4wks, age 40, anxiety is high

[OneCatTwoCat]

Hi all,

The you to those who confirmed my positive result, I’ve since done many tests, all positive! The apps tell me I am 4w2d. I’m turning 40 in Jan, this is my first pregnancy. My Hertility test said I had a moderately low egg count, so my partner (29yr) and I weren’t really trying yet.. but somehow this little dot happened!

He wants to relieve my anxiety but also.. not get my hopes too high, as it will be heartbreaking if it doesn’t stick. I don’t know how to stop worrying! My GP appointment isn’t until Tuesday. I’ve referred myself to a hospital but have yet to hear back. I think I can’t get a t-v ultrasound until 6 weeks?

I’m unsure what my question is really.. I just desperately want everything to be going okay with the little dot, and I can’t know that for some time yet!

There’s also a lot of talk about the strength of the lines on the test strips.. I’m wondering if continuing with these is helping me or not.

Confused, anxious and grateful for any comments 😅 xx

Congratulations first of all! You can’t really stop the worrying… it continues when they are born too because you just don’t want anything to go wrong. You can keep it to a sensible level by keeping busy in your day to day, doing everything you should (folic acid, vitamin D, no alcohol, healthy food, plenty of rest, gentle exercise, no extreme heat in you tummy area…) then you can rest easy that you’re doing your very best and because you’re busy the time will pass. I think after the scans you learn to enjoy your pregnancy and I hope you do! Congratulations again x

Congratulations! As someone who has been pregnant many times ( currently 36 weeks now) I would say try and stop testing. It doesn’t help the anxiety. You are pregnant and testing won’t change the outcome, and variability can impact the strength anyway! Depending on your area GP unlikely to do anything ( in the two areas I’ve lived when pregnant it’s been a self referral to midwives who book you in for around 8 weeks, GP wasn’t involved) and then a scan around 6 weeks either under EPU or privately if you don’t qualify for an early scan on NHS.
would booking a scan for 6 week mark help to have something to count down to?

Congratulations! I would also say step away from the tests, a positive is a positive and strength of lines can be variabke and not mean much. Id suggest booking yourself a scan at about 6.5 weeks (you'll almost certainly have to do this privately), that's about the earliest you could see a heartbeat. The waiting is tough! In my area you self refer to antenatal services and get a booking in appointment at around 9 weeks and then you're in the NHS system for the 12 week scan

After a long period of secondary infertility I got a positive test the month of my 40th birthday.

I had a bleed at around 6 weeks which was terrifying, but saw the heartbeat on the scan and didn't have any repeats. I was constantly knicker checking, symptom obsessing - it's a fact that the risk of something going wrong is higher in your 40s but there's nothing that can be done about it so you just have to go through it and it's much more likely to go right.

You're also much more likely to have a higher risk result on any non-invasive chromosomal screening (if you can get a NIPT then that's a much better test but it wasn't available for me) based on age alone. I had a 1:27 risk of Down Syndrome and opted for amnio, but everything was fine.

All in all, I had an easy pregnancy in retrospect, straightforward delivery and ds2 was a much easier baby than his older brother. He's 13 now :-)

I hope everything goes well for you!