Preconception planners - still planning

[Bells3032]

Hi all. thought i'd make a new thread as the old one getting close to a thousand. Don't forget to rejoin!!

@CookieMonster3001 my DH did a biology degree and is like hmm I don’t think that’s a thing (I mean it could just be male solidarity at play 😂) It made me laugh what your OH said 🤣🤣

@CookieMonster3001 That's hilarious . I'm inclined to agree with @Lollipop87's DH though. I'm not convinced that there's any science to back that up

Science schmience!! If google said its true then it must be ;) ;)
It never has been my fave part of BDing anyway lol

Hi everyone! I’ve really enjoyed reading back through this thread - good luck with the ttc journeys! I was wondering if anyone might be able to reassure me a bit or is in the same position? I’m 28 and healthy and came off the pill two months ago but no sign of a real period! I know I should wait three months to go to a GP but it’s driving me mad. All pregnancy tests are negative. Anyone had this and then returned to normal cycles? Or did anything which made a difference? It’s so hard to be patient...!

@CookieMonster3001 nods in agreement And let's be honest, it's also not the way that babies are made so has very little place in BDing.

@Morningdaffodils Hi - I'm afraid I'm not sure what to suggest other than different people react differently to coming off of the pill. There's lots of reasons you period might take awhile to return unfortunately :( Were you on the pill for any reason other than birth control? That can often be a good place to start, for example if it was to make bleeding lighter and less painful etc?

I've had a nice day off work today. Still revising for my exam, I intend to sit it on Friday :/ fingers crossed.

I've also been doing a lot of reading today of research papers today. The amount of things hypothyroidism can mess within pregnancy is staggering. Not to say it makes your % risk of these complications high, but for example, placental abruption is around 3x higher risk with hypothyroidism (so from 0.5% -> 1.5%). I can understand why there isn't routine screening for thyroid conditions, it'll be due to funding, but still... once they've drawn your blood at your midwife appointments how much more would it really cost to check?

These are the things it has a clear relationship with if anyone's curious:
Preeclampsia
Anaemia
Miscarriage
Low birthweight
Placental Abruption
Stillbirth
Congestive heart failure
Gestational diabetes

I think it's estimated that 5% of people have a thyroid condition of some type. If anyone is wanting to do any checks before conception, or if you struggle with conceiving/miscarriage it could be worth checking. I got mine done privately for £45.

I now have a lovely colour-coded spreadsheet ready to track the various thyroid levels that will be measured once I've started treatment/through my pregnancy. As well as tracking Vitamin D, Folate, Ferritin and B12 as apparently it's common to be low on those if you have hypothyroidism (although in my case I've got Subclinical Hypothyroidism so I don't know if it's likely to have the same effect).

Good luck with the exam @Curiosity101
I think I may have gone a bit overboard with the planning now! Not going to start TTC until January but with Covid cancelling everything at the moment does anyone else feel they have nothing else really to think about other than TTC! I've just bought some folic acid, thermometer, ovulation sticks and fish oil. I've also bought some pre conception men tablets. I have never wanted Xmas to be over because I love this time of year but at the moment there doesn't seem to be much to celebrate and nobody can make any plans so now I'm just wanting January to be here so we can start TTC. I'm booked in to have my coil removed on the 9/11 and really hope the appointment goes ahead as they have cancelled on me once and I can see it happening again.

I'm out for this month... AF arrived this morning and my mood already seems a lot less cranky 😂
It's a shame as we had promising signs the last few days, spotting yesterday thinking is that implantation or AF ?
Sept cycle was 29 days, now October cycle is 26 days... think my body is still trying to normalise after the implant removal in august 😞
We are now not actively trying to pinpoint ovulation for the next 2mths due to redundancy time next July as we need to plan new jobs, attempt to get a mortgage 🤯 I intend to keep temping, and we still plan to dtd when my mood/body wants it 😉

I'll still be lurking around, albeit a little bit quieter for now 🙏👀

👶 baby dust for everyone 💖

@Curiosity101 I'm starting to feel stronger already, I used to go to the gym most days til about half way through my pregnancy so it's really nice to be feeling that strength coming back. How is your exam revision going?

@CookieMonster3001 I took EPO while I was ttc my first and I don't think it delayed my ovulation at all so hopefully that's not a common side effect. Hope it works well for you!

@Morningdaffodils I think it's really common for it to take a few months for your cycle to settle down after coming off contraceptives.... When I had my implant out it was around 5 months before I had a 'proper' period

@gems05 sorry AF has arrived, hope your next planned cycle is a lucky one

@gems05 Sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed for you for future cycles.

@littledinokitty Revision is going well thank you. I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be for tomorrow's exam. 🤞

How're you today?

Afternoon all!! Been so hectic at work this week, only just catching up!

@Curiosity101 good luck with your exam today! You will do amazing!!

@gems05 sorry to hear AF has arrived! Fingers crossed this next cycle is our one, and hope mortgage and job hunting goes as well as it can do! 🤞

@littledinokitty that's reassuring to hear! I did drop my dosage as I think I was having too much. I have gone from 2600mg to 1300mg a day. I have noticed a bit of difference and I don't know if its the EPO. My underwear does seem to be a bit more 'damp' sorry if that's TMI, which is a bit odd considering I am only CD5 and would only expect to start seeing fertile CM around CD9(ish), but hey ho, I will keep on at it and see what happens. I am taking it alongside 1000mg of Omega 3 fish oil, so hopefully its helping and not hindering!

Anyone else feel like this week has gone incredibly quickly! Cannot believe its November on Sunday. Where on earth has this year gone?!

Also found out that we are going to working from home until the very earliest, April next year.. and my parents area has now moved to a Tier 2 area. My sister reckons it wont be long before we are in another national lockdown.

@CookieMonster3001 Thank you I passed! So glad to have that off my plate. Glad to hear the EPO might be having the desired effect

It does feel like this year has been ridiculously quick. I was talking to someone about it the other day. We came to the conclusion that it's because everything is so samey at the moment. There's no differentiation between the days so they all blur into one.

I can definitely see a scenario where more of the country is under Tier 3 than isn't. We're under Tier 3 from today :(
We're also in a similar position regarding WFH. They had been planning to start a tiered return to the office from January but I'd imagine that's been put back for now considering we're now Tier 3 and January is only a couple of months away.

@CookieMonster3001 ps. Don't think there is such a thing as TMI in TTC

Good morning How's everyone doing this morning?

I had a call with an NHS GP yesterday afternoon. I can't see the private Endocrinologist until 4th December so I decided to see what the NHS GP could do. Initially, she wanted to wait 4 weeks and retest my thyroid because "Sometimes your thyroid has an off day so we have to do a second test before confirming diagnosis". I was a bit , explained about us wanting to TTC in January, that the delay would have a knock-on effect and that based on my results I'm sure it wasn't just an off day. I was as polite and apologetic as possible as I basically felt like I was telling her she was wrong to wait 4 weeks . But the conclusion was she asked for a copy of my test results so she could email them over to the endocrinology department and get their opinion.

So we'll see where we go from there. I just want to get started on treatment so they can get my levels back down to normal, the waiting is very frustrating.

Hello ladies, hope you’re all well. I’m just catching in on message now, here we go:

@curiosity101 How did the exam go? I bet it’s a relief now that it’s all done and dusted, will you find out the results soon?
How are you feeling? I’ve just read through the rest of your messages, will you be high risk when you’re pregnant and they keep a eye on you for the whole time? The whole waiting times thing is awful, I had to wait 5 weeks for my MRI and then they wanted me to wait 5 weeks for the results because there was no other appointments so I emailed the gynaecologist and asked if there was another doctor I go pay to speak to privately for the results because I’d rather spend that 5 weeks waiting on the next waiting list and he was really good and said he’d call me when he got my results in. I agree though, it’s so frustrating I hate all the waiting.

Little update on me and what’s going on. So I have my MRI next Monday 9th and then I should find out a few days later what next steps are, I’m hoping it’s a hysteroscopy where they can just fluff some of the uterine wall whilst they’re there.
Promotions are happening finally, so this week we’re due to find out what the salary increases and bonuses are and it’ll all be finalised by 16 Nov so that’s a plus.
We get our pup on Friday as well which is exciting.
The plan is to stop start TTC 1st Feb (turns out it’s my fertile week as well) so I had a drink today we had Sunday dinner at my OH Mum’s and I actually feel so guilty I had three glasses of Prosecco and feel awful which I know is ridiculous. I think because this is in my control I want to be as good as poss because the whole uterus thing is out of my control of that makes sense?! Do you ladies still have a drink? Am I being ridiculous?
It’s my nieces first birthday soon so I bought her some really lovely bits from Zara and I was just so upset thinking oh when will I be buying my own child stuff.. I’m being silly.

Welcome @morningdaffodils (nice name) have you contacted your GP about it? I came off the pill way before we even lived together, I just had enough of it and it took a few months for me.

@cookiemonster3001 I’m so pleased it’s November the soon the year is over the better 😂 and how spot on was your sister?! I can’t believe there is another lockdown, I can believe it and I’m not surprised but I can’t if that makes sense. I’m hoping I’ll be wfh for as long as poss it’s just so much better in my opinion, hopefully we’ll never go back to 5 days in the office again.

@sunflowersaremyfav93 The exam went ok. I passed which is the main thing . I'm now an AWS Associate level Solutions Architect.

I'm feeling ok, just not very patient. I don't think my thyroid issue will make me high risk, but I will possibly need a few extra blood tests throughout pregnancy. I'm guessing I'll be consultant-led though due to the abruption, EMCS + subclinical hypothyroidism. But I'm not too fussed if I'm midwife-led or consultant-led really. I ended up consultant-led in my last pregnancy after all the bleeding and it didn't really make much of a difference.

I had to wait 5 weeks for my MRI and then they wanted me to wait 5 weeks for the results

That must've been so frustrating. It's effectively putting you into limbo isn't it? I'm glad they were able to adjust the plan after you asked and you'll now find out reasonably quickly. Fingers crossed things keep progressing and we may even end up TWW buddies!

Are you guaranteed a promotion then? Promotions and pay rises are always a fun time!

You're not TTC at the moment, are you? Tbh even if you were I don't see a reason for going teetotal. Surely you'd have to be really going for it to have any impact on your fertility? I know it's anecdotal but I conceived DS in January and drank loads over Chrismas and New Year. Way more than at a normal time of year. And myself and DH have just had a few days off work. What with relaxing and celebrating me passing my exam we've actually drunk quite a bit over the past few days. It'll slow down my weight loss but other than that it's not something I'd factor into TTC.

I was just so upset thinking oh when will I be buying my own child stuff.. I’m being silly.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You're in a tough position at the moment, you're allowed to feel a bit rubbish about things.

@sunflowersaremyfav93 Hi lovely!! Not long to wait now for your MRI, hope they go well! Congratulations on the promotions, excellent news especially with all that's going on at the moment. Ahh, cant wait until you get your pup, you will have to send us pics! I cant remember if you told us what you named him/her?
Don't feel bad about having a couple of drinks. I am TTCing now and due to ovulate on Friday but I still have a drink here or there. I go by the fact my sister got pregnant and went out partying in her TWW and she had no idea she was pregnant, and my little niece is absolutely perfect! I have cut down on my alcohol, but definitely have not cut it out! I still need to enjoy myself now and then! Please don't feel silly for being upset! I still feel like that with things and I think its only natural when you want something.

@Curiosity101 congratulations on passing your exam, that's amazing!!! Hopefully you get your report soon and an appointment sooner than December! Let us know how that goes.

Starting OPK testing again today, and coming up low which I figured. I think I have pretty much grasped when my LH levels increase and when I ovulate now as the last 4 cycles I have ovulated CD12 or 13. We DTD yesterday, and aiming to go again tomorrow, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. OH has labelled this week as our bonkathon. Lol. I have defo seen a shift in his attitude whereby he is asking a lot more questions and getting a little bit more involved in my fertile week, like asking when we should be DTD etc, which is quite nice for me. I am trying to not think about it too much and just be as relaxed about it as possible.

Sisters wedding cancelled for a 3rd time, so she's gutted yet again. Think she feels more fed up than anything else! She also had a feeling it was going to happen so I think she was some what mentally prepared, but I guess you always hold a little bit of hope.

This week I am starting back up again with some strength training! Since the first lockdown, all I have done is walk and run, but I have defo lost a bit of muscle so aiming to start that back up again. Plus I have read that you should start new work outs when your pregnant, so want to get it started now so that at least I can continue to some degree if and when I get pregnant. Plus, these covid kilo's aren't gonna shift themselves!!

@CookieMonster3001 Thanks. 😊 I had a call from the GP today. They're booking me in for repeat blood tests on Thursday and if the results are similar I'll be starting treatment straight away. 👍 It makes sense they want to repeat the tests, my only objection was waiting 4 weeks for the sake of it. So hopefully I should be starting treatment by mid November and can do a new private blood test mid December to inform whether we can TTC in January.

That's great news about your DH. It's always nice when they get on board with a bit of the planning ☺️. You and your DH do make me giggle though! Bonkathon 🤣😂 that does sound like something my DH would name the week. He's made no secret of the fact he's 'looking forward' to January. No mention of February though so he must be feeling especially virile and thinks we'll conceive first try 🤣🤣

Oh your poor sister 🥺 it's so difficult for people to plan anything at the moment.

Oo strength training sounds fab 💪. You're definitely right that it's better to start before pregnancy as you should I'm theory be able to carry on once pregnant. What sort of work outs did you used to do/are planning to do?

@Curiosity101 that's great news! So glad they have moved it early! Seemed pointless waiting for 4 weeks and at least you will have an answer sooner and fingers crossed get started on any treatment asap!

my OH is a bit of an old grump these days and we usually only DTD once a week on a Sunday lol, so I think he is trying to find humour in it to help him deal with the fact he's gonna have to perform much more than usual! Literally everytime we DTD and he finishes, he looks at me and is like, 'have I impregnated you?' Like I have some crystal ball. 😂

I kinda used to do my own circuits before, but that was at the gym. I recently downloaded the fitbody app which had a 7 day free trial, and I like the way it is set up. It tells you what workouts to do on each day, and has little videos of how to perform it and you can set it to beginner, intermediate and advanced. Thinking of buying the subscription as it works out to like £9 per month which is cheaper than a gym membership! Plus I have followed her for years (Anna Victoria) on Instagram and she documented her infertility journey and going through IVF and they recently gave birth to a healthy little girl! So we will see how I get on with that. Got legs and glutes to do tonight. Fully expecting not to be able to walk tomorrow. That'll make DTD fun! 😂

@CookieMonster3001 That app sounds fantastic. How're you getting on with it? Hope your workout didn't get in the way of baby making too much :D

I've got my thyroid blood test tomorrow, I'm glad to get it sorted and out of the way. I've also ordered a private female hormone blood test. So I'm getting FSH, Prolactin, LH and Oestradiol. I've been a bit suspicious of my super light AFs since I fully came off of hormonal birth control so thought it was worth a check. I'm CD1 (if we don't count spotting), so fingers crossed for a slightly more normal cycle this time around.

I'm also 14lb down! 1lb off of my pre-pregnancy weight and 12lb until my target! I think I'm going to continue dieting until the end of November before easing off on it to ensure that I'm not putting myself at a disadvantage for the January cycle.

How's everyone else doing?

@Curiosity101 I'm so pleased you have managed to get your test sooner! Must be a bit of a weight off your mind knowing it's going ahead despite lockdown - if you are in England that is. Congrats on the weight loss too, that is amazing!!!

@CookieMonster3001 I've started doing some of Mark Wrights IGTV workouts and they are fab! Definitely going to be keeping them up after.

I am now in the new house and also now on CD1! So let's see what this month will bring 🤞🏻

@Curiosity101 well.... I have only managed 1 workout this week. Monday I did a legs and glutes workout and I am still in pain!
1 stone off is absolutely amazing!! You should be so proud of yourself! Well done! Hope your blood test goes OK tomorrow, and you will have to let us know the results of the other tests you are getting done! Fingers crossed for a normal cycle!

@Smushty14 congrats on a new house and fingers crossed! Are you TTC this month?

I'm on CD11 today and got my peak this morning bang on time, altho I had a big rise in temp today which confused me, but going to try and ignore it and not worry! I imagine I will ovulate tomorrow. OH went out with the lads on Tuesday before the lockdown and came back and said he had confided in a friend about TTC who had also recently had a baby and it made him feel so much better because some of the things he had been feeling, his friend did too. I am so glad he has someone to talk to about this now as I think he kind of felt like he could talk to me about 'man issues' and told me before he felt like there was something wrong with him.

@Smushty14 @CookieMonster3001 Thanks guys! I got the thyroid test done today. I should get my results on Monday :). Unfortunately, my private test kit didn't arrive today (CD2) and it's meant to be done on CD3 but you're not allowed to return it on a Friday. I might try doing it on Monday, I tend to ovulate a little later than average so hopefully testing on CD6 won't be too late.

@Smushty14 How's the new house? Are you all settled and unpacked?

@CookieMonster3001 Haha! Isn't that the way whenever you start a new exercise regime! Good luck for tomorrow! And that's such lovely news about your DH. It's a shame there are still so many stigmas attached to men and feeling these sort of feelings. And they don't have an equivalent to Mumsnet to go and talk about these sorts of things either. So it's great he's now got a buddy he can confide in.

@CookieMonster3001 thanks lovely! We aren't specifically trying this month but we aren't protecting. It's my birthday at the end of the month and with lockdown we are just going to see what happens this month. My birthday will fall on CD25 so if I do by some miracle fall pregnant straight away, it will be a fab present!

@Curiosity101 We are really pleased with it! A few kinks such as a leaking conservatory and garage so we have bowls laying about there but so glad we are in and settled now.

Oh no! Fingers crossed it won't be too late for you!