TTC 6+ months plus, part 2

[skeletonbones]

New thread as the old one was getting to 1000. So, 4 BFP's in the last thread, lets see if we can up the total considerably on this one :)

Izzy glad your scan went ok - hope they get the results done soon for you.

MrsD by LMP dates I should be 8+1, scan yesterday puts me at 8+4. however, my Duofertility monitor thought I ov'd late so by that I would be perhaps 7+4/5 ish now? However, I was dubious about what the monitor said as it changed it's mind half way through. If it had stuck with the original ov date then the scan dates from yesterday would be about spot on so who knows. I have my scan for the 16th or 19th sept (whichever is a Friday, I've forgotten!) so I'll get better dates there.

M/W seemed nice and I have to be consultant led this time as DS was (1 day) prem and it was a bit messy 'down there' after the birth, but I don't think that will make much difference until nearer the end.

Hope everyone else is ok today - I've read everything and forgotten what I wanted to say as am on phone . Will do better tomorrow!

Goodness this thread really moves fast doesn?t it! OK will try to keep up, apologies if it doesn?t make sense.

Pout my OV pains are a bit like period pains, but more specific, so I can definitely tell if they are right or left side. I believe you can feel various stages, eg as the follicle is developing, or when the egg is released, so it?s not an exact science. Mine tends to rumble on for a day or two, then I get an intensified pain at some point, usually when I?ve had slimy EWCM too (TMI, sorry).
I am very on your behalf about the dog thread ? MN in general seems to be very intolerant of anything less than perfect behaviour ? humans or otherwise. Re the particular issue, I think treats might be your friend. Or have you tried clicker training? I?m fairly sure I?ve seen something similar on It?s me or the dog. I?ll try to summarise from memory - basically your dog needs to be rewarded for not responding, but ?punished? for misbehaving ? so you might need volunteers to help. Keep a lead on him, and get someone to come in ? if he reacts, tug him away and make him sit quietly. As soon as he behaves ? give a treat. Repeat ad infinitum, be consistent, praise hugely for good behaviour, and be firm but fair with bad behaviour. I?m in no way a dog expert, but have had a few, and plenty other animals, and without fail clear ?rules? and consistent application of them is the key. Failing that, apply to go on the tv programme . Ah though reading further through the thread, you may already have solved this problem.

By the way on the pets front ? cats here . I would easily be crazy animal lady, I?m pretty close already to be honest!

Well done on the SW visit madness, it must have been hard but you are obviously a very good friend!

Wine sorry you felt so down after your appointment; I guess it?s the realisation that things maybe aren?t just going to happen without help, and it?s a bit of a shock

Biscuits - I?m fairly sure everyone feels much BETTER for your BFP, not worse! Please stick around. And hooray for the scan!

So sorry about AF lemon. You should eat cake to make yourself feel better and give some to me

I totally understand the panic feeling mrsden. Most of the time I keep busy and I?m fine, but every so often ? aaaahhhhhhh! Your holiday sounds great though- we did the vineyards by bike thing in NZ and it was brilliant, if made us feel a bit rough the next day, and also we inadvertently bought a large case of wine which was shipped the entire way round the world, back home . I think it's about 7 weeks till we go away now, and I'm getting very excited!

joycep when OH had a normal SA result, I too felt a little disappointed . I then made the mistake of telling him this, and he looked at me askance and said ?sorry, you wanted me to be infertile??. God, he?s such a drama queen ; obviously what I really wanted was just a slightly below normal result that would then allow me to say ?see ? you need to stop smoking and then I?ll get pregnant?. All joking (and controlling girlfriend tendancies) aside, I secretly hoped the problem was his, albeit in a mild way, as I figured that would be rather easier to fix than my ageing ovaries. I suspect at the heart of this, I didn?t want to feel that it was my burden to bear alone. I'm not sure what this says about me, but I hope you ladies won't judge.

You made me smile popcorn at the image of missing threads floating around the ether!

I haven?t really looked at the IVF threads ? apart from anything else, it?s yet another language I can?t be arsed to learn yet and I am still in denial. I have told myself I?ve not been trying a year yet. We decided to start TTC almost exactly a year ago, but we?d already missed the opportunity that month, and the next month was a bit shaky timing too, so really it?s probably only 10 months or so. Believable? But that said, I have short-ish cycles, so I'm on cycle 15, so I guess that's equivalent to over a year

Did anyone watch that Sex Ed programme last night? I snorted VERY loudly when they started telling the teenagers about contraception. I was shouting at the TV ? don?t bother girls, you?ll never get pregnant, it?s impossible ? like the bitter and twisted old maid I am

Hi to anyone else I've missed :)

Hi everyone,
I am back from my family visiting and feeling much better after lots of antibiotics, we've had a lovely week catching up with my auntie, uncle and cousins only marred by the depressing and inevitable dashing of my hopes and dreams as PMT started to set in towards the end of the week. Period started today.

pout sorry to hear you had the arsey side of MN on your dog thread, I've only touched on my animal mentalisms on here,and dont really dare to admit the many and varied animal life that live or has lived in our house and their various visitor inducing horrors ,so I do sympathise!, our jack russel who is no longer with us now was a very terrotorial fella and spent a lot of his time 'protecting' the house by snarling and snapping at anyone who dared pass the window, it does sound like he is trying to do what I guess he considers is his job by seeing off any unfamiliar strangers.

wheresmywine sorry to hear that your appointment at the fertility clinic was a bit of a stressfull experience, is the laproscopy been suggested to check for enodmetrosis? I've had one but it was due to painfull periods when i was a teenager rather than recently with the TTC, it was fine though,I had a general and felt fine when i woke up, the only thing was a bit of discomfort around the shoulder area weirdly as they use gas to puff everything up a bit while they have the camera in and so you get sort of indigestion pains, `i was told to drink peppermint tea to ease this which worked, the cut was really tiny and not sore too, I went shopping on the way home from the hospital and was back at college the next day.

Biscuits so glad to hear that you are doing well and that the scan showed a happily flickering little bean!

Joycep I totally understand the anti socialness thing, there is some friends of friends who all have had babies in the last couple of years and are unbearably smug about it all(not just the babies really, everything!), and I recently backed out of a group meal out for fear of being sandwiched in between them all while they boasted about how perfect their sleep routines were and how wonderfull their husbands were with the babies and so on to infinitum.

I got my day 21 results this week, 42, which is slap bang in the middle of the normal range so wikipedia tells me, dh booked in for the SA at the end of next month, which was the earliest they could fit him in, this month was the first month I havn't symptom spotted and thought I might be pregnant. I'm starting to feel that there is something wrong now and that fertility treatment might be the way it goes for us. Stats refresher wise I am 30, dh is 29 and we are starting our tenth month of actual trying, but a good four years (I think?)since we used contraception of any kind apart from withdrawal.

Morning ladies. I's Friday!

I'm glad to hear Mrsd that your Prolactin levels are normal. That is at least something for you not to worry about. I think that the HSG is a good idea. It kind of covers all the bases then. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that mine didn't hurt. If it had have hurt I just wouldn't say anything about it - honest!

Joycep I am pretty antisocial anyway and much prefer getting in my PJ's and cuddling up with DP than getting glammed up and trollied. However since TTC I am much worse, I just don't have the energy or interest in other people's little moans about inconsequential dramas - that is really mean and self absorbed I know.

Izzy I'm glad that your scan is over. It will be interesting what the results show.

Nelly I hadn't thought about the different phases of ovulation and that it might cause twinges and mid cycle cramps at different times. I think you could be onto something with that.

Thank you for your suggestions about my doggle. I have a clicker and might start getting him to associate that noise with good things.

I had to laugh at you shouting at the TV about not bothering with contraception. My sister reckons she got updiffed at 15 "after just one time" and now I just think, yeah right - evil witch that I am!

Skeleton I'm sorry that AF has arrived for you. Are you okay?

I love Jack Russells, they are really gutsy for such little dogs. I know what you mean about the embarrassment & horrors associated with pets. Yesterday they must have decided that I looked a bit tired & could do with a sit down, so while I was poo picking they managed to knock me over onto my arse in a pincer movement - shameful and difficult to 'style out'.

It's good that your progesterone is nice and high. We haven't used contraception for yonks either, we spent a good few years using the withdrawal method too. It worries me that we never had an accident. However my DP, who has a science background, says that if the withdrawal method is used correctly & the man is disciplined, it is pretty reliable as a form of contraception.

Morning ladies!

Sympathies to skeleton for AF's arrival, especially at the end of a good week. Feeling better after AB is great though and you don't sound to despondent. Have some cookies - that I eventually baked yesterday - to cheer you up! And have some to nelly and other lovely ladies!

Th anti-socialness, I recognise to some extent, joycep and the rest of you hermits . I am pulling out of a weekend away with too many new-born babies next spring because we'll be starting treatment I'll be giving birth that month and I don't think I could cope. I have some lovely friends who are not TTC and I love hanging out with them, because we can just be us as we were before this whole TTC malarky. And that is great. We did that yesterday But I am totally paranoid about pg announcements being sprung on me. I even get head up when I expect them coming over email... So social life wise the non-TTC crowd is my answer. And I have some RL friends who are struggling and they are good to talk to too. One of them heard yesterday he OH's SA went down from 19 (borderline keep trying) to 3million :( feel so sorry for them! And I really, really didn't want DH to have problems, as he convinced me before his first SA that it was all him. Now it appears he is normal, but not quite as normal as me. Although we are officially unexplained he has a high proportion with odd-heads, but they swim well and the gyn had discussed it with her colleagues and they did not think it would make a difference. That does put faith into the whole procedure, doesn't it?!?

Oh and I am with the jack russell lovers, pout and Iforgotwho, they are great little dogs. But we live in a flat and can't have any until we have a house and we work less!

Izzy when do you get your scan results? I thought the could see PCOS straightaway, or is that only when it is really obvious? And wine what are you thinking re:lap or HSG? And mrsd my HSG experience was also totally ok. I hate fiddling down there, but even so, it was so much better than I feared. It did not hurt really, it was just a bit irritating. But I did bleed a bit afterwards, which the gyn said was normal and my DH had left the room taking my bag with my sanitary towel in so I made do with one of those hospital issue ones - not so great, unless you like carrying a small cushion down there... Good to hear prolactin was nice an normal now!

I have a day off today and done loads of useful things, loads of washing, tidying, putting up a new clothes line (I only put that off for about a year ) and now I am going for a with some so if you lovely ladies want to join me?!

Morning everyone,

lemon you are correct that she could have seen pcos there and then but they won't give u any results on the day. I've to see gp in ten days but I'll be able to access them at work earlier!

oo, I've missed a day and there are so many posts! I am trying to write the last 1000 words of my masters dissertation, so boring! MN is good at keeping me distracted. Think lemon and skeleton are joining me in the world of AF boooooooo. I'm on day 3 of spotting, so boring. These really are the pantest days of my cycle. Hopes dashed and can't even be getting on with my period. Lemon I'm going to go for the HyFosy (HSG but with ultrasound). I don't have any reason to suspect endo I don't think...and will ask them about it as they are flushing me with dye! Not quite sure when it will happen but feel comforted by everyone here saying that it isn't so bad.

joycep I am def more antisocial now. My two bfs and I agreed to start trying last year and they both have babies that are 3 months and 5 months now. They know I'm trying. It has all become a bit awkward really and it makes me sad as we have always been close. They also live in the same city and I'm 2 hours away so there are lots of facebook photos of their babies together and mum days out. I don't phone as much as I should. DHs friends are younger than me (as is DH) and their girlfriends/wives even younger. SO there, I feel relatively safe from pg announcements but, am always on the lookout! Agree with pout that I can weigh up people's position on the baby scale with one sweeping glance. One of DHs friends wives came into the pub the other day and ordered lemonade. The angst! But she was hungover and then had a fat glass of wine, so all was well again. How horrible I sound.

The trouble is tho, that our non ttc friends, whilst great for comforting against the feeling barren syndrome, are still up for massive drinking nights, which doesnt fit with our healthy living, limited booze plan. THe amount of early leaving that we've done, excuses for not getting smashed etc, I think I must seem a right square. So now, when a night out is on the cards, I can't really be bothered. I haven't had a hangover since my wedding in October. Oh my god, I have become middle aged!

Really, I'm ok with the appointment, I must have come across as a misery. It was just the rub of being surrounded by excited ladies with bumps. Although, dh said to me, it doesn't mean they aren't worried or have their own ttc tales to tell. He's so calm and balanced. Good job really.

I also feel that unexplained is great in lots of ways. It's like being told, there is nothing wrong, so have faith. BUT - when DH had a borderline sample, it felt awful, but like, at least there was a reason. Now I'm swung back to thinking it is something wrong with me again. Will feel better after the HSG if it shows things are OK. But because I'm a worry head, I worry about killer cells and immune probs and poor quality eggs and so forth and so on. Does unexplained mean there is a thing that can't be found? I drive myself crazy with wanting to know WHY WHY WHY isn't it working? Wow, this post is way too long, sorry

Oh and biscuits - so glad for you! Stay here and keep us company.

Popcorn, Mrsd, Skeleton, Pout, Wine & sort of Lemon - I?m glad it?s just not me who has become a bit of a hermit ! Like you Lemon i like to see my unmarried friends who aren?t ttc. Although when I see most of them, they are depressed and fed up about not getting a proposal from their boyfriends. Anyway, I wasn?t quite sure my anti socialness was just me over reacting to everything but it sounds like it is a true symptom of not being able to conceive! DH sent me a message saying that I had to contact one of my closest friends as she was asking after me and she feels I have been avoiding her. I feel really guilty about it but when I do hear from her, I normally feel like complete sh** . Tricky!

Nelly - i totally understand that feeling of wanting a him to have the mild issue...just to relieve the burden of feeling it is our sole problem. I did tune in to that sex ed programme the other night ...it made me cringe when they got the parents involved and those kids had to ask them questions...urggh, I just couldn?t imagine ever ever doing that with my parents as a teenager!

Welcome back skeleton but really sorry about AF. That?s a great result for your progesterone though.

thank pout and joycep for reassuring me about the HSG. I wasn't worried about it until the gynae said about it being painful which made me think that it must be but even if it painful I have to do it so no point thinking too much about it.

I went swimming with my friend this morning and it wasn't too bad. She's not really showing yet even in a swimming costume and she didn't mention it much so that was ok! I did have a massive twinge of jealousy though when she talked about when she would start maternity leave.

wine that's interesting what you are saying about being relieved about there being nothing wrong but then also wanting a reason to be found. I've been thinking that if we had been told everything was normal then at least I would have some hope that it might happen whereas at the moment I feel totally defeated and like it is all hopeless and futile. Do those you with unexplained actually believe that it will happen each month? I'd love to have a little bit of hope back because I feel very negative and fed up about the whole thing at the moment. Sort of like I can't even be bothered with the effort of it anymore because it never works and is never likely to work.

skeleton and pout I think you'd have to be pretty (un)lucky to get pregnant using the withdrawal method so I wouldn't worry too much about that. I can't believe that we worried so much about an accident before. One positive is that I'll never need to worry about using contraception again!

For what it's worth my HSG didn't hurt either MrsD (I might have already said this before - I forget ). I think it can hurt a bit and they like you to be warned I think but I would say it was mildly uncomfortable at the time and then not that painful really after. Hope yours isn't painful either.

thanks biscuits. I think I'll go prepared thinking it is going to really hurt and then if it's ok I'll be super happy. I wonder if your hsg cleared out your tubes a bit which helped you get a BFP, I read about lots of people getting BFPs in the months following one.

This thread really needs another BFP to keep you company biscuits. Is anyone getting to the end of a 2ww?

I'm 8dpo here, but im not even sure I OV'd this month, plus already getting the odd familiar twinge. So don't count on me being next, I'm afraid .

I think you might be on to something there MrsD - when they did it they said the dye was going through OK but you often hear that it can just clean things up a bit (I have a mental image of that foamy Mr Muscle Drain Unblocker stuff.... ).

Also DH's SA improved a lot from Feb to May with the help of cutting down caffeine and taking conception vits I think so I think it was probably a combo of the two (and a little bit of a miracle too I think!). Fingers crossed it does the trick for you though!

Nelly keeping those fingers crossed for you. I really hate that early pg symptoms are the same as AF ones, so you never know if a twinge here or there is one or the other - and when you think it's a different symptom never before felt for AF it turns out to be AF anyway, and then you get a load of bog standard AF ones and maybe a BFP? What was Mother Nature thinking? Sometimes I wonder if she wasn't a woman at all! I'm keeping my fingers crossed as ever that this could be your month :)

and also at the image of Mr Muscle foaming out your pipes. Sort of like a colonic but in the other opening .

Good point about Mother Nature. She's got a pretty mean sense of humour hasnt she? You've articulated the confusion very well, I've felt these early twinges for 3 months now, and the first time I thought Oooh maybe? Now it's just another sign of the BFD

mrsden I have to say I am finding it just a little more challenging to rustle up The Hope every month, as it feels more likely than not that my period will come. If there is a 1:5 chance every month of it happening, then I would have thought that the odds were that it would have happened by now if there wasn't a problem. But, like biscuits said, my dh has been on the vits for 3 months now, so maybe we are back at the start of being in with a chance? Or something like that? Also, the odds for winning a tenner on the lottery would suggest that in 15 years of playing I would have won ten pounds more than three times! Maybe we should just blame the statistics for being at fault.

All that said, I do try to keep the hope alive. I generally find that by cd4 ive got it again. I'm just not as excited in the tww anymore, in the same way I forget to check my lottery ticket rather than watching the results on the telly? I didn't symptom spot at all this month, which I think is a good thing. I have also stopped thinking I can't/might not be able to do stuff because I'll be pregnant by then. When we had the low morphology SA and a good third of them were immotile, I thought, well what's the chance in that happening? But there are just so many stories of it happening to people in all sorts of circumstances aren't there? I like to think that if I can stay positive then my womb will be a more positive place to live in. But maybe that is a load of old tosh, womb seems to do her own thing no matter what I do! But what I'm trying to say is that you really never know, so try feel as if you aren't in with a chance. Maybe for all of us, it is just about getting the month where the timing is spot on and a bit of excellent chance.

BTW talking of cleaning out the pipes, my mum had a mc between me and my brother and tried for 9 months after the mc and got nowhere. She had a d and c and her tubes dyed and was pregnant with my brother the next month. But I wonder what could be in the tubes to dislodge if you haven't ever been pregnant? Maybe it's all full of debris from the 20 years I've had periods and avoided sperm?! 20 years. Oo, that's a long time !

Also, is it just me that;

sees a temp drop as just as bad as a BFD?
clings onto the hope that even though spotting is here and temp has dropped off, that actually it is implantation bleed and implantation dip?! I'm getting better at knowing IT ISN'T but there is a teeny teeny bit of me that still gets deluded.

My GP mentioned about people often getting pregnant after having HSGs. Her description was that the dye can help to clear the 'sludge' out - nice . Although she put a referral through for me to have one, when the appointment letter turned up it was just for an ultrasound. Now I really wish that I'd had an HSG, as I can't help but think that there's probably a sludge issue.

I'm 12DPO here, and expecting AF very soon. I poas on Thursday, not that I'd had any symptoms, I think I was just bored of OPKs being the only thing I ever seem to pee on these days. Anyway, it was a BFD - Boo!

Clearly my drains were not the problem, as we're entering the third cycle post HSG with one POAS BFD and one early AF since, in addition to the 14 AFs before... But for what it is worth, if there is a moderate sludge lodged in there, it should help to get it removed. So yay and fingers crossed for the HSG-ers wine and mrsd. Also, it makes sense to do it before IUI, because obviously there is no use in putting stuff straight into the womb, if it can't get from there to an egg. I am sure pixie eventually you'll get one too. I actually quite like ultrasounds, especially when there is a nice fat egg sitting there waiting to pop.

As to hope mrsd, I just get excited if I am late-ish, which happens every 3-4 cycles, as I am a little irregular. The rest of the time, I don't believe in it so much. With the 38% cumulative chance in a year, I mentioned before, there is a about 3% chance per cycle, well that is not something to bank on, really...

wine I hated temping, so I don't any longer. I can just tell AF is on her way by a modicum of spotting and the tell-tale two spots I always get. And yes, those are just as bad, or sometimes worse, than full flow, especially as I also can and do go down delusion-road to implantation bleeding :(

Difficult about the good friend jorycep! Although I am pleased I have been open about TTC to many, it can be awkward, as I don't always want to talk about it. I prefer to just joke in passing, but others then want to show they care and talk about how it feels. And it feels like sht, which I don't need to reiterate too much... And as to big nights, wine* in the first half of the month, I have stopped being overly concerned about it. We did everything right over the past year and it didn't work. Now we might as well enjoy ourselves, whilst we wait and save for treatments...

Fingers crossed for nelly and excited about possible POAS! Good to see you and hear positives from biscuits!

Mrsd - i can't believe you went swimming with your pregnant friend, how noble of you!
Wine - This is the trouble and why it's difficult not to get deluded because AF symptoms can be preggo ones too and so I'm crossing fingers for you.
Pixie - sorry for bfn. I hope AF stays away. I know what you mean, i sometimes poas for the hell of it because AF always gets me before i get a chance. I always know it is pointless but it's like i just have to check just in teeny weeny case...

My gynae mentioned that chances increase after an hsg as well...didn't make me feel good when it didn't happen! I was also told many people get bfps after starting acupuncture, starting clomid and stopping clomid apparently....again, that never happened either.

I don't temp, wine but yes I still allow myself to be fooled. The weird thing is I know I'm being fooled, but I allow myself to dream nonetheless

Thanks for the AF commiserations ladies, I am OK, and I did manage to get a cancellation at the docs yesterday and got FSH and LH done without having to wait till next month which has at least made me feel that this cycle has been useful in some way! sorry to hear about the BFd Pixie and that you are feeling pmt symptoms Nelly. Thanks very much for the cake lemondrizzle virtual cake is the only cake I am enjoying at the moment so it is very welcome, my AF disappointment is tempered by my diet success, I have lost 6lbsish and its come off my middle meaning I can fit in some of my nice clothes again, I'm really glad to have faced up to my comfort eating, I have been pigging out as a response to TTC failure and its not been helping as I'm sure my combination of expanding waistline and barrenness would have eventually lead to some poor soul asking me if I was up the duff and getting screamed at!
I've also turned on my newly purchased clear blue fertility monitor and set it for the first time so maybe its dictating of shag timing will be usefull this month, not the least because it will mean less days where I have to force myself to DTD which sounds terrible but is how I'm feeling about the whole sex business ATM!

Sorry about AF skeleton but it's good you could get your bloods done. I should join you on the diet, I've been doing a bit too much comfort eating too and I looked like the pregnant one in my swimming costume today not my friend

Talking of fat (or rather complete lack of it) does anyone think Kate has a bit of a 5 week pregnant glow about her here She looks like she's wanting to be sick in the photos or am I reading way too much into it . Also I cannot believe the cost of that outfit, not money well spent in my opinion. And I am a fashion expert of course.

Skeleton I was thinking of getting one but dh reckons the cheapie sticks are the same. But I'd like the yes/no of a smiley face I think rather than line squinting. I'm off to do research and we can be smiley face friends.

I saw on Hello it said 'new year baby' for Kate and will and felt til I remembered that hello just makes up headlines. I bet she is though. Surely she's too thin!?