Over 40 ttc - winter baby dust for me!

Crikey it's gone a bit bonkers over the last few days.. struggling to keep up... congratulations @CookieWaffle and glad everything is going well @Floofsquidge...
welcome to all new ladies... you are deffo in the right ttc family..
I bought some vit d spray today.. day 22 in cycle not sure when I ov, think it was early in cycle before ewcm and am now getting mild cramps but not going to get excited... 😳 I don't temp either as made me more stressed.. so sorry to those ladies whose other halves don't want to keep trying.. that's hard.. mine is just happy to have contraceptive free sex... have you tried that angle with them ? Big bucket loads of baby dust ladies ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@Floofsquidge , glad is all going well!

@Presh12345 , well I hope your Greek god is back soon. He sounds like a nice doc! Fingers crossed for you and hoping this is your month!
My tummy is a bit bruised from injections but nothing to cry about. Yet. Haha

Wow I missed a lot, congratulations @CookieWaffle!
Update from me is all going well and now at 14+5 weeks and the 12 week screening tests all came back low risk which put my mind at ease for about a week and now the MMC anxiety is back!
@Evug1234 The only thing I did differently albeit totally out of my control, was that I'd had a chemical pregnancy loss the previous cycle which can apparently make you more fertile. The month before that I started taking pregnacare conception.
I started using the Ava bracelet and natural cycles for cycle tracking 2 months before that and that made us much more clued up on my cycle.

@Russ. Was on femara last cycle for 5 days and he said it was a mild dose and worked really well. Unfortunately the iui didn't work that time so he said Gonal F was the next step. 100iu for 5 days, then a scan. But he is currently on hols (poor man needs a break. He's so nice) so his colleague did my scan. Apart from anything else, he wouldn't even put the probe in me. He got the nurse to do it!! He's a bloody obstetrician/gynocologist and he won't even insert an ultrasound probe. My doc is Greek, I'm in an Arab country and this other doc was Indian.
Unfortunately I'm back with him on Thursday but my own Greek God (lol) will be back next week and if anything major needs done between now and then, I've been assured it will be him!!
I hope you too are doing well too and keep me posted. Xx

Welcome tulips!

Thanks for clearing that up about testing critter! I don't know too much about it to be honest, just what I've read up on various websites and books. I'll be interested to hear what my clinic advises. But there is the valid point of the potential of not enough embryos surviving that far anyway!
I'm hoping the DHEA I've started will help any quality issues

Joining the thread... 41 now, 42 in April. No children but suddenly decided the time is right. Fingers crossed for all 🤞🏼

@Presh12345 , I can't believe the other person won't give you the full picture! It's their job! I was fuming yesterday at the clinic, when I arrived the receptionist didn't even know what I was there for! And I exchanged a few emails with him and even asked my doctor to send a referral letter for my scans since IVF is abroad! And then they made me wait for an hour! And the whole scan tool 5 minutes with not even a report but one liner in an email. And all of that is £130! Going to the same clinic tomorrow and Friday and just not impressed but no other options! And back home everyone is nice and loving in my clinic. I'm just hoping and praying iVF works this time.
As for embryo testing, my doctor talked to me but I just said, let's worry about it if/when it comes to it. One step at a time!
@Presh12345 keep me posted about your next scan. Fingers crossed!

Congrats @cookiewaffle! Looking good this time 😊

Good luck @Orchid222, @Presh12345 and @Russkispy - it’s all going on now - so exciting!

I just wanted to say to those considering embryo testing - do your research - it’s extremely expensive and there is a lot of evidence out there questioning it’s usefulness at the moment. Basically women of our age are very unlikely to create embryos which will come back as normal, however this really doesn’t matter as something like 40% of successful IVF pregnancies are from abnormal embryos. The test only picks up a tiny sample of cells from the outside layer of the embryo, and if you look up the mosaic effect you will see that that outside layer is made up of a patchwork of normal and abnormal cells, so it’s entirely luck as to where the test picks up the cells from. It’s been proven that embryos are perfectly capable of repairing a certain amount of abnormal cells and many successful pregnancies happen from so called abnormal embryos. There are a lot of doctors out there who don’t advocate PGS testing anymore because of this - it’s been estimated that literally hundreds of thousands of perfectly viable embryos have been discarded, and thousands of women told they have no chance at conception because of this flawed test.

Also as Rose says, there is a risk of real damage to an otherwise healthy embryo.

@Russ he said he could only see 3 on one side. Couldn't even find the other ovary. It wasn't my usual fertility doc. Was his colleague and I have to say I wasn't impressed at all. Was on Gonal for 5 days. Follicles were all about 7.5 so he upped dose from 100 to 150 for 4 more days. Scan Thursday to see what's happening. Hopefully iui beginning of week. So scared they are all fked and old.

Cleo - at the open evening we went to, they said embryo testing wasn’t always appropriate. For example if there were only a couple of embryo’s reaching day whatever there is no point testing them as they would both be transferred anyway. Also testing comes with risks of damage to the embryo. And I’m guessing for our age group there probably wouldn’t be many embryos that reach that stage. It’s all so bloody hard. Please excuse my language. xxx

Thanks ladies :) I'm quite proud of that line! I still keep thinking AF is gonna turn up, then I start feeling sick and get a little reassured.

Here's my chart if it helps. Really didn't do much different. Timed as usual (bit of an effort for us both actually). We used preseed for the first 2 then just relied on EWCM for the third. Not sure which worked but everytime I've used preseed I've had a line (even if 2 were CPs).

@Cleozeta hoping and praying all follicles will have an egg and eventually some embryos to freeze. Won't be doing embryo testing now but if some are frozen then for the next cycle if this one fails

@CookieWaffle massive congratulations! Everything crossed for you!!
@Presh12345 , I'm on Gonal F for 5 days now, went for my first scan yesterday, 7 follicles in total and all 9mm. My doctor told me to increase the dosage by 25. So now is 275. Next scan tomorrow and last on Friday and I'm flying home on Saturday with a potential trigger on Sunday and egg collection on Tuesday.
How many follicles have you got?
I was a bit disappointed with my number but my doctor reassured it was fine. As it's not about the quantity but quality of the egg! Well, let's just hope all supplements including DHEA, I've been taking for months, do their magic!

Ameliel - sorry to hear your DH is no longer on board with ttc

Rose - the embryo testing is one of the reasons I'm considering IVF. Within our age group it apparently raises our chances massively, as one of the main problems we have is egg quality, and a normal IVF procedure could potentially select a dodge embryo because it looks the best, but only the testing at that stage can select a genuinly viable embyo. Within our age group the percentage of bad ones is quiye large which would result in potentially avoidable failed IVF cycles.

@Ameliel I’m so sorry to hear that, I’m in a bit of a similar position in that it took me ages (time that we didn’t have) to convince DH to try for no 3, he finally agreed in the summer to try for 6 months. Post mc I still haven’t dared bring up the subject of trying again. But I have a feeling he might give it one more go.
I feel so selfish knowing that I have 2 perfectly healthy beautiful boys, but this whole thing is getting me down so much. I was so excited for a few days in October until I realised my pregnancy just didn’t feel right.
I’m so sorry everyone for being a bit of a misery at the moment.
Maybe I should walk away.... or maybe I should do ivf with embryo testing... or maybe we should just ttc for another few months. I am jumping all over the shop. Sorry xxx

@Kintan ... yes ... good to know it is useful for you too ... I will stick with it. That is what we ladies do here is it not? Stick with it. Don't give up. One step at a time. Much love

@Cleozeta that is funny :) I can imagine me doing that and blaming the thermometer. My supplements are many and hopefully mighty!

Something I heard today which helped ... 'worry is meditiating on the negative' This made me think that really ... if I wanted to meditate on anything and spend time in that way I would be better off meditating on the positive and therefore not worrying. Going to write this one down in my book of good thoughts :)

@BooseysMom thank you and so sorry to hear you've had to go through two miscarriages x
@KahFen I've been temping for a few months and I feel it helps me to know that I am ovulating and it's become a bit of a habit that I do as soon as I wake up. I use the Fertility Friend app. x
@Cleozeta Ooh that bracelet sounds great! I'm off to google it :) x

Hi all, found the new thread (finally!) :)
Welcome to all new ones, and congrats Booseysmum!!!

I'm dpo1 here, once again...But my DH , who was never really as bothered about ttc as me, has unfortunately changed his mind and feels we would be better off with just the current children :( he thinks life would be too hard with a baby (4th child to be fair) so he no longer wants to try... :( :(
I'm gutted but I cannot persuade him, and it feels wrong if he is not fully on board.. so I guess I have to give myself a talking and settle for what I have. I know I'm very very lucky to have 3 healthy DC already... I know I'm greedy but I am so aching for the last 4th one!
I will take some distance from here for now as it is painful reading about the subject atm... best of luck to all of you, don't give up hope! Xx

I think for genuine accuracy we need to stick with the first temp taken weather we like the look of it or not! But its just too tempting to change it when you know that 30 seconds later it'll be completely different. I even thought my thermomiter was broke at one point as it wasn't telling me what I wanted! Ha
Liking your suppliments list by the way, very similar to mine!

@cleozeta thanks so much. That is useful to hear. I am with you on the accuracy thing ... I am taking it at the same time but three times, then going with a mean of the three results. Only been second month doing it but like you it is causing me to worry about what is happening and how to get the timing right. Plus I am also tempted to take the highest of the three results when I know it should be higher! Lol! A scientist I am not! I might have to hand over the data to my man (who is a scientist!). But the bracelet looks interesting though, thanks for the tip :) I hope you are having a good day. Warm thoughts to you :)

I am on ... a shelf full of supplements!! Ubiquinol, multi-vit, folate, vit E, vit B6, Omega3 (vegan type), dhea, and just added B12 because it was on offer! and it said it helped with energy. I have quite a random approach. I think I will look into vit D spray though as yes it is winter and so lack on sunshine ... plus ... I haven't been to Holland and B yet this week :D