1 year + to conceive success stories?

[1woodpecker]

Would love to hear to hear from anyone who took over a year/12 cycles to conceive… anything different you did or tired? Or just encouragement that it does happen!
I know the stats for 1 year and 2 year, but it is less common and hard not to worry.

Honestly I just stopped tracking everything, waited until if my period was a day or 2 late before taking any tests (although I'm like clockwork so was never really late), and tried to tell myself 'if it happens it happens, if it doesn't then there's options'.
We had been seen at the hospital. All was fine with hubby, my prolactin was a bit high. Went for a cannulated prolactin test and they said my prolactin levels reduced after a while so they figured it was just raised due to the stress of the needle. However they then said my cortisol was high and wanted this tested. The same day I got the letter for this appointment, we finally got our positive test. It took just over a year, and I'm currently 16 weeks now with little one. I wasn't even late, I tested 3/4 days before my period. Something just felt different for me, and I always always spot before my period for about a week but I didn't have any bleeding at all this time. Took a test expecting to just feel disappointed again but no, a little faint line came up for the very first time.
I know it's easier said than done, but the best thing was probably just trying to not stress too much. Tracking ovulation, planning when to do the deed, it makes it feel like a bit of a chore. Like a task at work that needs doing. It was just a couple months after I stopped tracking everything that we got pregnant, but maybe that was just coincidence.
Wish all the best for you!

Took us 2 years to conceive DD. Ironically, had just accepted that we would need to reach out to the Drs for testing, did a test that night and there was a faint line. Daughter was conceived over our wedding and Christmas so there was less pressure on conceiving and more emphasis on each other.
Now pregnant again - conceived twice on the first go but two early losses. This baby (14 weeks) took around six months once my body had recovered. Focused on my own health and ensuring I knew my body. We only tried ovulation sticks one cycle and found they made DTD too mechanical. Our successes were having sex around the time of cervical mucus changing etc.

17 cycles 1st pregnancy and 12 cycles 2nd pregnancy. Nothing different and I didn’t track anything.

My BF and I were actively trying for about 4 years, going to the doctors to be told that I was past help basically! stressing ourselves out to the point where we even broke up for a while as I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to give him a child that I told him to go for 6 weeks and basically decide if he wanted to saddle himself to a baron horse!
luckily for me he was adamant that he wanted me and we would have children the non- traditional way and had started appointments for adoption etc and just enjoying sex again as opposed to feeling like we MUST be doing it a certain amount.

as soon as we relaxed about it I fell pregnant and our little miracle is due in June.

I am a firm believer in things happen at the right time ❤

I know this probably isn't what you want to hear but honestly, we had stopped trying when I did eventually fail pregnant.
No tracking, no monthly testing, no symptom spotting etc.
We still weren't using contraception but we just went about our normal life and eventually it happened.

22 months for us

Really for the first 18 months we weren’t ‘trying’ by tracking or anything, just no contraception.

The last 4 months leading up to our positive test I used clear blue digital ovulation sticks and we were both started taking pre-conception vitamins. The month we got pregnant we didn’t even have sex on my peak ovulation days it was a couple of days before but still worked.

We were 35/36 years old so not in peak fertility time, but not totally past it 😄

All of my TTC stints were long haul ones....

With my first at 32, she took 10 cycles over 16 months. My first few cycles when I came off the pill were pretty long (over 40 days) and when I started tracking I didn't see any signs of ovulation. I then went to the GP when a cycle was hitting well over 50 days and had various bloods taken and discovered I had hypothyroidism. At the time of diagnosis that crazy cycle had hit over 100 days, but a combination of Levothyroxine and agnus cactus brought on ovulation, that cycle finally ended, my cycles settled to a much more normal 30ish days and I fell pregnant 6 months later! At the time my DH also had a couple of pretty rubbish SA results, to the extent that we were referred to the fertility clinic and starting to think that ICSI would be the only solution, but I actually got my BFP a few weeks after that initial fertility appt! But the fact that we conceived just a few months after the disastrous SA and I've had 2 (hopefully will be 3!) successful natural pregnancies just shows how fluctuating these things are.

DD2 at 35 took 12 sensibly lengthed cycles, although I had a CP at month 8.

This one (I'm now 42 and 5+4!) has taken 3 years! This TTC stint was prompted by a surprise pregnancy and early MC and I had a CP about 18 months in. Again, cycles have been more regular than they had been for DD1 and 2, which made it even more frustrating that I didn't seem to be getting anywhere. The cycle when I eventually conceived was going to be my last as it marked the 3 year anniversary of my MC. The only major difference this one was that we were doing Dry January. Obviously it's still early days for me (but I tested positive at 9dpo so I feel like I've known forever!) but I'll come back and update after my 12 week scan.

Re ditching the tracking, I think that only really works if you have truly textbook cycles. Even with these last 2 TTC stints which were a lot more predictable than with DD1, I ended up ovulating really late (CD24!) when I caught with DD2, and on CD13 this last cycle, when I tended to ovulate around CD15/16. I'd have potentially missed both had I not been tracking. Although it's maybe easier before your parents already and DTD every 2 days is much less sustainable!!

Took me & DP just over 2 years, much of that long distance so not always together at the right time. So really about one year spread over 2.

Didn't track anything just knew my regular cycle & can usually feel when I'm ovulating (horniness and discharge). I was 44 when we started so I didn't expect it to happen & didn't do any pregnancy tests, just felt vaguely sad every time my period came... Till it didn't!

Yes I wondered about ditching tracking, but cycles are slightly irregular (not massively, but ovulation varies by about 5 days) and I don’t get much CM so I’d worry about missing the window. Also feel like the data is helpful in knowing if lifestyle improvements have helped at all. But, might try ditching if we’re not having any luck this way

@1woodpecker you could try a hsg test. I was trying for a year and got pregnant same cycle as hsg. Unfortunately I lost that pregnancy for reasons unrelated . But loads of people get pregnant after hsg tests if you look
it up. It’s well documented. It is not a fertility treatment, more of an investigation but it does work for a lot of people and it’s good to know tubes are clear etc. anyway. If you can afford privately it is very quick to get one.

12 months for us post removal of my contraceptive implant. I actually never tracked ovulation even though my periods were pretty irregular.
The month we booked ourselves into the GP to check our hormone levels was the month it happened for us! Probably the month I stopped focussing on trying too much and.. a big party! (Woops lol)

We had tried for 3 plus years and had given up on it happening naturally and were waiting on IVF through the NHS when I fell pregnant so it was a bit of a shock. I also lost about 2 stone weight and changed jobs to a less stressful one 3 months before I got pregnant.

Im guessing all 3 of these things helped.