Vitex trial: weird chart. Should I try again?

[aunteater]

I tried supplementing with Vitex the month before last, and got a long cycle with a really weird chart. On paper it looked anovulatory-- the first anovulatory chart I'd had in over a year, I think. So I decided the vitex was a bad idea and stopped taking it. When I fed the data into fertility friend, it tentatively judged it as ovulatory with a 14-

Comments

[darlahood]

I had never heard of Vitex before your post... had to look it up. How did you find out about vitex and why did you decide to start taking it?

[aunteater]

oops! Sorry, probably shouldn't have abbreviated: Vitex = castus agnus vitex, aka chaste tree berry. It's an herbal supplement, and I'd run across many mentions of it being helpful for PCOS and low-progesterone issues, so it seemed worth a try-- I've had my PCOS symptoms in check for a long time now thanks to a low-carb diet, but the low-progesterone/short luteal phase issue lingers.

[elettaria]

Agnus castus, by the way, not castus agnus. I used to hear it called that most of the time, but now it's mostly referred to as vitex.

Vitex is a slow-acting herb and I've heard that you should take it for 6 months or even a year minimum in order to balance your hormones. Some people don't do at all well on it, including anovulatory cycles or increased PMS. I'd suggest continuing with it unless you get any problems (and I'm not including mild chart wonkiness as a real problem, just a puzzle). Your chart looks like it could be ovulatory, your temps do definitely hop upwards, albeit with some spikiness. Keep going and let us know how the next chart turns out.

[anastasia1009]

I looked at all your charts and you typical anovulatory chart looks ovulatory to me and the dip at CD17 is just an estrogen surge. Your charts look good and Vitex is known to length your luteal phase. A good community is http://www.twoweekwait.com and there are alot of women taking vitex to length & strength there ovulation. I am taking soy right now for a strong ovulation and it moved my ovulation from CD 15 to CD 13.
Good Luck!!

[aunteater]

Thanks for your reply! On the anovulatory chart, I see a definite estrogen phase, but then... nothing. Like I tried really hard to ovulate, but didn't quite make it. The set of rules I learned for reading charts say the post-ovulatory temps need to be over the coverline, and the coverline needs to be over the last 6 temps in the follicular phase, which is not the case in that chart. Is there another set of rules for reading that? -- I learned from The Garden of Fertility, and have never read TCOYF, which seems to be the standard guidebook.

[elettaria]

The standard rule is that the first three post-O temps need to be over the previous six temps before you can call ovulation, and the temps need to continue to be at that level. FF is notorious for having a diabolically bad ovulation detector which does not follow this rule correctly.

[aunteater]

Thanks for clarifying! I thought that was the rule, but I wasn't 100% certain-- my book is still packed away from moving, and I was not able to consult it. I did think that Vitex chart... well, it deserved the dotted line, since the "ovulation day" marked there doesn't follow the rules at all. It's apparently just looking for three days of rising temps, without reference to the six pre-ovulatory temps.