Trying To Conceive baby at 42 years old? Any advice or success stories?

[ThatGirlx]

Trying to conceive baby at 42 years old? Any tips, advice, success stories 👶🏻

I've been tracking my ovulation the last few months and record this via the Clearblue app - which is super handy. My period / ovulation run like clockwork and me & my partner try and conceive everyday single day when I start to show high fertility right through to the 2 days of peak fertility I have a regular 5 day fertility window. I’m healthy, a non smoker, rarely drink and currently taking all the necessary supplements such a Pregnacare Max as well as additional B12, Folic Acid, Vitamin D and 400mg Ubiquinol.

im getting to the point of little hope now but am fully aware of age isn’t on my side and the low percentage of a successful pregnancy comes at my age. I am considering visiting the GP to see if they can offer tests and possibly IVF treatment (when I know stops at 43 on the NHS and you only get one round).

Any advice or tips that I’m not doing will be greatly appreciated 🩷

Hi, I conceived at 41 after many many months of trying. Is your partner also doing all the rights things for healthy sperm e.g, reducing alcohol intake, wearing loose boxers and avoiding really hot baths? I was taking 100mg of ubiquinol bought from nature's best, cost a fortune but was told it was a good one.

Have you ever conceived in the past?

If this is important for you, don’t waste time trying to organise NHS IVF. If you have been trying for 6 months and can afford it go straight to a private fertility clinic.

I have recently conceived at 41. I was told that you should try every other day as that improves the quality of the sperm - this is what we did. If you can afford it, get a better quality of vitamin - something that contains natural folate rather than folic acid which many women can’t process. Make sure you’re eating really healthily and getting plenty of sleep.

I made a group of 4 friends from mumsnet when we were trying. All older mums. We made a watsapp group from here. 3 of us went on to have babies, one of the 3 had twins! 2 didn't unfortunately. The 'babies are all around 3 years old now, matter of a few months between them, the group was a great support for all of us through the whole journey

I had my daughter a month before 42nd birthday. No problems conceiving or with her as baby, child, teen, now as adult . Ditto my aunt had her last of 5 at 43. Grandmother last of 12 at 42. No problems.

I conceived at 44. My lifestyle was generally cook from scratch, few upfs, lots of fresh veg, plenty of sleep and no alcohol.

But every woman in my family has had one or more babies in our 40s. I'm assuming it's genetic.

I’m 39 and been TTC over 2 years. Been for tests etc. nothing wrong that they can spot and I’m very regular. Decided against IVF (check what your local NHS area offers as it’s not a national thing, mine is 3 rounds before 40).

I was only allowed one round of ivf at 40 years old on nhs, the cut off point is 41 years old in my area (no nhs ivf for 41 and over)
Have you conceived before? If not I would suggest a trip to a fertility clinic to get some tests done.
I know plenty posters will be along to say they conceived easily in their forties but it doesn’t happen for everyone. If there is a problem, you don’t have time to lose if you do want to become pregnant.
Good luck.

When I was doing ivf I read about a small study which showed that higher protein diets yielded much more successful ivf cycles- it was theorised that it improved egg quality, which I understand is the main cause of our fertility decline as we age. There are also studies linking various supplements to improved egg quality, but protein is one you can easily and cheaply control- I think the advice was to eat a minimum of 60g protein a day

I'm 39 so a little younger but we had been trying a couple of years and my partner was actually diagnosed with a low sperm count. I'm now 19 weeks pregnant and honestly what I think did it? We literally dtd every single day of my fertile window. We decided to just go for it before persuing fertility treatment and it worked! It's the only thing we did different that month so I definitely recommend it (if you have the energy 😂) Good luck! 🤞🏼

Good luck 💖
I agree with pp that you need to take folate not folic acid. You could have a look at garden of life multivitamin or something similar. Lots of ubiqionol from a good source and make sure Vit D is D3 etc. check all supplements are the best (most biologically available) kind.
Also highly recommend fertility acupuncture. Could also try reflexology.
i would also recommend low stress. Even if that means continuing to try for a baby but also mentally making peace that you might not have one (the true acceptance and letting go often comes with a huge reduction in stress and for many that ends up being just the thing they needed to conceive!)
Also have a look into anti-inflammatory diet. My friend tried for years and then when she did this diet (which is admittedly very strict and limiting) she fell pregnant straight away

Hi OP. I started trying to conceive at 40, I did manage to get pregnant but couldn’t hang on to them until I was 43 nearly 44 and then I got my miracle. She’s just turned one and more than the absolute dream we hoped for. I’m not suggesting you do this but I’d actually stopped taking the folic acid, pregnacare max etc a few months before as I’d given up hope but it was almost ingrained in me to still track. The month we got lucky we DTD three days before ovulation, the day before and then 2 days after ovulation. I’d drank more alcohol than usual around that time as we had been away for the weekend too. I also used clearblue ovulation kits and a million cheapies from Amazon. Wishing you the very best of luck.

My Mum had my youngest sibling at 48. There were a lot of us already and she thought that was it. Total surprise! Understand this isn't the norm but it does happen

It was either the drunken valentines night out or the mostly-inebriated weekend away for my 42nd birthday that resulted in DC2. We’d tried for 2 years and we’d come to terms some months earlier with the possibility that we were just too old and had given up - hence all the booze. I’d say we were the least healthy that we’d ever been at that point.

Aww congratulations 🤍 my partner is doing those things you mentioned but he might make a doctors appointment too just to rule out anything. Yea Ubiquinol is like the price of gold 🤣

I had my first, 2 years ago and was hoping for a a long for him x

I can’t really afford it to be honest 😢

Aww congratulations 🤍 maybe I’ll try the every other day method maybe. Do you have suggestions on a better quality vitamin? I’ll definitely look in to the natural folate as didn’t know that. I do eat pretty healthy but am guilty of probably no getting enough sleep! As my toddler frequently wakes in the night 😫

Aww congratulations 🤍 that’s so lovely to hear and that you made a great support network x

Wow that’s amazing 🤍must have strong fertility genes in the family 💪🏻

Aww congratulations 🤍 I’m pretty much the same but am guilty of very little sleep at night 😫 as my toddler never sleeps all the way through 😫 you must have strong fertility genes in the family 💪🏻

A second vote for fertility acupuncture and a visit to a Chinese herbalist. My sister in law swears they are the reason she fell pregnant at 42 after a year of trying.
Give it a shot, what have you got to lose?
Good luck! 💐

Good luck had my son at 40. Its wonderful, but at 55 I am the oldest mum at parents evenings.....

I’m sorry you have been TTC for over 2 years 😢 it can be really soul destroying and tiresome but don’t give up 🤍 are you using the clearblue ovulation sticks? In my area they allow one course of IVF before hitting 43 - so I have a year if they offer it to me x