Where to start with TTC

[Tartanpaws]

Hi everyone, myself and my partner are finally ready to start our TTC journey. I feel a bit naive and clueless when it comes to it. Having done a bit of research, I’ve signed up to natural cycles to help track my ovulation. I haven’t been on hormonal birth control for a number of years and my periods are regular.

My questions are how often should we DTD? When during my cycle is the best time to DTD? We want to make sure we’re doing it on the right/best days.

Are there any vitamins or supplements you’d recommend that I start taking now?

Do you recommend that I get ovulation strips to use alongside natural cycles?

Any advice would be much appreciated

I used the clearblue ovulation tests and got pregnant right away! If I remember correctly it gives you a flashing smiley face on the lead up to ovulation, then a static smiley when you are ovulating. We did it on the days it told us too and immediately fell. So I highly recommend if you want to give yourself the best chance right away!🙂
Good luck!

Oh and, I just took folic acid whilst trying, and then vitamin D once I had my positive!

It really depends on your age and how keen you are to get pregnant. If you're young (under 35) I'd say just start off seeing how it goes, have sex when you like across the month and be quite relaxed about it.

If you're a bit older or wanting to conceive soon you may want to be a bit more targeted about it. Tracking ovulation is a good idea. I used the strips as found the apps unreliable - they assume all women have 28 day periods and I found I was consistently ovulating later than the apps predicted so missing my fertile window.

When I started TTC I just took folic acid and vitamin D, tracked ovulation and made sure to DTD on my fertile days. I conceived within a few months at 34 and 36.

It's easy to become obsessed/hyper focused on TTC so that's why I suggest giving it a few months initially to just 'see if it happens'. DTD every other day is plenty in this case.

Best of luck - sending baby dust your way!

@LT2 wow that’s great! I’ll definitely get them. I will also start taking folic acid straight away!

Hiya and congrats on starting your journey 😊

The bare minimum supplement-wise is folic acid - start this now! - however it's probably a good idea to get some kind of all-round, trying to conceive type tablet that will have a good mix of other vitamins and minerals that will be good for you and baby. Main one to avoid is vitamin A.

I use cheap opks to monitor ovulation but there are all kinds of things you can use. These have worked for me and I've not been fussed to go mad for anything else. I just use OneStep ones off Amazon. I normally start using them around cycle day 11 until a couple of days after my peak. DTD-wise, you're most fertile the 5 days up to and the day of ovulation. Most recommend DTD every other day from a few days after your period stopping until 3 days after your peak ovulation test. Again, you'll see some variety in this and what people's preferences are but this is a good basic idea to aim for.

There are all sorts of videos on YouTube that'll tell you more, and just browsing the TTC forum will give you lots of info too! Good luck 😊

For the first few months we’re sticking with NHS advice which is every 2-3 days. I’ve got Flo app for tracking, but haven’t used ovulation tests yet. Really trying to not get obsessed by tracking! Taking vitamin D and folic acid