Secrets to success!

[WishingIWasLucky]

As I've been ttc with no joy for many moons, I would love to hear straight from the horses' mouth: HOW DID YOU HIT GOLD? please share any/all supplements taken? Used OPKs to great effect or not? Seem to have exhausted all avenues. Medically both fit. No bad habits. Healthy bmis, me 35, him 38. TIA X

I read Toni Weschler's Taking Control of Your Fertility. Highly recommend if you haven't read. It is fascinating and informative.

We know far more about how not to get pregnant than getting pregnant and this book corrected the imbalance for me and took me way beyond a vague understanding that sperm must meet egg!

Good luck. I hope you get your BFP soon.

Thankyou so much. Will take all advice on board! Am absolutely certain that it will never happen for us due to past form. Hoping and praying that I'm proved wrong.

We took a month off and had sex as much as we wanted, twice a day, leave it for longer if we wanted and got pregnant! I took my folic acid sporadically also as I didn't think I needed it.
I had bought a CBFM for the next month and haven't got to use it! I also bought some new clothes that wouldn't fit if I got pg the same month.

Congratulations purple! It IS easier said than done though...the relaxing. It's sooo hard. At the moment it's all consuming. Need to chill a bit methinks x

Went on holiday! after trying with no success for 2yrs (long enough that had started being investigated for fertility probs, - also told nothing obviously wrong, we are similar ages to you). first hol in several years for just the two of us, relaxed loads, no mobile phone calls from annoying family, switched off from stressful jobs, etc, stopped thinking about sex for conception, and just had lots of sex! Don't think it was the hol, so much as the stress reduction (my opinion re the stress - no medical proof on this!). Had been taking folic acid ever since started trying, so can't claim that helped. Best of luck.

OPKs did it for us - discovered I ovulate day 17 of a 28 day cycle (not day 14 as per the text books).
So, made sure we had sex days 13, 15 & 17 (then didnt bother for rest of month after that unless we fancied it). Has worked 1st time with all 3 babies.

Have a friend who swears by taking vitamins & getting her husband to also.... they had 2 early miscarraiges in quick succession, so they took 3 months off TTC, had fun, took vits, conceived 1st time once they restarted trying & now have a gorgeous 9month old.

GOod luck!

Roseum: thanks for the advice. Can COMPLETELY relate to the work and family stress. Also been ttc for roughly the same time as you did. We did fall pregnant in Feb, but had a miscarriage at 8.5 weeks. Been trying ever since with not a whiff of a bun! Congratulations on your pregnancy. Will try and arrange something for next year. Thankyou.

do you mean 25 and 28 BMIs??

With me it was temping, lots of sex around ovulation, orgasm after sex and pillow under the hips afterwards, lying still for a few mins.

DS 7.5m is the result!

Thanks for that icravecheese. My cycle has been a regular 28 day one. Last two turned into 27 day cycles, and thus period came after25 days?! Got me worried that I may be entering early menopause or something.

Moules- congratulations! My BMI is 23, his is 21. I'm 35 yrs old, he's 38. With my irregular cycles at the mo I think ovulation is gonna be quite difficult to pinpoint?!

Another vote here for preseed and both of you taking daily vitamins, the vitamins that are needed for healthy sperm production take 3 months to take effect and 4 months after DH started taking them (and 1st month we used preseed) we got pregnant after 3.5yrs of trying. Another vote also for relaxing but it is so, so hard. We've both commented on how much more enjoyable sex is since we've been pregnant, that pressure to conceive has now gone. Good luck x

After being told for 10 years it would never happen naturally, I had a laparoscopy in November last year to solve some pain issues with endometriosis and adhesions and they decided to drill my ovaries at the same time. DP and I weren't actually "trying" when I fell pg as my cycles varied between 38-70 days (even post-op) and I put my pregnancy down to us accepting it and trying to move on. The not trying and just relaxing did it for us I think!!!

Advice that (seemingly) worked for me was not necessarily having sex everyday, but as long as ur having sex every 3 days or so it will happen if it's going to. I also found ovulation sticks absolutely useless and unhelpful; I used them for 4 months constantly but never once got a positive result (cue total panic). But soon after I gave up on them and stopped stressing I got pregnant.
I feel your frustration Wishing, wishing u luck.

We tried half heartedly for about seven months - I fell pregnant and then miscarried at 11 weeks. Decided to ttc straight away and used Clear Blue Ovulation Pee on a Stick - I was amazed that I ovulated about 4 days different in two cycles - lots of sex and fell on my second cycle after my mc. I also had accupuncture. Now 31 weeks and I'm 40 btw. Good luck - but do try OPKs if you haven't - it is pressurised having to have sex to order, but it does seem to work!

WishingIWasLucky: really sorry to hear about the miscarriage, I'm so sorry.

I think that stress can be an inhibitor to pregnancy, though i know not for everyone - cousin got p/g when very stressed). I found everyone asking when we were going to start a family pretty hard to take, since I didn't want to discuss that we were having problems - though when i did relax and just tell people openly we were having problems, I got p/g fairly shortly after (I'm sure a coincidence, but maybe bottling it all up and feeling ashamed to talk about it was another underlying stress-source).
I forgot to say that i did (earlier on) track my cycle by taking basal temperature every morning - so knew that I shouldn't fixate on the 14th day (long and varying cycle). Knowing roughly when I was most likely to be fertile also meant that I did (sneakily) figure out when was a good time to be going on holiday re fertility, but didn't mention that bit to DH as didn't want him to get performance anxiety or something! But then I put the appropriate times well out of my mind, and just enjoyed the holiday!

Have you tried the website Fertility Friend? It really helped me to keep track of my cycles and likely ovulation as my periods went completely out of whack as soon as I came off the pill and we started TTC. i can also second the recommendation for Preseed.

I tried fertility acupuncture and it did help calm down some other symptoms I had (bloating, pain around abdomen, PMT) but can't recommend it in terms of conceiving. I did get pregnant while having acupuncture but that ended as an MMC at 11 weeks.

Stress is a big factor, I think. After the MMC (Aug 2010), we stopped obsessing so much and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves (while keeping an eye on the calendar just in case) and I got pregnant in Jan 2011... 37 weeks and counting now... nearly there!

Thanks guys. You've all been so helpful and supportive. I will certainly try and implement as many of your suggestions as I can. Please keep those fingers crossed for us. Beginning to lose faith in us I guess. Please God, if we get our much wanted BFP then will definitely keep you posted. On cd3 today. This cycle monitoring is a stressful factor in itself! X

And congratulations on your pregnancies. Wishing you happy healthy pregnancies and easy labours with lovely bouncing babies at the end! Much love x

we made sure we had sex at least every other day and that was about it, it was the only month that we actually stuck with it and lo and behold, turns out that I must ovulate late on because my early scan dated me a week and two days earlier than I thought