Did you go into ttc expecting to get pregnant quick?

[Timbits007]

I’m just wondering, how many people actually started their trying to conceive journey and expected to be pregnant within a short amount of time?

Did you expect it to happen within a month or two? Did it take longer than you expected?

Or did you go into it expecting it to take out to a year and was quite chill about it not happening early on?

Quite the opposite. Was expecting / hoping it would happen within a year, all things going well.

Got pregnant first month of trying and felt quite shocked when I got that positive test (which sounds stupid now!)

That is brilliant congratulations!!

I feel a bit silly, really. We are so early days. We are currently heading into month four of trying to conceive our second and probably very naively expected to get pregnant fast.

First pregnancy was one month ended in miscarriage
Second pregnancy was one month ended in twin miscarriage
Third pregnancy was one month and now have a three-year-old son

All in took about a year. I’m a bit older now but still relatively young.

Everywhere I see says can take up to 12 months for a normal healthy couple with no infertility issues. So I don’t know why I put so much pressure on myself or I’m so upset that it hasn’t happened within a few months

I went into it expecting it to take three or four months, didn't cope well emotionally from about month 4 when I started fearing the worst, even though I know it's normal for it to take up to a year.
Now 21 months in (about 27 cycles) and recently started IVF.
I wish more people talked about how it can be tricky managing your emotions even during that first year. When you're not classed as infertile yet but it still isn't happening.
I also wish I'd just chilled the heck out and not become so down and obsessed with it all, so quickly. If I was going to need IVF, I was going to need it, there was no point worrying about that from so early on and 'wasting' so much of my life being sad! But it's hard not to get down about it.

(should say 25 cycles sorry. My cycles are quite short).

First pregnancy, definitely not. I thought it would be maybe 3/4 months. Worked first time and I was surprised.

That trend persisted in the next couple pregnancies, but it wasn't any less shocking or surprising as the first time.

I thought it would take more like 3 months, as that's what you tend to hear. I've concieved 4 times on the first cycle, 1 time on the 3rd cycle (was still breastfeeding during the first 2 cycles so I think it stopped me!). Unfortunately I've had 2 MCs and 1 chemical pregnancy.

Me, I expected to get pregnant pretty quickly. I don’t know why as I had been on the pill for 13yes. My cycles were so long when I came off it anything from 34-58 days. So it took 10 months to get pregnant and that was about 7 cycles for me. I was not chill, I was starting to get quite worried.

Second time I expected similar but got pregnant very quickly.

I was certain I'd get pregnant the first time we tried (ha!).
My period was a day late and when I went to test, it suddenly started. I was so sure I had to be pregnant I still took the test, as I figured it must have been the implantation bleed I'd read about. Of course, it was a negative test.

I fell pregnant the 4th month.

I find the messaging about "one year" lquite interesting.

A couple in their early 30s or younger, with no fertility issues, who are having sex with appropriate timing i.e. near ovulation, have a reasonably high chance of conceiving in a given month. Estimates vary but normally around 25-30%.

This actually scales up really fast for the subsequent months in a way that is not mathematically intuitive for most people. Basically in month 1 you have a 75% chance of NOT being pregnant. In month 2 you have 75% x 75% = 56% chance of NOT being pregnant, i.e. 44% chance you are.

Writing it out:
After x months -- Chance of being pregnant
1 -- 25%
2 -- 44%
3 -- 58%
6 -- 82%
9 -- 93%
12 -- 97%

I think most people hear "it takes healthy couples up to a year" and think the 50/50 mark is probably around 6 months then. But it is very front loaded (which is also why you hear about so many people conceiving in the first couple months) and people kind of have an instinct about it. I think this contributes to feelings like @Klmno mentioned where you feel something is wrong after 4/5/6 months but you have to sort of wait out this "clock" of 1 year.

1st baby first month 2nd baby 3 weeks after first baby born 3rd n 4th babies 6 weeks after 2nd baby was born....that's my under 5s from age 39 and im now 41 however I have teenagers aswell and can't remember those lol but never actively tried or not tried.Its different for everyone, my sister took 2 years then she had 2 in 2 consecutive years

I went into it thinking it would take a couple of months…it took 13 months first time round and 9 months second time round! I have very irregular cycles though so both times it was only 4 or 5 cycles worth so not too bad really. Felt like it was never going to happen at the time though!

I didn’t necessarily expect to catch first try but within a few months was my expectation with my first. It took 18 ish months, so second time around I braced myself for similar, thinking that was quite bad enough thank you very much. It took 2.5 years 🤦🏼‍♀️

Yes, I was naive and slightly entitled and expected that I would get pregnant straight away. It took me eight months to get pregnant and I was really panicking and obsessing over it for the first few months. Then by month 7 I gave up stressing about it as I just wanted to get on with enjoying my life then as cliche as it sounds I fell pregnant.

First time, I expected not to be able to conceive naturally due to long cycles - and had a chemical pregnancy second cycle and pregnant with my now DS third cycle.

Started TTC again in May this year and tbh thought it would take max 3 months! I got my BFP after fifth cycle (but that's over 6-7 months because of my long cycles). So my headspace both times was completely different, but I would definitely say the advice to relax is rubbish as both months I conceived I was so stressed about it and it was all I was thinking about!

Thank you for this.

I just got my bfp at the end of 3 months ttc,

I thought it would take about 6 months. In the end it took:
1st - 2.5 years
2nd - 6 months
3rd - 9 months
4th - 6 months
5th - 3 months
None of which have unfortunately resulted in us having a live child. Hoping to maybe get one late 2026 or 2027 at this stage.

We totally expected I’d be pregnant within a few weeks of me coming off the pill. It actually took much longer, about 9 months.

The second time, I was pregnant as soon as I came off the pill.

I think I went into it thinking a month or two, based on friends, but also thinking it could take up to a year.

I wasn’t expecting to still be TTC 2.5 years on with no lines at all in that time!

I was a little naive, I didn’t necessarily think we would fall pregnant on the first cycle but I was expecting it to maybe take 3-4 months.

I'm not sure how I would have felt, knowing it would actually take 4 years.

I fell pregnant first month of trying every time. Unfortunately, however, numerous of these early pregnancies ended in miscarriage. I was subsequently diagnosed with hyperfertility which wasn't great. I am very grateful for my three kids though and husband has now had a vasectomy to avoid further issues.

I thought it was mainly older people who struggled and aged 22 it would be a piece of cake. 7 cycles ttc and then i miscarried at 12 weeks. I was devastated. 4 cycles later i was pregnant with ds1. I thought it would be similar for ds2 and so we started ttc just after ds1's first birthday. Ds2 was born 9 months later!

Young and naive; first night, 2nd while breastfeeding at 4 months, 3rd with IUD in place at 4 months.
Three under 3

We agreed we'd try for six months (dh was broody, I wasn't). I went into it assuming it would take longer than that as I was almost 37, in fact I thought it was unlikely in the time frame. Six weeks into that six months I started feeling very sick on the way to work.

Dc2 took slightly longer. 4 months of trying a bit and she was conceived the 1st month of charting ovulation (5th month overall). Given my age (40), I think we were very lucky tbh.

I think a lot of us do, thanks to the awful sex education that we receive when we’re at school. I also really didn’t expect myself to spiral quite so quickly when it didn’t happen straight away, I think I had hoped it would take a few months for me to start worrying but from cycle 2 the anxiety pretty much kicked in.

That's very true. All those years of being told you can get pregnant on your period, there is no safe time, that you don't even need to have sex and that it only takes once. Then when you actually start trying it's harder than you thought.