Comments on: Barren Advice: Seven

By: Liza

Liza — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:10:00 +0000

My LMP/OD discrepancy is only two days, but using LMP gave me an EDD of 9/11.

Um. No. Not ok with me.

I fudged the LMP date to make them align. New EDD 9/9.

By: sky girl

sky girl — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:19:00 +0000

Well I went to my doc yesterday and told her that the date of my LMP wouldn’t matter much because I ovulated around CD25. She went ahead and ordered an ultrasound to determine dates so that there wouldn’t be a question. I still don’t really get why they can’t take my word for it and count 38 weeks from my ovulation date but whatevs. What can you do?

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all your thoughtful advice.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:52:00 +0000

I’m going to go ahead and disagree and say fudge the numbers. Although it is important to have a doctor who listens to you, the receptionists, techs, and nurses have a fixed list of questions and they are usually too rushed to pay attention to your answer. By all means tell your doctor when you see him or her, but don’t use the real date in your answer. Since I am completely anovulatory, except when induced with a large dose of drugs, (an answer nobody ever believes), I have taken to answering 1992. At least it gets their attention that they cannot precede as normal.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:50:00 +0000

It's not the doctor believing you I'm worried about. I had this problem with my triplets. My due date was off by a week because I triggered a week late and had my IUI on CD 22 or 23.

So while ALL of my DOCTORS agreed with me throughout my pregnancy as to what my actual due date was and how many weeks pregnant I was, when I was admitted to the hospital, the nurses entered my LMP into their computers in addition to my EDD.

Unfortunately, this meant that when I delivered my triplets at 33 weeks exactly, the NICU recorded their births as 34 weeks. Not a big deal, right? Au contraire. This actually posed a problem with insurance for coverage for some care for them, because sometimes HOW premature a baby is will dictate how much care the insurance decides they need. It also dictates whether a baby is "small for gestational age", etc.

If I had my life to live over again, I would have lied about my LMP when I got admitted to the hospital, or at least told them that I could remember when my LMP was, even though I was completely honest with my team of doctors.

Just my $0.02

By: Tracy

Tracy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:02:00 +0000

We actually ran into this because we did IVF with an egg donor, and they coasted me for a few days, so the date of my LMP and the retrieval (ovulation) date did not match up.

When I told my doctor, HE actually fudged the date of my LMP for purposes of determining a due date for their paperwork...

My OB's office never looks at the LMP date; they strictly work off the due date that my OB calculated at our first visit. The little wheel they all whip out works off that due date, so my LMP is never an issue.

By: ms. c

ms. c — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:43:00 +0000

I like the idea of telling the Doctor and U/S techs the day you ovulated.

I ran into this problem particularly at the END… my IUI was on cd 16, so my due date by my LMP was 2 days earlier. All along it did not matter (also, it was of no worry to any U/S tech as the baby always measured big). However, I feel if I had been insistant with my dr from the beginning about the 2 day discrepency it would have bought me 2 more days where my dr wasn’t “forcing” an induction on me. (and yes, with this dr, sadly 2days really made a difference…)

In summary: please just make sure that your chart really reflects your dates!!

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:45:00 +0000

I vote that you tell the doctor the whole story, but just give the simple answer for everyone else, like nurses and technicians. It will give them the same answer and it saves you having to go through the whole spiel each time. I mean, I’ve gotten tired of explaining a short cycle, so I’ve just given up and I am nodding along with what they say. Also, my practice has six different doctors and one of them absolutely refused to believe that I actually knew when I ovulated. I gave up and just discussed it with a different doctor the next time I came.

By: kate

kate — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:02:00 +0000

I only have one thing to add, and really it’s just an emphasis, but I spent the better part of my teens and 20s under the care of miscellaneous doctors who either didn’t take me seriously or who were neglectfully undereducated about what is normal or not, and it set me back substantially in my physical health journey. First and foremost, obstetrician or otherwise, FIND A DOCTOR WHO BELIEVES YOU. Period. It is one of the most important things a woman can do for herself is to develop a good relationship with a doctor who believes them.

By: Michell

Michell — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:21:00 +0000

I agree, if the doctor won’t listen to you, it’s time to find a new doctor. It may be difficult or a pain in the hiney but a doctor like that doesn’t have your or your babies best interests at heart. Good luck and congratulations.

By: sky girl

sky girl — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:08:00 +0000

Thanks everyone!

It’s not so much that my doctor won’t believe me, but you know for every ultrasound you get a new tech and they all ask the same thing. LMP? So, it gets so frustrating to explain it over and over again and often I find a patronizing look coming my way.