40+ ttc: the one where we all get knocked up!

[ababsurdum]

Shiny new thread. Here's the link to the previous one.

I posted up thread about weird cycles, have been TTC for 2.5 years, not recently started.

I saw GP this week and they said that my hormone levels shown in blood tests taken very recently were not showing signs of early menopause, which is a relief. GP said that shortening cycles were more likely rather than lengthening ones.

However I had a Smear test done today and the nurse said that the entrance to my Cervix was very small, she asked if my DD was a C- Section delivery, she wasn't. However this might be a cause of infertility/reduced fertility. Has anyone experienced similar?

Has anyone tried Pre Seed lubricant?

Hello All, hope everyone is doing ok, well AF arrived bang on time yesterday so thats one cycle down bring on the OPK's and cycle two! a little disappointing but I would've been in shock had it happened first time!

I've tried it furry - as a lube it's great but my oh doesn't like it as it's too slippy for him :(
Can't say it's helped get me pregnant tho...

letsdothis loving your optimism. I could do with a dose of whatever you're taking :D

Hello could I join you ladies? The rcm thread seems to have gone and as I am 40 ( and I liked the title I thought it would be a good place to try) I have one dd who is nearly 3 we decided to try for a second last year but have had 3 miscarriages since October first 5wks second mmc at 12wks and most recent 8wks. I went to rcm clinic in July who have done basic tests but the follow up apt is at the end of December! We were told not to ttc until after the follow up. I am really unhappy with that as it's almost 6 months lost and getting older 🙁 Decided to pay for the NK testing in Coventry which I had yesterday - will get results in 4 weeks and then depending on the results will start ttc. The great thing was he gave me a prescription for progesterone so if the tests come back clear I will have something to hopefully help. Have any of you gone down the Coventry route or are trying progesterone? Sorry for the long post - thanks for reading 🙂

Sorry about af, letsdothis

Furry, I've not come across that before, sorry. Hope it's something they can investigate?

Danlsb, sorry for your losses. I've had 3 mc's since Feb. I had a son (he would be 2 now but died at 13 months) and a previous ectopic. The rmc has been useless. Did bloods but the results won't be back for months. We're going for private treatment soon, so it was a waste of time. They advised not to keep trying, but I'm 42 so too bad!

I've got a question for the experienced dipstick OPK-ers. I'm now on CD15. Last month was only 25 days, but 26-28 is normal. I've used cb-digital opks the last few months & always get my solid smiley on day 12-ish. Anyway, back to now. I had a positive on CD12, another on CD13. Yesterday (CD14) I got a near-as-dammit, which is as much as I normally get (including a bfp cycle). I thought it was very late, but hoped my cycle was getting back to 28 days. Then this morning I got a blazing positive, followed by another strong-ish one tonight. So my question is, is it normal for levels to stay high and keep surging over several days? Normally I get my (near-as-dammit!) positive, and then it starts to fade out again the next day. I've attached tonight's - I've had 4 days like this, plus the one blazing this morning. I don't understand at what point in all this I'm supposed to ovulate. They say 12-48h after the first positive, but then why the blazing one today? Confused.com.....

Bloop I hope you are feeling ok. How is the tww going now? I'm so sorry that you've been feeling so low and like it's not going to happen. It's really hard when you've been ttc so long with no result and that the NHS won't help yet. It really is such a lottery isn't it? What area are you in? (Obviously don't say if you don't want to). Try and practice some positive visualisation if you can

Fuzzy I was away but meant to ask how your son's birthday was? I hope it was not too unbearable and that you managed to do something lovely to remember him by

Btw Bloop I meant to say don't use a hot water bottle in the 2ww. I think heat is not meant to be good for the embryos - sure I read that last time ttc.

furryminkymoo did they tell you that a small cervix is an issue for conception or are you just worrying? I am usually told my cervix is 'neat' or similar when I have a smear. Ds was elcs too. I've never heard of it being an issue, sperm are microscopic so should get through ok? I tried preseed and conceive gels last time ttc but I didn't conceive those months.

Letsdothis41 I'm sorry AF arrived. Early days though so hopefully better luck next month.

Welcome Danlsb I'm sorry for your losses . I've had one mc so I haven't looked into getting any testing. I hope your results are good and that you can crack on ttc with a bit of help.

Fuzzy not sure about your opk, it's a bit odd but I've never continued taking them for so long. Keep on dtd just in case

I'm 7dpo today. Have felt a bit nauseous today on and off but have done before too when it's been bfn so it doesn't mean much.

Good luck everyone!

Thank you for your kind messages.
Fuzzy - so sorry to hear about your losses especially your little boy. I'm not sure if it is relevant but I know after my second mc I had a couple of odd cycles where I had several ovulation positives ( using the digital smiley sticks) The consultant said that it can be caused by left over hormones or sometimes after mc women can ovulate twice in the following month. However the following cycle I was pregnant so don't know if it would have happened the next month. I have not had anything like that since my last mc I was back to a 28 day cycle after 2 months. Hope your cycle settles down again soon.

hello everyone, apologies for not being around but I’ve had a very busy week coupled with a nasty cold so have been keeping low.

Firstly congratulations Greenglassteacup great to hear some good news!

BloopBleep hope you’re feeling more positive - i know how hard it is to not just say enough is enough. each month i tell myself no more, i can’t deal with the disappointment so i won’t try, then each month i think 1 more shot. I can’t get any help on NHS so if we ever do decide to go down IVF route it will be expensive as hell!

Letsdothis41 sorry to hear about AF. We spend most of our young ives praying she comes then the realise in middle age that she has totally outstayed her welcome and wish she would stay away for a while. At least you’re still staying positive so well done.

Welcome Danlsb i hope you get the results you need soon. waiting to find things out is a bitch. i get it that the nhs hasn’t got enough resources but with so much stress around conceiving you’d think they would offer a fast track service for bloods.

MrFuzzy no idea about why the ovulation hormone stays high - could you be PG? I’ve just bought some otk so will be trying 1st time to measure. have been going by guess work so far but my body is usually pretty good at telling me I’m ovulating so hoping it doesn’t mean I’ve been messing around without really knowing if its the right time,
we’ve had a bad cycle as we weren’t able to dtd in time this cycle and then when we did get around to it DH was having problems so we needed to do the old at home IUI. don’t hold out much hope but figured its better than nothing. am trying to get dh to finally go and get tested to check his sperm count but he’s being a typical man and putting his head in the sand. actually i’ve started to think about adoption. not sure if its right for us yet but its definitely something I’m starting to look into.

Im sorry if i’ve missed someone out - its so hard to catch up with everything after a weeks absence :D
hope everyone is going to have a great next week.

Ababs- I was told a hot water bottle was ok for cramping even if pregnant as it's only when your whole body heats up (like it does in a bath or a sauna) that it's a problem. That said it's a beanbag thing I use that goes cold very quickly. My core temps are always really low even with a stable thyroid so I doubt it would do much harm to what I suspect is an empty womb.
I'm in the west of Scotland and if my oh wasn't my daughter's dad we would be eligible for IVF but as we've unfortunately stuck together and still quite like each other there's no hope of getting it on NHS. We were told they'd prescribe clomid in December if I still wasn't ovulating regularly. I'm concerned about that tho as I'm sure my lining is too thin & that could make it worse.

As for the 2ww I'm 12dpo so af due between now and Wednesday. All signs pointing to it turning up although I did get a +opk today which confused me. I had nothing else to pee on & thought why not?
welcome danlsb -sorry to hear of the rmc you've had. Hopefully the clinic will help you out.

Fuzzy - if your lh is surging but you're not yet ovulating it might keep on pushing with the Lh until you do leaving you with multiple days of +opk - keep shagging!

Hey jibberoo welcome back.

Bloop a positive opk is a very good sign. TEST!!!

My opk finally went to negative yesterday, and I had what I'm sure were a few hours of ov pains late Saturday, so I think the 4 days of +opks was just a really late & long LH surge. I'm getting the usual post-o symptoms now. So begins the tww madness that I promise myself I won't have every month!!!

Bloop, are you still getting positive opk?

Well opk still positive but af arrived - thankfully never bothered buying hpt as I knew I wasn't preg. Wondering if I'm going to ovulate stupidly early in my cycle.

Good luck with the 2ww mr fuzzy!

Sorry Bloop

ababs - good luck Billy-Joe's birthday was very tough (understatement) but we had a lot of support, and he was honoured beautifully by some lovely friends. Thank you for asking

So sorry AF is here Bloop . Treat yourself well and pick yourself up for this new cycle. It's so hard though.

Fuzzy were your friends doing a charity run to raise money or have I remembered wrongly? I'm glad you had a lot of support. You are so brave; it is my worst nightmare.

I'm 10 dpo today. Not feeling anything this month so expect AF will be here on Saturday.

My friend ran a 10K in his memory to raise money for a charity that gave us a lot of support in the early days. She did us proud

How lovely

Obviously the circumstances aren't lovely. Hopefully you know what I mean xx

I do! It is lovely. I'm lucky to have some wonderful friends who remember him and do things to honour him. It's not what I wanted, but it's the best I can ask for now.

How are you feeling? Any signs? I'm 4dpo today, getting pinches & boob pains but I got the same last month, so not reading into them. Got our ivf initial consultation tomorrow. Yikes!

Good luck tomorrow fuzzy. I thought of you the other day actually, there was a similar story to yours from a mum on fb. She posted a video about sepsis dangers and how it killed her older son before her younger one was born. Cried through the whole thing.

Wishing you a fast bfp

Good luck today Fuzzy. The good thing about going privately is that it all happens so fast though you will have to wait for scan and then down regulate most likely. Let us know how you get on.

No real signs for me in either of my 2 pgs. I get twinges etc. with AF anyway so no help to me. Not expecting much.

Hi all!

So here's my ivf consultation 'report'!

DH: good motility, morphology & count - all within normal range.

ME: big fibroid but no impact on endometrium. Nice thick lining (CD20). Everything looking good. 6 follicles on my left ovary. Couldn't see all of my right ovary due to the fibroid, but they could count 3, so it looks like my AFC is at least 9 but probably more, which the consultant was happy with for my age (42). Happy with my BMI etc.

They've taken bloods & urine to do the usual screening (HIV etc), and for me rubella, clamidia, thyroid & AMH. Don't know the results yet as they were done at the end of the day, after the consultation. Should know by early next week.

THE RESULTS: The consultant feels that our recurrent miscarriages are probably due to egg quality, given DHs good results. Given that I've had a live birth and everything looks good, he thinks it really is a case of catching a good embryo. So, he's recommended a multi-cycle (2) with my eggs using preimplantation genetic screening. The clinic we're at has a live birth rate of over 50% for my age group using PGS, with a low miscarriage rate. If those cycles do fail, we will go to donor eggs.

THE PLAN: my next cycle is due to start towards the end of next week, and he's hopeful that everything will be in place and the blood results will be back by then. So I will have a 'normal' IVF cycle up to egg collection, and then any 5 day blasts are frozen for genetic screening tests. If we have a decent embryo after all that, its implanted on the next cycle (or the cycle after that) to give my body a rest. That might be a natural cycle or with some mild drugs. Apparently, if it's going to work, that combination will give us our best shot. If we have more than 1 good frostie they can be stored for future use. If they get none on the first cycle, we try again using the same process. Then we go to donor if still no luck.

So that's it! Now hoping that AF doesn't show up rudely early, so that we can get started next week!

That sounds like good news (in the context of needing an ivf consult at all, of course) Fuzzy. I hope having a plan is encouraging.