Secondary infertility? recurrent miscarriage

[user5566]

hi everybody,

I have a DD age 6, got pregnant really easily. I then had a surprise pregnancy when DD was 3 months and I miscarried at 10 weeks. I then had a pregnancy during the pandemic and sadly we terminated which I was very heartbroken about, but our marriage was in a terrible spot, my health was in a terrible position (I had long covid) and the financial concerns were too huge as OH had lost his income during the lockdowns. When I went for the termination they did a scan and did say that the development of the embryo seemed behind my dates and maybe I would miscarry anyway. I was around 6 weeks with no heartbeat.

Fast forward 3 years and we are trying for a baby but keep having chemicals. I dont even get to 6 weeks, I get the pregnancy test positive around 12-14 dpo, then the lines get fainter, BBT drops and I start bleeding a few days later. This last time, I got clear Blue digital up to 2-3 weeks, then it went down to 1-2 weeks. I booked an early scan and they could see nothing. they said the lining of my womb was low also - around 8 mm i think they said.

I am 40 in august so is this why? or the termination? has anyone got any tips? I read about progesterone, is there any way I can = quickly - get a prescription? any diet? how much is a fertility doctor? I live in Surrey but can travel to london. Im just really conscious of cost and wanting something quick to try first. please help!

I had secondary infertility. 3x pregnancies since DD was born, all early losses / chemicals (around 5 weeks or more). I had every test going and was eventually diagnosed as having high NK cells. I am also in Surrey and have the advantage of being able to get tested to this as part of my hospital trust (many trusts don't test for NK cells). It costs a fair bit but you can have these tests done privately. I'm now 30 weeks pregnant and will have this baby just before my 39th birthday.

Hi OP
I'm sorry to hear about your struggles, they sound exceptionally hard and I know some of these secondary infertility struggles myself.
You can get progesterone prescribed privately. I think my apt with a private fertility doctor was about £220 and he prescribed me progesterone, clexane, baby aspirin and thyroxine. I had free blood tests on NHS which you should be able to get if you haven't already.

I did Emma Cannon's week long fertility cleanse from her excellent book Fertile and it brought my ovulation forward by about a week (I used to ovulate late in a 28 day cycle).

I am now newly pregnant after a tfmr and some miscarriages in the past year. Hoping this is the one - I got pregnant straight away after doing the cleanse diet (which isn't juices btw it's all proper meals - it takes a while to prepare though and I basically dedicated most of my free time to prepping the meals!)

I also think that a good probiotic helps and I've been having acupuncture weekly for about three months. Ergo I'm skint, but hopeful to the cause of having another little one to love but know it's not a given. Sending strength to you and I hope you find a positive way forward x

It’s your age. Suggest seeing a fertility doctor as quicker action is better. I can’t advise on costs as I’m in Aus. Might be egg quality or progesterone etc. my ivf doctor told me at 38 I was wasting my time & should go straight to ivf. I did & had my dd at 39. I wasted 3 years before then trying everything and she is my third child. Age is a pain.

Have you had a day 21 progesterone test through your Gp?

Thank you everyone
There's a bit of a spanner... in that I plan to leave my job by february (my company a implementing various changes and my oh is moving away with work so we plan to follow him). Long story short, I would want to be due by March/April latest. Do you know how I could do any of these tests etc quickly within this cycle? I appreciate they may not work! I just wanted to get cracking! But also not spend in the multiple 00s of pounds if possible. Will look up the fertility diet thank you. I struggle with work because I have. 2 weekly events coming up where I'm with people all the time. Does she suggest a gluten free diet? Thank you

@FlyBirdieFly what sort of blood tests did you ask for on the nhs? Was your clinic in London/Surrey ? Could you recommend?

I had day 21 progesterone, FSH, lutenizing hormone, prolactin, AMH, estradiol, vitamin d, folate. I didn't ask specifically for these - my GP just set them up for me. I'm in London, yes.

I think the diet is about getting enough greens and protein in mainly. It's not specifically gluten free but not much gluten!
Breakfast is either porridge, berries and nuts or eggs with greens (chard / spinach / avocado). No caffeine. Filtered water with lemon. As much herbal tea as you'd like. A big lunch with protein and veggies eg. Paneer / feta / chicken / fish / lentils and a lighter, warm dinner eg. Soup / daal (to be eaten before 7pm). Not much 'raw' food. Limiting sugar rushes. Lots of sleep if you can too! Good luck OP.

Can I ask what day 21 progesterone is? Is it just a blood test on that day?

Sorry sent too early! I'm currently on day 9 do you think I could get it this cycle?

You could! If you're v clear to your Dr what tests you need and get through to them tomorrow or something it would hopefully give them enough time to get an appointment to chat with you and then probably you could get to pop to the surgery to pick up the blood test form to go to your nearest blood test centre (hospital or maybe even the surgery itself).

The day 21 progesterone test is a blood test. It's on day 21 as most women will have ovulated by then in their cycle and a rise in progesterone levels at that stage suggests the woman has ovulated. I think perhaps you're ovulating anyway as you've had chemicals but it is one of the standard fertility markers / tests I think. Probably more useful for women who aren't sure if they're ovulating.

Ah interesting thank you! I wanted to be sure as I also heard that progesterone drop could be a reason for repeat chemicals? Perhaps if the progesterone drops the pregnancy goes. Thanks!!!

I think I may have messed it up : any advice welcome!
I spoke to GP online yesterday and I told them ; recurrent miscarriages at 5-6 weeks etc.
He wrote a referral for the above. Spoke with health insurance and they say because I'm "conceiving" that they can't cover me- they only cover for investigation into not getting pregnant. I did say... well i had an early scan and they saw nothing, so maybe im not getting pregnant!
she basically said that referral letter will get me nowhere.
What would you guys do? Should I go back to the GP online and ask them to write it clearer: that im not conceiving. and ive been trying for a year etc...? with a few miscarriages... or not at all? any financial help would be great here...

Most private health providers don’t cover infertility at all. The gp can arrange a full blood test panel and a scan that should give you a good idea of what’s going on. For private insurance you need to do a gynae referral to look at your uterus, so heavy menstrual bleeding was the one that let me be referred for a scan and private blood work, the reoccurant miscarriages were a side effect, not what they were looking at, if you get what I mean.

make sure you’re taking a pregnancy vitamin, something I learnt recently was that progesterone actually needs glucose and low stress to build it’s levels up, so make sure there is some sugar and relaxation in your diet in the second half of your cycle

@user5566 mine was all self funded as my health insurance covered absolutely nothing fertility, ivf or pregnancy related.

Hi everyone. I wanted to ask your thoughts on when I could have ovulated and if k could have conceived? We dtd the day of my positive opk and 2 days before, but my bbt is a bit confusing in the chart-do you think I'm out this month? My opks were negative the day after the positive one

This is the chart

Anyone?

I got this today, any idea what "B" means? Did I get my timing all wrong?

This post

Hi OP
Sorry no one has replied yet. I didn't reply because I am not v experienced in BBT so I don't really know about the discrepancy between your opks and BBT on your chart. I think that BBT is generally seen to be more concrete evidence of ovulation than opks but I might be wrong.
I really hope this is your month.
I've only ever done opks as I'm not organised enough for BBT!

Thank you! Well I'm prob 11-12 dpo and frer was negative so I'm thinking it wasn't right or I didn't ovulate -thank you for responding

I don't think you ovulated when the app says you did - looks more like the 7th as you have a consistent temp increase. I found that app really difficult to use, it didn't adjust my dates so said i'd ovulated when I clearly hadn't. Would defo recommend Fertility Friend as I found this very accurate!

Ok thank you, the confusing thing is that by the 7th my opks were negative, they were positive on 1 and 2, then negative. So I'm really confused! I did keep testing the next few days and they stayed negative. That said, today with fmu it's negative so can only assume it's not happened again. Which makes me v sad :(

Are your cycles regular? You can get a peak but not ovulate - the best way to track this is via temping but I always found temping to be a bit hit and miss at the best of times.

• what thermometer are you using? There are some good ones on the market but I always just used the mouth ones. Make sure it's 2x decimal places.
• what strips are you using? I used to use cheap ones from Amazon but doubled up with Clear Blue flashing ones. They have never failed me and I always found they detected my surge slightly earlier than the strips as they test other hormones too.
• if you're not already, get Fertility Friend app. It's honestly the best (even if it does look a bit basic in comparison with the newer ones)

Happy to help. Im 34 weeks pregnant now at 38 after a year of miscarriages and BFNs.