HELP Suggestions from people who have conceived successfully

[ruabadfish2]

. Ok so I am 23 with 2 children both I did not eben try with it was like once or twice without a condom and boom I was pregnant back to back. They are now 4 and 5. The Dr has done an internal exam and says I have a small cysts or two that should be causing me to not get pregnant. I've been using the glow wpp to keep up with my periods they are all over the place varying with time and length. The Dr said he didn't think I was ovulating. I'm looking for suggestions on products to maybe help us conceive I believe I am the problem my boyfriend is 38 and has 2 children. My previous husband has four including our two we tried for 3 years after our 2nd to have another having sex every other day literally for 3 years and nothing. The Dr says because of mt varying periods he thinks I'm not ovulating 2 months ago I tried fertility blend for the first time I had a pretty regular period lasting only 32 days I'm usually a little longer I know it was doing something because my boobs were constantly sore but didn't get pregnant and didn't buy more. Not sure if I ovulated or not. This month I tried soy isoflavones because I had seen many success stories from it also. This month I'm thinking I may buy men and women's fertility blend along with preseed my vagina is not dry at all but I have definitely seen many success stories from it. Also antibody have suggestions on reliable opk I bought answer brand and could've sworn I was ovulating tons of ewcm bbt seemed to indicate so and felt really crampy on cd 12-14. Unfortunately now this cycle on soy iso I'm on CD 43 and bfn. Just looking for any suggestions that may have worked for some my bf is 38 and we'd really like to have a baby before too much longer with his age. Please help! I've never actually had to try to have a baby I tried for 3 years but with no products or anything so anything that has worked for anyone else I'm open to try. Wish this period would hurry up and come so that I can try again. I'm so sad and depressed with this situation my heart breaks every month

 

[MindUtopia]

I'm sorry you're going through this. What I would suggest is first learning about your cycles. It sounds like you're stressing and wanting to try all these things, but you don't even know if you're ovulating or not. I would focus on figuring that out before you try anything else as it might be as simple as just timing things better and less stress on your part. I would maybe even stop actively trying for a month or so and learn about your fertility signs. Do your bbt and opks and see if you can see a pattern. Do it religiously, every day, even the opk, up until you see clear signs of ovulation. That should help you figure out how you feel around ovulation, so then you might not even need to use all that stuff anymore once you start to know it's coming. With my first, I charted my temps and cervical mucus and it made it pretty clear roughly when I ovulated as my cycles are really regularly. Yours aren't, so you might have to learn to go by signs rather than looking at dates on a calendar, so charting it all for a month or two might help.

With my 2nd pregnancy (ended in mc unfortunately), I did my temps and opks. The opks made it really easy to spot and then the temp rise confirmed it. With this pregnancy, I only did opks, because it's now so obvious to me when I ovulate. I can feel it coming and that just from charting and learning how I feel around ovulation time. Do you have a chart you've been doing? If you can post it, someone might be able to give you advice. Really for us, it was just about figuring out the timing of ovulation and then we really don't have sex much other than then (we both work a lot, so don't often have a lot of time in the evenings, so might only be 3 times a month), so definitely 2 of those times are at ovulation time. That's worked 3 times now and fairly quickly (pregnant 2nd cycle the first two times and very first cycle this time). For opks, I use one step. I get them on Amazon.

Also, is your doctor advising you to do anything for the cysts? If that is truly what's causing the problem, it might be sorting that out means it all happens easily.

 

[ruabadfish2]

No thank you for your information I just now started temping and using opk but the opk I couldn't even use through my whole cycle because they were SOOOO expensive for only 8 in a pack and with my long cycles I need more than than that. Also I use glow to keep up with my bbt and cm etc but can't post it or compare months without upgrading and paying for the app. I get lots of ewcm so its kind of hard for me to go by that too my temps help a little but sometimes they are sparatic. Is there any better app you may recommend or anything that may naturally promote ovulation? I still do definitely want to look into to buying some sort of supplements for him just to improve sperm quality and amount because he drinks and is also 38 years old. I've only been tracking cm symptoms and bbt through this app for 3 months now but TTC for much much longer. Thank you for your input

 

[ruabadfish2]

What opk would you suggest? I would like to find some accurate easy to read ones that come with enough for me to use since my cycles have been long and dont ever know when to start testing.

 

[heychrissie]

Is your Doctor doing any testing to see if you are ovulating? That would be my first port of call from what you've written - if you have cysts due to something like PCOS, OPKs may be inconclusive. If you've tried for 3 years with no luck, I would think it unlikely that products like preseed will make a massive difference...
If annovulation is confirmed, there are treatments that can get you ovulating pretty quickly, so don't worry too much. I hope trying some other options will work for you anyway, but I would be looking into getting some blood tests done.

 

[ruabadfish2]

My Dr did do bloodwork to check thyroid etc. The ONLY reason he said he even thought I may not be ovulating is because of the long cycles I have. He did ultrasound and bloodworm and said everything looked normal. The previous 3 years ttc were with an ex husband years ago and there were factors that could've made his sperm low or low quality too. I have been trying for four months now with my boyfriend (fiancé) he is 38. Dr said we could have dye run through me to see if my tubes were blocked but I really wanted to seek other options first as I dont have any insurance.

 

[heychrissie]

Did he do day 21 progesterone, specifically looking for whether you've ovulated or not?
Ahh, I missed the part about exDH. That's fair enough about wanting to try other options due to insurance! Hopefully someone else will be able to chime in with other options for you x

 

[ruabadfish2]

Thank you. The reason I'm considering fertility blend agains is because I didn't get the result I wanted (bfp) but I did get a shorter normal length cycle for the very first time and what I felt like were ovulation cramps and swollen boobs never had either of those symptoms I also had these on soy iso BUT I'm now on CD 43 of my cycle which doesn't seem too normal when not pregnant

 

[OnErth&InHvn]

You can have really long cycles and be normal. You could be ovulating late and completely missing it.

 

[OnErth&InHvn]

What opk would you suggest? I would like to find some accurate easy to read ones that come with enough for me to use since my cycles have been long and dont ever know when to start testing.

any OPK will work, they read LH. IF youre not ovulating, you COULD get a false + because your body gears up to O and then doesnt ( thus why you may have EWCM and still not be ovulating)

You NEED to get to a dr and ask for bloodwork and u/s before supplements and worrying about OPK because youll just waste your money without knowing the problem.

 

[WackyMumof2]

I focused too much on falling pregnant with DS2 that I tried for 6 months and never fell pregnant. I had to go back onto BC to fall pregnant.

Baby #4 I came of BC beginning of April, didn't think I was going to fall pregnant and boom!! We get to the end of the first week of May and realize I haven't had a period.

Relax, have fun and let your guard down. That's when it will happen.

 

[happycupcake]

Relaxation is important. The stress hormones cortisol can unbalance hormones, and when you are constantly stressing and trying so hard, it counters any progesterone trying to be released and you won't be able to sustain a pregnancy. If stress alone is powerful enough to do this, then I would imagine it can also hinder ovulation as well.
If charting is stressing you out too much, don't chart. If you feel it would stress you out doing it blind, then keep charting but maybe try meditation immediately after taking your temp to try to counter any stress you feel from doing this and so you start the day positively. Meditate after sex as well, sex is relaxing in itself because it releases happy hormones, so meditating afterwards can only serve to help you relax further.
Also make sure you don't have any infections like BV as this can seriously hinder conception and even if you do conceive it can cause early miscarriages. Just a quick and simple swab you do yourself at home, just to ensure there isn't anything going on there that may stop things happening.

I find the OPKs from Amazon, I think they are One Step, good. They are cheap and reliable for me, I usually do two to three a day leading up to ovulation so I don't miss the surge, but given you don't know when you ovulate I would probably do them after af and keep doing them mid afternoon to evening until I saw a positive. If you don't see a positive then I would ask my doctor to check hormone levels.
I know that in itself is stressful, or can be anyway. I think you have to do what you think you can best cope with. Although part of me wants to say keep going with tracking and trying to pin ovulation because it's important to have an idea of what's happening, and it may also help your doctor. It's hard. I don't see any harm in leaving it a while and taking a more relaxed approach, then if things don't happen, start with the charting and stuff. But if you can find ways to counter the stress of all that, then keep up with it.
Exercise will help stress levels, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture, massage, meditation... all excellent for relieving stress.
Eating a good varied diet low in simple sugars and getting a good amount (but without going overboard) of protein, supplements, making sure you are taking all the b vitamins as well