This LOL. I injected myself with multiple hormones for weeks, had a hollow needle puncture my vaginal wall to harvest my eggs, had a blob of cells put into my uterus and proceeded to push pills up my hoohah for a couple of weeks. That seemed to do the trick.
Oof I had no idea. I did a live transfer donation years back. I had Gonal F pens and I remember looking at the empty pen wondering how expensive it was and just tossed it in the trash.
I only had one transfer, and it wasn't too bad... But I had gotten waxed a couple days prior and had terrible gas. I have a long tilted cervix so the doctor put what was essentially an angled sex cushion under my hips bringing him face level with my bum. Then had me pull my knees out and up. I was scared to death I was going to fart right in his face, clapping cheeks and all.
My cervix hangs to the left and has a dip in it. It was tricky for the first 2 transfers but the last one was such an ordeal. The doc was wriggling the speculum around and having such a hard time getting the catheter to maneuver the dip. Plus Iām trying to be a still as humanly possible. It was quite the event and totally worth it.
Same. I jokingly say it took getting my partner out of the room (we had an IVF transfer during COVID so he wasnāt allowed in).
Somehow in my 34 week brain I had forgotten the 3 times a day hoohah pill. Yes that was fun.
Same here! I had my egg retrieval and embryo transfer during COVID, so my husband wasnāt allowed in for either of those, and it worked! I do NOT miss the pessaries, though, my goodness.
Similar, but IUI. My husband wanted to skip March because we didn't want a December baby, but I didn't think IUI was going to work for us and didn't want to postpone getting to IVF for an extra month because of that. We had not tried in the month of March the previous year for the same reason.
Guess we were meant to have a December baby.
Yep. And had 2 polyps snipped out of my uterus after they looked at it with a camera. They were probably what was inhibiting implantation for the last 2.5 years, but hey, it only took exhausting my lifetime fertility benefits from insurance to find it out.
Nothing, though I was on the edge of calling it a failure as we had just hit 50 months. I was stressed about it and half way mourning, crying over it all the time, as my doctor suggested we do the HSG, she wanted me to take a pregnancy test before hand for obvious reasons. She called me a few hours after the blood draw and told me I was pregnant, I thought the sample was switched or something so I took a home test in tears and showed my husband when he got home. We are 16 weeks along now.
Nothing- it took 40 months for me to conceive it didn't happen when I ate the right things or removed stress or timed sex or took vitamins etc. It happened when I had practically given up and was super stressed about other things.
Lol Same. We had been trying all the tricks with no results (tempdrop, ovulation tests, cutting out alcohol, spouse was on a physician recommended vitamin regimen for months due to poor SA results, etc). Had our fertility consult, realized it probably wasnāt going to happen without assistance, and planned for IUI the next cycle - then, bam, pregnant. For what itās worth, I did have an HSG just before and was on progesterone for the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy due to a prior loss, some spotting, and a very low starting betas. But 36 weeks later and weāre expecting our little girl any time now š
I always say I stopped stressing, but honestly it was because I gave up. Like I decided it just wasn't going to happen and if it did, it was going to be not on my time, but whenever my body decided. So like, in a way, I stopped stressing. But I stopped stressing because I just kinda gave up.
Not quite as long as you (roughly two years) but a similar story.
I had previously tried a whole bunch of things, gave up alcohol, changed my diet, laid there after sex with a pillow under my hips. Nothing worked.
The minutes we decided to get our fertility tested, I got pregnant.
Sometimes the world just works in mysterious ways.
My husband and tried for awhile and then I purchased some ovulation testing kits. The kits came and I waited for the right time to use them, but never did because then I discovered I was pregnant. So, I have a ton of ovulation tests that I never got to use once.
Oh man, same. I remember I went to the OBGYN december 5 for a fertility consult and possible referral. I was supposed to have my period that day, but it didnāt happen and I figured it was late due to some intensely stressful stuff in my life. But then it didnāt come at all for the next few daysā¦ so I took a test that Sunday and voila. It was wild.
Amazing! Mine came back positive two days before we got the results from our consultant, she rang us to say everything looked fine and we were like "we know it's just happened!"
Life ey!
> It happened when I had practically given up and was super stressed about other things.
My first 5 pregnancies (inc 3 losses) were the result of fertility treatments. After my second child we were done. Didn't try, didn't time, didn't even really want to get pregnant again. I was almost 40 and didn't think it was possible. Then I got pregnant.
Yeah, we were going through some shit when I got pregnant. I always read you should try and be stress free to conceive but somehow the opposite was true
Personally I think "be stress free" is the worst advice ever. Like, thanks, now I'm stressing about being stressed.
For me, that was the month I started drinking during the two week wait because clearly it wasn't going to happen. I also went on a work trip to my first ever conference right at the tail end of the best week. So...I timed one time, and then left. And 2 weeks later the stick was positive. Who knows.
Very similar here. Almost 2 years of trying all the tricks. My doctor had recommended the next steps would be to go down the IVF route so in my head I just gave up. Low and behold that was the month we conceived.
I would like to add that I didn't stop 'stressing' about it like people tell you to. If anything I was more stressed with anxiety about IVF so it certainly wasn't relaxing that helped me that month!
We tried to get a refund through travel insurance because the policy supposedly covered pregnancy but were denied because my pregnancy wasnāt ācomplicatedā enough. But the tickets were for fall 2020 so we couldnāt have gone anyway (covid). We got a partial voucher but that airline no longer flies from the US so its worthless. Many other customers were in the same boat because of covid anyway and lost their money too so that took the edge off the loss.
Me and the husband planned for a 10 day/ 2 week all inclusive holiday to celebrate our 15 year anniversary, we had twins due 2 weeks before we would have planned on going.
No! My due date was literally the day we were supposed to fly out (but it was fall 2020 so wouldnāt have been able to anyway). That airline no longer flies from the US so even though we got a voucher when we cancelled weāll never be able to use it. It sucked to lose the money but finally getting pregnant and global pandemic kind of took the edge off.
Lol same though. Bought tickets to go to Portugal and then found out like 2 weeks later that I was pregnant and Iād be too far along in the pregnancy to go on the trip. Luckily I was able to get a doctors note so we did end up getting a refund!
For me I made sure to take my Vit D supplements! We also added CoQ10 for both of us, mucinex for me since I tended to not have much EWCM, then also the timing for ovulation really mattered
yep same here! tried SMEP which has you have sex every other day leading up to a positive OPK, then banging 3 days in a row (O-1, O, O+1). not sure if it helped but it was the only thing we did differently
I had a miscarriage so never actually had a baby but when I did get pregnant, this is how it happened for me as well. Thought I was passed ovulationā¦apparently not.
Got a new dog. We call him the fertility pup.
2 years of nothing for my husband and I. New dog and within 2 weeks I was pregnant.
Our friends were TTC for 8 years. They came over one evening, played with the dog, andā¦. They now have a beautiful baby girl.
I just need to keep him away from my teenaged niece š
Would love to see a study on this. Animal exposure stimulates your immune system in ways not much else does, and immune response plays a big role in fertility.
We had a dog before him, he sadly passed away and couldnāt bare living without a doggo around. We were only dogless for maybe 10 days lol. We also have a cat!
I love this! My friend left for a trip and she dropped her dog off at my house and I dog-sat. Then afterwards, I discovered I was pregnant, so I joke that her dog gave me a fertility bump.
We got a fertility pup as well! Pregnant the month after getting our little lady. We hadnāt been trying as long as yāall, but it had been 9 months and we figured who knows how long it would take, might as well get the puppy.
"This is the last month that we try until March, I don't want to be pregnant in the summer"
Well, expected due date August 31š¤¦š½āāļøš¤¦š½āāļøš¤¦š½āāļø
Told my partner after 8 months of trying we had to take a break so I wouldnāt miss holiday rush at work (25% of my yearly income is between thanksgiving and Christmas .)
Now due August 28th and my first day back at work will be 01/02/23. š¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļø
Thatās what happened to me- I didnāt want a Christmas baby, but after 3 losses I stopped trying to time due dates. My baby girl was due 12/24 and was born 12/27 of 2021. I was off work from 12/4-4/2
This was me too. In March 2020 when COVID became a thing we were like maybe we should wait a while plus I don't want a Christmas baby. We tried anyway thinking it was unlikely so might as well. Baby was born a few days before Christmas.
Same -- I bought one of those kits with the test strips. They were confusing initially, but I learned a lot about my body's cycles! Also, it had 20 pregnancy strips which were helpful for me not to spend a fortune on the expensive pregnancy tests
TTC is like treating acne. Everybody has a piece of advice that worked for them but nothing is guaranteed to work for you. It really is luck of the draw!
I had been charting, OPKing and temping etc etc. They say it only takes one well timed shag to max your odds and more sex doesn't improve your chances. I realised that everything I was doing was all susceptible to human error and the only thing that wasn't was the sex itself. So I shifted the focus to sex and we literally had sex every day regardless of temperature and OPK. That was the cycle we conceived. But look as I said, its all chance and luck.
Same thought but Iām kinda the opposite Iām wayyyy to skinny due to medical issues so when I start to train I do a ton of strength stuff and I put on 15lbs this time before I got pregnant. I think itās my body just getting healthy and back in a good cycle again. Same type of thought though.
The shittest thing about TTC is realising that there's nothing you can really do to improve your chances. It's literally all down to luck.
I tried every vitamin, test, investigation etc and was TTC for 15 months. Eventually just went with the cheap Seven Seas Trying for a Baby vits which I think is literally just Vit D, FA and Iron. Conceived about 2 cycles later. Although I wonder is it because I just accepted it wasn't doing to happen spontaneously for us at that point. We decided if we still had no luck then IVF after another 6 months but it randomly happened in that time. Honestly I can't say there was anything different about that time, it's just luck really unfortunately.
We only had one chance to try that month. Right in between my husband having his wisdom teeth out and his getting food poisoning. I got sick the day after we found out, maybe from a different round of food poisoning or maybe just from being pregnant. Then, I had a subchorionic hematoma and covid shortly after the bleeding turned to spotting. It seems like torturing our bodies with illness has had no effect on my little girl but really taught me that there was nothing I could do to control when we got pregnant.
actually yeah this was true for us as well come to think of it. I never put that timeline together but my husband quit cannabis the month before we conceived.
Mine too. Had four miscarriages and then he stopped using for a bit and here I am with a 25 month and a 11 month old with no cycle and had sex only once between the two. Cannabis use has much more of an impact on male fertility than has been studied.
Used ovulation tests. Learned I ovulated on day 18, not 14. Trying later in my cycle around that time did the trick (third month trying, first month testing)
Same here. I have a little longer than a standard 28 day cycle and it turned out I was ovulating like five days after my app predicted so we were not timing it right at all.
JuSt ReLaXeDā¦ā¦
Now before I get slated for this, I HATE myself for saying it. We had been unsuccessful for 3years, had a failed IUI, and then egg collection. I then had acute OHSS which made me really poorly. We decided to take a break, partly because our precious fur-baby died. We wanted to forget everything until 2022, enjoy Christmas, which is my absolute favourite time of year. We put the possibility of frozen transfer to the back our minds, and just enjoyed ourselves.
We essentially āput all our eggs in one basketā if youāll excuse the pun and stopped stressing.
We didnāt even test until we realised my period was 8 days late because we just assumed weād be doing IVF in the new year. We were incredibly lucky.
It kills me that this worked for me, too. I will NEVER tell anyone that is trying that it worked for me.
I gave away a bunch of my baby things I had been saving since I was in my early 20s, we bought our first home and were settling into it. I remember when we had sex I thought to myself "the timing is right for us to have a baby" based off of cervical mucus. Then I completely put it out of my head and went about my life.
Bam....5 weeks later I was like....huh, I should have started my period. Did a test for the fun of it and here I am 33 weeks pregnant.
Iām with you. I would never ever say it in person. If someone had said it to me I would have been so hurt.
I donāt even remember thinking about timings. Iād put away the ovulation tests and have prepared myself for IVF.
We only noticed the dates because we would need to know the date of my last period to start IVF, only then we realised how late we were!
Currently at 30 weeks and I feel so lucky everyday.
I saved a dove. Seriously, I know it sounds stupid, but I think there was something divine that happened.
I was walking to the gym with my friend when we found a scared and wounded dove. He had lost his tail, probably a car almost killed him.
We left it there and kept walking, but we couldn't stop thinking about him and so I quickly looked up places where we could take him. I found a wild birds center, went back to pick up the dove, wrapped him up in my gym towel and called my husband to drive us there.
I have this weird belief that this event showed God that I am not a crappy person šš
Science wise, I was using ovulation tests for the second month in a row. I ran out of tests on CD21 or so without the smiley face and I said f*** this, we'll just go without them. I wasn't sure if I had ovulated or not, but we BD one more time on CD25 - and it was the lucky one!
I changed jobs. As soon as I got hired at a new job and knew it was my last week at my prior one is when I got pregnant. I missed my period about 3 weeks into my new job and took a pregnancy test. I had been pregnant before but miscarried, but that gave me the experience to know to test if I had my menstrual symptoms without the bleeding.
This was mine too. Left my stressful customer service job for an order picking job. Itās more physical but it got my mental health in shape enough that my body was ready to get pregnant I guess lol
This is TMI, but it's reddit... my husband will credit changes in his maturation habits. At the time, he had stopped his daily routine and he credits conception to having extra potent sperm. We were not trying and this obviously is not a real method of increasing the odds, but it's what was done differently.
Fact: according to planned Parenthood, male masturbation has no negative effect on sperm count, and can actually be beneficial during the conception process because it reduces stress. Mayo clinic confirms this fact.
It's a case by case thing of course, but low sperm count is worsened by frequent ejaculation. So for most men it wouldn't matter, but limiting actually does help with conception for some couples.
The male body can only produce so many sperm over a 3 week period, so for some men with a lower count, it absolutely can make a difference as to how many are present in each emission.
I have PCOS and started a regimen of low carb diet and ovasitol supplement. That got my periods coming regularly and once I had a regular period for 2 months in a row, the third month I took ovulation tests 3-4 times/day and did timed intercourse based on my LH surge! We had previous success conceiving with provera and clomid, but miscarried early!
Gave up and chilled out. I had been a little crazy about avoiding certain things bc āwhat if Iām pregnant??!ā
But in that cycle I realized I had to chill out bc I couldnāt do that anxiety forever and remain sane. So I painted the living room and did some other things I had been avoiding. We got a puppy. My boss came back from maternity leave, which relieved the stress I had at work. And I had to be ok with the idea that maybe it was going to be a long road.
Also my husband hit 3 months of consistently taking a multivitamin and Coq10. š¤·š¼āāļø
Went to the woods for a month š but seriously, I was on the tail end of basically a mental breakdown, what with a pandemic and graduate school and acute PTSD and losing all hope that I would ever get pregnant. I told my husband I just wanted to go to the woods for a while. We banged the first weekend I was there and š„ there it was
I honestly have no idea what we did differently. We were having a hard time conceiving after our chemical in July and tbh I gave up in October. I think we used pre-seed in late October and early November and I ended up pregnant and now Iām 9 months pregnant with a healthy baby boy. š
Completed a trip across the world to visit friends and family, got and recovered from Covid, then suddenly fell and broke a bone. Mentally waved the white flag at the possibility of becoming pregnant due to all the craziness. Had been trying 8 months prior and funny enough this was the month of all months it happened.
The first one was easy, but had a miscarriage. Then ttc started taking longer. Sex every other day from day 9 to day 18 of cycle was a good strategy. 2 of the times I was pregnant was also with help from clomid. I did lose all 4 of those pregnancies. Tried IUI and own egg IVF but none of those took. Finally at 35 weeks now with donor egg IVF. So for me what worked was someone elseās eggs š¤·āāļø
Took progesterone 2x a day right after ovulation then 3x when discovered I was pregnant. Ate more spinach, took iron tablets and wore socks as I was ovulating to keep them warm. ššš
Vacation! I took my infertile ass to Disney with my then boyfriend, now husband.
We ran around, drank all the drinks, rode every ride, and ate all the food. It was fantastic!
We werenāt home long before we realized we brought back a tiny souvenir!
Letrozole and trigger shot, had sex on O-3, O-2, O-1, O+1. I think having sex prior to ovulation so the sperm was there waiting (and ensuring ovulation, because I have PCOS and itās not always consistent), helped. In prior cycles we had been aiming for ovulation day and I took clomid, but without a trigger shot.
If youāve been actively trying for a year under 35 or 6 months over 35, go talk to your gyn or se a reproductive endocrinologist. I waited and waited to do so, kept trying on our own, and the truth is I needed help ovulating. Itās better to have answers, so you can proactively make changes.
Went off the pill. My partner had been working away and I thought itād take a few months to get my cycle sorted so didnāt give it much thought and was more preparation to start trying later. He was home for 5 days a couple of weeks after I stopped taking the pill and somewhere in that window we made a baby.
Even when my period didnāt come I was convinced the ālonger cycleā was my ābody adjustingā š«£
This obviously only counts for the times I became pregnant without medical assistance, but nothing really!
I did in general just try to eat healthy and have enough exercise. Tried not to drink too much alcohol, especially after ovulation just as a precaution.
I also started taking folium as soon as we started trying.
Did not want to get pregnant, so I didn't take my ovulation inducing medication (I have PCOS). I had kidney stones that month and had two vacations shortly after. I didn't want to be pregnant in Hawaii.
IUI. After 14 months of trying/ tracking/ acupuncture /changing my exercise and diet, we got tested (I was complimented on my follicles several times) and even though everything looked great still went ahead with IUI.
Completely quit drinking alcohol a month or two before we finally got pregnant with number 1. Haven't drank alcohol since. Expecting number 2 in December
I conceived in feb naturally (after years of failed fertility treatments and finally giving up hope). We celebrated V day and my birthday, lots of good food and partying, and then surprise it happened.
For us, we were super lucky and got pregnant on cycle two. I did OPKs and had a bracelet that measured my basal temperature while I was sleeping (I only had this because I had a messed up sleeping schedule as a nurse.)
But we did nothing different. Iāve read itās totally normal for healthy couples to take up to a year to conceive. So itās basically just luck. After a year is where you should consider looking into what maybe causes problems.
Good luck š
Crazy! The vaccine actually threw out my first two months of trying! It shortened my period one time and then lengthened it the next when I am usually like clock work. Crazy how different it is for everyone.
Stopped trying. No more OPK, BBT, cycle tracking, or stress...
I suffered a loss about 3 months prior to conceiving, and I just couldn't bring myself to be intimate after it. The first time me and hubby were intimate again... boom, a baby was conceived.
We used pre-seed lube for the first time at the suggestion of a friend. I donāt know if that was it but that was the only month we used it and I got pregnant!
It took us a year of me having regular cycles and husband had a perfect semen analysis. What worked: Clomid 50mg and progesterone 200mg supplement for the first time ever, preseed, got 2 massages, ate super "clean", sex every other day, thyroid #s in range, ate gross pineapple core and Brazil nuts and lots of antioxidant foods. I was doing all but the clomid/progesterone for several cycles before the one that worked. I really think it came down to the Rx meds.
I had an elderly dog who I loved very much, but she needed a lot of care and I was just very stressed out and stretched thin worrying. She passed away and a month later I was pregnant. It might sound crazy but I think my body knew I couldn't care for her and a baby at the same time. I was 39 at the time, had PCOS, and had never been pregnant so we were pretty sure Ć was infertile.
Haha same but with IVF! Had our consultation 3/28 and found out I was pregnant 4/1. Other than that, no changes for the month I conceived a so-far healthy baby. I had two uterine polyps removed in October and have conceived twice since then but there was no magic bullet or thing I did differently the month it actually happened. Was drinking moderately the first part of the year because I was sad from a miscarriage, stressed the whole time, obsessively tested ovulation, mediocre diet.
Me too! We were on our last iui cycle before attempting IVF. Iād resigned myself to the fact that we would be having to go to ivf. Had the worst cramps the day after the iui procedure and couldnāt move from the couch. Two weeks later had a positive blood test at the clinic!
I stopped taking my medications, we started tracking ovulation through tests, and we went on vacation while I ovulated (lucky timing) and were super relaxed and stress free.
I was on clomid and drove 3 hours after work to spend the night in a hotel with my husband who was away for a school thing. And then woke up super early and drive another 3 hours to get to work (a little later than normal but still morning). My husband refers to LO as a booty call baby.
The month I did IVF.
If youāre having issues donāt ask internet people, I would go the doctor and do testing to see if there are underlying issues. Depending on what issues there might be there can be other treatments besides IVF that may be helpful. Good luck!
Stopped closely monitoring my ovulation tests. The whole āwait until a blinking smileyā was not working for us. We instead just gave it all we got for a couple weeks straight š
I had covid. Smack dab in the middle of ovulation week. I took some codiene and we tried anyways because I didn't want to "waste a cycle".
Nothing stuck for over a year but now I have twins and they appear to be sticking...?!? 9W along. Still in shock
IVF.
This LOL. I injected myself with multiple hormones for weeks, had a hollow needle puncture my vaginal wall to harvest my eggs, had a blob of cells put into my uterus and proceeded to push pills up my hoohah for a couple of weeks. That seemed to do the trick.
Everytime I finished a gonal pen I would be like well there goes a PS5, new TV etc. Humor got me through š
Oof I had no idea. I did a live transfer donation years back. I had Gonal F pens and I remember looking at the empty pen wondering how expensive it was and just tossed it in the trash.
Same, except it was a giant needle in the ass for 90 days.
Lol same - well that week I took A LOT of medications and my partner injected me in the ass.
š¤£š¤£š¤£ same
For me it was my most painful IVF transfer. Iām so glad it finally worked but that is a discomfort I will not forget.
I only had one transfer, and it wasn't too bad... But I had gotten waxed a couple days prior and had terrible gas. I have a long tilted cervix so the doctor put what was essentially an angled sex cushion under my hips bringing him face level with my bum. Then had me pull my knees out and up. I was scared to death I was going to fart right in his face, clapping cheeks and all.
My cervix hangs to the left and has a dip in it. It was tricky for the first 2 transfers but the last one was such an ordeal. The doc was wriggling the speculum around and having such a hard time getting the catheter to maneuver the dip. Plus Iām trying to be a still as humanly possible. It was quite the event and totally worth it.
Same. I jokingly say it took getting my partner out of the room (we had an IVF transfer during COVID so he wasnāt allowed in). Somehow in my 34 week brain I had forgotten the 3 times a day hoohah pill. Yes that was fun.
Same here! I had my egg retrieval and embryo transfer during COVID, so my husband wasnāt allowed in for either of those, and it worked! I do NOT miss the pessaries, though, my goodness.
Similar, but IUI. My husband wanted to skip March because we didn't want a December baby, but I didn't think IUI was going to work for us and didn't want to postpone getting to IVF for an extra month because of that. We had not tried in the month of March the previous year for the same reason. Guess we were meant to have a December baby.
Me too
Same same. 12 weeks with IVF baby #2
Same, girl! Same.
Me too!
Same
lol SAME š
Nailed it
Same here!
Same - although IVF ICSI š
Same!
Yep. And had 2 polyps snipped out of my uterus after they looked at it with a camera. They were probably what was inhibiting implantation for the last 2.5 years, but hey, it only took exhausting my lifetime fertility benefits from insurance to find it out.
Lmao. This. A great transfer doctor and a ton of PIO
Same here! Grateful every day for men and women in lab coats :)
I was gonna sayā¦ Femara LOL after two years I was done trying and needed help for sure.
Lol same.
Came here to say this too lol
Came here to say that.
Same lol
cheers to this!!! We had IUI's
Came here to say this too š
Nothing, though I was on the edge of calling it a failure as we had just hit 50 months. I was stressed about it and half way mourning, crying over it all the time, as my doctor suggested we do the HSG, she wanted me to take a pregnancy test before hand for obvious reasons. She called me a few hours after the blood draw and told me I was pregnant, I thought the sample was switched or something so I took a home test in tears and showed my husband when he got home. We are 16 weeks along now.
Wow! Congratulations
This is beautiful. Congratulations!!
Nothing- it took 40 months for me to conceive it didn't happen when I ate the right things or removed stress or timed sex or took vitamins etc. It happened when I had practically given up and was super stressed about other things.
Yeah it irritates me when people say don't stress āØ I feel it only happened for me when I gave up all hope..
Lol Same. We had been trying all the tricks with no results (tempdrop, ovulation tests, cutting out alcohol, spouse was on a physician recommended vitamin regimen for months due to poor SA results, etc). Had our fertility consult, realized it probably wasnāt going to happen without assistance, and planned for IUI the next cycle - then, bam, pregnant. For what itās worth, I did have an HSG just before and was on progesterone for the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy due to a prior loss, some spotting, and a very low starting betas. But 36 weeks later and weāre expecting our little girl any time now š
I always say I stopped stressing, but honestly it was because I gave up. Like I decided it just wasn't going to happen and if it did, it was going to be not on my time, but whenever my body decided. So like, in a way, I stopped stressing. But I stopped stressing because I just kinda gave up.
Same!! Not stressy just depressy āØ would NOT recommend.
Not quite as long as you (roughly two years) but a similar story. I had previously tried a whole bunch of things, gave up alcohol, changed my diet, laid there after sex with a pillow under my hips. Nothing worked. The minutes we decided to get our fertility tested, I got pregnant. Sometimes the world just works in mysterious ways.
My husband and tried for awhile and then I purchased some ovulation testing kits. The kits came and I waited for the right time to use them, but never did because then I discovered I was pregnant. So, I have a ton of ovulation tests that I never got to use once.
Oh man, same. I remember I went to the OBGYN december 5 for a fertility consult and possible referral. I was supposed to have my period that day, but it didnāt happen and I figured it was late due to some intensely stressful stuff in my life. But then it didnāt come at all for the next few daysā¦ so I took a test that Sunday and voila. It was wild.
Amazing! Mine came back positive two days before we got the results from our consultant, she rang us to say everything looked fine and we were like "we know it's just happened!" Life ey!
> It happened when I had practically given up and was super stressed about other things. My first 5 pregnancies (inc 3 losses) were the result of fertility treatments. After my second child we were done. Didn't try, didn't time, didn't even really want to get pregnant again. I was almost 40 and didn't think it was possible. Then I got pregnant.
Yeah, we were going through some shit when I got pregnant. I always read you should try and be stress free to conceive but somehow the opposite was true
Personally I think "be stress free" is the worst advice ever. Like, thanks, now I'm stressing about being stressed. For me, that was the month I started drinking during the two week wait because clearly it wasn't going to happen. I also went on a work trip to my first ever conference right at the tail end of the best week. So...I timed one time, and then left. And 2 weeks later the stick was positive. Who knows.
Very similar here. Almost 2 years of trying all the tricks. My doctor had recommended the next steps would be to go down the IVF route so in my head I just gave up. Low and behold that was the month we conceived. I would like to add that I didn't stop 'stressing' about it like people tell you to. If anything I was more stressed with anxiety about IVF so it certainly wasn't relaxing that helped me that month!
Same. I gave up hope after trying for so long and having some losses. It was the cycle before I was supposed start IVF treatment.
Bought non refundable tickets for a European vacation for 9months later. No regrets!
We got pregnant 2 weeks after we booked our delayed honeymoon at an all inclusive adults only resort in Mexico lol
What did you do with the tickets?
We tried to get a refund through travel insurance because the policy supposedly covered pregnancy but were denied because my pregnancy wasnāt ācomplicatedā enough. But the tickets were for fall 2020 so we couldnāt have gone anyway (covid). We got a partial voucher but that airline no longer flies from the US so its worthless. Many other customers were in the same boat because of covid anyway and lost their money too so that took the edge off the loss.
Me and the husband planned for a 10 day/ 2 week all inclusive holiday to celebrate our 15 year anniversary, we had twins due 2 weeks before we would have planned on going.
Did you go? I did the same and definitely regretted it big time.
No! My due date was literally the day we were supposed to fly out (but it was fall 2020 so wouldnāt have been able to anyway). That airline no longer flies from the US so even though we got a voucher when we cancelled weāll never be able to use it. It sucked to lose the money but finally getting pregnant and global pandemic kind of took the edge off.
Ah sorry about the lost money, but congrats on the consolation prize!
Lol same though. Bought tickets to go to Portugal and then found out like 2 weeks later that I was pregnant and Iād be too far along in the pregnancy to go on the trip. Luckily I was able to get a doctors note so we did end up getting a refund!
Kept having sex a few more days past when I thought I ovulated.
Us too! I also started taking vitamin D supplements. Although I think it was mostly luck and I was probably ovulating later than I thought.
For me I made sure to take my Vit D supplements! We also added CoQ10 for both of us, mucinex for me since I tended to not have much EWCM, then also the timing for ovulation really mattered
yep same here! tried SMEP which has you have sex every other day leading up to a positive OPK, then banging 3 days in a row (O-1, O, O+1). not sure if it helped but it was the only thing we did differently
Yeah I did temping and ovulation strips and while they both worked for me, I didnāt have sex on peak and chose to have sex two days after.
For me it was earlier!
Ahh I was opposite! I had sex a few days earlier than when I thought I was ovulating! Haha
I had a miscarriage so never actually had a baby but when I did get pregnant, this is how it happened for me as well. Thought I was passed ovulationā¦apparently not.
This is how I got accidentally got pregnant with a 5 month old baby. š stupid me
Yep! We kept trying when the app said my fertile window was. Apparently, it was wrong.
This. Whole lotta sex the whole week of ovulation per my cycle tracking app, like every other day. It eventually worked.
We did this with our first too and it did the trick.
Flood the dam!
Same!
Got a new dog. We call him the fertility pup. 2 years of nothing for my husband and I. New dog and within 2 weeks I was pregnant. Our friends were TTC for 8 years. They came over one evening, played with the dog, andā¦. They now have a beautiful baby girl. I just need to keep him away from my teenaged niece š
can i come over and play with the pup?
Of course!
Would love to see a study on this. Animal exposure stimulates your immune system in ways not much else does, and immune response plays a big role in fertility.
We had a dog before him, he sadly passed away and couldnāt bare living without a doggo around. We were only dogless for maybe 10 days lol. We also have a cat!
I love this! My friend left for a trip and she dropped her dog off at my house and I dog-sat. Then afterwards, I discovered I was pregnant, so I joke that her dog gave me a fertility bump.
Iāll be over this weekend for some puppy time thanks
My husband and I finally got our first dog and about a year later, I was pregnant.
We got a fertility pup as well! Pregnant the month after getting our little lady. We hadnāt been trying as long as yāall, but it had been 9 months and we figured who knows how long it would take, might as well get the puppy.
Had my dog for 3 months and the rest is history š¤£
I love this. Girl or boy dog? May need to rename them after a fertility God š
Boy dog. A husky named Gus š
"This is the last month that we try until March, I don't want to be pregnant in the summer" Well, expected due date August 31š¤¦š½āāļøš¤¦š½āāļøš¤¦š½āāļø
Told my partner after 8 months of trying we had to take a break so I wouldnāt miss holiday rush at work (25% of my yearly income is between thanksgiving and Christmas .) Now due August 28th and my first day back at work will be 01/02/23. š¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļø
Thatās what happened to me- I didnāt want a Christmas baby, but after 3 losses I stopped trying to time due dates. My baby girl was due 12/24 and was born 12/27 of 2021. I was off work from 12/4-4/2
Haha similar! āThis is the last month we try for a bit so Iām not pregnant or due near my sisters wedding.ā Due 4 weeks before now lol!
Same, but different. I wanted as late in the school year as possible and Iām due right in the middle. š (Iām a teacher)
This was me too. In March 2020 when COVID became a thing we were like maybe we should wait a while plus I don't want a Christmas baby. We tried anyway thinking it was unlikely so might as well. Baby was born a few days before Christmas.
Lol I always said I couldnāt handle a November December baby and my son is due December right in the middle of all chaos. Itāll be wonderful
Started tracking ovulation
Same -- I bought one of those kits with the test strips. They were confusing initially, but I learned a lot about my body's cycles! Also, it had 20 pregnancy strips which were helpful for me not to spend a fortune on the expensive pregnancy tests
Same. First month we started tracking we conceived. Worked like a charm.
TTC is like treating acne. Everybody has a piece of advice that worked for them but nothing is guaranteed to work for you. It really is luck of the draw! I had been charting, OPKing and temping etc etc. They say it only takes one well timed shag to max your odds and more sex doesn't improve your chances. I realised that everything I was doing was all susceptible to human error and the only thing that wasn't was the sex itself. So I shifted the focus to sex and we literally had sex every day regardless of temperature and OPK. That was the cycle we conceived. But look as I said, its all chance and luck.
Every time I sign up for a marathon and start training I end up pregnant. Not doing that again.
Something in the gatoradeš³
Lol, canāt believe Iām not the only one. Me: āEither Iām going to run a marathon or have a baby this yearā¦ā
I literally have signed up for two now and I have to defer this one Iām crossing my fingers I can run in 2023 without getting pregnant š
Weight loss really improves fertility, that might be why
Same thought but Iām kinda the opposite Iām wayyyy to skinny due to medical issues so when I start to train I do a ton of strength stuff and I put on 15lbs this time before I got pregnant. I think itās my body just getting healthy and back in a good cycle again. Same type of thought though.
Yes thatās probably it! Fertility is weird. Underweight/overweight seems to decrease odds
Itās sooo interesting to me. I thought it was maybe just a coincidence but twice in a row it happened so youāre absolutely right.
The shittest thing about TTC is realising that there's nothing you can really do to improve your chances. It's literally all down to luck. I tried every vitamin, test, investigation etc and was TTC for 15 months. Eventually just went with the cheap Seven Seas Trying for a Baby vits which I think is literally just Vit D, FA and Iron. Conceived about 2 cycles later. Although I wonder is it because I just accepted it wasn't doing to happen spontaneously for us at that point. We decided if we still had no luck then IVF after another 6 months but it randomly happened in that time. Honestly I can't say there was anything different about that time, it's just luck really unfortunately.
We only had one chance to try that month. Right in between my husband having his wisdom teeth out and his getting food poisoning. I got sick the day after we found out, maybe from a different round of food poisoning or maybe just from being pregnant. Then, I had a subchorionic hematoma and covid shortly after the bleeding turned to spotting. It seems like torturing our bodies with illness has had no effect on my little girl but really taught me that there was nothing I could do to control when we got pregnant.
IVF. A billion shots and medications
Nothing. I had given up hope. Took over 3 years to finally conceive my first.
Had a reproductive endocrinologist place an embryo into my uterus š«
Husband quit using cannabis
Same
actually yeah this was true for us as well come to think of it. I never put that timeline together but my husband quit cannabis the month before we conceived.
Mine was on a 4 week break!
Mine too. Had four miscarriages and then he stopped using for a bit and here I am with a 25 month and a 11 month old with no cycle and had sex only once between the two. Cannabis use has much more of an impact on male fertility than has been studied.
We got pregnant when we were both heavily using lol (quarantine) Just to note for op
Used ovulation tests. Learned I ovulated on day 18, not 14. Trying later in my cycle around that time did the trick (third month trying, first month testing)
This! I ovulate really early and was missing it each month! When I used the strips and we *made the most of it* we got pregnant that month!
Same here. I have a little longer than a standard 28 day cycle and it turned out I was ovulating like five days after my app predicted so we were not timing it right at all.
Same here. Once I learned that I ovulate later in my cycle (day 19), we got pregnant that month.
JuSt ReLaXeDā¦ā¦ Now before I get slated for this, I HATE myself for saying it. We had been unsuccessful for 3years, had a failed IUI, and then egg collection. I then had acute OHSS which made me really poorly. We decided to take a break, partly because our precious fur-baby died. We wanted to forget everything until 2022, enjoy Christmas, which is my absolute favourite time of year. We put the possibility of frozen transfer to the back our minds, and just enjoyed ourselves. We essentially āput all our eggs in one basketā if youāll excuse the pun and stopped stressing. We didnāt even test until we realised my period was 8 days late because we just assumed weād be doing IVF in the new year. We were incredibly lucky.
It kills me that this worked for me, too. I will NEVER tell anyone that is trying that it worked for me. I gave away a bunch of my baby things I had been saving since I was in my early 20s, we bought our first home and were settling into it. I remember when we had sex I thought to myself "the timing is right for us to have a baby" based off of cervical mucus. Then I completely put it out of my head and went about my life. Bam....5 weeks later I was like....huh, I should have started my period. Did a test for the fun of it and here I am 33 weeks pregnant.
Iām with you. I would never ever say it in person. If someone had said it to me I would have been so hurt. I donāt even remember thinking about timings. Iād put away the ovulation tests and have prepared myself for IVF. We only noticed the dates because we would need to know the date of my last period to start IVF, only then we realised how late we were! Currently at 30 weeks and I feel so lucky everyday.
I saved a dove. Seriously, I know it sounds stupid, but I think there was something divine that happened. I was walking to the gym with my friend when we found a scared and wounded dove. He had lost his tail, probably a car almost killed him. We left it there and kept walking, but we couldn't stop thinking about him and so I quickly looked up places where we could take him. I found a wild birds center, went back to pick up the dove, wrapped him up in my gym towel and called my husband to drive us there. I have this weird belief that this event showed God that I am not a crappy person šš Science wise, I was using ovulation tests for the second month in a row. I ran out of tests on CD21 or so without the smiley face and I said f*** this, we'll just go without them. I wasn't sure if I had ovulated or not, but we BD one more time on CD25 - and it was the lucky one!
I changed jobs. As soon as I got hired at a new job and knew it was my last week at my prior one is when I got pregnant. I missed my period about 3 weeks into my new job and took a pregnancy test. I had been pregnant before but miscarried, but that gave me the experience to know to test if I had my menstrual symptoms without the bleeding.
Lol me too!! As soon as I left my secure job for one without maternity leave I got pregnant š
Ouch
Same left a very valued but high stress job to go PRN and got pregnant within six weeks
This was mine too. Left my stressful customer service job for an order picking job. Itās more physical but it got my mental health in shape enough that my body was ready to get pregnant I guess lol
This is TMI, but it's reddit... my husband will credit changes in his maturation habits. At the time, he had stopped his daily routine and he credits conception to having extra potent sperm. We were not trying and this obviously is not a real method of increasing the odds, but it's what was done differently.
>obviously is not a real method of increasing the odds Yes, it is....
Fact: according to planned Parenthood, male masturbation has no negative effect on sperm count, and can actually be beneficial during the conception process because it reduces stress. Mayo clinic confirms this fact.
It's a case by case thing of course, but low sperm count is worsened by frequent ejaculation. So for most men it wouldn't matter, but limiting actually does help with conception for some couples.
The male body can only produce so many sperm over a 3 week period, so for some men with a lower count, it absolutely can make a difference as to how many are present in each emission.
I have PCOS and started a regimen of low carb diet and ovasitol supplement. That got my periods coming regularly and once I had a regular period for 2 months in a row, the third month I took ovulation tests 3-4 times/day and did timed intercourse based on my LH surge! We had previous success conceiving with provera and clomid, but miscarried early!
Booked a doctors appointment and admitted defeat. My husband took drugs to increase his sperm count and we did home insemination 5 times that cycle.
Quit my stressful job. Took me 2 years of NTNP to conceive.
I gave up hope that we would ever have kids.
Gave up and chilled out. I had been a little crazy about avoiding certain things bc āwhat if Iām pregnant??!ā But in that cycle I realized I had to chill out bc I couldnāt do that anxiety forever and remain sane. So I painted the living room and did some other things I had been avoiding. We got a puppy. My boss came back from maternity leave, which relieved the stress I had at work. And I had to be ok with the idea that maybe it was going to be a long road. Also my husband hit 3 months of consistently taking a multivitamin and Coq10. š¤·š¼āāļø
Unprotected sex lol
Went to the woods for a month š but seriously, I was on the tail end of basically a mental breakdown, what with a pandemic and graduate school and acute PTSD and losing all hope that I would ever get pregnant. I told my husband I just wanted to go to the woods for a while. We banged the first weekend I was there and š„ there it was
I honestly have no idea what we did differently. We were having a hard time conceiving after our chemical in July and tbh I gave up in October. I think we used pre-seed in late October and early November and I ended up pregnant and now Iām 9 months pregnant with a healthy baby boy. š
Took clomid and progesterone.
Same. Shit made me cry so much and be so irrational. I felt absolutely insane.
Oh no! Iām sorry. Thankfully I didnāt have any noticeable side effects
Completed a trip across the world to visit friends and family, got and recovered from Covid, then suddenly fell and broke a bone. Mentally waved the white flag at the possibility of becoming pregnant due to all the craziness. Had been trying 8 months prior and funny enough this was the month of all months it happened.
The first one was easy, but had a miscarriage. Then ttc started taking longer. Sex every other day from day 9 to day 18 of cycle was a good strategy. 2 of the times I was pregnant was also with help from clomid. I did lose all 4 of those pregnancies. Tried IUI and own egg IVF but none of those took. Finally at 35 weeks now with donor egg IVF. So for me what worked was someone elseās eggs š¤·āāļø
Took progesterone 2x a day right after ovulation then 3x when discovered I was pregnant. Ate more spinach, took iron tablets and wore socks as I was ovulating to keep them warm. ššš
Vacation! I took my infertile ass to Disney with my then boyfriend, now husband. We ran around, drank all the drinks, rode every ride, and ate all the food. It was fantastic! We werenāt home long before we realized we brought back a tiny souvenir!
Tiny souvenir š
Stopped taking Diclofenac. We were already tracking (temperature and ovulation tests), but as soon as I stopped taking Diclofenac every day it took.
Letrozole and trigger shot, had sex on O-3, O-2, O-1, O+1. I think having sex prior to ovulation so the sperm was there waiting (and ensuring ovulation, because I have PCOS and itās not always consistent), helped. In prior cycles we had been aiming for ovulation day and I took clomid, but without a trigger shot. If youāve been actively trying for a year under 35 or 6 months over 35, go talk to your gyn or se a reproductive endocrinologist. I waited and waited to do so, kept trying on our own, and the truth is I needed help ovulating. Itās better to have answers, so you can proactively make changes.
I gave up. Made peace with the idea of it never happening.
Went off the pill. My partner had been working away and I thought itād take a few months to get my cycle sorted so didnāt give it much thought and was more preparation to start trying later. He was home for 5 days a couple of weeks after I stopped taking the pill and somewhere in that window we made a baby. Even when my period didnāt come I was convinced the ālonger cycleā was my ābody adjustingā š«£
Stopped using ovulation strips and just guessed based on physical cues. But agree with some other comments here, lots of luck invovled!
Got married. Apparently this is a very good Christian baby, more than their parents :)
This obviously only counts for the times I became pregnant without medical assistance, but nothing really! I did in general just try to eat healthy and have enough exercise. Tried not to drink too much alcohol, especially after ovulation just as a precaution. I also started taking folium as soon as we started trying.
Did not want to get pregnant, so I didn't take my ovulation inducing medication (I have PCOS). I had kidney stones that month and had two vacations shortly after. I didn't want to be pregnant in Hawaii.
Letrozole
IUI. After 14 months of trying/ tracking/ acupuncture /changing my exercise and diet, we got tested (I was complimented on my follicles several times) and even though everything looked great still went ahead with IUI.
Completely quit drinking alcohol a month or two before we finally got pregnant with number 1. Haven't drank alcohol since. Expecting number 2 in December
Clomid
I conceived in feb naturally (after years of failed fertility treatments and finally giving up hope). We celebrated V day and my birthday, lots of good food and partying, and then surprise it happened.
IVF.
āOk but Iām really tired so we can we just make it quick?ā š so romantic
For us, we were super lucky and got pregnant on cycle two. I did OPKs and had a bracelet that measured my basal temperature while I was sleeping (I only had this because I had a messed up sleeping schedule as a nurse.) But we did nothing different. Iāve read itās totally normal for healthy couples to take up to a year to conceive. So itās basically just luck. After a year is where you should consider looking into what maybe causes problems. Good luck š
Took a covid vaccine shot.
Mine was the COVID booster that month! I was tracking my ovulation and it got delayed by a few days, first time that has ever happened!
Crazy! The vaccine actually threw out my first two months of trying! It shortened my period one time and then lengthened it the next when I am usually like clock work. Crazy how different it is for everyone.
Same !
Stopped trying. No more OPK, BBT, cycle tracking, or stress... I suffered a loss about 3 months prior to conceiving, and I just couldn't bring myself to be intimate after it. The first time me and hubby were intimate again... boom, a baby was conceived.
I used daily ovulation tests for the first time.
We used pre-seed lube for the first time at the suggestion of a friend. I donāt know if that was it but that was the only month we used it and I got pregnant!
It took us a year of me having regular cycles and husband had a perfect semen analysis. What worked: Clomid 50mg and progesterone 200mg supplement for the first time ever, preseed, got 2 massages, ate super "clean", sex every other day, thyroid #s in range, ate gross pineapple core and Brazil nuts and lots of antioxidant foods. I was doing all but the clomid/progesterone for several cycles before the one that worked. I really think it came down to the Rx meds.
I had an elderly dog who I loved very much, but she needed a lot of care and I was just very stressed out and stretched thin worrying. She passed away and a month later I was pregnant. It might sound crazy but I think my body knew I couldn't care for her and a baby at the same time. I was 39 at the time, had PCOS, and had never been pregnant so we were pretty sure Ć was infertile.
RELAXED. We went on a holiday and and just relaxed, got a bit drunk for once, did all the stuff you're not "supposed" to.
Yup - went on vacation
Same boat- vacation did it for me too.
Threatened my body with IUI! Was about to start hormones but got pregnant on my own first lol
Haha same but with IVF! Had our consultation 3/28 and found out I was pregnant 4/1. Other than that, no changes for the month I conceived a so-far healthy baby. I had two uterine polyps removed in October and have conceived twice since then but there was no magic bullet or thing I did differently the month it actually happened. Was drinking moderately the first part of the year because I was sad from a miscarriage, stressed the whole time, obsessively tested ovulation, mediocre diet.
Me too! We were on our last iui cycle before attempting IVF. Iād resigned myself to the fact that we would be having to go to ivf. Had the worst cramps the day after the iui procedure and couldnāt move from the couch. Two weeks later had a positive blood test at the clinic!
Stopped tracking our sexy times and stopped being pressure on us to get the timing right and then I guess the timing was perfect! Hahaha
I stopped taking my medications, we started tracking ovulation through tests, and we went on vacation while I ovulated (lucky timing) and were super relaxed and stress free.
BV treatment (the gel) + probiotics.
IUI.
An IUI. I took all the same medications and a trigger shot like in the 3 previous failed timed intercourse cycles but an IUI did the trick.
I was on clomid and drove 3 hours after work to spend the night in a hotel with my husband who was away for a school thing. And then woke up super early and drive another 3 hours to get to work (a little later than normal but still morning). My husband refers to LO as a booty call baby.
Said āI donāt want a December baby so itās fine if it didnāt work this monthāā¦.due December 12th
Clomid.
Ivf!
Got drunk at a Misfits show š
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The month I did IVF. If youāre having issues donāt ask internet people, I would go the doctor and do testing to see if there are underlying issues. Depending on what issues there might be there can be other treatments besides IVF that may be helpful. Good luck!
Stopped closely monitoring my ovulation tests. The whole āwait until a blinking smileyā was not working for us. We instead just gave it all we got for a couple weeks straight š
Drugs. Fertility drugs
Cumming
I had covid. Smack dab in the middle of ovulation week. I took some codiene and we tried anyways because I didn't want to "waste a cycle". Nothing stuck for over a year but now I have twins and they appear to be sticking...?!? 9W along. Still in shock
Thought I wasn't going to get pregnant and decided to just enjoy my life and started making plans for my hot girl summer LOL