Pregnancy Thread

This is all you need to know:

In 1995, the New England Journal of Medicine researchers proclaimed that, "the timing of sexual intercourse in relation to ovulation has no bearing on the sex of the baby." There are also studies found in The International Journal of Fertility and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.


At any rate Shettles wouldn't have even been dispositive in your case were it true/wasn't bs - my guess is that your wife wasn't monitoring BBT and neither were most of the family members so there's no way to tell ovulation as it relates to when all of those girls were actually conceived. Temping is the only way to confirm when ovulation actually occurred (past tense - you can't confirm when you are 'going' to ovulate - you can only do things to predict when its highly likely you will ovulate - monitoring cervical position, LH test strips, cervical mucous etc).

As an example when I was talking about how my cycles were fucked up due to breast feeding - they were 40 - 60 days long. Most doctors compute due date from LMP (first day of last menstrual period) because most women don't know exactly when they ovulated (again most women aren't temping) so they go with 'an average' which is around cycle day 13-16. And then sometimes the baby will 'measure ahead' or 'behind' in the first tri and its not because the baby is 'big' or 'small' (fetal development in first tri is actually extremely standard - that's why they can do the NT Scan at 11-13 weeks with any reasonable expectation of predictive outcome) - its because mom ovulated a little early or a little late. If its off by greater than a week as it relates to the ultrasound they will typically shift the expected due date, anything less than that they will leave it based on the LMP.

In my case, because I knew my cycles were long going into trying to conceive, I didn't want them to calculate my due date based on LMP in the event I did get pregnant. So I temped and charted and at my appointment a few weeks ago walked in with my chart that showed ovulation on cycle day 30. Low and behold at the ultrasound last wed the estimated due date was within 2 days of when I said it was - if they had gone by LMP I would have been over 2 weeks 'farther along'.

If you're temping you also can start testing earlier with some sort of reasonable assurance as to when you should be able to turn a pee stick positive. My first positive was 9 days post ovulation (so 5 days 'early' in the '2 week wait'). The other benefit to temping/knowing when you ovulated is that you know if there's a problem. In addition to having long cycles due to breast feeding, my luteal phase was really short (<10 days) - which is a problem. Typically the embryo needs a minimum of 10 days to be able to implant and begin to grow/continue to have the progesterone rise needed to accompany sustaining a pregnancy. My luteal phase my first postpartum cycle (at 7 months postpartum) was 7 days. The next was 9. So I started on a B6 supplement which helps and was on that for about 2 months before trying to conceive. It apparently worked. I also implanted at the way early end of the possible timeframe for implantation post ovulation - around 6 days - it is typically 6 to 10 days post ovulation. (I know this again because of temping). So I am sure early implantation did play a role.

yeah I mean I've said it before - with PERFECT timing it can take a healthy couple up to a year to conceive. There's women I know that have been temping/charting/using fertility monitors for 8-9 months hitting every single day in the fertility window with no luck.

Given all that you were doing (which is a lot more than the overwhelming majority of the population) I'm still a little shocked that you are like "well I don't know stuff" - this is pretty advanced for the majority of the population if you were doing it religiously.

I never did the ferning/saliva/microscope thing (or the cervical position checks).

Also I love peeing on things. Pee on all the things.

OneofOne_sl said:

Too much worrying and checking gauges and dials while trying to get pregnant is ITSELF a hindrance to getting pregnant. We went through that for 2 years, said fuck this shit, we can't keep doing it, and bam, preggers.

Click to expand...

Had the opposite experience. Did all the things, knocked up first cycle both times. Stress has to be pretty extreme to impact fertility - like as in you're in a warzone/refugee extreme.

Those people above I mentioned who were doing all the things 8-9 months were not trying but not preventing (casually trying) for six months to a year before they started 'checking gauges'.

Your odds, every single cycle, of having successful fertilization, implantation, and development into a babywith perfect timingis <20%. It varies a bit based on maternal age but that's the general rule of thumb. Getting pregnant is actually pretty hard. I have all the feels for IF'ers.

OneofOne_sl said:

Stress and Infertility


Do you even pregnancy?

Click to expand...

Says its extremely variant. Your whole "knowing shit and checking gauges" thing isn't really the type of stress that impacts it. The studies do say it has to be extreme - the example I gave was hyperbole but normal healthy amounts of stress won't do anything is my point. If you're like extremely wound up about it (and thus much beyond 'checking gauges') then yes, extreme stress can have impact. Checking gauges=not extreme stress. Worry=not extreme stress.

Do you pregnant? The whole "just stop worrying and it will happen" is a whole lot of bullshit. As someone with lots of friends who have had IF issues (including MFI - as in the problem is you all with the penises), hearing people say shit like this is extremely heartbreaking and just plain untrue the overwhelming majority of the time. Very insensitive.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

100% on first cycle every time for us, would love to see some science on your 20% number.

Click to expand...

https://www.asrm.org/uploadedFiles/A...efertility.pdf

Page 4.

There's some amount of variance - like some studies will put the numbers at slightly higher than 20% for those in their 20's, like 15% for 30-35 year olds, but most drop to less than 10% by the time a woman hits 35.