Any success stories of pregnancy after chemical AND a long time TTC.

[Greenscarf1]

I see lots about people falling pregnant easily after a chemical, but I don’t know if that’s largely people who got pregnant fairly easily in the first place. I’ve had a chemical after over a year of trying. Has anyone successfully got pregnant after a chemical after trying for a long time?

Yes, with DD2 the sticky BFP came 4 months after a CP (I was TTC for 12 months in total). This time round, I got pregnant again 15 months after a CP, which itself was 20 months after an early miscarriage. Sadly, this one also ended in miscarriage (at just under 6 weeks), but I'm hopeful I'll eventually get a happy end to this story...

Oh I’m so sorry to hear how it’s been for no2, wishing you all the best 🤞🏻

Commenting out of support as I am in a very similar situation, have been ttc for 6 months, I had a BFP on Thursday then heavy period like bleeding yesterday and today so obviously a chemical pregnancy 😟 really holding out hope for everyone ❤️

Oh no I’m sorry to hear that 😔

I had a chemical at the end of April 2024. It had initially took me 7 months to conceive after coming off the coil and had just started some basic fertility testing with Hertility as I wanted to just check on my fertility whilst we were trying. I did a test on the Friday and it was positive but never got stronger and I started bleeding on the Monday. After my chemical my periods went completely haywire and my cycles were really erratic. This also coincided with a really stressful period at work where I was very stressed, limited sleep etc which didn’t help. I continued to pursue fertility investigations and by the time we hit a year of trying and about 5 months after the chemical I discovered that my body wasn’t ovulating properly. All that to say, I decided to pursue fertility treatment and did ovulation induction with a trigger shot to get my body to ovulate. First cycle in November failed, however my next cycle in January worked! (and no coincidence that this cycle came at the end of this stressful job). I’m now 17 weeks pregnant with our rainbow and so far everything is good. ❤️ So it basically was 9 months after the chemical and almost 18 months of trying to getting pregnant again with a helping hand. But I do think with enough time I probably would have fallen pregnant again naturally but it may have taken years. I was really headstrong about finding out everything I could about my fertility, weeding out any issues that may be slowing things down and advocating for myself. I did go private for the testing and treatment as the NHS make you wait a year before they do any testing and even the first response is usually to tell you to wait another year. I know how stressful and heart wrenching it is wondering if your time will ever come. Im sure it will but there’s no harm in doing your own investigations and getting to understand your body so you can advocate for yourself going forward. As women we’re actually taught so little about our fertility and our bodies, and so many of my friends who’ve had babies easily still don’t understand anything about their fertility generally other than they know they can get pregnant. Even if it just gives you peace of mind that everything is in working order and you just need to keep going, getting to understand your own body and hormones is a good first step. Sorry for such a long reply it’s just I can empathise with your position and i spent so much time on forums looking for reassurance and answers. You’ll get there! But don’t be afraid to fight for yourself. Xxx

Thank you so much for your reply - and congratulations!!
I’m starting to look at private investigations - as you say it is just so much waiting with the nhs, and from what I’ve been looking at, it is pricey to get private treatment but the pre-ivf treatment like ovulation induction seems more affordable.
Out of interest, did you realise you weren’t properly ovulating, like did you have regular cycles?

@Greenscarf1 yes ovulation induction is definitely more affordable and I was reassured by the fertility consultant it was a good option for me as I was still young and had actually managed to get pregnant before at least.
My cycles were super erratic. I only
had about 3 months of regular cycles in 18 months and even then they were on the shorter side. Only around 26 days. Outside of that my cycles were insane. 60-90 days. I’d been on birth control for 10 years and before that my cycles were really regular so not sure if the long term contraceptive use had an effect on my body’s ability to readjust. Or whether it was a combination of hormonal imbalance and severe stress. But basically my body was producing a follicle every month but it either just wasn’t ovulating it, or it was ovulating so late the egg quality was rubbish and therefore wasn’t fertilised. I did have an occasional period but it was hard to tell if it was a real period or anovulatory bleeding (which can happen). Also because my cycles were so long, it made timing intercourse way too hard. When my body didn’t ovulate, the follicles were sometimes turning in to cysts which then disrupted my hormones further and made my cycles even worse. My GP was able to deduce I wasn’t ovulating properly based on progesterone tests and referred me to Gynaecology (which I’m still waiting for haha) but strongly reccomended I pursue private fertility treatment if I can afford it. I did an online appointment with a Hertility gynaecologist who also believed I wasn’t ovulating properly and who wrote me a referral. This then spurred me to go and engage with a proper fertility clinic. They were able to use the bloods I had done with Hertility and the NHS, as well as all the various doctor referrals, plus their own scans to tell me the issue and advise treatment. We did have to have a sperm test done also to rule out sperm issues as if that had been a problem we would have only been able to do IVF as an option. Once that came back clear we were able to start the ovulation induction process.

So can low progesterone indicate a lack of ovulation then, rather than ovulation that hasn't progressed due to egg quality or whatever?

In the past when TTC DD1 I had both relatively normal cycles length-wise which didn't show temperature shifts (so FF marked as annovulatory), and one massive cycle of 146 days, which eventually did end up indicating ovulation, but obviously not until a good few months had passed when I hadn't bled. I wonder what dictates whether you bleed or not?

When I had my bloods taken at the EPU following my MC in March, they apparently showed my progesterone as 0.8. Would this have likely been cause or effect? This was 4 days after my bleed started, so I'm guessing/hoping it was more a sign of the pregnancy having ended rather than a sign that low progesterone was an issue in the first place?

I need some advice friends, I had a PUL last Xmas at 9 weeks and a chemical the start of June at week 5+2. With my first pregnancy I had really faint lines on CB early for about three days before my missed period. Then with pregnancy number two I only got faint lines the day of my missed period. AF is due on now by August 3rd according to FLO and I've been testing like the true serial tester I am because I am a complete psycho and I've been getting the fainted lines within the time frame with CB early the last three days. I was convinced they were evap or dye run but I've followed the tests to a T.
Could it be another chemical? I have a 30-32 day cycle and 17 day luteal, surely at this stage there would be a banger of a line if i had a viable pregnancy. These pictures are absolutely rubbish too I can see it with the naked eye but I can't pick it up on the camera 😑

It’s probably worth starting your own thread for this.

Not a chemical but I had a missed miscarriage which it took us only two months of trying to fall pregnant with. Following the missed miscarriage we were trying to concieve for over a year with no luck, we had just started fertility testing with the NHS when I found out I was pregnant again after 18 months of trying.

What helped me stay pregnant was progesterone. At only 4 weeks pregnant I started spotting to which emergency gynaecology tested my hcg to check it was doubling every 48 hours and it was. Despite this the spotting got worse and I was sure it would end badly. They scanned me at 5+2 due to some pain I was also getting, they found a gestational sac and yolk sac and I was prescribed progesterone to take until 16 weeks pregnant. I’m now 40 weeks pregnant with this baby, due to give birth any day now.

I had always suspected during ttc that I had a progesterone issue as I had a short luteal phase and always had spotting in the days before my period started.