I am 39 years old. I want another baby. Because of career changes and other circumstances in our lives, my husband and I waited to have a second child. Now we are having trouble getting pregnant. My OB/GYN said that it is likely due to my age. I have had the blood test to measure hormone levels- I am not menopausal. My husband's semen analysis was normal. I am now taking chaste tree berry (per advice of a naturopath) and monitoring my ovulation. I also see an acupuncturist. We have already started exploring adoption. I am not yet sure how aggressive I want to be in using medical science to get pregnant again. I welcome any advice from anyone who has been here. Did you take hormones? Any natural methods that have worked? My first pregnancy came about the old fashioned way. I figure if I could get pregnant once, I can do it again, but I am feeling frustrated. Perhaps my stressing out about it is making it more difficult...:)
I highly recommend the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler. It explains in depth everything about your fertility and how to make it work for you in order to get pregnant (or not). I used its methods successfully, and so have several of my friends who were having difficulty conceiving.
Good luck!
Hi M.,
I was in a similar situation, but had had a miscarriage. My OB was reluctant to consider me as having a fertility issue despite my age, because she considered that the clock had restarted after I had my miscarriage.
I found a couple of things going on. One was that my cycle was irregular, and some research convinced me that I had some kind of hormonal estrogen/progesterone imbalance. Tracking my cycle showed I was ovulating just a day or so before my period started, rather than 10-14 days before. That gave me very little time to get pregnant! There are many doctors who believe this is a progesterone issues (but unfortunately not my OB), so I used progesterone cream. Low progesterone also is thought to cause miscarriage, so after I finally got pregnant I continued the cream for 18 weeks. My OB was skeptical, but I didn't want to risk another miscarriage.
I also did acupuncture, crude herbs from my acupuncturist, tui-na 2 times, and I got a book called Fertility Wisdom (I think that's the name!) and took her advice and practiced the Chi Gong and other recommendations. I did get pregnant and have a healthy baby girl. I really think the Chi Gong is great for increasing blood flow to the right areas and keeping the body systems in balance. Another thing I did was sweep through all my personal care products and food sources and eliminate anything potentially endocrine disrupting. I also got rid of herbs that are potentially cramp inducing. I don't have the resources at hand for what all those are, but some internet research can fill you in.
I wish you the best, and it sounds like you are on the right track!
At 39 you should be able to concieve normally without problems. First you should relax, find time to rest because stress delays pregnancy. Dedicate time for this and prepare your body to concieve. Help by taking Vitamins, good dieting, Folic Acid and in God's own time you will be pregnant.
If you believe in God, just know that Children are a priceless gift from God.
Hope you recieve your gift soon.
Keep doing what you're doing (and try not to stress out). I really, really liked a book called "Inconceivable" by Julia Indichova. It's her personal story about secondary infertility and how she eventually conceived her second child. It reminds you that the "experts" aren't always right or kind. Sometimes with soul-searching, you find that you are the expert on your own body. I also liked a book called "The Infertility Cure," by Randine Lewis (it's about using Chinese medicine to treat infertility, it might give you some insights to pass on to your acupuncturist). Also, see if you can find a Mayan Abdominal Massage practitioner in your area. Apparently Mayan massage can work wonders for infertility.
We went through IVF with our first, but then the 2nd was the natural way and we were pleasantly surprised since I was 40 at the time. Have your husband start taking Omega-3 purified fish oil. I'm convinced that helped us the 2nd time as my husband had been taking it every day for 3 months before we got pregnant :) I didn't even know it was good for male fertility until after we got pregnant and I read some research indicating that it would help!
The older we are, the harder it is to get pregnant, maybe we don't ovulate every month, we've got a lot on our plates and the stress we internalize can impact fertilization. Take a deep breath. Slow down. Enjoy the life you have and don't try to cram so much into each day as you end up pushing other things out, like pregnancy. Don't focus on procreation, give yourself and your husband a break from the work of getting pregnant. Enjoy yourselves. Let Mother Nature orchestrate this preganancy. If after a year to 18 months and you haven't conceived, then take additional steps to increase the size of your family.
I wish you nothing but happiness!!
Hi :) I was wondering how you monitor your ovulation? Is it with ovulation prediction kits, or through charting your cervical mucous, etc? Cuz I wanna introduce you to charting your fertility, but don't wanna preach to the choir if you're already doing it!
