TTC for fabulous 40+

[xserialshopper]

I've decided to start the new thread

Anyone coming to join me?

Thanks Cece. I'm on cd 32 now so I'll wait until probably next week Saurday to test again (says me - who has about 6 cheapie ebay preggi tests left and 5 Clearblue)if af doesn't arrive. At least the crampy feelings have stopped now.

Fertility Friend what EPO dosage do you take? And do you take it everyday? I would love my hair and skin to look better than they do now

How's everyone else?

xserial - oooh that would be very restrained INDEED to wait till next Saturday, I certainly couldn't do it! Fingers crossed for you.

I think I'll start testing 10 dpo (or maybe 9, which is tomorrow... but then I've got lots of cheap ebay ones just taking up SO much room in my drawer).

Re the EPO, I'm taking 2000mg (containing 200mg GLA) from CD 1 to Ov, then halving that post Ov. Actually I think there are some (vague) recommendations on some sites that you shouldn't take it at all post Ov as it could potentially increase cramps. I know I was taking it every day last time I got pg though as I remember asking the doctor whether I should stop. She said she had no idea but that I probably should to be on the safe side (hedging her bets of course!).

Cece you mentioned about the B6 - was it really 50mg a day? My multivit tablets say they only have 2mg in, as do the B complex ones, so I'm currently taking a puny total of 4mg!

Hi all,
ooo Xserial - that sounds like an interesting development. I really hope, hope, hope it is something at last!!! Big fingers crossed (not that my fingers are very big).
Fiend I bought some 100mg b6 tablets on ebay, and find that if I take them after Ov, that I feel more human and don't get much in the way of pms.
Re the epo I don't take it after ov because it makes me feel funny. Don't like taking much agnus castus before ov, again makes me feel funny. It just goes to show how much hormones affect your mood, if they go a bit out of kilter it does make quite a difference.

Forgot to mention, AF arrived yesterday. So it's cd2 for me.
Not really a surprise, but will actually TTC this month. Last month was, kind of, a month off, which was most welcome.

Sorry to hear about AF Rowing. But you sound purposeful - here's to a productive month ahead!!

Not feeling at all positive myself today - temp has plummeted on day 9 DPO and woke up with strong AF cramps which is my usual pre-menstrual pattern (AF due on day 12 dpo).

Also - looking at my chart I'm now convinced we peaked too early on the BD as we stopped the day before Ov (having had a busy week leading up to it). Grr.

Has anyone heard of the Deanna plan? Have googled it and come up with this:

"Short Version:

• "Try" every other night starting Day 8
• Buy 10 ovulation predictor kit sticks
• Begin ovulation testing on Day 10
• When test is positive, "try" that night, plus two additional nights in a row
• Skip one night, then do one last "try"
• Take a home pregnancy test 15 days after your ovulation test was positive, if your period has not begun
• If your ovulation test never goes positive, continue "trying" every other night until Day 35, then do a pregnancy test if your period has not begun. Statistics coming in from the bulletin board show that about 40% of post-miscarriage women will get pregnant on the first try if they are faithful to the plan, about double the number of the normal population who are not on the plan. This assumes, of course, that you waited for a normal cycle to begin after your loss, and did not begin trying before having a period after a miscarriage. Many women do not ovulate in that first cycle."

There's more info on this page if anyone's interested:
Here

Have also been reading up about B6 and luteal phases and will give that a go next month I think - might as well eh?

Wrote long post and lost it. Booo

EPO - I read take normal dose day 1 to day 6. Have also read day 1 to OV and not beyond.

Currently Day 16 and have managed to BD days 12,13,14,15 and about to do day 16!

Taking Royal Jelly so at least hoping for better skin and hair and no colds over the winter if no pregnancy!

Sorry to hear about AF Rowing.

Hope you're ok RFL. Been thinking about you xx

Thanks for that FF about the EPO

Rowing here's hoping for this cycle

I've read the Deanna Plan - but I must admit I just feel tired just reading it

Juicy Yay! Fantastic bding

Gem2mum how's things?

I'm way toooo crampy (on and off) to be preggi. Infact I'm 99.9999999999999999% sure I'm not. I find it to disheartening to test and then get a negative so I might not even test next saturday if af doesn't turn up (well - not with my CBs anyway - maybe with my cheapies)

Sterling effort on the BDing Juicy

Xserial - sorry if you've heard all this before and not meaning to give false hope etc etc but cramping on its own isn't necessarily a bad sign. I had loads in the first few weeks of being pg and from what I've read it's fairly common. Are you temping?

No - unfortunatley I'm not temping. I think life would be so much easier if I were but my ds likes to get up early - plus I wake up at the slightest noise he makes during the night ( I suppose NO I DONT would do)

Hello all,

Can I join please, TTC second, DS is four and a half (people almost given up asking if we're having another). DH has rubbish swimmers, I had early MC last year. Now we're living abroad so I really miss support from friends (though most of them have new babies or are PG just now .

hello and welcome gonepearshaped (good name); you'll get plenty of support on here, but it must be hard being far away.

I think I'm about a week behind most of you ladies, on CD 20 (I actually had to look it up!) and cycle is usually about 28 days. I do temp, but not after I've confirmed ovulation - it just seems such a crappy way to find out that you're probably not pg - i.e. before you've even had a cup of tea!

I take vit B complex (Kelkin) all the way through, and extra Vit E and selenium until mid-cycle (This is the Marilyn Gleeson plan). Don't know if it makes any difference (hasn't so far), also have acupuncture (ditto) which I like. But I can't claim that anything I've done has magically improved my fertility as I am still not pg!!!

Welcome gps

I take (now) royal jelly, pregnacare (coz I had loads left over) and cod liver oil, but also coz of rheumatism (sp). NO idea if ANY of it helps.

Reducing alc is going badly to say the least... I'll leave it at that.

Still hopefull for you Rhet x

I took 5 tablets per day as they were 10 mg each. (Vit b6 btw!)

hi xserial
i am fine how are you? i was lurking but have not done so for awhile now. just way too knackered. i am back to falling asleep at 7pm!

i am now 28+4 and have booked a 4D scan for fri next week. i am quite excited

where are you in your cycle now? i am completely out of the loop!

Hi gonepearshaped

I wouldn't worry too much about the booze Juicy, it's not exactly a well-known contraceptive is it?!

Good luck with the scan Heron

Thanks for the info on B6 folks, am deffo giving that a try this time.

Bloody (ha ha) AF started this afternoon. Although I was expecting it, was a bit thrown by the fact that it was today, as my what-seemed-to-be-regular 11 day luteal phase has suddenly decreased to 9 Am now wondering if that can be explained by a CP? (If not then the AC has been spectacularly ineffective this time.) Was BFN this morning (ebay cheapy) but only 10dpo. Am painfully crampy, spotty, hungry and irritable - frigging hormones.

AND it has rained non-stop all day!!!!!!

ff boo sucks to AF sorry.

You should indulge yourself now that AF is here, wine always helps in this house...

Thanks Rhet. Am doing my best to indulge - two pieces of toast, two mini mars bars and half a glass of red under my belt so far this afternoon... off to sink the other half-glass now so I can have a large refill

Am seriously hungover today. No excuse. Pure excess. Now on alcohol detox (again) and 2ww. Opertune timing!

Heron - 28 weeks - where has the time gone

Thanks for the welcomes . Am sitting here looking at yet another neg opk on cd 17. Going to Germany for a week tomorr so will OV in splendid isolation (if at all). Am beginning to wonder if hormones have gone wonky. Last year I had one utterly dire fhs test then two perfectly fine full hormone profiles. GP said I was past it then specialist said all well, just wondering if anyone else has been in same boat? Also any clues how to say I want some Clomid in Italian?

Hi GPS and welcome. Sorry that ov hasn't come at a more convenient time!

As for me BOO HISS af found me at last 35 days since she las left!!

Oh well - here we go again................

Hi can I join in. Have just turned 44 a couple of days ago and TTC 12 months after MC at 12 wks last Oct. Luckily have 2 DS from previous marriage, but really want to merge the old gene pool with very DH.

Had a horrible month this month with AF 21 days late - so obviously was unbelievably hopeful/anxious, but anyway it didn't work out.

But the good thing was it got me to the dr who did a hormone assay and when I got the results this morning, he told me YAY!!! I have the hormone profile of a 25 yr old!!! So I am now really full of hope.

But still the fact is it is now 12 months. So what am I doing wrong? Any tips on improving my chances desperately welcome.

Thanks!!

Hi Grownup, of course you can join - this thread has been quite lucky recently.
Xserial - rubbbbbbbisssssssssssh! That's so poo, I really thought this was finally it! Sorry!
Are you still taking clomid? I know that can change your cycle length. Agnus castus changed mine when I took larger quantities, but last cycle I ended up taking 400mg x2 once am and once pm. My cycle was exactly 28 days.
This month we will have another crack at TTC.
We are really deliberating about whether to go abroad for the treatment now, mainly because of the logistics. It would be much easier to do it here in the UK even though they only transfer two embryos. I'm not sure about taking DS out of nursery for two weeks at a rubbish time of year. I don't really want to spend a week or more on my own if we don't take DS. Part of the issue is my concern about the type of accommodation we could afford and how suitable it would be for a child.
At least if I do it here I can fit it around work and then take a holiday afterwards or something.
Waaah!
I just want to make a decision now, but it's too difficult.
Sorry for droning on.

xserial - so sorry about AF what a complete drag. Have you had long cycles before?

Juicy - hope you're feeling better today, hangovers are the pits aren't they

GPS - bummer about being away. Sorry don't know much about FHS levels, but hopefully is reassuring for the specialist to say all's well. Re the opk's, are you getting any lines at all, and are you testing twice a day? Just a thought because it seems to be quite common for the surge to be so quick that you miss it on a test.

Hi grownupbabes - saw your other thread. Did the doctor have any ideas as to why AF was so late? Great news about the hormone levels though. Would it be worth your DH being tested too? Re advice, I'm giving lots of things a go but not having much luck so prob not the best person to ask! I have found charting to be very helpful in pinning down fertile times etc, though it took a few weeks to get my head round the temperature-taking side of it.

Rowing - does sound as though the UK treatment would be logistically much less stressful, have you found somewhere suitable?

It was interesting what you said about feeling rubbish on AC as I'm sure my pms was much worse than usual and my grim mood has carried on even though AF has started, which isn't really like me.

Not sure what to do about the supplements this month - have tentatively taken one AC capsule this morning, but as luteal phase actually shortened last month I'm not sure about carrying on. But then again it may have had nothing to do with the AC, and the AC is supposed to take about 3 months to work... I don't know. Have started on 50mg B6 anyway.

Hi everyone, and especially Fiend... thanks for your messages on my other thread.

Dr thought AF simply so late because missed ov due to extreme stress at work last month (this does NOT surprise me...). Everything else perfect apparently, which is FAB news. Ihave been too scared to be checked until now, in case dr thought I was ridiculous at my advanced age. But circumstances forced my hand - and I am overjoyed at good news. Apparently time not running out after all!

As for DH, yes maybe he should be checked out - but then I ask myself, if the problem is with him is there anything that can be done? If not, is it actually worth the anxiety, or is it just to provide closure. But we have had 2 MC and he has 2 previous DD (though they were slow in coming), so clearly he has some of what it takes! But maybe not enough, not swimmy enough, or what??? I am new to understanding all of this.

So looking around at various advice, and not understanding it all can anyone fill me in on the mysteries of

1. grapefruit????
2. natural progesterone cream
3. proseed
4. any other vital stuff I am missing to "make it happen"

Thanks!

Additional possible extras:

1. Guafanesin Cough med from day 1 to OV (increased CM)
2. Royal Jelly vials - I'm doing them, but not everyone does it (general fertility)
3. Evening Primrose Oil - also day 1 to day 6 or later (also increased CM)
4. Cod liver oil - not sure why
5. Bum in the air for 20mins after bding

Some recommend Bding every 2 days around OV. Not following that personally, but may help to improve the quality of swimmers.

Grapefruit juice is to increase CM and help the little swimmers.
Proseed is about CM too - isn't it?

Sorry that's all I can think of now - Sure other's will know better.