusing on my face.
I did actually a few days ago, have some cramps
but I am so new to like really intentionally
focusing on what I can feel in my body
that I'm like, is this an ovulation cramp?
Am I just imagining this cramp?
Like, what is it, am I just hungry or tired?
Or have I eaten too much?
But I put it in the app as an ovulation cramp.
And then like, it's like three days later
then my boobs start hurting.
So it could well be, from what I understand about PMS
and the menstrual cycle, it could well be I ovulated,
and then a few days later after I didn't get pregnant
from that ovulation, my PMS regular thing happens.
So we will see, I'm now like
on a two ish week waiting, to see if my period comes.
I hope it doesn't, I really hope it doesn't.
The boob hurting, just, it feels so familiar to me,
I'm like okay, there it is.
Right, two weeks later, period, so, not getting my hopes up.
In case anyone was confused,
why I didn't take an ovulation test
when I felt those cramps, we were on our honeymoon.
I didn't take any of the ovulation tests with us.
It was just enjoying ourselves, so we didn't bother.
I'm lying on the day bed in the office
when I should be working
because I have period cramps
'cause I woke up this morning and that was my period.
And I'm disappointed, you know,
it takes people ages to get pregnant.
You know, you hear these stories of people
like starting to try and then they're like pregnant
in the first month.
I mean, that was my parents, but yes,
that doesn't happen to everyone.
We're only like one month into like actually,
really, really trying.
You still start catastrophizing everything, but that's not
necessarily a good thought process to start going down
at this stage, when we're so early in the journey.
And this is me just like calming myself down
and also dealing with the fact that my uterus hurts.
One silver lining though, is that it wasn't a full two weeks
of my boobs hurting, actually.
How long was it?
I was actually quite surprised to see my period this morning
'cause I was just like, hang on.
It's not been two weeks.
So my period started today, 6th of October,
my boobs started hurting then,
25th of September, almost two weeks, 12 days.
But yeah, not pregnant.
So I think I'm getting ovulation pains today.
There's like a twinge and like,
occasional cramp and stabbing in my left side,
definitely coming up negative
because the first line is fainter than the control line
but it's the clearest it's been, so I'm really confused.
I'm like, what are these stabbing pains in my left side?
I've never tracked my ovulation before.
I've never even felt ovulation pains before.
When I was on contraception,
maybe because the contraception
was stopping me from ovulating.
So I wouldn't have felt them then
but even when I had that year off contraception,
I don't know if I felt them, but I also
wasn't looking out for them.
Like I wasn't paying attention to that.
So maybe I felt them and I was just like, oh,
my tummy feels weird today, I don't know.
It's the clearest it's been
but it's definitely still fainter than the control line.
Also I'm out of ovulation strips.
I'd need to go buy some more, but honestly I'm like,
is this just causing me more stress?
I'm on day 16 of my cycle, so it could be about now
and my boobs haven't started hurting yet.
So like all of the signs
say that like it could be, oh, there's one.
Yeah, I don't know what ovulation pains
are meant to like be like,
I was like looking up on the NHS and on Clue.
And I'm like, where in my side is it meant to be?
like how far up?
Like, is it a continuous cramp or like random.
And then so apparently it can last like just a moment
or it can last like a couple of days.
I don't know, There's another little twinge, very strange.
So my cramps are happening about here,
but like, there's my ovulation stick,
but my period pains happen here.
Like how uterus but are there not ovaries?
I honestly, I don't know.
This is where we need a gynaecologist to be like,
yeah, right there about there.
It's like, kind of like
just above my hip bone, I didn't know.
Okay, we can all now stop screaming
at past Hannah for not understanding
how ovulation tests work
because in this next clip, she figures it out.
So I think I've been getting
the ovulation test thing completely wrong.
Now that I've been doing the actual test wrong,
but like the bigger picture.
So I ran out of tests and I still have
the instruction thingy.
And I saw that there was a little calendar on it,
which I didn't notice before.
But basically, it's got two different things,
your cycle length and the day of cycle to begin testing.
And I was like, begin testing.
'Cause I've just been doing it on random days.
But now that I logically think about it,
Hannah, that's so stupid?
'Cause I wondered why, I was just like,
this isn't helpful, like how do you know?
Like you never know when you're gonna ovulate
until like afterwards really?
So I just feel really stupid.
Honestly, the idea is that you get your pack of five
or however many it is and you start your testing,
and you test every day for those days
and see if you notice any change.
Problem with that though especially for me
because I've got a longer cycle
and I have no idea when I ovulate in the middle of that,
picking five days just randomly in the middle,
like what if I get those five days wrong
and what I should have tested it just before or just after?
I'm gonna pause that washing machine, one second.
I've only had two full cycles
since taking the coil out, one was 30 days
and the other was 35 days.
And I'm currently on day 23 of my current cycle
but my boobs aren't hurting yet, and my boobs normally hurt
for like, currently it's like between 10 and 14 days.
32 days cycle, begin cycle testing on day 16.
Well, we missed that, but who knows?
My cycle is so unpredictable
because if it was gonna be 30 or 35 days again,
with how my cycle normally is,
my boobs would be hurting by now.
Anyway, I went to Boots and I bought a new pack.
These are the only ones they had,
there's seven of them, they're slightly fancier ones.
And so I was reading the instructions
but this one's a bit more clearer
about the fact that you're supposed to start testing
and do it regularly every day.
And basically one of these packs is meant to last you
for one cycle, that wasn't clear to me, am I really stupid?
So for best results, perform the test
at about the same time each day
between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM.
Some women have found that their best urine sample,
we love a good urine sample, is after 12 noon.
It is currently after 12 noon, it is like half 1:00 PM.
And it says, reduce your liquid intake and do not urinate
for at least four hours before you collect your urine.
First morning urine may be an acceptable option
for women who find it difficult to do a four hour hold.
So I just thought I'd just fucking go for it.
I did the test, I followed the instructions
and it's probably done now and I'm gonna and get it.
Okay, so this fancier brand is actually much easier to read.
Like one is definitely clear than the other.
Boom, boom, boom, there it is.
I think that means there is no surge
in the luteinising hormone.
Okay, so that's definitely still a negative test result.
Who knows if ovulation was behind me,
maybe I've already obviated, maybe I've not ovulated yet.
This was like £11, but fuck it, I'm just gonna do it.
Oh or is it gonna be a waste?
Is it gonna be a waste doing it this month?
Because I've already had lots of like pains
that I thought maybe have been ovulation pains.
Oh, have I mentioned this yet?
I was about to like put this on my face, but this is clean.
I had some extremely eggy, white discharge the other day
and that is a sign of potential ovulation.
So that's already happened.
That was like a couple of days ago.
This is hard, I think I'm just gonna wait.
If I get my period this month
then next month I'll do these,
but when will I do them, who knows?
Or do I do them now?
Oh, I don't know.
I wish I could just like wait and see,
just like do fuck all and let it happen.
But I just like really wanna be pregnant.
I really wanna have a baby.
And that is it, I actually didn't film anything after that.
And that's because I got my period
and I was really sad about it.
And then also at this time,
I just had general life documenting fatigue
and was feeling really down about it.
So never wanted to pick up the camera, but I will say
that the next month, I did the ovulation tests correctly
and I did get a positive result,
which meant that I did detect the peak
in my LH, not guaranteed ovulation,
but potential indication of ovulation occurring, very handy.
And interestingly, I got that positive result
the day before I felt those same cramps
that I suspected might be ovulation cramps.
I'm just gonna go ahead and say confirmed LH peak
next day, ovulation cramps, my body, doing a thing.
But then my boobs started hurting, which for me,
is an indication that my period is about to come.
I have entered the luteal phase of my cycle
and I got real sad about it.
I think this was maybe my lowest point so far,
in this whole journey of trying to conceive.
I was really sad and my period arrived
just before Christmas.
And there was a blessing to that
because I knew that I wasn't pregnant,
so I got absolutely smashed over Christmas and new year.
Maybe not the most healthy coping mechanism
with it all, but hey, I enjoyed myself.
Dan had a nap after Christmas dinner
and I just drank lots of gin by myself and had a dance
and singing along party whilst he was asleep.
And then I had to lie down
because I can't handle my drink anymore.
(upbeat music)
♪ Oh, the sky is on fire ♪
♪ The lake gets turned to a golden sun ♪
♪ Oh I'll never get tired ♪
♪ I just wanna dance ♪
♪ Just wanna dance ♪
♪ Oh I'll never get tired ♪
♪ I just wanna dance ♪
But new year, fresh start.
We decided that from after new year, we wouldn't drink.
Even Dan, Dan has significantly cut back on the amount
of beer he's drinking and he is now a connoisseur
of all different kinds of non-alcoholic beer.
So if you need non-alcoholic beer recommendations
I can ask Dan and feed that back to you.
And then also I decided not to do ovulation tests again
because doing it just kind of stressed me out,
like the really granular detail
and kind of obsessing over these results
and how sad I was afterwards, when it didn't work.
I didn't really like want to repeat that again.
And so instead of trying to game the system and time it all,
we are just having sex every two to three days,
which is generally what is recommended
and hoping for the best.
I did decide to bust out my old natural cycles thermometer
and started tracking my temperature.
Now the app that I've been using to track all my period
stuff for the last like however many years, is Clue.
And they do have a bit where you can put in the temperature
but the graph isn't very good.
So, I'm doing a video
where I'm testing five different
period tracker apps, fertility tracker apps.
So I've been inputting my data into five different apps.
It's a lot of admin, but once I've used all five of them
for a while, I will be doing a video, reviewing them all
and comparing all of their different features
and how they work for me.
So don't forget to subscribe,
so you don't miss that episode of the hormone diaries,
coming out soon, who knows when?
So by the end of 2020, I had had four full cycles
since getting my coil taken out, the first was 30 days,
then 35 days, then 37 days and then 39 days, it's fine.
So I actually need to start changing my language,
like even whilst filming this, I've noticed myself
saying months like this month, that month.
Cycles, I need to use the term cycle, not month
because my cycle is not for one month.
Thank you so much for watching, big love to everyone
out there who is on any kind of fertility journey.
I hope that you are all doing well
and I'll see you in my next video, bye.
(upbeat music)