Tomorrow will be 2 months that I've been sleeping in total darkness. Next full moon a get to start turning on the lights! Woohoo!I was so excited I had stopped spotting, and then the day after my last post the spotting began again. So, I started taking female harmony again today. Hopefully it'll help again. I think the problem is that this cycle has been going on for too long and probably my endometrium lining is too thick and can't sustain itself anymore because all it's been doing is building up and up since I haven't ovulated in more than 3 months. If I could just ovulate, I'm sure I would stop spotting.
I think another problem is that because I've been sleeping in complete darkness all the time with the exception of a couple of days, my body is actually producing too much melatonin and this in turn is preventing ovulation. I haven't been offsetting sleeping in darkness with spending more time in the sun during the day or turning on the lights at night to balance the melatonin production because I didn't want to introduce a whole bunch of variables at once. But I suspect that all this darkness is screwing with my cycles. I think I'm one of those people who needs the 3 nights of lights. However, I did promise 3 months solid of darkness and I've got one more month to go. I wonder if the 3 days that I did have egg-white cervical mucus (EWCM) and no spotting occurred because I had to keep turning on the lights to take care of my little sister at night. If so, that could be a +1 for Lunaception when I finally do start turning on the lights at night.
3 more comments about my chart above:
1. I've added another category called "Lunaception Not Practiced" to show the days where I didn't sleep in total darkness for one reason or another. I feel like this would give me (and anyone else who reads my blog) a clearer picture of how closely I've been following Lunaception. 2. The full moon was actually yesterday, on Sunday, but you can see on my chart that it's showing up that it's today. I have no idea why. I inputted the data correctly on the TCOYF online software. I suspect it's some sort of glitch. Sometimes using the free charts on TCOYF is so annoying! They can take forever to update and lots of times the functions and options don't work like their supposed to. Hopefully this error will correct itself soon. I'm sure the paid version works better.
3. The cycle day on the chart really only goes up to the first two digits, so since I've hit 100, all you see is 10. I guess you have to start counting if you want to figure out what day I'm on.
Hopefully I'll have better news next week!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Hi, Lorraine. Thanks for stopping by The Cellulite Investigation. I'm so excited to find your blog! Lots of great info on here. And it will be nice to have someone to compare notes with during this little self-experiment.
ReplyDeleteOoops! I accidentally deleted my response today. Anyways, here it is:
ReplyDeleteYea, I think sharing our experiences is great. Lets keep our fingers crossed so that it works! :)
Hello! I have long cycles much like yours. I wish you good luck with Lunaception, but it was useless for my mother and me. I also had no luck with temperature charting because of my sleeping patterns.
ReplyDeleteWhat HAS been very useful to me in learning Fertility Awareness is the Ovulens, a reusable gadget for observing the fern pattern in your saliva when your estrogen level is high. I wouldn't rely on it all by itself, as so many things affect saliva, but it's helpful for corroborating the cervical signs.
Have you ever had a diagnosis of the cause of your long cycles? I had several that turned out to be wrong before the doctors admitted they didn't know, but the theory that sounds most plausible is that my hypothalamus "stalls out" for a while before it sends the signal to ovulate again, but nobody knows why! 6 other women in my family have (or had when they were younger) very long cycles. They get shorter after motherhood but are still longer than "normal". After years of feeling like a freak, I've decided that this IS normal for me; what's important is knowing when I'm fertile and staying off the fake hormones.
I'm a big Diva Cup fan, too!
Hey Becca! Thanks for stopping by :)
ReplyDeleteYea, right now I don't have too much faith in Lunaception either as it doesn't seem to have done anything thus far. Thanks for sharing your experiences with it. Louise Lacey makes it seem like it will work for anyone and everyone, but what in life comes in a one size fits all package?
To be honest, I don't know what causes my long cycles. I've done all sorts of tests too and no Dr knows why. They can't even tell me what's going on with this anovulatory bleeding that lasts forever. They all look at the tests, shrug their shoulders, and say that I should go on the pill to regulate my cycle. *Sigh* I want to stay away from the fake hormones too. I don't know what the norm is for the women in my family since the only one in this country is my own mother...and she always took bcp, but I'm hoping and wishing that there is something I could do to improve my cycle. I was keeping my fingers crossed that Lunaception would work for me...and I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
The Ovulens sounds interesting. I had heard of the whole saliva fern pattern thing when I was learning FAM. I didn't want to use it then, but I think I'd consider it now. Thanks for the reminder!
ps: Great article on the divacup!!! I'm sooo adding that link to my post! Good job on writing it. It's well written and addresses a lot of the common questions and concerns people have.
I had anovulatory bleeding once, and my doctor stopped it with an estrogen patch. I wasn't thrilled with the idea but didn't have side effects. If you don't want to go that route, you might try eating a lot of soy and see if the plant estrogens help.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea that the pill will "regulate your cycle" is so ridiculous! It only replaces it with a fake cycle! Besides, the pill had awful side effects for me and for some of my relatives who tried it.
I wish doctors would do more research on different patterns of menstrual cycles, instead of trying to cram everyone into the same box! They could learn a lot from FAM and further study of it, if they'd stop dissing it as "not a reliable method of contraception"--statistically, it works as well as barrier methods, but of course a lot of doctors dis those, too; they want everyone on the pill until we're ready to conceive and then on fertility drugs. >:-( I conceived naturally, but I had to switch doctors to be "allowed" to do it.
I'm glad you like my Diva Cup article!
I think it's ridiculous too that some doctors completely discredit FAM and ignore your charts and observations, and in turn ignore you. If only they would open up their minds a bit and consider that your charts can be a reflection of your health and that not every problem is solved with a pill. Look how long it took for acupuncture to be recognized in western medicine when people had already been doing it since only God knows when. We've still got a long way to go with western medical doctors...
ReplyDelete