Anyone who has more than a passing flirtation with infertility comes to know the two week wait (often written as 2WW or TWW).
What on earth is the TWW? Well, its not the length of time it takes to get served at an Amsterdam café (although it might as well be sometimes!)
The TWW is the time between ovulation and your period. Also known as the luteal phase. As discussed before, in a ‘typical’ 28day menstrual cycle there is a 14day follicular phase, followed by ovulation, followed by a 14day luteal phase. Its during this latter phase that the egg travels down the fallopian tube and then burrows into the cervical lining between days 6-12. If this doesn’t happen then your period comes on day 14.
Obviously, if you have anything other than the ‘typical’ cycle, a longer follicular phase, late ovulation, a luteal phase defect then this may not be the case. Especially if you have a luteal phase defect (which is where you have 10 or less days between ovulation and your period starting) as there isn’t often enough time for an egg to make it into your cervix.
Anyway, we’ve covered all that before. The point is, that no matter WHERE you are in your fertility journey, everyone has to go through the dreaded TWW.
This is where people will recommend everything from wearing socks to bed every night during these weeks (to keep your core temperature up), to eating the inner core of pineapples – high in Bromelain which apparently acts as a blood thinner and anti-inflammatory and can help implantation…- the reality is, fertility is still such a dark art neither of these things will probably hurt (although careful with the pineapple if you already take blood thinners), and it might keep your mind off the endless hamster wheel of doom you’re probably going to go through for the next however many days.
Because, and this is the kicker, it might not be 2 weeks. If you are doing IVF its probably more like 10 days, as you can shave those 5 days the egg was off getting fertilised in a petri dish off the two week wait. Likewise, if you have a longer luteal phase you might be waiting a few days longer.
However many days it is, they will be the longest ever. Every twinge, every little symptom (real or imagined) will have you asking ‘could it be, could it be…’ and then trying desperately to think about something else for the next few minutes before your mind wanders again.
The worst thing is probably that the more times you have gone through it the more anxious (and perhaps neurotic?) you become. There are many women who spend years giving up everything for 2 weeks every month just incase that month might be a success only to be disappointed each month.
So, how to get through the dreaded TWW month after month? My advice, try and live as normally as you can. If you like to go out for a meal and have a glass (or 3) of wine, then do it. In the end, women have been having babies for millennia, and in much more difficult circumstances than today. Just remember to be kind to yourself and make time to think about what is happening and then distract yourself with other things. No matter what, its really out of your hands. Whether it is a success or not is 80% down to the egg and 20% down to your uterine environment, and going for a jog, walking upstairs, or having a glass of wine really isn’t going to affect it, and it might just take your mind of all the random twinges your body seems to like to make especially in the TWW when you are so attuned to every tiny little thing.
Oh, and mother nature is a b*tch as early pregnancy symptoms are often exactly the same as those for PMT. AGH!