Fantastic 40+ thread - part 6

[Curlylox]

Over here everyone

Hello! Just popping in to say hello. I am finding it very difficult to even get the time to lurk on MN these days - 7 till 7 work days mon-thurs, but all fine here. Enjoying number 5 very much - def no stirrings to even up numbers though I will do my best to catch up over the week, and have fulfilled pending bistro orders for evening delivery tonight. Love to all xxx

Italian, here are some of my favourites to read:

robbwolf.com/
www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz1uEN5CWIk
nomnompaleo.com/
www.primalbody-primalmind.com/

Hi Deige, so nice to hear from you.I'm glad you are enjoying number 5. No stirrings to even up the numbers? Mine didn't start til number five was about 10 months old.

Well, we got great timing for SWI.Feeling good about that, now the rest is in the lap of the Gods...

My DS is home sick with a cold, which I don't mind one little bit, it means I can stay home with him today instead of going to work.I'm enjoying the cuddles and his cute little voice while he has a cold. Actually, I'm really enjoying him, he's a sweetie.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Tina are you out there? What's your next step?

morning gum (or probably evening or the next day in your case!) I have an appt with the consultant at care today to review why the IUIs failed and to discuss the next step. I'm looking forward to it but also dreading it, the only step I can take is IVF now really and although we'd only do the one, we can't really afford it, I think we might take a few months out from the treatments and try and save some money so we don't strain the credit cards even further lol

oh I'm also seeing a hypnotherapist next week for an initial free consultation, I thought I'd address the mind this time rather than the body! Anyone had any experiences of hypnotherapy in relation to ttc? If so what's the verdict??

hi to everyone else and hope you all have a great week!!

Hi Tina nice to see you again. Haven't done the hypnotherapy thing but wouldn't say no - happy to give most alternative medicines a go.
gum will keep my fingers crossed this is your month. Excellent news on the timing for SWI. It's lovely to have those cuddles with DS. Hate it when my DD is unwell, but love the cuddle times we have when she feels like that.
twirly thinking of you this week for your early scan. I so hope it gives you some wonderful news.
MAM fab to hear that early scan went well. Keep going lovely lady. Sounds as if baby is growing and doing everything it should be doing. Wonderful stuff.
diege lovely to see you again. Those 7-7 hours sound very tough especially with a brood to look after to.
clicking definitely go for that early scan. Think early scans can be a great morale booster, especially if you start feeling really nauseous (or even more so if you don't have any symptoms).

fireflies how are you doing? Not long now?

Hello to everyone else sparkly, bb, blackcats, italian, elena, angelgeorgie and anyone I've forgotton to name check.

Alls well with me. 12 DPO and if I'm pregnant this month, I'll eat my hat (in other words no chance). Feeling decidedly unpregnant this month. Bugger. One more cycle then definitely back to the GP. Not least helped by ANOTHER person at the weekend asking me 'where my number 2 was.....' Marvellous. Am going to consider wearing a T-shirt emblazoned 'I have an only child. And no not by choice'. Right, rant over.

Much love to all xxx

i saw my GP today who went over my day 2 test results, they are all well within the lab's normal range , which i cross referenced with GP notebook's reference range and again all ok. My FSH was a little higher than i'd hoped but 9.2 for a 44 year old isn't bad- according to 2 references that means '8-10 Fair. response is between completely normal and somewhat reduced (response varies widely). overall a somewhat reduced live birth rate'.
Oestradiol level was 219.0 pmol/L
prolactin 126.0 mu/L
LH 4.6 iu/L

i'm going to leave it there now with tests. Two GPs have both said these tests reveal little unless there is something majorly wrong. The levels can vary from month to month so almost pointless, next month i may get a much higher or much lower FSH, same with oestradiol. We discussed the progesterone test i was due to have next week but as GP said (and she wasn't at all trying to stop me having it), all it will say is did i ovulate that month or not. I'm not going to bother with that test now, temping shows a clear biphasic pattern so i'm certain i do ovulate. Obviously she isn't a fertility expert but i'm not going to be having fertility treatment anyway so may as well leave it at that. Also i was pregnant fairly recently so i never expected my results would be dreadful.
zita west talks of natural things to do to reduce FSH but i already follow most . Acupuncture is also said to help. I've been taking Vitamin B6 for past 2 weeks and have noticed a difference in my CM (more of it and i got EWCM this month which was amazing)

hi all - feeling pretty low to say the least - I saw a consultant today to review why the IUIs failed and she said that my egg reserve was low based on the antral follicle count they initially took at my first scan and this meant that the odds of there being any viable eggs each month was extremely low. My original consultant glossed over this and to me, didn't really make it clear that there was a huge issue with it.

She was a lovely lady and explained things very clearly but I burst into tears as she was telling me because it made it clear how very poor my chances actually are, I knew they weren't great before but I now feel as though I have no hope whatsoever.

She said the best thing (other than IUI) she could recommend was natural IVF but this is based on the hope that there will be one viable egg which fertilises. It's cheaper than assisted but still expensive.

Has anyone out there had a low af count and conceived? I'm looking for some good luck stories to try and cheer myself up :-(

tina i didnt want to read and run. So sorry for your bad news. I have no personal experience but today was researching my own test results i came across several stories where women either had very high FSH and got pregnant or had been told by their clinics to forget it as their chances of conceiving a baby were almost nil but then went on to conceive quite quickly and naturally. I don't know what a low af count means but i hope that gives you some glimmer of light . You could start your own thread, you might get more responses that way.

tina so sorry to hear that; take care x

Tina so sorry. Thinking of you.

Sorry to hear that Tina x

Tina,I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know anything about low antral count, but I was told I have low AMH and that an ivf clinic would probably insist on donor eggs. However, women get pregnant all the time with those sorts of diagnosis. My dr said with my low amh I really shouldn't have gotten pregnant twice when I was 44.So I still believe there is a good chance. I would go for the IVF if I were you.

Please don't feel too down about it.

I don't know if you are interested,but I found the Julia Indichova site really heartening and helpful: www.fertileheart.com/

hi all thankyou for your support, much needed at the moment! Gum I read Julia's book which was very inspiring although some of the things she had to do and eat sounded like hard work lol.

My dh and I had a chat about it last night when I felt able to talk to him as I was so choked up earlier I just didn't want to speak about it. We sort of made a decision to carry on trying naturally for now as the odds are around the same as ivf using my eggs anyway, especially as I can have only one go. And then we'll save up some money and if nothing has happened later this year we'll try and scrape enough together for donor egg ivf. We also discussed adoption but I'm really not sure about that to be honest

thanks again don't know what I'd do without your support :-)

tina your plan sounds great. fingers crossed things will work out for you naturally but if not donor eggs are a great way to go. I'd have been happy to use donor eggs but DP wouldn't so i've never researched the stats . I think having a plan really helps you to move forward and is a positive way of dealing with bad news.

Hi all

TTC cycle 4 and really trying to get my act together and do this thing properly! Not sure whether this would be better in a new thread but anyway...

I've been given a used CBFM and about 20 testing sticks. The instructions say that you should set the 'M' thingy on CD1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 and that you will start testing on CD6 and use 10 sticks (maybe 20 for a longer cycle).

I am currently on CD8 (my average cycle length is 34 days) which would suggest that I need to wait until my next cycle until I start using it. However, I have been using OPKs for the last three months and had a smiley face on CD22 of my last cycle which would suggest that starting testing on CD6 is going to mean that I'll always need to waste loads use more than 10 sticks.

Or am I completely missing something and starting testing from Day 6 is vital for getting this thing to work?

I'm also tempting with my nice shiney new thermometer. Too much?

Tina sorry about your bad news.hope you find a way round xxx

Hi shandyhere. I've been waiting to post with news for you, but baby doesn't seem to want to make an appearance, so I'm still all belly and 40 wks tomorrow. Can't believe I've made it thus far although i've been plagued with reading stillborn stats of late. What are we like eh?

Ive not seen anything from BB or Ff I presume you're still going too guys? How are you doing lol?

I'm afraid I haven't followed all you new people's stories, but hi and babydust and hope to you all.
italian, gum and Tina so sorry it hasn't happened for you, it's such a soul destroying thing.

Will drop in again anyway. Xx

Ps Maisie the sticks tell you to start testing early as women can ovulate from cd10 o'r earlier. If you're pretty sure when you ovulate from your own symptoms or temping then just test within a few days of that. Otherwise it may be worthwhile testing longed the first month to have the best chance of getting the right time. If you are also temping this is pretty foolproof as in you're temps rise and stay high after ovulation and dip when af is coming or not of course if you are pg!

It's really not an exact science hence why cbfm can make a product and sell it at such a price.

Good luck.

HI Maisie I think you'll only 'waste' the CBFM sticks for the first month - press m on day 1 and it'll ask for peestick on day 6 on the first month and then if you don't ov/peak until day 22 as you suspect, next month it'll ask for the first peestick later. It worked for us with first preg and I'm using it again now (and it helped my friend in the meantime!). Fingers (not legs) crossed! MrsW (nee Elena67...)

Hi everyone,

tina very sorry your test results weren't good, but glad that you can see a way forward

I'm feeling a bit down at the moment, I'm pretty sure it's not my month this month, and I've just been reading a set of very depressing stats for my age and how quickly fertility plummets in your forties. I'm really scared I've left it too late and I've only got myself to blame. I got pg pretty quickly at 39, and I know I was lucky to do so. I put off talking to DH about trying for another for way too long because he didn't cope well when I was pg. He took to DD instantly though. But I didn't want to put him through that again, was convinced he'd wouldn't want to try again so put off talking to him. I was astonished when he agreed. I know it's only coming to the end of 3rd full cycle TTC, (we started mid-cycle so may well have missed ov then) and maybe I need to be more patient. I know it can happen, but at the moment I don't think it will for me.

ok, whinge over, I hope everyone is doing ok, especially the early pregnant ladies.

and italian, nickname was inspired by DDs lovely blue eyes :), thanks for asking

p.s. DH didn't really want kids, but agreed to have one - he's an only child himself. So DD was planned but DH was depressed throughout the pregnancy, which was healthy but quite miserable. Which is why I didn't think he'd want to try for another. I think I've finished the all about me stuff for now, thanks ladies. Maybe it's just PMS kicking in?

Thanks for the advice Mrs W and Shandy. I think I've got it now

sparkly ah, yes. I think you can always find depressing stats on the Internet... But remember, they are just that. A set of information of particular group of people taken at a particular moment in time - often with no context. That is what can be misleading. The "average" woman does not exist. Yes, older women in general do have reduced levels of fertility. But there is plenty of evidence to say that older women today are having more children too. And there are pro-active, informed choices we can make about lifestyle and ttc which do improve those chances, even if there isn't a magic wand somewhere to make us all pg. We know this journey is challenging - and are here for each other. Hold tight to your dream. X

It's Mother's Day in Australia, so Happy Mother's Day to all you mummies, mums to be and ttc future mums.

I plan to have a very relaxing day.

Any news of BB?

thank you miasmum for your wise words. It's time to be more pro-active and statistics are just that, statistics. I was just feeling a bit down with no real reason, unlike you and so many others on here.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. SSx

Hi all - I've been away at my mum's while the new boiler and radiators have been fitted (v messy) so am now cleaning up and catching up with all your news.

Italian I hope you have a really refreshing Sunday and feel the sermon was just WRITTEN for you. Don't you just love that when it happens? Big hug. ((()))

Gum and Miasmum totally agree with your wise words on stats.

Sparkly it sounds like you've been such a thoughtful partner to your DH. Don't think of yourself as being 'too late' - you're just a late starter! ps - shhh, don't tell anyone but I'm 46!

Twirly how are you? Any news? Am thinking of you. ((()))

Tina I had a low antrical follicle count (sp error possibility) but weirdly felt happy that I saw ANY follicles - 1 good one and 2 little ones. Having looked at my hideous AMH results and been told my chances were 'very poor' I felt that the result was brilliant. It gave me hope that I was producing 'something'. The clinic suggested I try natural IVF for a few cycles followed by considering donor eggs, and Italian was really helpful with website info, which buoyed me up. In reality, I only had enough money for one try at natural IVF and so DP and I decided that we would just try naturally as the odds of getting pregnant looked similar.

I should have written to Zita West and the fertility clinic to tell them I got pregnant naturally the next month as I am sure they only get the negative stats back and this skews information for the next people researching their chances. I hope this helps. It took 18 months, an MC and a couple of false alarms to get this little one - who's wriggling his size 7 feet like mad inside me as I type. Keep positive if you can.

BB I hope the silence means you are pushing purposefully and will let us know what happens! I'm on tenterhooks! Let us know how you are. V excited!

Shandy lovely to hear from you!!!! Breathre, in and out. Fancy an epidural yet? Thought so...keep us posted.

FF ditto. We're on the home stretch. 5 weeks and counting. Just need to get the house right and the nursery painted. Feeling very under pressure that I'm running out of time. Mine's transverse at the moment, but there's time to get the right way round. Is yours heading south already?

Right, everyone, it's a beautifully sunny day - let's put on the floral print and a bright smile. For today, it is sunny...