Nearly 42 and TTC number 2 since 2003!

[prickly]

So...I am back on here again!

Lost another little one last year and decided (at that time) that after too many losses, failed IUI's and chem pregs...enough was enough...figured I should accept what all the various different clinics and doctors had indicated to me...about advanced maternal age, older eggs etc...until...I had the lucky experience of encountering a really nice fertility specialist who tested my AMH and ovarian reserve and gave me really great odds of conceiving naturally...who didn't subscribe to old opinions of women in their 40's TTC...and here I am back again ladies for more!

Interesting that this same fertility specialist (quite high up in her field) has been instrumental in campaigning for the IVF age limit here in the UK to be raised (as it now has) to 42 (and even above in some clinic's discretion)! Yay, finally people are wisening up to the fact that older age does not a bad mom make...or older eggs are always bad...!

Anyway...wish me luck ladies...I have been down the donor egg IVF route...at a clinic abroad...I have tried various IUI protocols here in the UK (where I conceived my DD 13 years ago first try!) and abroad too...I have taken every supplement and vitamin regime in the book!...I have listened to doctors giving me conflicting opinions about statistics...I have been refused / prescribed progesterone supps by so many different doctors (UK opinion of progesterone supps after O differ so widely within and outside the UK themselves!)...I refuse to listen to any more negatives...you ladies on here have given me hope...test after test has come back fine - ovulating fine, sperm quality of partner fine, HSG fine, AMH fine, STD testing fine...and I CAN and HAVE conceived...so rant over...here I go again...would love some of you ladies to hang out on here with me and share your journey / paths with me..perhaps at same stages? Any chat welcome!
Thanks for listening!

 

[jayden0007]

I wish you the best prickly and thanks for your positivity.
It sounds like you have been through a lot and have explored many options.
Not the case for me. I am new and naive to all of this.
I am 43 yrs old, on Femara 7.5mg days 3-9 (this is month 1).
I had been TTC naturally for 4 months and nothing.
It just really is a bummer that trying to have a child over 40 is such a difficult task for a woman while men can have children when they are so much older. How unfair.
I was just not ready for a child when I was my 30's. I was not ready to make that kind of sacrifice.
Now that I have the wisdom, patience, maturity and I am ready to give everything I have to a child, I am having trouble conceiving.
I may have to try donor eggs if the Femara does not work. I am OK with that though (except for the financial part---yikes). I would love a child even if it was not created by my egg. I would be the one who carried it for 9 months and without my uterus, the child would have never existed.
The donor egg experience did not work for you? I hear it has a pretty high success rate.

 

[prickly]

Hi Jayden - Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I did try donor egg...thought it was my last resort...thought after all the TTC attempts had failed my own eggs must be past it! So wrong I was...as I have conceived since then successfully...its just making a preg stick thats the problem!
Donor egg route was not something I was comfortable with...I transferred 2 hatching blasts and was successful first attempt with one heartbeat detected at 6 and 8 week scans...but I rejected the pregnancy very badly...and when it ended in miscarriage I was not as distressed as I was when I lost my OE pregnancy last year (I know that must sound horrible ...but I just wanted another child so badly and I lost track of / was not fully prepared for the feelings it would / could generate...I never felt connected to the donor pregnancy...I always felt as if it wasnt mine in some way??...I didnt know what the donor mother / father / genetic history of either donor was...in terms of anything other than their basic physical characterisics and blood group...so I couldnt imagine what the child would look like / personality traits that I see in my own DD I feared I wouldnt even love him / her!... I went to Reprofit in Czh Republic...mainly because of their lower cost and higher success rates...but no counselling or pre-treatment consideration of what I could feel like...I felt like a surrogate uterus...)...anyway, back home in the UK I was scanned and advised by NHS doctors to stop my progesterone supps that the non UK clinic prescribe routinely after all DFET transfers...I listened to the UK docs and stopped progesterone supps at 9 weeks...I started bleeding within a few days ...so that's a huge amount of guilt I have to carry around with me I guess...since the pregnancy ended in m/c and I was in hospital after awful blood loss / incomplete miscarriage at home and big haemorrage...awful experience and I was completely guilt ridden, depression etc!

I conceived naturally the same year but was chemical / very early m/c...then again last year...was advised to stop the progesterone I had started taking myself...I still believe I needed this as no UK doctor had ever tested my progesterone levels despite me asking for this...they just dont subscribe to this view up here/ in the Uk I was told!!...again, after stopping I started bleeding and lost the preg at just over 8 weeks.

So I am currently 12dpo...waiting...AF type cramping started this afternoon...on and off most of the day...quite uncomfortable...AF due in 3 days...I know this from my OPK and BBT testing and pretty regular cycles...normal for me to lightly cramp a day or two before...but this is something else! Im thinking another chemical preg..but dont want to test before AF due as I hate seeing the line getting fainter and fainter...yuk!

 

[prickly]

Well..another interesting night last night...cramping and stomach churning from 10pm until 3am..accompanied by lots of wind (sorry tmi!) and sharp nipping in sides of pelvis / ovaries...temps are still pretty much flatlined (see chart below)...I keep knicker checking as feel wet sensations but only watery cm...expected temp to drop today...never get these kind of cramps and they are only coming evening / night times as they are only just noticeable during the day

Still don't want to test until tomorrow when AF is due...don't want to see another chemical...but am pretty certain the eggie fertilised and at least tried to implant 7-8dpo...strange month this has been. Am not feeling moody, grumpy or irritable day before AF like I usually do...just this horrible sickly churny cramping in my stomach and sharp nipping in my side

 

[prickly]

Update - tested this morning at 11am - didn't use FMU but figured that if there was anything going on it would show up by now and I used a non blue dye Asda preg test - which picks up HCG from 25miu....

AF due tomorrow...expecting her and am ready to go for next month...or I will be as soon as I have stocked up on OPK test strips again (lol) and SOY ISO - gonna try and force a stronger 'O' this next cycle...and gonna use progesterone cream from 'O' day this time.

Hurry up then so I can get started on my running, exercise and fitness regime and SOY from day 3!

Oh and am gonna BD every day through fertile period - REALLY GONNA GO FOR IT this next cycle lol

 

[nickyb]

Hi prickly
Good for u, ur as old as the man that feels u lol Ill be 39 when this one is born which will be no5
I know plenty of women of my age and older that have healthy pregnancies so don't give up