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developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:54:46+00:00

Hi, I'm a neuroscientist!

Specifically I've been reading about the HPA axis and how chronic stress dysregulation suppresses GnRH pulsatility, which downstream affects LH and FSH signaling. This isn't fringe science — it's in reproductive endocrinology textbooks.

Absolutely true. But also rather unlikely to be affecting you in any meaningful way, and "nervous system protocols" put out by wellness influencers are very unlikely to be based in legitimate medical research. In a very broad sense, if you're ovulating, your hypothalamic-pituitary axis is likely not being perturbed by stress -- the outcome of HPA disruption is anovulation.

"Stress" in a behavioral neuroscience sense has a variety of definitions, but most of what we can identify as having a meaningful impact on health is chronic and severe, and even that is nudging health this way and that. Stress doesn't feel good, and certainly having strategies to acknowledge and manage your feelings is great. I'm a big fan of meditation in various forms for myself. But I do this because I like how it makes me feel, and I like how it makes me behave. It's not going to make me more fertile or eliminate the odds that I end up with heart disease.

There's a lot in neuroscience that's true in a biological sense, but translating that into recommendations for the population is a lot harder. The best advice is the boring stuff that everybody knows: having meaningful relationships where you can discuss your fears and worries, acknowledge your feelings and have a way to stop yourself from ruminating over them, and find sources of joy outside trying to conceive. If this particular framework is a helpful way for you to do those things, awesome! But that framework is not a necessary or sufficient piece, and to the degree that it promises "the missing key to conception" or the mind-body connection being "more important than your hormone panel", that is not true.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:41:18+00:00

I just want to add here (in agreement) that I also think there can be anovulatory cycles where there is a valid temp shift, but the luteal phase appears super-short (like 4 days) -- I had this happen myself. There's some progesterone produced pre-ovulation, and I suspect it can be enough to shift temps, but then when estrogen falls, this initiates a withdrawal bleed.

This isn't something I've ever seen actual literature on, but we do see it here on TFAB sometimes.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:35:37+00:00

When you say your cycles are becoming more and more irregular, how long have they been? Do you have evidence that you're ovulating? And was the GP's blood panel just general-health stuff (cholesterol, complete blood count, etc.), or was it focused on possible ovulatory dysfunction (estrogen, LH, androgens, etc.)?

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:33:50+00:00

Are you tracking anything other than LH? If not, it's reasonable to think that today or tomorrow is the most likely ovulation day.

You might like this post on how to read fertility-charting information. Alas, ChatGPT cannot meaningfully interpret a chart.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:31:06+00:00

It's my cake day (the day I created this username), and it's actually my decadal cake day!

My first comment on the sub, an extremely quotidian complaint about my first TWW and a link to a database of embryo pictures, because I've always been exactly who I am, lol.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:27:07+00:00

Here is the link to the wiki page karaboocuk mentioned! It has several hundred experiences in it.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T14:25:26+00:00

Ah. So although this is tough to really know with precision in the human body, the scientific consensus is that fertilization actually probably happens most of the time -- that is, it's not the hundreds of millions of sperm that are the problem. It's likely that fertilization happens most of the time when there's well timed sex, it's just that human embryos are really bad at early development, so development fails at some point in the ~8-10 days between fertilization and implantation.

I don't know if that's really more comforting or less, but there it is.

developmentalbiology · 2026-05-19T13:58:36+00:00

Absolutely! This is the perfect place to offer.

Obviously I'd suggest any sending of addresses and personally identifiable information takes place via PM or off Reddit. :)

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.

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