Trouble conceiving - was on pill for 10 yrs

[babyangelbean20315]

I guess I'm jus looking for some hope, I ave been Ttc since a mmc in September and having no luck
any advice or tips ? I spoke to the Dr they said u need to be trying for 2. Yrs before they investigate fertility
I'm only 22 so I hope I am quite fertile however I was on the pill from 11-21 to control my periods

Anybody had this before and then conceived ? How long did it take ?
I feel like this is my own fault for putting added hormones in my body for 10 yrs

Anybody been on the pill for this long nd then had a baby ?

[bakingtins]

It takes >6m to conceive for 30% of normal couples, >12m for 15%, >2yrs for 5%. I think the fact you got pregnant once is a sign that your time on the pill is irrelevant. A MC can screw up your cycles for several months afterwards, even though some women find they are more fertile in the months afterwards, the opposite can also be true. I can completely understand the need to be pregnant again to put things right in some way. Are you charting your cycles or using CBFM or ov sticks? Have you tried doing the SMEP?

[inamaymaybewrong]

Could you get a (private if necessary), internal scan done to check your ovaries? I was on the Pill for a few years and it masked PCOS in my case, which was only found via a scan etc once we'd been unable to conceive after a year of dedicated trying, in my early 30s. Sorry for your miscarriage.

[RawCoconutMacaroon]

Sorry to hear about your mmc.

I think a really important bit of information in your original post, is that you were put on the pill at a very young age to control your periods. Do you know WHY your cycle needed controlled? That could be very relevant now, as if you have a condition affecting ovulation (pcos for example), then you need to get medical advice regarding that. The usual "keep trying for X amount of time" isn't really appropriate if it's already known that you have a problem IMO.

"Periods" on the pill are not real (there's no ovulation during the cycle and the bleed is from withdrawal of the pill), and when you stopped taking it, your cycle should have returned to normal fairly fast when you started to ovulate. What is it like now? Regular or fairly random?

[babyangelbean20315]

Thanks for all your replies, I haven't tried ovulation sticks but was going to this cycle
I dunno what SMEP is ?

I was on the pill because my period started and then would come back like a week or 2 later so I could have 2/3 periods a month

Started the pill on my 3rd month I think it was, my periods now are about 30 day cycles maybe a few less or a few more days but they seem to average about 30 days

It's so hard to figure out n it jus makes me feel like I really messed up my body jus because I was too embarrassed to deal with it all at the age of 11/12

[inamaymaybewrong]

You could also ask your GP to do a progesterone blood test to check for ovulatio. Even when not on the pill you can have regular periods but not be ovulating.

[bakingtins]

spermmeetseggplan.com If you're not monitoring ovulation how do you actually know you are having sex at the right time in your cycle?

[babyangelbean20315]

Sorry I should of made it a bit more detailed, I track my cycle on calender and apps which all give Me the same ovulation, also in some cycles I have had signs of ovu but not every month so It is confusing

It jus seems odd that it happened so fast then mmc n now it won't happen for some reason

[inamaymaybewrong]

Irregular ovulation is common with PCOS...

[babyangelbean20315]

This might sound stupid but what is PCOS is there symptoms I should look out for? I'm only 22 n tbh I'm worried that it's not going to happen I kno I'm young n hot ages but since my mc this is all I want all my dreams and plans sort of revolve around a baby/child being a mum is important to me n if there is a issue I'd rather know now then in 5/10 yrs when it starts getting harder to conceive anyway

[bakingtins]

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Polycystic-ovarian-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx

[bakingtins]

Do your apps rely on calculating ovulation from your cycle length? They probably assume a luteal phase of 14 days ( and effectively 'count backwards' from your period) but you could be ovulating sooner or later than this.
There are lots of ways to monitor ovulation - temping, cervical mucus and position, ovulation sticks or a fertility monitor. If you've been on the pill since you started your periods you've never really had chance to get to know your body. You really need to be able to predict when you are going to ovulate a few days beforehand so you can DTD and have little swimmers already lying in wait for a nice fresh egg!

[babyangelbean20315]

Thanks for the advise and yea it calculates it from my cycle history I put the dates my period starts n finishes n it predicts the rest

What is the best way to know - as I said I will use ovulation sticks this month but should. I go with the app or do I need to figure it out another way ?

[puzzledleopard]

I was on the pill Microgynon from 15 till 25. Pretty much the same reasons irregular periods and hormone imbalance. I fell pregnant at 21 but resulted in Mc probably due to the pill failing but clearly stopping the pregnancy progressing. I fell pregnant again at 25 with my DD she's 4. From 25 to 28 I had the implant and I came off last July and went onto Cerazette.
I fell pregnant early this year but had another Mc early on.
I was told at the doctors you are more fertile when you just come off contraception.

The only times I've stopped being on contraception have been when i'm pregnant but have still conceived.It could be as others have said possible other underlying causes of Irregular periods.

There is not a set time limit on when our body gets over a Miscarriage and there is such thing as a Anovulatory Cycle where for some reason that month you don't ovulate.

This is also an interesting read. Because it's so stressful trying for a baby each month that goes by creates more and more anxiety. www.babycenter.com/404_can-stress-get-in-the-way-of-getting-pregnant_1336350.bc

I would do as others have suggested and use the sticks and track it that way.
When I fell pregnant with my daughter I must have ovulated within days of my period ending which is crazy but can happen at any time in the cycle and be delayed by a number of causes. Them apps only assume its 12-14 days before your period.

[babyangelbean20315]

Thanks for all your feedback everyone

Can anyone recommend a brand of ovulation sticks ? A few people have told me they're not very good so I just would like to get the best ones really

Thanks everyone

[inamaymaybewrong]

Clearblue ovulation sticks that give a smiley face when you're ovulating.

[ShebaShimmyShake]

I was on the pill for 12 years and conceived within a year of coming off it, and I'm 10 years older than you. It can take a few months to leave your system when you've been on it for that long.

I would not recommend using ovulation tests. First of all, they don't actually detect ovulation. They detect the LH surge that occurs just before you ovulate. Problem is, you don't know what time of day or night that happens and you could easily miss it. Plus even when it happens, your body might hold back ovulation anyway if something happens that stresses or unsettles it.

I tried an ovulation kit once every day of the month, got no result and got panicked. Within the next month I had blood tests and a scan which showed everything was normal. The month after that, I conceived.

Sod ovulation kits, is my belief.

[ShebaShimmyShake]

Remember how slapdash the conception process is. You could ovulate as normal but maybe the sperm just don't reach it (maybe most of them travelled to your left tube and you ovulated from the right). Maybe the egg was fertilised but didn't manage to embed in your uterine wall. Maybe you had sex a little too soon after ovulation and the sperm were nearing the end of their life by the time they met the egg. Maybe maybe maybe. The more I researched the conception process, the more amazed I am that anyone ever manages to get pregnant at all, how the human race has lasted this long.

[babyangelbean20315]

It jus seems unfair when u wanna get pregnant all these people jus fall pregnant around u n make u worry about your body and why is it not happening
this is rather stressful I see why people conceive when they 'give up'

[inamaymaybewrong]

Sometimes they do baby but if you have an underlying medical issue then no amount of relaxing or giving up etc will help. In fact, those 'we just gave up and it happened' stories are just that, anecdotal, whereas the research shows that stress has little negative effect on fertility. People don't get pregnant either because they're not having sex at the right times (why tracking and checking ovulation matters) or they have a problem that needs treatment.

[babyangelbean20315]

Thanks again everyone I will be getting my sticks later and going to go on at the gp to find out. What's going on

[Miggsie]

I conceived 2 months after coming off the pill, my friend took nearly 2 years.
It is highly variable.

[Starspread]

Agreed with everyone who's recommended proper ovulation tracking rather than just an app's one-size-fits-all solution; I'd also really strongly recommend the book Taking Charge Of Your Fertility - like a user manual for the female body!

It can definitely take a while for things to get back to normal after a miscarriage; I had been on the pill for longer than you when we first got pregnant - I then had a missed miscarriage, and then it took over four months for my periods to come back. We still didn't get pregnant straight away, it took a few months, but now I'm five months pregnant and everything's going incredibly smoothly. That's not to boast! Only to offer reassurance that you've got heaps of time, and based on my similar experiences (though I'm over a decade older than you) nothing you've said sounds like a cause for concern to me (but of course I know 'don't worry' is far easier said than done!).

Good luck! Enjoy learning about your own body and how to read your cycles; it's amazing when you realise how complex and brilliant it all is.