Getting pregnant after 35

[rosanova]

For those who had their babies after 35 how long did it take?

Does fertility decrease dramatically after 35 or is the risk overblown and mostly media scaremongering?

I imagine it varies a lot. I conceived dc1 my first cycle. He was born when I was 37. I conceived dc2 on cycle five at 40. I come from a family where lots of women have had babies into their early and mid forties with zero issues (Catholic).

The problem is, you have no idea where you will fall until you try.

I was 33 and 36 when I got pregnant. Both times it was in the first month of trying.

I conceived at 40, baby born at 41. DH was 45 at conception, 46 at birth.

It took less than a year, and that was only occasional sex and no tracking of cycles (it was a crazy year having a house built- we had sex only 2-3 times a month).
I think if we’d but some effort in it could have been much sooner.

2nd month of trying. I'm 37.

Hi, I am 39 due to give birth a few weeks before my 40th - it took us about 5 months of unprotected sex, for the last three of those I did use the Ovulation kits (the Clear Blue pink kit I found far easier than the blue one - the blue sort of gives you too many days of choice to do the deed I found!) so we were very lucky. I did have very regular cycles though, periods every 26-31 days - however really found the ovulation kits useful as some months I might ovulate on day 13, others day 16 etc. so that really can make you miss the already small window if you just assume you'd be bang on day 14 of a 28 day cycle, that's not necessarily the case! Also, gross as it sounds, a friend recommended the best day to have sex was when you were a bit 'jelly like' down there, and that did work for the time we conceived! I did also stick my legs in the air for 15 minutes but I'm sure that's just an old wives' tale and was a coincidence that it was the time we conceived too haha

I gave birth to my 1st at age 35, only took 2 cycles. My second was conceived when the first was only 4 months old...oops. Baby number number 3 was when I was 38 after a couple of cycles and I'm currently pregnant with number 4, age 39 after having my tubes cut and tied so as a pp said, it really does depend!!

I think it depends a lot from person to person, but no, IME your fertility doesn't just drop off a cliff at 35 - it's a very gradual decrease and many women still conceive without too many problems at 40, 41 or 42. After that, I think it gets harder.

As for me, I got pregnant the first month of trying at 33 and had DS1. Got pregnant again the second month of trying at 36, then miscarried at 11 weeks. Got pregnant again six weeks later and the result is DS2.

It does vary and I agree there's so much scaremongering that your fertility will sudden 'drop off a cliff' after 35 which is simply not true. Yes it declines but fairly evenly.
I am pregnant now and will be 38 soon, I got pregnant on the first month of trying but I also did in my twenties with DS1. So your history and genetics obviously come into play.

One anecdotal thing I will say is that I have always always eaten and drunk full fat dairy - yogurts, milk etc. I've never had reduced fat versions of them and there is some evidence now that reduced fat dairy stops ovulation where as full fat dairy supports it.

Got my BFP the day before my 35th birthday. It was our second month TTC and I have PCOS.

I'm 35 now and 34 Weeks pregnant, it took us just over a year to conceive - I don't know if it was age related or not but we had no other health issues or concerns so I can only presume it was..

10 cycles for me, had 35th birthday inbetween.

The cycle I got my BFP I took Ubiquinol between ovulation cycle 9 and ovulation cycle 10. Just to give my eggys I little boost

I'm 38. We were "not preventing it" for a while. When we actually made a concerted effort to try it only took a few months.

I'm 36 and pregnant with my first after 15 months of trying. I was quite shocked at how long it took...as a woman you spend so much of your life trying not to get pregnant that I wrongly thought it would happen fairly quickly when I was trying. I suppose you never really know until you try. I have friends the same age who got pregnant their first month of trying so you never know!

Had 2 babies
One at 33
One at 43

Both conceived witching first month of trying

I am 35 and pregnant on my first cycle this time round. We tried for 6 months about a year ago but stopped for various reasons. I was also seeing the fertility team at my trust as we had reason to believe it would be harder this time round.

It took 8 months when I was 31 with my first. I was told at my last appt that I had a very low egg count (6) and a blocked fallopian tube so feel a bit of a miracle at the moment.

However, they couldnt tell me if my egg count had always been low or if had decreased due to my age. If I hadnt fallen pregnant I would have been having further tests to see if it had declined further.

Had DD at almost 40. I was on the pill, and one very mild stomach ache later, there she was.

First month off the pill, I was 37.

I conceived at 32, 36 and 37. All three times it was straight away

Was 36 when we started trying. Mentally prepared for it to take a long time/ possibly not at all. BFP 3 weeks later.

Every women is different. An AMA blood test and scan will give you a good indication of egg reserve, and whether you need to start TTC NOW, or can wait a little.

I started TTC 34. 4yrs TTC. GP only did 1 set of hormones bloods (normal), no scans, no semen analysis & nothing else- despite repeat visits! 1st pregnancy had patau syndrome (trisomy 13). Genetic tests showed it was likely due to 'older eggs'.

2nd pregnancy- MC at 7 weeks

Current pregnancy- via IVF and 7 weeks

Other than our age, like many couples, there was no cause for infertility found. I have very regular periods, semen good, clear tubes and my egg reserve was very good for my age. We have TTC 9yrs in total, with 2 losses.

I suggest started asap, and change GPs (like I eventually did) if you aren't being listening to.

I am 37 and due in August - 36 going through IVF and the nurses used to say I was a baby! So no fertility didn't suddenly plunge for me. We got pregnant on our first cycle but it ended shortly after conceiving, and this is our second transfer and it worked! M x

My feeling is that although it may start to decrease that it's overblown especially in the late 30s

Took three months at 32 and one month at 35!

Conceived first cycle at 35 and 37

I would recommend paying for private fertility assessment tests and if no luck after 6 months have a HyCosy. This worked for me at 41.