TTC number 3 aged 42

[FiB83]

Hi

Not really sure what I'm looking for here but if nothing else I'll use this as a diary of my feelings etc. I joined a chat years ago for my first pregnancy and am still friends with some of those lovely ladies so hoping to find some people who are on their TTC journey and we can share experiences l.

As the title suggests I'm 42, I have two beautiful children aged 7 and 9, we decided to try for another baby a year or so again, I needed to lose some weight so did that although I'm still overweight according to my BMI but you know how it is... I'm fairly average at a size 14-16. I still have very regular cycles and don't believe I'm anywhere near the menopause yet....

Anyways, I'm 9dpo I think, I don't do opk or anything like that, tried one month but didn't enjoy feeling obsessed over it and it didn't work anyway..I feel I know my body quite well and am aware of the signs of when I'm ovulating if I am. With our first child it took a good 2 years with one chemical pregnancy in that time before.ewe actually got our baby. With our second child...well we thought about trying and then I was pregnant... Amazing how that happens isn't it!?

So here I am, 9dpo and with virtually no discharge at all. 2 days ago I had a huge amount of white cm that was abit stretchy. I've had a headache on and off and been soooo unbelievably emotional. This isn't normal for me but we are going through quite a bit with our youngest and other normal life events so may be that I suppose. I've had sore breasts and I swear they are bigger if that is even possible!.maybe just very slight cramps over the past couple of days but that maybe only.when I'm thinking about it...

Anyone else at this stage and fancy a buddy to compare notes? I'd love to chat.

The best supplements are:

• Co-enzyme q10 600mg (200mg three times a day with food). Expensive but there are multibuy offers.
• Vitamin D
• Omega 3
• General conception multivitamin

Partners must take something with antioxidants like selenium and avoid alcohol. Wellman Conception is fine. Regular ejaculation before fertility week will help clear out DNA fragmentation.

Walking a lot and avoiding sugar and simple carbs if even slightly insulin resistant also recommended.

All of the above can help with egg and sperm health necessary for embryo progression but success is still reliant on the lucky dip of whether the egg selected for ovulation happens to be chromosomally normal a particular month. This happens on average two or three times a year at 42.

Thanks for this it's really helpful! All we can do is hope and keep trying I suppose

I had my follicle scan today - 3 ready to go and my lining looked good so feeling quite positive. Hope everyone else is doing ok!

How exciting! What happens next?

@FiB83 just dtd as normal and hope for the best! So I ovulated on cd 12 (today) and DTD on cd 8, cd 10 (evening) and cd 12 (morning) which is spot on in terms of timing. Could go again tonight but DH probably exhausted after I woke him up at 6am today 🤣. I start my medication tomorrow and will test at 10dpo.

@BurningOutt oh that’s very exciting🥰 wishing u all the best now. Do they do a scan to confirm ovulation so u know exact day? I would love that, hate all the uncertainty around it!

how is everyone doing? I kinda switched off from it all for the past week, day 7 now so just thinking ahead for starting opks in next few days

@DmcinT yes I had a scan to see how my ovaries were looking and then because the follicles were the right size/uterus lining looked good, I had a trigger injection to make me ovulate in 36-48 hours, so can time the window quite accurately.

At my age the chance of conceiving per cycle is about 10%, but I’ve boosted it to 35% by doing this.

sorry if you’ve already said but what age are u if u don’t mind me asking. Did ur dr just offer that or how did it work to get?

into the tww for u now, have you anything coming up to help with distracting?

@DmcinT I’m 39, a bit younger than the thread title, but I’ve had recurrent miscarriages due to an autoimmune condition (x5) and then also because of bad luck/my age (x2). I have 2 kids so have been pregnant 9 times.

I’ve never had any issues conceiving but I need to time my medication with ovulation exactly (if too early it stops me ovulating, if too late my body attacks the pregnancy so I mc) so that’s why I have the ovulation induction. I’m treated privately as NHS don’t believe my condition exists! I think some fertility clinics will offer it (sometimes called superovulation) as a precursor to IVF.

@BurningOutt im so sorry you’ve been through that and for ur losses, that’s tough going physically, emotionally, mentally! I’ve everything crossed for you that this is your month ❤️
I’m turning 41 in April and praying I get my BFP before that 😭 I never thought when we started trying that I’d still be here at this stage! I’d envisioned being well on by my birthday

@BurningOutt I didn't even know this was a thing! How did you get this treatment? I'm now 8dpo and we have dtd twice so far but I'm not yet in my fertile window. I've had 2 x CS and since my second have always had brown spotting at 7/8dpo no fresh bleeding though. Anyways I'm not in any pain and did have some scan years ago to check nothing untoward but all was ok then. Maybe I can get this treatment privately, what is it called? It is this the superovulation?

Hi @FiB83 ive explained the background above - it’s prescribed privately by a consultant to time my medication for recurrent mcs, but I believe other fertility clinics offer it for other reasons. It’s called ovulation induction/superovulation.

@BurningOutt thanks! I'm definitely going to look into this for next month or so...

How’s everyone, I Started testing today… here we go again!!

How did you get on @DmcinT? what dpo are you? I’m 5dpo so too early even to symptom spot!

@BurningOutt oh sorry I mean opk testing, I’m cycle day 12 so prob be positive over the weekend 🤞🏽
how u feeling for this cycle?

@DmcinT ohhh I see! Weekend is a good time for a positive ovulation test!

I feel quite optimistic for this cycle, but it’s only cycle 1 so highly unlikely will get lucky first time 🤣

@BurningOutt its funny because u would think that but actually during the week is easier for us as we have childcare for our LO so can do a quick dtd after work before collecting her where as at the weekend she’s obvs with us all the time so harder to get the time 😂 but we will manage 🤞🏽

I didn’t get peak until day 16 last month though so who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

also u never know on first time round, the only 2 times I’ve been pregnant were on first time trying 🤞🏽❤️

Thanks @DmcinT yeah the only time I haven’t conceived first cycle was with my DD, who was cycle 3 back in 2020. All my very many mcs have been first try but I’m quite a bit older now.

It is difficult fitting it in with small kids! This cycle we had to squeeze in a v early morning one and tbh I didn’t enjoy it v much as was worried the kids would wake up!

@BurningOuttfingers crossed for you! Will you test early or wait it out?

@DmcinTi am cd12 too. I am not doing any testing or tracking this month and we are just dtd every other day until cd20. DH hates the pressure of knowing it’s the ovulation day so it lacks romance! 🙈😂
it is tricky with the kids around. We are both exhausted if we leave it to the evening too.

@FlapJackered I will test at 10dpo and 11dpo and if no bfp by then have to stop my medication. So not that long to wait but it is dragging! In previous pregnancies I’ve always had faint lines at 10 and clear at 11.

Good luck to you for this cycle!

Hi all! Sorry I've been at work today and forgot to check this page, just caught up on all the comments! @FlapJackered @DmcinT I think we are all very close I am cd12 today as well..hubby is on a right mission and I don't think I'm ovulating yet! @BurningOutt how are you feeling and when can you start testing?

It is so difficult with the kiddos around, not so much our youngest but our older daughter who is 9 has been reading her book all about becoming a pre teen... She understands quite a bit and has plenty of questions! Hubby isn't so comfortable with that but I'm ok with it, probably because she's a girl and I'm also a midwife so that helps a bit
No awkward chats

Hey 👋 can I join?

@BurningOuttreached out to me on another thread!
Have read through a little...sending love to everyone that has struggled for so long and had losses along the way. This is truly the most heartbreaking, relentless journey.

Im 39 in May. Have a little boy that turned 2 in November just gone. We concieved him first try!
Have been trying for baby 2...well just going into cycle 17 now as got my period yesterday. We had 2 early losses cycles 3&4...nothing since. All tests have come back fine. HyCoSy clear. Blood tests good. The only thing we did find is my partners sperm DNA fragmentation came back at 19% which is slightly higher than ideal. But I think it only becomes a real issue at about 25-30% higher. Both of us taking alllll the supplements. Minimal caffeine, not drinking, eating well and cutting back on upf. Exercise too.

Like yourself @BurningOutti have just finished 2 rounds of superovulation to boost my chances of concieveing. However i was so unhappy with the clinic, and my body didnt respond in the best way. Their information was misleading and incorrect so I decided not to continue and felt like ive wasted alot of money.
Right now I just need to give my body a break, before we decide on IVF. Which will probably be abroad. But right now everything feels a little suffocating in the ttc world x

Hi @ChaE05 sorry to hear this - what medication were you on/what was the dosage/your response? I have a love-hate relationship with my clinic - dread going there as have bad memories from mcs even though they helped me to have 2 healthy kids - and I do feel they use any excuse to charge me. It is horrible.

Fwiw I’m on Letrozole 7.5mg and it works well - I had 3 mature follicles this month and lining was 9 on cd10 which was pretty textbook. I’ve posted this elsewhere but I’ve been interrogating ChatGPT about it and apparently it’s boosted my chances this cycle from 10% (average for someone my age - turned 39 in Feb) to 35% (average for someone in their 20s), so I think it can work well if you have the right dose/monitoring etc. have you had your thyroid checked?

@BurningOuttyes thyroid all fine.
Glad youve had a good round of superovulaton. 3 follicles is great. Are you in your tww?

So my first round i dad 4 follices. The biggest was 21.8. The other 3 were 17.6, 15.6, 14.6. Lining was 8.1 on cycle day 13. This was a thursday. She wanted me to trigger on the Sunday based on the smaller follicles but advised me to have intercourse incase that large one erupted. Anyway by Thursday evening I had a positive OPK. I emailed the clinic and they told me to continue with the plan and trigger Sunday! I felt ovulation happening friday night. After many conversations with chatgpt I realised that triggering after my body naturally ovulated... was completely pointless !

The cycle just gone I had a 30mm 'cyst' which she said whe was ignoring. The next size was 17.8 and 15.6. Again she wanted me to trigger in 3 days time and again my body went into natural ovulation!! Which i think may have been the 30mm cyst/follice. Sooo many back and forward emails (once the clinic actually replied) and I could not get an answer for them as to why they were making me trigger 3 days after I ovulated.
Told them I wasnt going to continue when there is so much confusion and alot of money. They more or less said we understand and here if you need us. Very disappointed xx