FAM, doctors and pregnancy due dates

[elettaria]

FAM users can generally pinpoint the day they ovulated and thus when they conceived. Other women can't do this, so doctors assume that they ovulated 14 days after the start of their last menstrual period (LMP) and calculate from there. Since practically no one has a 28 day cycle, 14 day luteal phase and thus 14 day follicular phase every single

Comments

[patchfire]

I assume by "doctor" you mean "care provider," since with both my previous pregnancies I saw midwives (CNM the first time, CPM the second).

This time I've gone unassisted, but obviously calculated my own date based on ovulation. :)

[elettaria]

Drat, I forgot about that. You can tell I've never been pregnant! Yes, put in your answers for whatever medical health professionals apply. If you found that doctors, as a rule, behaved differently from midwives, write about it in the comments.

[lux_roark]

I had a 60 day cycle when I got pregnant with my 2nd son because I had ovulated later than usual. That's the only time my cycle has been that far off. Most doctors ask me which hormones I want to go on as soon as they find out I'm using FAM. I can't take hormones due to a blood clotting disorder, so that usually shuts them up.

[quite_rosie]

The nurse I saw originally blew me off, but my doctor did not. When we did the early dating ultrasounds, I told her I chart my cycle, I ovulated later, and here is about how far I think I am along. Once we did the measurements and everything, the day the computer configured was the same one that I had. She just said, yup, you are right, everything is lining up and here is when you should be due.

I have had doctors in the past though COMPLETELY blow me off. It is so frustrating.

[th3_unicorn]

I've never been pregnant, but when/if that happens, if I can be sure from my chart about ovulation date (not all charts are clear enough to pinpoint a date, but mine typically are), I'm surely going to put my foot down and not let doctors overwrite my due date. Ultrasounds will only tell my if the fetus is ahead or behind in its supposed development, I'm not going to let it be the other way around where they tell me the "real" gestational age from the scan.

A friend of mine used FAM to conceive and she had a perfect chart that I used to calculate her due date. But no, her doctor moved it a couple of days further (at least she doesn't risk being induced early, that way!), and she obviously believed him, so now she has a fake due date.

[letisca]

I've had an OB who had TCOYF in the shelf in her office and could work with my charts. I've also had doctors and nurse practitioners who conflated FAM with the rhythm method and refused to consider it in dating a pregnancy. It didn't become a big issue in that pregnancy because I had an early u/s that agreed with my ovulation date calculated due date and they took that date as my due date (at my insistence)

For my last two pregnancies, I've been seeing a midwife who can both interpret my charts and work from my actual ovulation date.

With u/s techs (since I generally forget the made up date) I fudge by saying I can't remember my LMP but give my due date based on that is whatever my midwife or doctor calculated by ovulation on my chart.

I have 32 to 35 day cycles with 13 to 14 day LP.