6 months plus of ttc first baby?

[cwtching]

Hello

DH and I have been ttc for 6 months now for a much wanted first baby. Both of us are 32 and healthy but DH was diagnosed with varicocele a while back and the doctor told him it may or may not be a cause of limited fertility. We haven't told anyone in the RW that we are ttc but my mum keeps telling me not to wait too long to try and how much she wants grand children

I'm starting to feel a bit worried about our chances. I know six months isn't that long really but knowing that there might be an underlying problem is worrying. I do have a tendancy to over-analyse EVERYTHING though so there is a very high possibility I am being melodramatic!

Has anyone else had experience of ttc with varicocele or has been ttc for 6 months plus for baby number 1? It would be lovely to hear from you if so....

We have been ttc baby no 1 for 18 long months now :( we are currently waiting for my dh SA results to come through.

6 months isn't too long, went I went to my doctor he said the average person takes 8-9 months to concieve. Have you tried using ovulation sticks? They don't work for some people but i find it helpful because I know I have ovulated each month and I know that dtd plenty before abd after!
Good luck :) x

Hello Happily. I'm so sorry ttc hasn't been straight forward for you . It's not fair. I have my fingers crossed for your results.

Thank you for your advice re ovulation sticks - I haven't been using them but it sounds like a good idea (even just to give a feeling of control over proceedings!). Thank you too for your doctor's advice it makes me feel a bit better about things. Have you told anyone about ttc? I'm trying to work out whether the benefits of keeping stum outweigh the positive of having someone to chat to about it all! X

My GP told me 80% couples conceive within 12 months, 90% within 18 so although they refer a lot of couple for fertility investigations not all of them need it. We were in the last 10% to be fair but there's no reason to panic yet (easier said than done I know). I agree it may be worth using techniques to make sure you understand when you are probably ovulating like OPKs.

I found it really helpful to be honest with very close friends and family. It stops the cringey 'Don't leave it too late'!

As a story of hope. We started investigations after a year TTC - bloods, sperm analysis. Ours turned out to be male factor issues which were treatable. He started treatment 2 years after we started TTC and 8 months later I'm now pregnant :) A very long journey but proof that even if things don't go right to start with, there are some happy endings!

I'm on month 10 of ttc number 1. I've stopped using ovulation sticks as I seem to ovulate fairly predictably and I needed a mental break. I have decided that I will get tested privately if nothing has happened by Christmas and for now I'm just focussing on losing some weight and getting as healthy as possible.

Havealittlefaith - I read a lot of your posts before I took a break - so pleased to see you got your bfp!

Thanks winklie! I only found out last week!

I have to say I started temping after my progesterone levels weren't convincingly high. I found it reassuring to start with but I became obsessive, even dreaming about what my temp would be!
I didn't have much success with the cheap OPKs but liked the clearblue smiley ones although they aren't cheap. Ironically when I got pregnant I did nothing! We only dtd one day when I assumed I was fertile. Like winklie I didn't really need any of them any more. We dtd, I got ewcm the next day and think I ovulated the following day!

Hi OP,

We are on cycle 12 of TTC our first, and about 4 years younger than you so have the opposite problem of everyone saying we're 'far too young to be thinking about any of that nonsense'

I started temping after about 3 months and have found it interesting - I now understand my cycles far better. I use a fertility friend app on my phone.

The last time I saw my GP he said to come in after 12 months, but I might give it a little longer and go in after Christmas if it still hasn't happened. Try not to panic - I'm past panicking and now in the 'resigned to my fate' stage which is nicer. I'm calmer and enjoying not being pregnant by drinking wine and eating Brie

Thanks so much for all your comments. I am genuinely feeling better about things because of you all. DH doesn't really like to talk about ttc and because we haven't told anyone we are trying I was feeling a bit low and isolated with no one to talk to. It's really reassuring to hear from people who understand how it feels and all the guff that whirls around in your head!

Many many congratulations Havealittlefaith! That is such wonderful news, just brilliant! I think your advice to tell people is a good idea - I don't think I can tell my family quite yet... my mum is truly wonderful but I know she would be so over excited and will be online buying baby clothes and furniture and calling me everyday to find out if she has a grandchild on the way... pressure!!! But I think I might speak to a friend about it as I think it would help.

Good luck Winklie, I have just joined a gym for the same reason, I'm not overweight but I'm also not thin (and I did have to hold my breath when they did a bodyfat percentage test at the induction! What a cruel thing to do to a new gym goer) but omg I am unfit. After my first session I couldn't walk down the stairs without pain for three days . Hopefully it is going to be a good distraction!

Hello Tuesday, that must be so frustrating it doesn't matter how old you are. I use a period diary ap and it definitely helps to see where I am and to log dtd (very unromantic). You are absolutely right, I was panicing. I think next month I will try the ov sticks and temping to give myself a bit of control and hopefully ease the panic! How do you go about temping / charting temperatures? Any advice gratefully received. PS. Wine and brie sounds delicious! :)

Thank you everyone X

We're on cycle 22 of ttc number one. All standard tests have come back normal, so we are "unexplained".

Hi all
I'm now on cycle 10 or so ttc #1 and like many of you am pretty fed up of it all. Getting a HyFoSy test next month though (to check tubes - all other tests seem normal) so looking forward to that, kind of.

I've now bough the "Taking charge of your fertility" book and going to start temping properly having not got on with it before - have used cheapy opks most months and got the hang of my cycle but I don't always get positives so not going to continue with those. My GP says that they cause "unnecessary anxiety" - i.e. when you don't get a positive, and that was definitely the case for me.

cwtching I would recommend the free email "tutorials* on the fertility friend website as a starting point for charting: taking temperatures and scrutinising your CM are the two main things you need to do. However I previously used a celsius thermometer which I didn't get on with because I found my temp varied by up to 0.5 degrees every day yet you only needed a 0.3 or so rise to confirm the thermal shift. However I now have a farenheit one which so far seems to work better for me - the temp shift should be about a whole degree (up, after ovulation) so easier to spot. So if you haven't bought a thermometer yet you might want to consider that. both were about £4 including postage from Home Health website (also available on amazon) .

have a little faith congrats that's fab news! Do you mind my asking what treatment your DH had for little swimmers - clearly worked. My dh has had SA and count is fine but morphology % low and we were told there was nothing that really could be done about that.

Also cwtching I have not been telling everyone however I've found it helpful to talk to friends who are pg/ have recently had babies that we are ttc without success. You may be encouraged to hear that they didn't get pg at the drop of the hat, which may be what it looked like on the surface.
Of course if they did get pg first time that just sucks!

Christelle DH had a growth in his pituitary gland which meant he had high prolactin levels and so low testosterone. That resulted in a poor motility (first one was 0% rapid!) and poor sperm count. He had a medication prescribed by an endocrinologist which stops the growth secreting the prolactin and everything came back in range. It was 8 months from when he started on that treatment to when we got the BFP! (there was other stuff going on in the mean time).

OP can I recommend pre seed ? My first 2 dc were conceived really easily but number 3 was a struggle. I finally got pregnant the first month of using pre seed. Maybe a coincidence but I think it helped dh's sperm get to the right place
Good luck

It took us 9 months to conceive DD1 (I was 25 and he was 31 at the time) Having thought that was a long time, it was a shock to me that it took 2 loooooooong years of TTC to conceive DD2.

We were referred for tests which showed 'unexplained inferrility' :( I had 6 rounds of Clomid and FINALLY got pregnant on my last go; last July and beautiful DD2 was born April this year.

I'd possibly like just one more, but am terrified if it takes a long time what it would do to my mental state.

It'd very traumatic when TTC and not, well, conceiving. You've just got to relax and try not to think about getting pregnant.

Easier said than done ...

I hope it happens for you very, very soon xx

Hi all

We are also TTC our first - trying since December (minus a couple of months where working in different places to my DP ruled things out). Frustratingly after 2 years of charting nice normal cycles mine have recently gone haywire so I have more than my normal quota of TTC angst swirling about - just when I thought I was chilling out about it all!

Nice to meet you all - I definitely appreciate the online support as we haven't got much RL support and it can be very frustrating. Christelle maybe I should take your advice and tell more people!

Only one of my friends knew how long we'd been TTC the second time - and that's only because I cried when she told me she was pregnant again (3 months before I conceived DD2).

I couldn't - and still can't - face telling anyone how long it took. I'm not ashamed. I just couldn't and can't tolerate the sympathetic faces from people: the 'there theres' and empty 'it will happen' promises, just cuz they dont know what else to say. I know they'd only be trying to help, but I would have just been worse having to keep talking about it.

I do however, appreciate this forum and being able to be candid with no implications for RL.

hi. my oh also has a varicocele. were on cycle 6 of ttc.

he was told a similar thing by doctor that it may or may not affect fertility.

I am 32 and he is 31, we use pre-seed and both take pregnacare conception pills we also dtd at least eod over the whole month.

our next step is to ask for a sperm test to check whether the varicocele is causing problems or not...

Hello all

Christelle, thank you for the temping advice. I will definitely follow it.

Hello Quadlibet, it can be really hard without RL support can't it. I'm going to have a chat to a friend who has experience of difficulties conceiving as I know she's gone through the the whole range of emotions after being diagnosed with unexplained fertility (she now has the most beautiful baby through IVF). And I know she'd understand me not wanting to talk to everyone about it. Although it's affecting us both (and I haven't spoken to DH about this) I'd feel bad talking about DH's private medical issues with anyone.

Puppymummy, I hope the tests go well. We are going to do the same if nothing happens this month as it will be 8 months of trying by then which will be giving it a fair go. I don't want to leave it too long in case there is a problem which can be fixed somehow. I'd love to know how things go for you as I haven't come across anyone else with the same issue yet.

Molatov, thanks so much for your good wishes. Two years of ttc must have been awful and very hard to deal with. Do you have any tips on how to stay positive?

XXX