35+ TTC#1 Thread 5

[BambiOnIce80]

New Year, new thread! 🍾🥂

Basically: a wonderful bunch of ladies supporting each other through the TTC journey when trying for a first baby after 35.

Here's hoping 2019 brings some BFP luck to us all!! 🍀🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻

Ladies just found out Boots has an offer on folic acid at the moment, 180 tablets for £2.99 and it's 3 for 2. It's nearly 18 months supply 💊💊💊🧐🧐🧐

Thank you all. 💗.

@CNizzle I’m sorry about your dad I can’t imagine what you must be going through. I hope you have lots of support there with you at such a cruel time.

Thanks @QuantumGirl I think I’d need an 18month supply too! 🙄.

I’m cd31 here so this is when AF arrived last cycle but according to app it’s not due until Friday anyway. So a little confusing but nothing new when ttc.
I’m not very hopeful though even if it is late I’d put it down to stress at the moment anyway.

Quick question (which I’ve probably asked before.... what is the average time after ovulation for Af to arrive?
@BambiOnIce I know you’ve mentioned this on the past but Iv got a bit of a jelly brain lately. Hope you are holding up 💗

@CNizzle - chillis are DPs domain and he's getting his grow lamps ready this coming weekend. I need to get my tomatoes going and my spuds chitting. Garden chat.

@Carley321 my luteal phase is a fairly consistent 11 days, give or take a day. I think 14 days is textbook. My cycle has got shorter as I got older though, and I think those days have come off my luteal phase. I wouldn't really know though as I never gave much thought or scrutiny to my lady bits before a couple of years ago. I wish I had.

Oh and @BambiOnIce80 good idea! I might trawl the internet for some positions of the month. I'm guessing all the kids take their cues from porn not More these days, but I might find some retro suggestions.

@Carley321 Apologies for my abrupt post, I was walking to work and got excited to share the offer. It does not mean it will take 18 months for us to conceive but we also need folic acid during pregnancy not only when ttc 🤓. I also think it's 14 days between ovulation and period but like @79andnotout said it's textbook. Each woman is different.

@CNizzle sorry to hear about your dad. Just like I said to Bambi, we are here if you need a chat and support 💛

Hope you're bearing up okay, @CNizzle .

@QuantumGirl - thanks for the tip. I've just run out. Also, 18 months will see me to the maximum length of time I could feasibly need them, assuming I got pregnant on my 40th birthday, so that's perfect. Let the countdown in pills commence.

@carley321i think the 14 days comes from the average cycle being 28 days with ovulation at the mid point. I've been tracking BBT for nearly three years and Natural Cycles has mine down as 15 days +/-1 day (error bar). Apparently the average for all people using the app is 13 days but I have no idea how representative the users are of the general population!

Thank you all for being so kind and making me feel normal and welcome ❤️ @MrsRRC
@QuantumGirl @Carley321 @BambiOnIce80 @Kescilly @79andnotout @CNizzle

The counselling was much better, feel like I have a can of worms that is being shaken but she helped and I definitely felt more positive yesterday. I even sang in the car and ran 4k at the gym! 😊 I'm finally seeing the GP tomorrow, hopefully leaving with a gyne referral. Going to ask about dh sperm analysis and if we have it privately will he refer us to the fertility clinic. I suspect they may do the gyne first though and deal with the fibroids first then review.

Kitchen is progressing, insofar as we have a sink and a cooker and not much else. Came home yesterday and dh had removed the doors separating the living room and dining room in preparation for the wall coming down. Feel excited to focus on the house although the next few weeks will be a dusty mess! Our fur babies will definitely be unsettled but keep reminding myself it's a positive thing that will enhance our lives. Our old kitchen is vile and not functional so we'll spend more time in there and enjoy it.

@Carley321 hows your dog today?

Thank you all 💖

@VenusStarr glad you had a positive counselling session. It makes a huge difference. Your kitchen sounds like ours. We were using an ironing board as a table at one point! Things are slightly better now - we have some kitchen cupboards, but DH is currently trying to work out why our hot water has gone off. Nightmare!

@CNizzle I’m so sorry to hear about your Dad 💕 We’re all here if you need to talk. Can’t imagine how difficult it must be x

Af has arrived a day early. Thought we might be in with a chance this month. Oh well.

@wheresthehope just popped by to see if anyone I knew was still on here and saw your post about acupuncture. I was 37 when we started ttc, did 7 cycles with not even a faint BFP. My periods had been light since having my mirena coil out.

I saw an acupuncturist who specialised in fertility. She diagnosed me with blood deficiency. After six weeks of treatment I had a heavier, more normal period and conceived on my next cycle.

It may have been a coincidence and I had also cut out caffeine and been taking ubiquinol so they could have been factors too!

@Darkstar4855 Thank you for replying!
That's really interesting. I am cutting coffee and drinking right back even trying to cut back food I eat (fasting a little) to try replenish my system. Ive had really heavy periods since my mmc but finally my last one was a fraction of what they have been. Maybe my body is regulating!
Looking to try reiki (my friend practices) and will look into acupuncture aswel

@QuantumGirl haha it wasn’t abrupt at all lol. It just seems that i will be taking them forever at the moment i never realised it would take this long... if ever I suppose.

@VenusStar so glad your counselling went well. Sounds like your going in the right direction. I’ve had counselling not so long ago for anxiety, I found it helped a little and gave me little mindsets that seemed to put things into a more positive perspective. good luck at the doctors today. I hope they get it all going for you.

There isn’t much change at all, but we did manage to get 2 and half out of 3 tablets in to him. So we are just 🙏 that they will help him.

Sorry about AF @PixieN I know I won’t be far behind you.

@Darkstar4855 thanks for sharing. I have very light periods almost non existent after stopping the pill. They are also very irregular. Iv been putting off seeking advice but beginning to think it’s been long enough.

@Carley321 I also think it would be good to seek some professional opinion on your irregular and light periods. Have you had any fertility check done?

@Darkstar4855 how much CoQ10 were you taking a day? I've heard we should take a minimum of 600 a day.

Just back from my GP appt, feeling incredibly frustrated. I waited a whole month to be told you need to wait until dh has his sperm analysis results, which has been pushed back to March. The GP said he would accept them if we went privately but he's unsure if the fertility clinic will. Been on hold to the hospital for 25 minutes to ask if they will see us privately as they already have his details and the GP thinks they would probably accept that. But he's unsure if we go outside of private NHS whether they would. Dh has had to go to work now so he'll try the hospital again later.

No gyne referral for me to even look at the fibroids and see if there's an issue with them being in the way of my tubes. Feel really flat.

Have rung a couple of private clinics and mixed results. One couldn't get us in until the end of February and is £250 the other can get him in as early as tomorrow and same day results for £130.

Will wait to see what the hospital say though too. Feeling a bit more positive that we have options.

@VenusStarr - we were told the fertility clinic would run all its own tests again, but that's fine. Everyone has been happy to use our private results to get us as far as the fertility clinic though, which is the important bit.

Also, and I may be wrong, but I've seen other posters say they've had to wait a month for the semen analysis results via the NHS. So that would be another wait.

I'm not enjoying all this pointless waiting, I have to say @79andnotout I'll speak to dh later but I think we should just go with the private analysis in the next week or so and at least the GP can send the referral on. At least with his results we'll have a clearer idea ourselves of the bigger picture.

At least I can focus on getting as healthy as possible, already lost 1lb this week.

My friend had her second baby last night, very happy for her. It was a bit strange to be messaging her about our infertility troubles and for her to be telling me about her little one's arrival, but I'm very happy for her.

@VenusStarr - I first began investigations 8 months ago and I still have another four months before I get to the fertility clinic I think. It all takes ages.

My sister has gone private, and within two months of her first appointment is starting IVF. I couldn't bring myself to spend that cash though, I could go on six ski holidays, or Chilean wine tours for that money! Although if I thought it was guaranteed to work maybe I'd consider it. It's the prospect of spending several k multiple times over with nothing coming out the end of it that I can't get involved in. Seems like a very risky road.

Yes, I feel the same @79andnotout. We are saving if we need fertility treatment but we are entitled to one round of ivf so we don't want to lose that opportunity.

Just wish we didn't have to do this at all :( I hope you don't have to wait much longer for your appt.

There's too many ifs and buts. We don't definitely know that we need help, we need to be in the system to test more to see what could help. That's the most frustrating part.

@VenusStarr - this is actually the easy bit for me. The hard bit was convincing OH to TTC in the first place. It took three years of back and forth and it was soul destroying and made us both miserable.

Anyway, hope everything moves quickly for you once you're in the system. Do you know what the wait times for IVF are in your area? They were over a year in my sisters, hence why they decided to skip their one free NHS go and just get on with it. I think it's only a few weeks wait where I am.

I don't think it's too bad once you're in the system @79andnotout. There was a thread in infertility about the waiting times for our clinic and once in it was about 4 months. But, we don't know if that's the route we need yet.

Pleased you are in the system and feeling OK about it all :)

That's really shit @Venusstarr, it's so frustrating constantly having to wait for an answer (patience is not my forté!).

Hi all! It seems like there's a lot going on in everyone's life. But this thread also seems like a good place for venting and being listened to
I am still waiting for AF. I did a first response test yesterday as I couldn't wait any longer and it was negative.
I am still cramping a bit but no blood.
What's going on?? AF was expected Saturday and now it's Wednesday...