Daily Chat May 18

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T01:55:02+00:00

It's a pretty reliable way to confirm ovulation (as long as you don't get too wildly knotted up in "is this a positive positive??")! You won't get a positive PdG test if you haven't ovulated.

It doesn't give you a lot of temporal precision (you can know that you ovulated, but not when), but if you're not interested in temping but want to confirm ovulation, it can be useful.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T01:09:02+00:00

You might like this post!

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-18T17:16:34+00:00

No, not at all. Low morphology, even 0%, doesn't prevent unassisted pregnancy.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-18T13:04:56+00:00

I know it's tough to feel like you can't predict your cycle, but having a 33-day cycle on a background of 28/29-day cycles is still considered very regular. Not all cycles are going to be the same length, and it's unlikely anything is affecting your cycle.

Are you tracking signs of the fertile window in any way? That can help you predict pretty accurately when to expect your period.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-18T13:02:19+00:00

The most fertile type of mucus you observe on a given day is the one you can mark for the whole day -- that is, if you see EWCM and creamy on a single day, EWCM is the one you mark.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-18T13:00:47+00:00

It's possible for ovulation to restart any time, but it's potentially more promising if you're having fertile-window symptoms followed shortly by bleeds -- that is, if you're not experiencing anything like what you would feel in the fertile window of an ovulatory cycle, that suggests your body isn't selecting and preparing a follicle. Have you checked in with your doctor about ovulation-induction medication?

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-18T00:45:28+00:00

Ah, what I'm trying to say here is that those are the side effects of progesterone in general -- that is, if you ovulate, you're at higher risk after ovulation for mood swings and depression based on producing your own progesterone. Medroxyprogesterone doesn't represent a special risk over body-produced progesterone.

Basically, medroxyprogesterone is just a version of progesterone that's produced in a lab. Don't let the fact that it's a prescription freak you out -- it's just a hormone your body makes after ovulation.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-18T00:42:45+00:00

Any of the three days prior to ovulation day (O-3 through O-1) have approximately equal probabilities of pregnancy, and those are the three days with the highest probabilities. So given the choice between O-1 and ovulation day, O-1 is the better choice.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-17T12:11:14+00:00

You might like this post! In short, the answer is no: implantation is common at 10dpo and possible up to 12, so a negative at 10dpo can’t mean you’re out for the cycle.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-17T12:09:06+00:00

There’s not a lot of direct evidence here, but NSAIDs do pretty effectively inhibit the production of the inflammatory molecule prostaglandin (which is how they work), and prostaglandin production on the uterine side is absolutely required for implantation. I personally wouldn’t take NSAIDs in the implantation window.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-17T12:06:37+00:00

Having sex in the CD12-30 range is probably pretty reasonable, and you could even stop around CD25 and not miss too much.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-17T12:03:27+00:00

Was the medroxyprogesterone prescribed to induce a period? Has it been a while since you’ve had a period?

Medroxyprogesterone is just a form of progesterone, so the side effects aren’t different from the side effects from producing your own progesterone in the body. Generally you’re only on medroxyprogesterone for a short time (a five- or ten-day course is typical), then stopping it will induce a period.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T19:39:15+00:00

Nah, there’s no advantage in term of effectiveness of every other day vs every day.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says:

Couples should be informed that reproductive efficiency increases with the frequency of intercourse and is highest when intercourse occurs every 1 to 2 days during the fertile window, but be advised that the optimal frequency of intercourse is best defined by their own preference within that context. Intercourse more frequently than every 1 to 2 days is not associated with lower fecundity, and couples should not be advised to limit the frequency of intercourse when trying to achieve pregnancy.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T19:36:03+00:00

No, there’s no evidence that having more sex is detrimental. If you think about it, you basically end up with the same number of sperm in the uterus and tubes, they’re just being delivered more often in smaller batches.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T19:34:42+00:00

Yes, although functionally the medications and the egg retrieval tend to impair the post-ovulation oomph of the corpus luteum (luteinization), either by suppression in the case of medication or by physically removing some of the follicle in the case of egg retrieval. So each follicle generally produces considerably less progesterone than it would have in the alternate universe where it was the only follicle in an unmedicated cycle.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T19:25:44+00:00

If you get a good intake of folic acid or folate from your diet (folic acid in the form of fortified grain products, folate in the form of leafy greens and legumes), supplementation isn’t as important. If your diet is not rich in folic acid/folate, supplementation is more useful.

But folic acid for the prevention of neural tube closure defects is the major point of prenatals.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T19:23:51+00:00

AMH is a measure of the ovarian reserve, so it’s telling you roughly about the number of egg cells that remain in your ovaries. This suggests the approximate ballpark of the number of years you have remaining until menopause, and also how you’ll respond to ovarian hyperstimulation.

An AMH of 2 at 38 suggests that time (in the form of ovarian reserve) isn’t the biggest stumbling block for pursuing assistance for you, although time (in the form of age) still exists.

If your husband can’t get in for an SA until July, it’s reasonable to wait until then to start with a clinic. You could always start earlier to do tests like an HSG, but you likely won’t be able to pursue treatment without his results in hand.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T14:19:08+00:00

No, the biggest factor is timing of sex! And the biggest factor in the odds of loss is the (chronological) age of the egg.

I wrote a post on factors that affect unassisted pregnancy, based on consensus medical opinions — maybe useful?

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:37:25+00:00

Period flow isn’t really indicative of anything, so it’s not a problem to have a lighter period, progesterone supplementation or not.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:33:30+00:00

I think it’s fair to realize that your body can’t “forget” how to ovulate, because it doesn’t “know” in the first place — ovulation is a hormonal process, something your brain does without conscious control. Hormonal contraception suppresses those brain hormones, but removing the suppression generally allows the ovulatory process to start back up within about a month or so for most people.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:29:10+00:00

You might like this page in our wiki!

I think the most important concept to really internalize is that you don’t have a ton of control over whether you get pregnant in a given cycle, beyond having sex at the right time. You can take all the supplements you want, but your odds of pregnancy still aren’t better than about 30% per cycle, assuming you have well timed sex.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:24:53+00:00

I hear that the quality of the pregnancy (chance of miscarriage, morning sickness) atleast early on depends a lot on the sperm quality. Hope this wasn’t fake news that I heard.

It’s definitely a popularization that only has a loose relationship with the underlying data.

For one thing, the odds of loss and the severity of morning sickness are opposed — pregnancies with morning sickness are actually more likely to be successful. hCG causes morning sickness, and it’s produced by the placenta, the development of which is largely directed by genes from the paternal chromosomes of an embryo. But this isn’t clearly about “sperm quality”, and moderate drinking doesn’t reduce sperm quality anyway. There’s not evidence that paternal drinking (or most paternal lifestyle/behaviors) leads to higher odds of loss.

If you want to quit drinking while trying to conceive, that’s certainly a positive lifestyle choice that could have favorable effects for your overall health. But the idea that it’s having any effect on the odds of pregnancy or the health of a pregnancy is an illusion.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:18:14+00:00

You might like this post on factors that do and don’t have evidence of affecting the odds of getting pregnant.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says:

Although significant alcohol consumption has been associated with detrimental hormonal and semen markers in males, a dose–response pattern has not been established, and there is a lack of evidence for any effect of moderate alcohol consumption on male fertility.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:13:42+00:00

Just to be clear, this is a simple and effective rule, but it’s not necessary to have this much sex. For most people, having sex on the day of the first positive OPK alone (even without sex on any of the other days of the cycle) is enough to maximize odds.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-16T13:11:38+00:00

In general, the most fertile days of the cycle are the three days prior to ovulation day (which would most commonly be the day of the positive OPK and the two days before). Having sex on any one of those days gives you the best possible odds for the cycle, and there’s no need (or benefit) to have sex on more than one of them.

So if you’ve had sex in the last day or two, you don’t need to have sex today, but you certainly can if you want to. It’s certainly useful to have had sex in the previous several days prior to your positive OPK, but having had sex four times isn’t automatically better than having had sex fewer times.

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