TTC for 10+ months, part 4

[eurochick]

Time for a new thread as the other one is just about full.

Fingers crossed for lots of patiently-awaited BFPs on this one!

drizzle mine has definitely helped with clots.

joycep I went once a week for the first cycle and now go twice a month. Sometimes that's twice in the first part of the cycle, sometimes once before ov and once in the luteal phase - she is trying different things. But tbh, I think she is not sure what to do now. My cycles are now pretty close to textbook and she thinks within three of those you should get a BFP, but I haven't. The last cycle was also the third once post HSG (the chances are supposed to increase a little in the following three months). So I am a (Chinese) medical mystery!

I feel reasonably upbeat, despite AF's arrival and the feeling that someone is trying to stab me in the stomach with a blunt fork...

Morning everyone, been quite a lot of chat on here since I posted yesterday. I tend to read MN on my phone, but find posting really awkward through the phone web browser, so tend not to bother.

Gin Hello and welcome, we've only just started on investigations, so I've no idea yet on why it's taken us over a year ttc. I've done both sets of bloods (but no results), and we've got the pot for DH's SA, but not done it yet. Going to try and get it done early next week, but the times we can hand the sample in to the clinic are quite restrictive, and so I think DH will need to take time off work to go. I'm sure he'll enjoy a whole day at home though.

wine hope you start feeling better soon. I was one of the lucky ones, who had glandular fever at some point without ever having been aware of it. However, when a previous partner became ill with it the doctor told me that you 'always' have it after your first infection, but it tends to come back with no symptoms - but - you can still pass it on to others. Has your DH had it before?

izzy I hope your cycle sorts itself out soon and you can get back to some good SWI, and the fun mental tww.

Joycep I've been really interested in Zumba, but all the classes round me are at times I can't make it along. I'm meant to be cycling to work every day (6 miles each way), but just bought my bus pass as the winter dark and cold is settling in. Need a new exercise plan now. I'll check out the wii fit zumba - I have the wii fit board already but never used it.

euro so sorry AF turned up, but grats on the longer LP. I might look into acupuncture myself, though I'm worried at what the cost might be. My LP varies from 9-13 days, though averages at 11. Good enough maybe, but I think it's less than ideal. I kind of want all the test results back first, to see what area we need to be focussing on.

egg welcome to MN, and to the most wonderful thread on it! I also recommend the "No Brooking" thread, a few of the ladies on here post on both, and everyone is very chatty and nice. Sorry to hear you're having trouble TTC - I started TTC at 29, and a year later still not had any sign of a BFP. You really should get yourself referred to a doctor who knows more about thyroid problems and TTC; it's arguably the easiest fertility problem to treat.

Lemon I've been thinking of starting swimming as winter exercise? hadn't even thought about the possible effect on the spermies. However, there has to be some protection down there right? Do the spermies cross the cervix before resting and waiting for the egg?

Hi kitty (and lemon), so sorry pg announcements are getting you down. I feel so lucky that I've not had any pg announcements at all since very early on in starting ttc. My old next door neighbour (and now all her sisters) have had babies recently, but luckily I'm not really in touch with them any more, and don't look at Facebook often, so I missed out the stress of them. I dread any of our friends announcing, but I don't think that's very likely.. FX.

This has turned into quite a long post, but I wanted to check in with people.

Further news for me - I'm on CD25, with FF predicting my AF today, however, I think it's wrong, and is more likely due at the weekend. Temps still high this morning at 11DPO, if AF doesn't get me by Sat, I might do a test, as my longest ever LP was 13 days...

Wow, this thread is chatty today! I love it!

lemon and kitty I did the same exercise a few months ago before I left FB. I only included people who were my year at school or older. I marked down if they already had children, pregnant or childless. I was surprised at how many were still without children even though I was convinced that I was the only one. But I did think afterwards that I should probably have excluded people who weren't in serious relationships which would have then changed the percentages significantly. Since I did it there have been quite a few pregnancy announcements. It's gone quiet on the pregnancy announcement side, probably because everyone I know is due to give birth in the next few months. I am expecting a few more coming up though because I know of at least 2 people ttc. Also, I think my brother and SIL are trying again after the mc. I know it sounds mean but I will be so jealous, they already have 2 children. I just want to be pregnant with my first.

Welcome egg. I second what others have said about how important it is to get your thyroid sorted. It does affect conception and is supposed to be one of the easiest things to fix to get pregnant so hopefully you won't be around here for long.

gin has your DH done a second sample? It's possible the first one is totally wrong, it could all be due to having a cold 3 months ago or something simple. The other thing that might be worth trying is Pine Bark which is supposed to help morphology. They sell it at Holland and Barratt I think.

joycep zumba sounds fun. I'm still running, I gave up when we first started ttc but I've started again and am managing to do an hour 3 x a week. I can't believe that it could really stop implantation and it makes me feel so much healthier so it has to be a good thing.

euro so sorry AF came. I have an LP of 15 days which I thought was good but it means waiting a full 2 weeks in the 2ww and sometimes I wish AF would come sooner so I can start a new cycle. Waiting for AF to turn up when you know you're not pregnant is awful.

I have quite clotty periods sometimes. I've always wondered if it's a bad sign but I asked my gynae and she said that all it is is a sign that the flow is quite heavy and is leaving the body before the anti clotting stuff that your body releases gets a chance to work. And she said that clots sometimes happen when you are sat or lying down as the blood pools. Basically, totally normal and nothing to worry about. So, I'm curious why accupuncturists want to fix it, do they make the flow less heavy? Is a less heavy flow good? Do you think clots are a bad sign?

Hello lovely ladies, can I join you? I have been a member of ther CBFM support group and the sixth form common room but as lots of people now have their BFPs on those threads I thought it might be time to move.....

We have been TTC since January (I got a BFP in Feb but sadly m/c at 6 weeks) with no hint of a BFP since. I have just seen my GP who has referred me for the 21/7 day tests so maybe that will show something.

Need to read through the thread and get to know all of you but hope this is a good place to be whilst I (like all of you!) wait for my BFP... x

kitty / lemon - you are torturing yourselves!!

euro - i hope you'll get your bfp soon. when is your 1yr of ttc up? The only successes i have heard with HSG's are with people who have had a kid already or actually have a blockage. Anyway, You have inspired me to go back to acupuncture after seeing the success of your LP lengthening, perhaps giving it 2 months wasn't long enough.

stasi - zumba is good fun. There was a pregnant lady in my class who was going for it more than me.

mrsd -that's really useful info about clotting actually. this has always concerned me a little. When i did acupuncture, the guy said to me it was a sign of a lack of oxygen getting to the womb area. I was told quite a few things by the acupuncturist which didn't ring true though but perhaps it's just the woo thinking. I think clots must be normal. Surely not everyone has the perfect AF flow. I am not sure whether you're suppose to have a heavy flow or a light flow. People i've spoken to normally have light flows and they have got pregnant easily. I thought aheavy flow meant a good lining but that was my thinking. Who knows! As long as your lining looks good and your hormones are in check then hopefully that is the most important thing.

Hello to all the newbies - gin and egg. Sorry you find yourself here but you couldn't wish for a more lovely group of ladies.

Oh lemons - what have you started?!? As if I needed an excuse to do anything other than work today or any other day for that matter now you have given me an actual thing to do...

So using your ver scientific methodology (and excluding family who are too young and those who are older - aunts, mum-in-law and things) here goes:

16 I haven't got a clue
55 no kids, not pregnant (or not announced - but many are newly wed so I expect lots of announcements in coming months)
9 pregnant
49 parents (many of whom fall into the recently given birth category)

So more people pregnant/with babies than not, hmmph.

Interesting to hear about acupuncture helping with clots as well as LPs. I definitely need help in the LP department and recently have had quite heavy clots too. Along with mrsden, would be interested to know if this indicates something and why it's good to get it sorted?

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work or surfing the net and thinking about lunch I go...

p.s. DO NOT read the 'I thought it took a while' thread. Some fool boasting about getting his girlfriend pregnant in one week and he's upset cos they won't get to 'try'. I contemplated asking him if his name was Alex Reid.

mrsd I think my acupuncturist said that the clots can mean that the womb lining is difficult for an egg to implant in.

As someone said on the first page of this thread, Chinesse medicine tends to accept smaller margins than Western medicine. So a LP which is fine by Western standards might be something and acu would try to fix. Likewise the clottyness. By the way, fewer clots seem to mean less painful periods. It still flipping hurts and I feel quite wobbly for the first day or two but less than before I think. I'm sure I read somewhere that a common source of pain is the blood getting backed up when the cervix is blocked by a clot. It would make sense for the muscle spasms to get stronger to try to clear it, but I have no idea if that is right.

My acu lady isn't bothered by my periods being heavy but she didn't like that they had a long tail to them (3 or 4 days of light bleeding at the end, so they regularly lasted 8 or 9 days). She has been working on that and last months was shorter. I am frankly still astonished that having a few pins stuck in me twice a month has such tangible effects (although not the main tenagible effect I actually want - a BFP!).

hi loup - x post. Sorry about your m/c and i hope it's only a matter of time before you get another bfp. I got a bfp quickly when we started ttc as well & m/c at 7wks but 18months on notohing. HOpefully you won't take as long as this but it's good to just check all hormones are in order. I have been told it can take a while. I hope it's not getting yuo too down...

Agree mrsd, that is pretty much what my gyn told me. But I am questioning everything they said at the moment... I am now thinking it is the odd morphology of DH's SA, which they said was okay too. But it was the only not entirely normal thing that showed up in our tests...

I am loving the obsession I have started, apologies to kitty and ladygee and I am loving the fact that I am far from the only one, who has no clue about the pg or not state of a significant number of fb friends.

Welcome loup normally I only pop in once or twice a week, but I am having serious TTC woes at the moment, and it is quiet at work. So I m here all day today

General wave and quick departure, you are too entertaining today!

Massive X-posting. Strangely enough my periods used to be a lot more painful last year, than they are now on average. And the clottiness varies as well, but the two seem unrelated in my case. Pleased there is no tail on mine (pretty much 5x24hrs exactly, with 24hrs of spotting before every other one...

Random info. Ignore me. I will do something useful with myself now. Honest...

OMG! What are you lot doing haha! WOrking out what % of your friends are likely to get pregnant is definitely a route to crazy stressing!

I was on my own route to madness this morning, looking at the percentage of people in my age group who do get pregnant after IVF. 21% so that's basically 1 in 4... i'm so not going to have a baby, what am I going to do with my life? arghhhhh

Sorrrry!

Of course you are going to have a baby Karbea, just breaking down the stats by age group doesn't give you a meaningful idea of what your personal chances are. It's all down to what your, and their, fertility problems are. If you had no chance, then they wouldn't refer you on to IVF.

Try to keep strong, it'll be a tough battle, but you'll get there as long as you don't give up. (((hugs)))

I get 1 day of brown spotting, then 2 days of heavy bleeding with red blood (and clots on the first day), then 3 days of light, brownish blood. I count the first day of red blood as CD1, and it's all over at the end of CD5. I told the gynae this and she said it sounded totally normal. Interestingly, the month when I was scanned and we know I didn't ovulate she told me to expect AF to be late and to be heavy. I never understood why she thought it would be heavy because on the scan the lining was quite thin as though it knew an egg wasn't going to be released. Anyway, AF tuned up after 27 days which is early for me and it was very light and only brown blood and no clots. So, for me a light period with brown blood is a sign of a bad cycle. I'm wondering if this is going to be one of those cycles because I'm on CD11 and I haven't got ewcm yet which I normally would have by now.

Welcome loup I hope you'll like it here with us

gin we are saving up to have ivf. We will hopefully be able to start in the summer. We are going to use our local clinic. It's hard to choose here because they don't have to publish statistics on success so it's impossible to compare. But we have heard good things about this place and it is close by so will make the process easier for us than if we had to travel. The only stat the clinic publish on their website is that they have had 500 pregnancies so far this year, totally meaningless unless you know how many women they've seen. And this could include all sorts of assisted stuff not just IVF. I'm going to ask them about stats when I contact them to book an appointment.

You will have a baby Karbea. If you're going to be that pessamistic, I am going to have to force you to read the brook no argument thread all the way through!

mrsd my periods have always been around a week long. I don't spot before hand. A typical pattern would be :
Day 1-medium with pains
Day 2-heavy with pains
Day 3-heavy maybe some pain
Day 4-medium
Day 5-medium/light
Days 6/7/8/9(it'll stop at some point around here!)-light brown bleeding fading to spotting.

It's no wonder I have been on iron tablets for 4 years now because I can't maintain my iron levels!

Welcome Loup - sorry to hear about your situation but it's nice to have you with us, I'm sure you'll feel at home here in no time.

joycep - I need a new exercise regime to get me fit and zumba sounds better than rejoining the gym and then never going

Sounds like zumba for the Wii and acupuncture sessions are going on my Christmas list.

Euro - can I be cheeky and ask roughly how much acupuncture costs per session? I've just taken the first step in calling the nearest one to me - they say £45 for first session and £35 for each one after that. Just wondered if that sounded roughly right.

lemon - sorry to hear things are getting you down a bit, it's a wicked combination if things are quiet at work. As you can probably tell, I'm busy with serious work-avoidance today which gives me plenty of time to work out Facebook stats, think too much about my appt on Friday and go quietly mad...

I'm going to suggest now - for all our sakes and sanity - that we slowly step away from the stats

Mine is Central London so it was 70 for the first session and 50 thereafter. Ouch. I've been going since April. But I view it this way - even having it for many months is a fraction of the cost of most fertility treatments so if it helps me to get there naturally, it will be well worth it.

When I started I said I would stop after 6 months, but now I am at that point I think I will keep going because I have seen improvements with my cycle and I can't put them down to anything else.

Sorry {blush}

Ok i've got a question... how do you know if your periods are light, medium or heavy? I've only ever had my periods, so I don't know how to compare... sorrry probably a stupid question...

Mine last about 4 days, I used to spot before hand but since acupuncture I just bled straight away. Only really day 2 and 3 are "medium", day 1 and 4 tend to be light (I change the tampax due to hours it's been in rather than being full...

Sorry TMI.

Hi everyone thanks for the welcome. Joy I have had hypo for three years now. I found out pretty dramatic by collapsing and spending a few nights in hospital. Had to give up driving etc to get adjusted. I could of had it for years but was never tested. I am on 100mcg of levo and my THS was last at 3, its never been below that.

loves my GP wont refer me, Ive tried for over a year go to an endo but she is a bit pig headed (sorry to be so harsh) when it comes to thyroid issues. The last few months my weight has gone up so started weight watchers to try and tackle that while my symptoms are a bit wild.

I am trying to de-stress about TTC so hopefully the dieting and maybe even a CBFM will help. I never wanted to have to chart or track but feeling a bit powerless now.

Thanks Euro - ouch indeed, and there was me shuddering at the thought of£45/£35. But then I'm up North... and from Yorkshire.

It's had great results for you so far so worth every penny. And, yup, a teeny fraction of the cost of IVF (which I'm blanking from my mind at the moment). Fingers crossed the improvements keep coming.

eggs I would say I found charting more useful/interesting than my CBFM. I don't actually use either any more. But if you don't know when you are ov'ing and you are one of those girls who thinks you "might be" each month charting will give you the answer :)

karbea I understand completely. An optician once asked me if I thought my night sight wasn't great. I answered that I had no idea as I had only ever seen through my own eyes so had nothing to compare it to! I base my flow assessment roughly on the tampax model (although I am now a mooncup convert)! You know the boxes say "for light flow" or whatever.

On my heavy days I will go through a super plus tampon in about 4 hours, sometimes less (about once every 6 months I get a tight cracker and go through them in about an hour...).
On a medium days a super plus tampon or maybe a super will be fine for 4-5 hrs without leaking.
On light days a regular tampon will be fine for 5 hrs+ without leaking.

[Oversharing complete....]

Euro so if I were on your scale i'd be minimal, light, light, minimal. I have never ever used a super plus tampon. I tend to change once when I wake up, once at lunchtime, once when I get home and then before bed.
I wonder if this is a problem?

Hi all

Can I join again? I was on the part 2 (I think) thread for a bit. Then had horrible treatment from the hospital giving us our diagnosis of "you can't have children" and "DH may not have any sperm left in a years time". I wanted to leave the TTC threads for a few weeks to get my head round things but the thread just got so big, i didn't know where to start catching up.

Wow - that is excellent over sharing euro. I just remembered I sometimes have an "extremely heavy" couple of hours, which means that belt and braces approaches let me down and I leak through normal tampax and an extra anti-leakage towel... But it is usually a big clot, which breaks upon exit. Okay - I do get the oversharing trophy back of euro now. I am so worried about scaring the newbies away - apologies coming your way now. And the promise of a better, bigger and busier work day tomorrow.

And of course you will have a baby karbea - you will be send to the brookers to get you in the right frame of mind

Sorry I caused general stress with my stats and low work day and misery day. You have all made me feel better in many ways.

Shocked by your unwilling GP eggs. Does she know you are TTC? Because the way I understood is from my hypo-friend is that being a little bit off can already play havoc with fertility. Maybe you should try to get referred to the fertility specialists and they can pass you back to the endocrinologist? It is ridiculous.

And about acupuncture prices in London. I cannot have any, even at more reasonable prices, because life has been very expensive this November... I cannot wait for my pay check.

Waves excitedly at Fatima because I remember you! Welcome back! What is the situation now?

Oh and on the euro scale, I am either heavy heavy, light light light or medium, heavy, heavy, light light. It kind of becomes stop-start once the majority is out...