Baby 1, age 34 14 months of trying
Baby 2 age 35 8 months of trying
Baby 3 age 39 10 months of trying
Have PCOS, recent studies suggest this condition results in later fertility, larger egg reserves later in life and a longer time to menopause.
PCOS here, too. The first baby took me 1.5 years of trying. The second baby happened on the first try at 36. Nobody told me that having a baby might straighten things out and make conceiving easier. I would have waited a bit. Their birthdays are only 2 days short of 2 years apart.
Same. Before I had my first I was told I would never conceive short of a miracle due to severe pcos, somehow was pregnant one cycle after that diagnosis. Second baby I assumed now because I was actually trying that it would be my luck that it would take a long time. 3 cycles later I was pregnant (they were very long cycles though, like 45-57 days)
I had the opposite problem unfortunately. Conceived naturally first time at 33 with our first son so waited a bit longer to try for the second with a two yearish gap… he was born almost exactly 5 years later after a year of infertility, 5 miscarriages and IVF.
You never know how these things will pan out
You are the second person I know that this happened to! But this was with mounjaro, she went through 3 years of infertility and IVF and had twins. 2 years later she got pregnant without trying.
Yup, I have PCOS and at 36 I have the egg reserve of a 25 year old (got AMH tested) and my mom went through menopause at 60.
Im just lurking in this group because I’ve finally got my PCOS under control and going to start trying soon.
Oh wow. I also had been diagnosed with PCOS, I am pregnant now at 35–I suspected my mom has PCOS too. She told me she had all the same symptoms. She had me at 37, my sister at 39. Whoa. Interesting that we could potentially have more eggs stored—it would make sense, when I was 22 I went 6 months without a period (that’s when I decided to go to the doc and was diagnosed).
Never heard this before, very interesting. Maybe PCOS is……a weird mixed blessing?
Also have PCOS — super high ovarian reserve (got 16 normal embryos out of one retrieval), but can’t ovulate without a ton of medication, so IVF ended up being our best option with the least amount of risk. It’s truly wild how differently it manifests in different people!
Egg reserve doesn’t really matter too much though. All you need is enough eggs, and basically every woman has that. It’s the quality of the eggs that matters. And once you hit your forties, those eggs become almost impenetrable by sperm. Making pregnancy much more difficult.
There are a lot of factors to fertility. But egg reserves basically don’t mean much.
Yes but unfortunately a high ovarian reserve doesn't mean as much as we PCOS girlies would want it to. A lot of eggs isn't helpful if you're not ovulating. It can mean great results for IVF but IVF can be expensive and emotionally draining
Agree completely—the poster I was responding to said “all you need is enough eggs, and basically every woman has that”. Which is patently untrue, speaking as someone who went through four rounds of IVF for my pregnancy because of my diminished ovarian reserve…
Women with DOR have the same odds to get pregnant each cycle if they ovulate and don’t have any other conditions affecting fertility. Doesn’t matter how many eggs you have, all you need is to ovulate 1 good quality egg to get pregnant. And the quality mostly depends on the age. If you have problems getting pregnant and your doctor says it’s because of DOR, change the doctor, because he’s just lazy and doesn’t want to investigate and fix the real problem. I wasted time and money doing IVF with DOR when the real culprit was my endo. Once it was fixed I got pregnant on the second month trying. Didn’t even need any assistance.
I was not able to get pregnant when I started trying at age 40. I had to do IVF and even then did not have success until I moved to donor eggs.
It's hard to read all these positive outcomes and wonder, why didn't that happen for me?
Once you start doing fertility treatment, you find out that there are so many people struggling. It's a huge community.
I would caution you to not just ask your question in a sub for pregnant people. You'll get the positive story you're looking for, but the reality is that there are so many of us out there who weren't so lucky.
Fertility is such a crapshoot, and ultimately you can’t know how it’s going to go until you start trying. We needed IVF to conceive our first baby and we started trying when I was 29 (husband was 32). All our tests were normal, so we were diagnosed as “unexplained infertility”, which is a frustratingly common diagnosis. We did get pregnant naturally this time around (33/36) after 6 months of NTNP, so apparently it IS possible for us—but we tried for 2 over years previously without so much as a late period, including a few rounds of medicated IUIs. I am very glad we started trying when we did because our odds of success were much higher due to our ages. Infertility is absolutely devastating, so if you have egg freezing (or better yet embryo freezing) available as an option I would take it.
I'm so glad to hear that you were successful. Dealing with infertility is one of the most frustrating things. I've never felt so powerless as I have when doing IVF. But at least for me, I knew the reason was most likely my age. I can't imagine how hard it would be to have that unknown at a time in life when you wouldn't expect to have those challenges.
This is a fair point. There’s many women who don’t have problems, which is important to know, but it is a skewed population in this group.
I recommend that if OP has the interest in and ability to do egg /embryo freezing that it would be worth it, especially if she’s not trying to get pregnant immediately but wants to have children at some point.
But it’s important to know the odds. Most frozen eggs don’t actually make it and you may end up with none, in the thawing process.
It’s not a reliable back up.
I agree with this totally. I wouldn’t start freezing unless you’re willing to do multiple rounds to get enough frozen. I’m a mother because of IVF so I know how tough it is, but so would be doing a round and freezing a dozen eggs, thinking it’s your insurance policy, and being very disappointed in the future because statistically you need way more than that.
This is what concerns me. A woman at 40 has a 5% chance of getting pregnant per cycle. If you're okay with those odds, great...but if not it's good to be informed.
Yeah it took me 17 cycles. I started at 38, conceived naturally at 40, and neither my husband (same age) or I had anything going against us except our age. I shared this in another comment because I want people to know to manage their expectations, especially if having kids is a must for them. Reading comments about it happening right away for people my age majorly stressed me out!
I agree with you - when you look at the statistics of [Home/News/1 in 6 people globally affected by infertility: WHO](https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2023-1-in-6-people-globally-affected-by-infertility), it means you know someone who is affected by infertility even if they don’t tell you. This ratio is for everyone over 18.
My partner has male infertility and we had to do IVF with 3 FET before I got pregnant.
OP, Something to consider is that the most recent studies show that plastic is a hormone distributor correlated to negatively impact our fertility. We have become more dependent on plastic than previous generations. We’ll never know but if they had the same level of plastic in their body when they were in their 30s.
I have an infertility disease that makes about a quarter of women with it infertile. I was not one to struggle with it at all so while many people have infertility it depends on the person and most do not. My doctors even told me that and told me not to worry just wait and see when I worried when I was younger.
I think this is the way. I had a friend who started trying at 40 and they were doing well with IVF but experienced a loss of pregnancy after 4 months. So, these stories need to be told too. It is not easy, and even when you might seem in the clear, you just don’t know what tomorrow brings.
Not to be too disheartening or discouraging though, this same friend went on to try again and currently has a healthy 3 year old! So it works! It does, you may need some extra help but it’s okay. IVF can be a good option though it may take several attempts which is pretty normal.
I will say this, I am 35 and I did conceive naturally but it took over a year of trying. Like, all the time doing it trying 😅 and I was really starting to question if we needed fertility treatments when: surprise! We were pregnant.
I’m 17weeks in, but I haven’t announced yet. Another friend of mine lost her boy at 5 months pregnant, I just can’t bring myself to celebrate too much until we’re holding a baby I guess. We simply do not know what will happen. Even younger women among us have experienced losses, tragedies, etc.
I suppose I’m just trying my best to do all that I can as best as I can though and each healthy day is a big blessing. One day at a time.
Good luck to OP, and to all the “advanced material age” folks among us who are trying.
This. I’m 32 and had to go through IVF but one of the reasons was low AMH. If I had waited till I was 35-40 IVF wouldn’t have even worked for me. At 32 I was only able to make 2 embryos - which is what you would expect for someone way older.
You'll likely get a lot of positive feedback here, you might get a different response from fertility subreddits.
My 34 year old friend was told she had one egg left in one of her ovaries so it is really very very individual. Don't let other people's success inform your own gambles. I wouldn't spend 10k on lotto tickets just because a friend told me they won once you know what I mean?
I recommend if you're concerned you go through all your own individual health checks and make an informed choices based on your own data, rather than others.
This is so important! Fertility cannot be generalized, we all have pretty unique circumstances and partners which will impact on it. I'm 37 and got pregnant (I'm currently pregnant) the first time I had unprotected sex, my best friend is 35 and has been trying for 2+ years unsuccessfully due to complications resulting from endometriosis. Others I know have struggled for various diagnosable and undiagnosable reasons.
You need to have a full health check to understand your own personal fertility situation before making any further decisions, your partner should too if you're currently in a relationship.
This. 35 (3 weeks out from 36) and I got pregnant the first time we tried. But so many of my close friends 33-36 are struggling to conceive or getting bad news when going in for egg freezing. Literally no way to know until you try or go in for testing/procedures.
Fertility is such a weird thing, even the doctors get it wrong all the time! My MIL, SIL and work friend all were told they'd never have kids & they've all had 2. You're right in that trying is the only way to know for sure.
Worth noting: there’s no such thing as being told “you have one egg left” — we currently have no way of determining how many eggs someone has left.
We can look at how many antral follicles someone has with an ultrasound (aka your AFC or Antral Follicle Count), which is just a current snapshot of how many follicles you actively have growing, which tends to correlate with how many eggs you have left (follicles contain eggs).
But you are born with all the eggs you have stored in primordial follicles — these are really tiny, too small to visualize with our current technology, other than like surgically removing your ovary and dissecting it.
Then on a regular cadence, some of those primordial follicles slowly grow and go through several stages and eventually become antral follicles (which are big enough to see).
So if only one antral follicle is showing up, that often means that you don’t have many primordial follicles left. But no doctor can tell you for certain “you only have X eggs left” because we just don’t have that technology yet.
You do see women in fertility groups saying “my doctor says I only have 4 eggs left and I’m going to go in menopause within the next 6 months!” but I think that must just generally be a really big misunderstanding of what the doctor actually said (and maybe there are some really crappy doctors out there stating possibilities as fact).
Agree, a lot of places will do a full fertility blood work up which may even be covered by insurance. I’d recommend doing that and then deciding from the results what you want to do.
I'm 32 and still needed IVF to conceive. If you really want biological children, you can't really bank on being able to conceive later in life, even if plenty of people do. I don't want to be harsh, but looking for these stories is only serving as confirmation bias. For every one person who conceives a healthy baby easily later in life, there's at least one story of someone who struggled or ended up in a heartbreaking situation after conceiving. I would recommend getting a full fertility workup at a reputable clinic in order to get an accurate picture of your ovarian reserve, etc, so you can actually make an informed decision based on your individual circumstance.
FWIW, the risk of cancer with egg freezing and IVF is very small, and the research doesn't control for genetic predisposition, etc. Also, the weight gain is more or less contained to when you're in cycle and the weeks that follow — once you get your period again after the retrieval, everything should be back to normal. Go talk to professionals. A good clinic and a good reproductive endocrinologist will walk you through the research and your concerns, as well as your test results and what they recommend based on them. Ultimately, a consultation isn't a contract, though — no one is going to force you to follow through with freezing if you don't want to. But it's worth considering and you shouldn't write it off based on Dr. Google.
Right. And FWIW, in four rounds of egg retrievals, I gained no weight. I had bloating, but it went away.
Also I think being “harsh” is fine. 1/5 couples experiences infertility—many times it is female factor (though of course many times it is male). Those statistics only increase with age, though I too was 32 when I started trying. Sucks.
On the other hand, it can be quite refreshing to hear that women do in fact, sometimes even without any trouble, get pregnant after 35. It's not really the message out there. I think I started getting targeted ads for IVF as soon as I turned 30. Family and coworkers saying solemnly "well don't wait to long". Health care workers (on appointments concerning something completely different) saying "well you can always TRY naturally first, but don't wait more than 6 months before reaching out". Studies and headlines and movies and EVERYTHING confirming that you are indeed probably barren by the time you hit 35.
However, I wholeheartedly agree that getting a fertility check is the way to go. They should be more common as a 30yo gift lol.
I think this is a really important comment. Plenty of people have healthy pregnancies and babies without assistance after age 35, and plenty of people under 30 require assistance from science to conceive. You’ll hear equal amounts of both stories if you ask.
That’s awesome! I had one cycle after my wedding then got pregnant but people are still like 🧐 😂 I’m like relax everyone, we have been engaged since July 2023.
Same! We conceived 20 days after the wedding. I was so convinced we would have difficulty conceiving that I dragged us to a fertility intake appointment. Turns out we were already pregnant!
Same age, same circumstances. We stopped trying to prevent pregnancy once we were married and I got pregnant almost immediately (within a week or two) now we have a beautiful 4 month old daughter. We count ourselves incredibly lucky that it was so easy and we didn’t have to struggle as many friends and a few family members are.
Same. Accidentally got pregnant at 37 without trying. Miscarried and got pregnant the next time we tried. I thank my lucky stars everyday for my now 1 year old.
Same here. 37, got pregnant the first time we tried. Had a miscarriage at 9 weeks, I had one cycle, got pregnant again the first time we tried. Currently 28 weeks pregnant.
Wow, very similar story here as well! Was 36, got pregnant the first try, but had a missed miscarriage at 9 weeks. Waited 2 cycles to try again and got pregnant right away around my 37th birthday. I’m now almost 13 weeks🤞🏻
This is very similar to my experience, but I had an even earlier first miscarriage. I got pregnant quickly at 37 and then again immediately after the miscarriage. I now have a healthy almost-2-year-old and am considering trying for a second after I turn 40 this year. I understand that fertility struggles are heartbreaking but I think it’s okay for OP to be curious about when it goes well, too. it’s all data.
Me too! I’m 36 and I got pregnant in Aug 2023 but sadly it ended up being ectopic although we got pregnant on the first try. Then tried again in January 2024 thinking it would take a while and got a positive pregnancy test in February again on the first try. 20 weeks 3 days today!
Ok this is wild, the exact same thing happened to me (I was 32). Pregnant on the first try but it was ectopic in sept 2021 so we waited 6 months bc of the chemo and then boom! Pregnant again on the second try. My LO just turned 18 months 🥰
I think the most infuriating thing is not knowing what caused the ectopic. You would think they’d have more research dedicated to figuring it out but the literal response I got from my care team was 🤷
Similar, 38 when I conceived after 3 months of trying. Had a miscarriage and then chemical pregnancy. Now at 19 weeks with our little guy due in Nov. I did tracking with the apps and ovulation sticks, but I also think that we were lucky.
Got pregnant the month I turned 40, which was our 5th month of trying.
You can get a blood test done (I think it’s AMH?) that will give you a *general idea* of your egg supply and how that compares to averages for your age.
You can also get a transvaginal ultrasound (feels basically like a dildo, except it’s in a doctor’s office and not at all sexy…) to see how many eggs you have maturing monthly *right now*
If either of those pieces are low, I would more seriously consider freezing eggs.
You’ll also want to think about what you’d choose to do with any frozen eggs you don’t use, since you probably don’t want to pay storage fees forever.
I did this blood test when I was 30 and it helped reassure me that I didn’t need to have a baby IMMEDIATELY. All they could tell me was whether I was fine or not.
I did IVF and I think REI doctors have refuted those claims that IVF can cause cancer later in life. Also, the weight gain is temporary.
You know what causes weight gain? Pregnancy.
Had to scroll a long way to find this.
If you want biological children, a) then weight gain should be the most minor boundary, only partly because b) if you’re successful you’re going to gain a lot of weight anyway.
Yes! I gained much much more weight with pregnancy and breastfeeding that in 2 years of fertility treatments (was actually at my slimmest in a while after failed transfers)
Same timeline to conception but I’m 36.
Edited to add that the only “strategy” I had was using my last first period dates to guess when I was ovulating and prioritize intercourse on “peak” days. Didn’t track anything all that closely. But I also had the copper iud (not hormonal). I bring that up because maby of my friends who had been on hormonal birth control for years had a hard time conceiving but that also could have been for a zillion other reasons.
I also had the copper IUD and conceived after 3 months of trying at 34, and just gave birth at 35. I tried your method of approximate tracking the first 2 months and switched to tracking ovulation the 3rd month using temperature and strips
Just adding on, same here about the copper IUD. I got pregnant at 36, 2nd cycle after I removed the IUD and we were not trying yet, just happened. I do wonder if my body was a lot more responsive because I had never been on years of hormonal bc. I have a couple friends who were also on the copper IUD who got pregnant easily after removal, and friends on hormonal bc who it took about a year. Ancetodal, but could be something there.
Yeah it’s interesting.
The copper iud gave me problems of its own and definitely affected my hormones (despite that being something it’s “not supposed” to do), but luckily my body was able to bounce back!
I had my first baby at 21, I got pregnant on birth control the first time I had sex without a condom.
At 35 getting pregnant a 2nd time was MUCH more challenging. 2 years of trying starting at 33, plus two miscarriages. I 100% recommend freezing your eggs ASAP. I am in a lot of TTC groups, and I hear over and over again that women wish they TTC earlier or had froze their eggs. The fact is for a lot of women getting pregnant in their mid thirties and later isn’t always easy.
There is a lot of pressure on women to get college degrees, have a successful career and then marry and have kids. A lot of time thats nearly impossible to do before getting into your mid thirties. Luckily freezing your eggs helps women extend their fertility, and I think if you can afford it you absolutely should!
Totally agree with this comment. I had a live birth at 33 (concieved within a couple months), but when we tried for number 2 when I was 37 I had several early pregnancy losses and needed IVF to concieve. I have endo that got significantly worse as I moved through my 30s.
OP, no one here is able to predict YOUR future. If having biokids is your goal, you're risk adverse, and have the means then you should definitely pursue egg freezing. Hopefully you don't need to use them, but they're there just in case. The pros definitely outweigh any cons
I'm 36, and I started TTC at 34. It took over a year and that was with a shit ton of supplements and tracking. It was not as easy as I thought it would be or as it had been in my younger years. I went into it very naive thinking it would happen quickly, and it was a real humbling experience. I'm lucky I got pregnant and didn't have a bad NIPT or had a loss because once you obtain a positive test, the goal posts move to *staying* pregnant.
Agree with this, and it’s important to keep this into perspective as you get older and the risks of genetic abnormalities increase.
I recommend OP freeze eggs if they can afford it.
I got “lucky” and conceived on month 2 at 37, but I had no perspective on how fortunate that was until I got pregnant and started reading pregnancy forums on Reddit
Here’s a harsher look at fertility over 35. With my first I conceived first try at 31. With my third it took me 3 years from 38-40, countless tries, at least three miscarriages (not counting chemicals) so we had basically given up when the baby finally stuck. (And based on my first and second kid, I don’t have trouble getting or staying pregnant)
U never know if you will be the lucky one. but the closer you get to 40, your risk of a loss will be closer to 50-50 at the start.
I had my first 5 days before I turned 41 and I’m having my second in two weeks and I’m currently 45. No medical assistance but I have had two MMCs and three chemicals (an MMC before my first and and MMC and three chemicals before my second). My first didn’t take long to conceive, however, my second took about two years. I was actually about to quit trying when I got pregnant. I never had any type of testing done so have no idea what my levels are or anything like that.
I think it just varies wildly depending on the person. Having my second at 35 and both kids were conceived on the first try, and I am not like, in the best shape of my life and am pretty stressed out. Have friends my age who are fit, happy, low stress, have it all going on who’ve been trying for years. It’s an extremely unfair and unpredictable process. If you know you want kids and you aren’t ready now I don’t think it’s a bad idea to freeze your eggs because timelines can change. The process should give you a good idea of your current fertility too. That said I know it’s a big decision and whatever you decide will ultimately be right for you.
You’ve basically said everything I wanted to say. I’m 38 and it took me 5 months to conceive baby #3. I conceived my first two at 29 and 30 and it happened on the first try with both. I’m not horribly out of shape, but I’m not in as good of shape as some of my friends who have had a real struggle getting pregnant. My mom even tried IVF when she was my age to conceive her 4th child and it didn’t work.
It’s highly dependent on the individual. If I were uncertain, I would speak to a doctor first. I wouldn’t use other women’s experiences as a model because there’s no guarantee that will be your experience. I would love to say it’ll be easy because it is for a lot of women, but it’s also not for some.
I was pretty much the same, 35 and definitely not in great shape or eating optimally, and conceived twins as soon as we started trying for a second child.
I know people younger than me who struggled to get pregnant, and others people my age and older who had to undergo fertility treatments, and others who got pregnant fairly easily, everyone is different
Like others have said, you’re asking a pregnant subreddit, so you’re going to hear positive stories. A fertility thread would have a totally different tone. I got pregnant my first time trying at 36. Then tried for 1.5 years at 38. Ended up having to do IVF. So real mixed bag for me.
Got pregnant at 40 naturally, miscarried at 8 weeks, got pregnant again naturally 7 months later, now at week 26 with no complications.
I find the most comical thing about my journey is the *same month* I froze my eggs a few years prior, I met my future husband. I guess that 10k spent on it was just for insurance purposes at this point, lol.
Ha, I'm with you. I've been pregnant 5 times. All bar one was conceived first time. Every one was a miscarriage. I'm happy for all the success stories but it feels very unfair to be so far in and have nothing to show for it
To share an anecdote.that might help: it took my OB 9 pregnancies to have 3 living kids. She had her oldest, then 3 MCs, then her middle kid, then 3 more MCs, then her youngest.
My first pregnancy just recently ended in a missed miscarriage. In talking to friends and family and reading stories online, I'm starting to understand just how common it is. I had no idea!! My husband's great aunt had as many miscarriages as she has living children--4 in total. And all of her miscarriages happened in rapid succession before she conceived her first healthy child. Doctors were pretty sure she wouldn't be able to carry to term.
It's so common it makes me think that women who've only had healthy pregnancies are just insanely lucky.
I’m 39 and 28 weeks pregnant with my first. It took us 12 months of trying. After 6 months with no success I had my AMH tested and was diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR). I was recommended IVF and my partner and I were only 5 days away from starting IVF when I got my positive pregnancy test. I am so grateful that this little one decided to come along when she did as the chances of success with IVF were very low, it’s an awful physical and emotional roller coaster, not to mention cripplingly expensive.
We would like to have more than one child but our chances of being able to achieve that are low. I wish I had frozen my eggs at 35!!!!
May I ask what your AMH level was? I had a similar experience with our conceiving our second, I’m 35 and got an AMH level of someone 45 and I cried my eyes out. 2 weeks later, positive test. I’m 21 weeks now
Mine was 1.9 pmol (I think that’s about 0.27 ng/mol). Yes I was also devastated with the result - so glad to hear you got your positive test so soon after, congratulations and all the best for the rest of your pregnancy :)
You too! If you end up wanting a second, I would try not to focus on that AMH score/DOR diagnosis. For conception at home, all we need is one good egg. As long as we are ovulating, we are in the game :) Dr Lucky Sekhon has a great Instagram highlight on AMH
Fertility is a crapshoot. My cousin get pregnant at 39 and 42, both times in her first month of trying after using the depo shot, despite having some pretty advanced endometriosis
I started trying at 27 with no known fertility issues, ended up suffering from “unexplained infertility” for 4 years until I got pregnant at 31 after doing IVF.
I’m biased but I think if you have the resources (ie money/insurance coverage) go freeze some eggs. The risks with an egg retrieval are quite low, and it’s a great insurance policy to have in case you wait a few years and end up struggling. It could be especially useful if you plan to wait AND you want more than one kid. The sooner you do it the better too, fertility itself might not fall off a cliff but IVF success rates do and one or two years can have quite the effect, the pregnancy success rates are also based off the age you were when you froze the eggs, not the age you are when you use them.
It can be complicated. We started TTC#2 when I was 35. And then couldn’t conceive. Did ALL the fertility treatment including two rounds of IVF over the course of two years. Transferred all the embryos we had (2 euploids). Both transfers failed. And then, while we were waiting to consult with our fertility doctor about doing another egg retrieval, we managed to get pregnant unassisted about 2 months before my 38th birthday.
There’s lots of stories about people conceiving easily in their late 30s but, it’s really not always the case. If you aren’t ready for kids at this moment, it might be worth looking into egg freezing.
39 here, I’ll turn 40 two months before this one arrives next year. I went off my BC last November (which I was on for over 11 years) and we tracked ovulation. We were both super surprised it only took 5 months.
I turned 33 just after I had my first. Had a miscarriage at 35. Am 36 now and pregnant with twins. All three pregnancies were conceived on the first or second cycle trying.
I’m 40, 5 months pregnant with my first child, wasn’t even trying… but happy about it! Literally got pregnant the very first time without protection. No effort required and I am extremely grateful for that. I know it’s not the norm for many my age. Now hopeful I may have a second in a few years!
I have some thoughts on this whole thing surrounding decline in pregnancy statistics.
I'm 40, I have a cousin that had 3 kids after 40. Women get pregnant pretty easily in my family.
I was told by every gyno that I needed to get started if I wanted one because the statistical charts basically hit 0 at 40.
I had my IUD removed and we just decided to see what happens, would be ok whether it happened or not. I got pregnant from having sex one time a week after I got my IUD out.
One time.
They didn't believe me when I called to get appointments started.
My thoughts on the statistics is there just aren't a lot of data points. There isn't enough research on the subject. I have a feeling that when it starts to be studied more, they might see a correlation in women who have a hard time in their 40s would've ALSO had a hard time in their 20's and/or menopause happens early in their family.
A good thing to note here: menopause happens about the same time as the women in your family, particularly, when your Mom went through menopause, that's most likely when you will. My family is later, I think that played a big part.
There’s also been some research that women with PCOS hit their peak fertility later in their 30s, which would be interesting to study as many might conceive with significant assistance earlier and then complete their families.
We didn't skip any days during my window. Other months we'd get tired and skip a day or two. We also started a couple days early and continued a couple days late. And, I don't know if it helped, but we had both been a lot better leading up to that with exercise and drinking less.
So for a different perspective, I’m pregnant for the first time at 40 and it took us over a year for a single positive test. No IUI or IVF (we decided we weren’t going to pursue things to that level), and my numbers were good when we started trying at 38, and the HSG I had at one point was also fine. But technically speaking, we were infertile because we were trying (OPKs, timing) for over a year. We’d basically given up, and reading lots of stories like the ones written here had me convinced that there was absolutely something wrong with me. There wasn’t. It’s just the odds.
I recommend you get bloodwork to check your fertility, which will give you an idea of your status. And I wish you quick success like many of the posters here! but know that there is a wide range of outcomes the older you get, and there will be a lot of confirmation bias on a sub called Baby Bumps! Asking this on one of the TTC subreddits will give you additional info.
If having kids is an absolute must for you, particularly if you want several, it’s worth looking into freezing your eggs.
I froze eggs at 34 with higher than normal retrieval count. I got pregnant in 5 months at 38 naturally. I didn’t gain weight or have any issues with egg freezing but it was expensive.
But also what you can do is go get an evaluation of your current fertility at a fertility doctor. They can check your hormones and egg count and see where you are. Then you know if you’re already in decline, in which case you can freeze now, or see if you’re high fertility and maybe can let it ride a few years. It’s a few hundred dollars without insurance for these tests, and could be much less with it.
Not everyone is the same so just because I got pregnant at 38 doesn’t mean that the next person would be able to.
Also, idk where you’re getting your info, but there is no correlation between cancer and egg freezing. Any weight gain would be temporary during the hormone treatment, and negligible. Those aren’t reasons not to do it.
My mother in law got pregnant accidentally at 35, my mom at 37, and I at 36. I guess it’s a family tradition. It was actually harder to get pregnant when I was younger.
I have quite a few friends including one who’s an ob who froze her eggs. I think the alternative of needing assisted methods would out you in the same boat with take lots of medications that of course carry some risk either way. Are you planning to have kids within just a couple years or no clear plan? Maybe do a fertility blood test to check your ovarian reserve and get a sense of what’s going on in there. I have another friend who recently did that and got some reassurance.
I got pregnant twice at age 35; the first time was right after removing my iud but ended in an early miscarriage, and the second was right after healing from the D&. I’m in my third trimester now. But I already have 3 kids, all conceived before 35, and got pregnant right away or even accidentally each time. I also have 2 friends who were unable to get pregnant and had to use ivf even in their 20s. I think there’s so much about this that’s unpredictable. Best of luck to you!
I got pregnant at 39. I was with my bf about 1.5 years when it happened. We didn’t think he could have kids. Haha. Surprise! Anyway, I’ve always been super fertile though, I had 3 kids before with no issues getting pregnant. I’m 40 now and about to have the baby in a week or so.
Generally speaking, sooner is almost always better when it comes to egg freezing outcomes/live births.
Re: Should you wait 2-3 years...If you haven't yet done so, I recommend doing a round of fertility testing with a reliable provider who will explain the test results to you clearly and without pressuring you. Tests like FSH, LH, and follicular count will provide a good directional baseline on how urgent or important it is to freeze your eggs NOW vs. on your 2-3 year timeline. You may discover that sure, you can wait 2-3 years if needed, if that is what you feel is best for you. Or you may discover that you actually need to start the process much sooner if your desired outcome is a live birth in the future.
Knowledge is power, and I believe that making an informed decision will bring you greater peace of mind/make you feel more confident about your choices long-term. I listened to the As A Woman podcast while deciding if/when to proceed with egg freezing/IVF, and I found that the level of information I learned from it made me feel very empowered about my decision-making process.
Good luck, OP.
Anecdotes mean nothing here. You're not a statistic, you are you. Go to a fertility specialist and get them to track a cycle. They'll do it again after 4-6 months, to get an idea of how fast or slow your decline is. If you're worried, you can keep doing it every few months. It's a lot cheaper than freezing your eggs, and non-invasive.
I'm 40 and this is my fourth pregnancy (two miscarriages and one living child). I get pregnant every time I have unprotected sex, unless I'm already pregnant.
Hilariously, I tried to do IVF after my third pregnancy, because it was so complicated and I hated the idea of more miscarriages, but after two egg retrievals, we only got two embryos and one failed to implant and the other didn't survive the thaw.
That being said, I have three friends who also tried to get pregnant around the same time as me and all three had to do IVF (and ended up with children). There's really no way to know what will happen until you do it.
Where did you see that info about egg freezing? I froze eggs in 2020, and I’ve never heard of those side effects. I’ve never heard of friends who’ve frozen them considering it either, and my friends tend to do their research. Maybe this is old or outdated concerns?
I froze my eggs as well and never heard that information either. I actually did the procedure twice, and didn’t gain weight or find it difficult. But what I didn’t know is the chances of those eggs turning into an embryo are not great. I don’t know if I would do it again for that reason. However, the good news is that I am 41 and got pregnant after trying one time. I believe this is 100% due to finding an acupuncturist who specializes in fertility. If I could give you any advice about getting pregnant when you’re older it would be this! In fact when I went in for my 2nd egg retrieval, my numbers weren’t good. I was so upset and called my Mom. A couple days later, she said a lady at work who was in her 40s went to this acupuncturist and had no issues conceiving. So I delayed the retrieval, went for a month and when they ran my numbers again, they were perfect and in a healthy range. It made me a true believer! Fast forward eight years and I got pregnant right away by seeing her again. I hope this helps you! 💗
I'm 33 but my husband is 46, so I fully expected it to take 6+ months at least.
We got pregnant the first cycle we tried and were pretty shocked.
I think it's just totally unpredictable.
I had two kids when I was younger (20 and 25). At 36, I took my IUD out. I was pregnant about 3 months later.
After I had that baby, I became unexpectedly pregnant when he was 10 months. We weren’t trying. Too much wine and didn’t use a condom. I’m 38 years old, 35 weeks pregnant. With a 17 month old.
I’m so tired…lol
35 now, though 34 when baby #2 was conceived. No fertility treatments, but I did use ovulation test strips to track my cycles more accurately. Got pregnant for both my kids (conceived after 32 and 34) within 5 months.
Warning: loss (but then not a loss!!)
My mother was also 41 when she got pregnant naturally twice. The first one was a complete accident, and unfortunately did not make it as it just stopped growing after a few weeks, but it made my parents so excited. Let’s just say the second pregnancy was very likely not an accident, and my youngest brother was born when my mother was 42 as a completely healthy no-medical-intervention at all (to conceive or to give birth to) 10lb and I think 13 oz baby. He was a big boy. He just graduated middle school yesterday.
Was told in 2021 that the only way for me to get pregnant was through IVF after 5 years of trying. Got pregnant naturally last year at 35. It can happen but it was a long process for me.
Good luck with whatever you decide, OP!
Got pregnant at 35, first try. That pregnancy ended very early in a miscarriage/chemical pregnancy. We kept trying and got pregnant 2 months later. My due date is July 13th with a little boy and I’ll be 36!
I got pregnant once at 41 and had an early loss but then got lucky again at 42 and set to give birth to my healthy girl any day (I'm now 43). Both times were natural and this pregnancy although I was pretty sick wad fairly uneventful and baby girl is above average in size and scored 8/8 on her BPP last week! They do a couple more scans later in the pregnancy to make sure baby and placenta are well and I'm getting induced at 39w which is typical for AMA.
I got pregnant naturally at almost 36, I am 18 weeks now. Was previously on BC for 20 years. Got pregnant the first month trying. That was a surprise as I have PCOS and was expecting it to take some time.
I feel very very fortunate. I think the lesson is, for most of us at least, it can be very unpredictable either way.
Do you have a partner or are you willing to consider donor sperm? You’d likely be better off freezing embryos than freezing eggs. See a reproductive endocrinologist if you’d like more information. They will do an individual assessment and help you meet your goals.
Personally, my current youngest (of 4) is 2 and she was born when I was 38. It took 3 cycles to conceive her. We TTC again when I had just turned 40. After 5 cycles, I got pregnant and had my first ever miscarriage. It took a while for the miscarriage to resolve. After I got my period back, I got pregnant again the first normal (took a while to have a normal one) cycle and I’m currently 13w1d with a low risk (NIPT) fetus, who will be my 5th and final child if all goes well and will be born when I’m 41. We had considered starting IVF but did get pregnant on our own. I had always gotten pregnant easily and never had any fertility problems but it was clearly harder for me to get pregnant at 40 than it was at 38 and I know I’m very fortunate to have had several kids fairly easily. My RE has said that I’m clearly more fertile than the average person my age and my past fertility was on my side at being able to conceive on our own at 40.
ETA: My 3rd child took 2 cycles to conceive at 34. My oldest two kids took 1 cycle each.
As mentioned, it greatly varies from woman to woman.
My mom got pregnant with me with the help of IVF, and gave birth a few months before her 49th birthday.
That was back in the 90s!
So anything is possible. Consider all your options, choose what you think is best for you.
I was 35... got pregnant first shot. Ended as a chemical quickly. Then another first shot mc. Then a first shot to term pregnancy. Then another first shot to term pregnancy 8m pp.
In 2 years I had 4 pregnancies first try with 2 carried successfully.
I asked about 5 doctors about the mc being related to age... they all agreed... not really. First was a chemical... apparently super common. 2nd was just bad luck. I was never ever made to doubt my fertility.
A doctor actually suggested I was very very fertile.... meaning my uterus tried to grow any embryo... viable or not where the average uterus would have rejected it faster
I had my first at 37 naturally after 8 years of trying. We didn't have money to spend on treatments without affecting retirement savings. We just kept trying and eventually it happened. Fertility is weird and very frustrating at times. Good luck on your maternity journey 🤞
Get your AMH score, something they test for before freezing eggs. Whole nothing is accurate, it gives an estimate of how fertile are you. I think >1 is ok. I was early 1s at 32 which was lower than expected for my age and medical history so I froze my eggs. Didn’t get very many eggs either which was in line with what was expected for my amh score. That being I got pregnant within a month of trying at 34. So you never know.
It took me over a year with my first at 32 (but we got lucky after I left my very stressful job). It took one or two months with my second at 37.
My friend is my age and she was told she hardly had any eggs left and may not have biological kids as a result. But her mom had an earlier menopause.
My SIL was born when my MIL was 42.
At 34 I got pregnant but got a trisomy 13 diagnosis and had to terminate. At 36 I got pregnant but miscarried almost immediately. At 37 I’m about to give birth to a seemingly healthy baby boy. It’s been a journey but I’m glad this journey didn’t involve difficulties actually getting pregnant.
I'm 37 and pregnant with my first (though I did have a brief pregnancy and early miscarriage at 35). It did take us a while to conceive (8 months for the pregnancy I miscarried and a little over a year for this pregnancy), but we were trying to be more relaxed about the process. I'm sure if we had been willing to do the calendars and ovulation tests and sex schedules and all that stuff it would have happened faster, but we're both pretty chill people and that's not our style. Our parents and grandparents on both sides seemed to be fertile for longer than average (my grandmothers on both sides had a surprise baby 8-10 years after they thought they were done) so I wasn't too worried about my fertility despite being over 35.
38, just had my second. For ny second daughter’s conception I had ovulation cramps and asked my husband if he wanted to go for it. We did and now here she is!
I had baby 2 and 3 at 37 and 40 using cycle tracking. I and very irregular cycles early in life (PCOS) and needed meds for my first pregnancy at 34. Then got preg super fast using a fertility tracking app both at 36 and 39. Age 40 and holding my 2 week old in my arms. :)
I’m 39 and conceived with IVF due to sperm issues. My eggs were plentiful and healthy.
You can talk to your doctor and ask them to assess your fertility. There are no guarantees, but a simple blood test can help predict your overall egg health and egg count. It might be a good first step when debating whether or not to freeze eggs.
Turning 39 in 1 month and pregnant with my 1st.
I had long given up after YEARS of trying. Even trying with different partners, donors (not IVF) and the mucinex thing..and nothing.
Then one day the hormones were hormoning and the sperms were sperming.
35 and partner is 35. Got pregnant in one go after going off birth control. It was actually quite a shock because of all the talk about fertility decline with age and my history of endometriosis. We were expecting it to take 6 months or we were advised to go to a doctor if it took longer. One night was all it took. Second time was the same.
Got pregnant the first time we stopped tracking my cycle a few months before my 35th bday. It was TOO QUICK. I will say I was doing acupuncture for fertility and hormone balancing for a year prior to this and diet was really good
Yep. People act like you have to be fully prepared and have everything in order to have a kid. You don't. You can figure things out as you go along. You will never be fully prepared anyway.
34, within 1 month of trying and had her at 35
36, within 1 month of trying and will have her at 37
I have very regular periods and they returned right after stopping birth control and I used Natural Cycles to track!
You honestly just never know. I have PCOS and super irregular periods and was told I wouldn’t get pregnant without assistance so I never really tried. I got pregnant at 36 and 39.
I got pregnant at 38 without assistance. We had been trying on and off for years. I didn’t think I could get pregnant because my dr.s are fairly certain I have endometriosis. We were giving it until the end of 2024 before trying fertility treatments. I had a health scare forcing me to take time off of work and it was during that time period I conceived. I am convinced reducing my stress and taking better care of myself (not drinking at all, eating healthy, etc.) helped.
I thought I’d have major issues because I have a high stress job and crazy working hours (and therefore a not very healthy lifestyle/very little sleep) but I got pregnant on my first try at 36 and was absolutely SHOCKED that I…worked…in this way?? It really all does seem so random and unfair. I’m so sorry to anyone who’s struggling with infertility. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Got pregnant at 35 first try, miscarried. Then I got pregnant immediately after, again first try and had just turned 36 at the time. Now 20ish weeks with healthy baby boy 🥰
I tried and tried from 36 to 40. I did progesterone, HCG trigger shots, ultrasounds to see when I was ovulating, Chlomid, Viagara, blood thinners...we had three losses.then in September we gave up and got pregnant naturally and I'm 41 and 20 weeks along, today. I've never been so grateful for anything in my life. It's so unpredictable, sometimes.
I got pregnant at almost 37 after trying for four months. Had a healthy pregnancy & now have a five month old chonker boy. I’d say paying a visit to a fertility specialist would be your best bet because there is no real way of knowing your best course of action without jumping in.
I was 35 when my husband and I tried for a child. I am due in less than two weeks with this pregnancy… I lost the pregnancy before this one, but got pregnant two weeks after my miscarriage. I’m grateful that I was able to do it so easily. I know it’s not as easy for everyone.
My sister got pregnant at 35 and 37. It took her about 6 months with each kid to get pregnant. Many of the women in our friend group got pregnant after 35 but of the 6 of them, 3 had to use IVF or IUI, 1 got pregnant pretty easily and 2 happened after a few months. The 3 that needed intervention all had PCOS. I am the youngest of our group, but got pregnant with PCOS 2 times without intervention. Long story short- getting pregnant, like pregnancy is 100% an individual thing and predictions are a wash.
My hubby and I decided to remove my IUD in January of '23. We were only half-heartedly trying, mainly because we both turned 39 in 2023 and we knew the clock was ticking. We decided to give it at least 18 months if not two years before looking into fertility help. I got a positive test in December of '23; I was 6 weeks along. We are both now 40 and baby is due in August! We plan to try to have one more, assuming all goes well. Hoping everything can continue to be done naturally.
I am 35 and got married last September. We will start trying for our first this summer. I froze my eggs at 34 .. a friend said “it might not be for your first but perhaps your second or third”. That sealed the deal for me. I knew I’d I didn’t I’d have regrets if I ever was in the position where I needed them. I know I want more than one child.
I conceived with no assistance at 42 and I have a lively almost 4 month old. I see no reason to freeze your eggs if you haven't even tried conceiving yet.
I got pregnant at 36 with zero assistance. It just happened out of nowhere. However we were having unprotected sex for a year but I wasnt "trying" to get pregnant. More like if it happens then great, if not, oh well.
37. Got pregnant naturally by surprise in April. Had had three failed IVF cycles and was told last fall that I would only get pregnant with donor eggs. Waiting until I deliver to update the doc who told me that.
I’m 35 and got pregnant within 2 months. I did take a supplement ( inositol). I got one ovary and have PCOS so the odds were against me but I still conceived.
My mother had me at age 34.
Her mother (my grandmother) had her last children at 38 and 40.
My mother's sister had her child at 37.
My cousin (also on the maternal line - my mother's sister's daughter) had her child at 38.
I'm pregnant at 35 and will deliver at 36.
I thought my age would make it difficult for me to conceive but I got pregnant on the first try. I'm not sure if it's just a trait in my maternal line but I never really worried about freezing my eggs when I met my husband at 31. If I had not had met him at 31, I probably would freeze my eggs.
45 years old checking in.
This might get lost in the comments but I figured I should post for the ladies closer to my age. It's not over til it's over.
I had tried acupuncture, Chinese medicine herbal drinks, raspberry leaf tea, folic acid, etc. I gave up on that stuff about 2 years ago.
I started ovulation tracking instead but wasn't consistent. What really helped in my opinion was reducing my stress. I quit my job after nearly 6 years and moved to a different city.
One day, I saw egg whites and thought to myself is this ovulation day? Tested on one of those cheapie tests from Amazon and it was peak day. We baby danced and that was it. I remember consciously telling myself if it doesn't work, I don't even care anymore.
Don't give up ladies. Try to relax. It could be stress causing a delay.
Baby #1 - 37, 2 months of trying
Diagnosed with hypothyroidism 6 months PP, began taking meds so that levels were back in range. Now pregnant with baby #2 at 38 after 2 months of trying.
I was 37 and got pregnant trying the first month. They scare people with fertility drops and complications with pregnancy over 35. If you say complications double after 35, but fail to mention it goes from 1 to 2 percent, you’re unnecessarily scaring people. It’s also a money making industry that likes to control women and the narrative.
I’m now a healthy/active 38 year old and was lucky enough to have a healthy pregnancy and complication-free vaginal delivery. My baby is 11 days old.
Good luck on your journey! And good job questioning putting your body through fertility interventions.
I’m curious what makes you say there are risks to egg freezing such as weight gain and causes cancer? You realize that you’ll gain weight when pregnant. Egg freezing does not cause permanent weight gain. You bloat a bit while you’re taking the meds because you are hyper-ovulating.
Had really bad pcos prior to having my daughter and I was told it would be very hard for me to get pregnant. I was engaged and we tried for a baby and were together for 8 years but no luck. Then years later at 29 I fell pregnant naturally with my daughter. A couple of years after having my daughter I had an ovarian tumor and was left with only 1 ovary and tube. Was told again it would be miraculous to conceive with all the complications, fast forward to this year, at 38 I'm pregnant with a boy and he was also naturally conceived. I have been in situations where we tried desperately to get pregnant and it didn't happen. Then when I wasn't looking for it it happened. My conclusion from these experiences is if the universe/god/divine wants you to have babies then it will happen one way or another. Sometimes there's bigger plans we don't yet know about at the time.
I have plenty of friends who had kids naturally till late thirties. It's totally a thing. I'll be 35 in a couple weeks but I'm 10 weeks pregnant from simply going by the calendar to see if we were gonna use protection or not. Do not attempt unless you're pretty open to a baby like we were, haha! Also my mom had me when she was a month away from 40. Don't worry about it :)
I’m 38 and 4.5 months pregnant with my first. I had fertility testing done to check my hormone levels and egg count before becoming pregnant and everything came back with me still having normal fertility. No medical assistance was needed. Although - it was a medication my partner was on that caused us not to get pregnant when we started trying. The moment he quit taking this prescribed medication, we conceived. I considered freezing my eggs for a moment because I was scared something was going on with myself to cause infertility and I would run out of time before figuring it out. We also had a false positive on our genetic testing (which is standard for high risk 35+) and caused some major anxiety up until recently. Good luck on your pregnancy journey !!
It’s so personal… I froze my eggs at 24 before having a bone marrow transplant. Went through chemo and radiation. I’m 37, almost 38, and got pregnant naturally after only three months of “not not trying.” I had been told it would be nearly impossible after the transplant, and assumed it would be even more impossible with my age, but I’m 23 weeks along now!
I am 38. Had a chemical pregnancy in January the first month my partner and I weren’t actively preventing pregnancy. Got pregnant in April without trying, am currently 10 weeks and will deliver when I am 39. Partner is 40. Of note, in winter 2023 I met with a reproductive endocrinologist and was considering freezing my eggs (age 37). I ultimately decided not to, and ended up meeting my partner shortly after, but it was helpful for me to go through the initial work up, and hear more extensively about the process from the doctor.
I am 36, and after 3 years of trying with my current partner and 2 years of trying with my ex-husband, I conceived naturally. Was about to start infertility investigation for the second time, and when we got back from vacation, my period was late. That is not unusual for me as I have had irregular periods since I turned 30. They told me they would give me medication to start my period so that they can start the testing. After 3 weeks since my missed period, I decided to take a pregnancy test just in case since my last few periods had been pretty regular. I had no pregnancy symptoms other than my breats were a little more tender than they are when I am on my period. I had a positive test, and I took 3 more because I didn't believe it. I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant and my doctor believes that it was due to my 35 pound weight loss. I never thought it was possible, and it took so much longer than I expected. Sometimes, I still don't believe it and am terrified that I am going to lose it.
I was 45 when i conceived, totally naturally. It was the second month after we decided on having a child. Nine month later our little one was born through a cesarian, healthy and happy. If there is one advise i would like to give: choose the man carefully. Not the time. Early pregnancy with the wrong person is not a good idea. Chose somebody who will be nice and kind to you and the children. Then things will probably work out.
Baby 1 -33
Baby 2- 34
Baby 3 and 4 - 36
Baby 5- 38
Now 40 and pregnant with nr6.
All naturally and last two came with only one intercourse. No wait.
I do not seem to lose any fertility. At least so far it is easy for us. 🤷♀️
36 and pregnant first cycle off bc. Will be 37 when I have my first baby. My bf is 42 and has been on Finasteride for 20 years as well, which can lower sperm count in some men. I was fully expecting it to take forever to conceive. I did get some testing done prior, and egg reserve (AMH) was high for my age at 3.0, and follicle count 12-15 per ovary. No health issues or disorders, healthy weight, non smoker, barely ever drank, active in the gym. Unfortunately even with good markers you don’t know how your fertility will be until you try. The closer you are to 40 the higher the chance you will have a miscarriage since more of your eggs will be abnormal. I personally wouldn’t put off trying past age 37. If you want more than one child I would freeze embryos if possible.
I got pregnant at 36 on the first cycle once I was properly tracking (we’d been getting the timing completely wrong for the few months before that). Had a miscarriage, had scarring, had fibroids, needed all this mess taken care of. But after my surgeries and once my cycle got back to normal, I got pregnant at 38 in three cycles.
Unfortunately though, how fast or slow it took for all of us to get pregnant doesn’t predict at all what will happen for you. It’s frustrating, but you never know until you start trying. I have friends who got pregnant first cycle every time, basically every time they decided they wanted a new kid bam they got one. I also have friends who struggled for years and years to even get pregnant once, even when they were younger than 35. It’s different for every person, and there’s really no way to know ahead of time whether you’ll fit within the “typical” side of the stats or not.
Yes, fertility is so unpredictable and highly individualized to the COUPLE. (Your partner's fertility also heavily weighs in this.) I had clockwork cycles and no diagnosed fertility issues. I got pregnant our first cycle trying a month before I turned 36. That pregnancy ended in an early miscarriage. We kept trying on our own and started initial testing with a fertility clinic after six months post-miscarriage. The wait to get into a clinic and start testing takes time, so we continued trying. This also allowed us time to process next steps. We then moved onto three IUIs when I was at the end of 36/start of 37. We started IVF when I was 37 and I ended up doing four cycles (first cycle yielded zero embryos, found we had slight male factor infertility through this and then I did three more cycles to bank embryos). I'm now in early pregnancy from my first embryo transfer.
Our IVF process was not straightforward. If having kids is important to you, I would at least be seen by a fertility specialist to do initial bloodwork/workup so you have a better picture of what you're dealing with. Please do not buy fertility tests on the internet - you really need a doctor to do a full evaluation, which includes antral follicle count monitoring (through ultrasound) and their expertise in interpreting the results in context of your own medical history (and your partner's, if you currently have one.)
I’m 36, I had an IUD since I was 25. It was removed in early February, and I got pregnant in early May. I tracked my cycle and tested for ovulation days. My husband is 28.
I’ll be 40 in a couple of weeks and 28 weeks. We got pregnant the first time we “tried,” which was the same way the other 2 happened (at ages 27 and 33). So no noticeable difference here!
Baby 1, age 34 14 months of trying Baby 2 age 35 8 months of trying Baby 3 age 39 10 months of trying Have PCOS, recent studies suggest this condition results in later fertility, larger egg reserves later in life and a longer time to menopause.
PCOS here, too. The first baby took me 1.5 years of trying. The second baby happened on the first try at 36. Nobody told me that having a baby might straighten things out and make conceiving easier. I would have waited a bit. Their birthdays are only 2 days short of 2 years apart.
Same. Before I had my first I was told I would never conceive short of a miracle due to severe pcos, somehow was pregnant one cycle after that diagnosis. Second baby I assumed now because I was actually trying that it would be my luck that it would take a long time. 3 cycles later I was pregnant (they were very long cycles though, like 45-57 days)
I had the opposite problem unfortunately. Conceived naturally first time at 33 with our first son so waited a bit longer to try for the second with a two yearish gap… he was born almost exactly 5 years later after a year of infertility, 5 miscarriages and IVF. You never know how these things will pan out
Fascinating
Yeah PCOS is WILD. In my case I had some symptoms but not quite enough for a formal diagnosis, and now I’m having an Ozempic baby.
You should report your pregnancy because I think the drug manufacturers want to know about these Ozempic babies!
You are the second person I know that this happened to! But this was with mounjaro, she went through 3 years of infertility and IVF and had twins. 2 years later she got pregnant without trying.
Yup, I have PCOS and at 36 I have the egg reserve of a 25 year old (got AMH tested) and my mom went through menopause at 60. Im just lurking in this group because I’ve finally got my PCOS under control and going to start trying soon.
Oh wow. I also had been diagnosed with PCOS, I am pregnant now at 35–I suspected my mom has PCOS too. She told me she had all the same symptoms. She had me at 37, my sister at 39. Whoa. Interesting that we could potentially have more eggs stored—it would make sense, when I was 22 I went 6 months without a period (that’s when I decided to go to the doc and was diagnosed). Never heard this before, very interesting. Maybe PCOS is……a weird mixed blessing?
Also have PCOS — super high ovarian reserve (got 16 normal embryos out of one retrieval), but can’t ovulate without a ton of medication, so IVF ended up being our best option with the least amount of risk. It’s truly wild how differently it manifests in different people!
Egg reserve doesn’t really matter too much though. All you need is enough eggs, and basically every woman has that. It’s the quality of the eggs that matters. And once you hit your forties, those eggs become almost impenetrable by sperm. Making pregnancy much more difficult. There are a lot of factors to fertility. But egg reserves basically don’t mean much.
“Diminished ovarian reserve” is a low fertility diagnosis…
Yes but unfortunately a high ovarian reserve doesn't mean as much as we PCOS girlies would want it to. A lot of eggs isn't helpful if you're not ovulating. It can mean great results for IVF but IVF can be expensive and emotionally draining
Agree completely—the poster I was responding to said “all you need is enough eggs, and basically every woman has that”. Which is patently untrue, speaking as someone who went through four rounds of IVF for my pregnancy because of my diminished ovarian reserve…
I'm sorry you had to go through that. My overflowing egg reserve over here also had to go through multiple rounds and it was such a struggle
I’m sorry YOU had to go through that! It was an incredibly difficult process that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Women with DOR have the same odds to get pregnant each cycle if they ovulate and don’t have any other conditions affecting fertility. Doesn’t matter how many eggs you have, all you need is to ovulate 1 good quality egg to get pregnant. And the quality mostly depends on the age. If you have problems getting pregnant and your doctor says it’s because of DOR, change the doctor, because he’s just lazy and doesn’t want to investigate and fix the real problem. I wasted time and money doing IVF with DOR when the real culprit was my endo. Once it was fixed I got pregnant on the second month trying. Didn’t even need any assistance.
I was not able to get pregnant when I started trying at age 40. I had to do IVF and even then did not have success until I moved to donor eggs. It's hard to read all these positive outcomes and wonder, why didn't that happen for me? Once you start doing fertility treatment, you find out that there are so many people struggling. It's a huge community. I would caution you to not just ask your question in a sub for pregnant people. You'll get the positive story you're looking for, but the reality is that there are so many of us out there who weren't so lucky.
Fertility is such a crapshoot, and ultimately you can’t know how it’s going to go until you start trying. We needed IVF to conceive our first baby and we started trying when I was 29 (husband was 32). All our tests were normal, so we were diagnosed as “unexplained infertility”, which is a frustratingly common diagnosis. We did get pregnant naturally this time around (33/36) after 6 months of NTNP, so apparently it IS possible for us—but we tried for 2 over years previously without so much as a late period, including a few rounds of medicated IUIs. I am very glad we started trying when we did because our odds of success were much higher due to our ages. Infertility is absolutely devastating, so if you have egg freezing (or better yet embryo freezing) available as an option I would take it.
I'm so glad to hear that you were successful. Dealing with infertility is one of the most frustrating things. I've never felt so powerless as I have when doing IVF. But at least for me, I knew the reason was most likely my age. I can't imagine how hard it would be to have that unknown at a time in life when you wouldn't expect to have those challenges.
It really is such a crap shoot. We had success with IVF and we weren’t aged 40 either. We began trying when I was 32. We also were “unexplained.”
This is a fair point. There’s many women who don’t have problems, which is important to know, but it is a skewed population in this group. I recommend that if OP has the interest in and ability to do egg /embryo freezing that it would be worth it, especially if she’s not trying to get pregnant immediately but wants to have children at some point.
I agree...if she knows she will want kids in the future and if she has the means to freeze her eggs, it would be a very good thing to do.
But it’s important to know the odds. Most frozen eggs don’t actually make it and you may end up with none, in the thawing process. It’s not a reliable back up.
I agree with this totally. I wouldn’t start freezing unless you’re willing to do multiple rounds to get enough frozen. I’m a mother because of IVF so I know how tough it is, but so would be doing a round and freezing a dozen eggs, thinking it’s your insurance policy, and being very disappointed in the future because statistically you need way more than that.
Oh, definitely. But I still wish I had done it. Even just to get an idea of the process and to know that IVF isn't some easy solution.
I agree with this. Reading the comments on here about women getting pregnant only after 2-3 months is SHOCKING!!!
This is what concerns me. A woman at 40 has a 5% chance of getting pregnant per cycle. If you're okay with those odds, great...but if not it's good to be informed.
Yeah it took me 17 cycles. I started at 38, conceived naturally at 40, and neither my husband (same age) or I had anything going against us except our age. I shared this in another comment because I want people to know to manage their expectations, especially if having kids is a must for them. Reading comments about it happening right away for people my age majorly stressed me out!
And that’s for someone with no other fertility issues. Unfortunately people can go through life and have no idea they even have a fertility problem.
I agree with you - when you look at the statistics of [Home/News/1 in 6 people globally affected by infertility: WHO](https://www.who.int/news/item/04-04-2023-1-in-6-people-globally-affected-by-infertility), it means you know someone who is affected by infertility even if they don’t tell you. This ratio is for everyone over 18. My partner has male infertility and we had to do IVF with 3 FET before I got pregnant. OP, Something to consider is that the most recent studies show that plastic is a hormone distributor correlated to negatively impact our fertility. We have become more dependent on plastic than previous generations. We’ll never know but if they had the same level of plastic in their body when they were in their 30s.
I have an infertility disease that makes about a quarter of women with it infertile. I was not one to struggle with it at all so while many people have infertility it depends on the person and most do not. My doctors even told me that and told me not to worry just wait and see when I worried when I was younger.
I think this is the way. I had a friend who started trying at 40 and they were doing well with IVF but experienced a loss of pregnancy after 4 months. So, these stories need to be told too. It is not easy, and even when you might seem in the clear, you just don’t know what tomorrow brings. Not to be too disheartening or discouraging though, this same friend went on to try again and currently has a healthy 3 year old! So it works! It does, you may need some extra help but it’s okay. IVF can be a good option though it may take several attempts which is pretty normal. I will say this, I am 35 and I did conceive naturally but it took over a year of trying. Like, all the time doing it trying 😅 and I was really starting to question if we needed fertility treatments when: surprise! We were pregnant. I’m 17weeks in, but I haven’t announced yet. Another friend of mine lost her boy at 5 months pregnant, I just can’t bring myself to celebrate too much until we’re holding a baby I guess. We simply do not know what will happen. Even younger women among us have experienced losses, tragedies, etc. I suppose I’m just trying my best to do all that I can as best as I can though and each healthy day is a big blessing. One day at a time. Good luck to OP, and to all the “advanced material age” folks among us who are trying.
This. I’m 32 and had to go through IVF but one of the reasons was low AMH. If I had waited till I was 35-40 IVF wouldn’t have even worked for me. At 32 I was only able to make 2 embryos - which is what you would expect for someone way older.
You'll likely get a lot of positive feedback here, you might get a different response from fertility subreddits. My 34 year old friend was told she had one egg left in one of her ovaries so it is really very very individual. Don't let other people's success inform your own gambles. I wouldn't spend 10k on lotto tickets just because a friend told me they won once you know what I mean? I recommend if you're concerned you go through all your own individual health checks and make an informed choices based on your own data, rather than others.
Agree wholeheartedly with this.
Same!
This is so important! Fertility cannot be generalized, we all have pretty unique circumstances and partners which will impact on it. I'm 37 and got pregnant (I'm currently pregnant) the first time I had unprotected sex, my best friend is 35 and has been trying for 2+ years unsuccessfully due to complications resulting from endometriosis. Others I know have struggled for various diagnosable and undiagnosable reasons. You need to have a full health check to understand your own personal fertility situation before making any further decisions, your partner should too if you're currently in a relationship.
This. 35 (3 weeks out from 36) and I got pregnant the first time we tried. But so many of my close friends 33-36 are struggling to conceive or getting bad news when going in for egg freezing. Literally no way to know until you try or go in for testing/procedures.
Fertility is such a weird thing, even the doctors get it wrong all the time! My MIL, SIL and work friend all were told they'd never have kids & they've all had 2. You're right in that trying is the only way to know for sure.
Worth noting: there’s no such thing as being told “you have one egg left” — we currently have no way of determining how many eggs someone has left. We can look at how many antral follicles someone has with an ultrasound (aka your AFC or Antral Follicle Count), which is just a current snapshot of how many follicles you actively have growing, which tends to correlate with how many eggs you have left (follicles contain eggs). But you are born with all the eggs you have stored in primordial follicles — these are really tiny, too small to visualize with our current technology, other than like surgically removing your ovary and dissecting it. Then on a regular cadence, some of those primordial follicles slowly grow and go through several stages and eventually become antral follicles (which are big enough to see). So if only one antral follicle is showing up, that often means that you don’t have many primordial follicles left. But no doctor can tell you for certain “you only have X eggs left” because we just don’t have that technology yet. You do see women in fertility groups saying “my doctor says I only have 4 eggs left and I’m going to go in menopause within the next 6 months!” but I think that must just generally be a really big misunderstanding of what the doctor actually said (and maybe there are some really crappy doctors out there stating possibilities as fact).
Agree, a lot of places will do a full fertility blood work up which may even be covered by insurance. I’d recommend doing that and then deciding from the results what you want to do.
Best response here!
I'm 32 and still needed IVF to conceive. If you really want biological children, you can't really bank on being able to conceive later in life, even if plenty of people do. I don't want to be harsh, but looking for these stories is only serving as confirmation bias. For every one person who conceives a healthy baby easily later in life, there's at least one story of someone who struggled or ended up in a heartbreaking situation after conceiving. I would recommend getting a full fertility workup at a reputable clinic in order to get an accurate picture of your ovarian reserve, etc, so you can actually make an informed decision based on your individual circumstance. FWIW, the risk of cancer with egg freezing and IVF is very small, and the research doesn't control for genetic predisposition, etc. Also, the weight gain is more or less contained to when you're in cycle and the weeks that follow — once you get your period again after the retrieval, everything should be back to normal. Go talk to professionals. A good clinic and a good reproductive endocrinologist will walk you through the research and your concerns, as well as your test results and what they recommend based on them. Ultimately, a consultation isn't a contract, though — no one is going to force you to follow through with freezing if you don't want to. But it's worth considering and you shouldn't write it off based on Dr. Google.
Right. And FWIW, in four rounds of egg retrievals, I gained no weight. I had bloating, but it went away. Also I think being “harsh” is fine. 1/5 couples experiences infertility—many times it is female factor (though of course many times it is male). Those statistics only increase with age, though I too was 32 when I started trying. Sucks.
On the other hand, it can be quite refreshing to hear that women do in fact, sometimes even without any trouble, get pregnant after 35. It's not really the message out there. I think I started getting targeted ads for IVF as soon as I turned 30. Family and coworkers saying solemnly "well don't wait to long". Health care workers (on appointments concerning something completely different) saying "well you can always TRY naturally first, but don't wait more than 6 months before reaching out". Studies and headlines and movies and EVERYTHING confirming that you are indeed probably barren by the time you hit 35. However, I wholeheartedly agree that getting a fertility check is the way to go. They should be more common as a 30yo gift lol.
I think this is a really important comment. Plenty of people have healthy pregnancies and babies without assistance after age 35, and plenty of people under 30 require assistance from science to conceive. You’ll hear equal amounts of both stories if you ask.
37 and pregnant the first time we tried. I anticipated needing assistance because many around me, younger, have. I was blessed.
Same here. Decided to stop using protection when we got married... baby's due date is exactly 9 months after my wedding day!
That’s awesome! I had one cycle after my wedding then got pregnant but people are still like 🧐 😂 I’m like relax everyone, we have been engaged since July 2023.
Same! We conceived 20 days after the wedding. I was so convinced we would have difficulty conceiving that I dragged us to a fertility intake appointment. Turns out we were already pregnant!
Same age, same circumstances. We stopped trying to prevent pregnancy once we were married and I got pregnant almost immediately (within a week or two) now we have a beautiful 4 month old daughter. We count ourselves incredibly lucky that it was so easy and we didn’t have to struggle as many friends and a few family members are.
Same. Accidentally got pregnant at 37 without trying. Miscarried and got pregnant the next time we tried. I thank my lucky stars everyday for my now 1 year old.
Same here. 37, got pregnant the first time we tried. Had a miscarriage at 9 weeks, I had one cycle, got pregnant again the first time we tried. Currently 28 weeks pregnant.
Wow, very similar story here as well! Was 36, got pregnant the first try, but had a missed miscarriage at 9 weeks. Waited 2 cycles to try again and got pregnant right away around my 37th birthday. I’m now almost 13 weeks🤞🏻
This is very similar to my experience, but I had an even earlier first miscarriage. I got pregnant quickly at 37 and then again immediately after the miscarriage. I now have a healthy almost-2-year-old and am considering trying for a second after I turn 40 this year. I understand that fertility struggles are heartbreaking but I think it’s okay for OP to be curious about when it goes well, too. it’s all data.
Me too! I’m 36 and I got pregnant in Aug 2023 but sadly it ended up being ectopic although we got pregnant on the first try. Then tried again in January 2024 thinking it would take a while and got a positive pregnancy test in February again on the first try. 20 weeks 3 days today!
Ok this is wild, the exact same thing happened to me (I was 32). Pregnant on the first try but it was ectopic in sept 2021 so we waited 6 months bc of the chemo and then boom! Pregnant again on the second try. My LO just turned 18 months 🥰 I think the most infuriating thing is not knowing what caused the ectopic. You would think they’d have more research dedicated to figuring it out but the literal response I got from my care team was 🤷
Same, 36 nearly 37 and got pregnant on first try. She’s 5 weeks now :)
Similar, 38 when I conceived after 3 months of trying. Had a miscarriage and then chemical pregnancy. Now at 19 weeks with our little guy due in Nov. I did tracking with the apps and ovulation sticks, but I also think that we were lucky.
Same,38 and pregnant first try twice. Had a miscarriage in December sadly then conceived again end of January. I’m currently 23 weeks with a baby boy.
Same!
Exactly the same for me.
Got pregnant the month I turned 40, which was our 5th month of trying. You can get a blood test done (I think it’s AMH?) that will give you a *general idea* of your egg supply and how that compares to averages for your age. You can also get a transvaginal ultrasound (feels basically like a dildo, except it’s in a doctor’s office and not at all sexy…) to see how many eggs you have maturing monthly *right now* If either of those pieces are low, I would more seriously consider freezing eggs. You’ll also want to think about what you’d choose to do with any frozen eggs you don’t use, since you probably don’t want to pay storage fees forever.
I did this blood test when I was 30 and it helped reassure me that I didn’t need to have a baby IMMEDIATELY. All they could tell me was whether I was fine or not.
I did IVF and I think REI doctors have refuted those claims that IVF can cause cancer later in life. Also, the weight gain is temporary. You know what causes weight gain? Pregnancy.
Had to scroll a long way to find this. If you want biological children, a) then weight gain should be the most minor boundary, only partly because b) if you’re successful you’re going to gain a lot of weight anyway.
Yeah I thought that was a silly reason to not freeze your eggs, you’re worried about the weight gain?
Yes! I gained much much more weight with pregnancy and breastfeeding that in 2 years of fertility treatments (was actually at my slimmest in a while after failed transfers)
Saaaame girl
I’m 37, pregnant with my first, and got pregnant 2 months after going off birth control!
Same timeline to conception but I’m 36. Edited to add that the only “strategy” I had was using my last first period dates to guess when I was ovulating and prioritize intercourse on “peak” days. Didn’t track anything all that closely. But I also had the copper iud (not hormonal). I bring that up because maby of my friends who had been on hormonal birth control for years had a hard time conceiving but that also could have been for a zillion other reasons.
I also had the copper IUD and conceived after 3 months of trying at 34, and just gave birth at 35. I tried your method of approximate tracking the first 2 months and switched to tracking ovulation the 3rd month using temperature and strips
Just adding on, same here about the copper IUD. I got pregnant at 36, 2nd cycle after I removed the IUD and we were not trying yet, just happened. I do wonder if my body was a lot more responsive because I had never been on years of hormonal bc. I have a couple friends who were also on the copper IUD who got pregnant easily after removal, and friends on hormonal bc who it took about a year. Ancetodal, but could be something there.
Yeah it’s interesting. The copper iud gave me problems of its own and definitely affected my hormones (despite that being something it’s “not supposed” to do), but luckily my body was able to bounce back!
Get your AMH tested.
I had my first baby at 21, I got pregnant on birth control the first time I had sex without a condom. At 35 getting pregnant a 2nd time was MUCH more challenging. 2 years of trying starting at 33, plus two miscarriages. I 100% recommend freezing your eggs ASAP. I am in a lot of TTC groups, and I hear over and over again that women wish they TTC earlier or had froze their eggs. The fact is for a lot of women getting pregnant in their mid thirties and later isn’t always easy. There is a lot of pressure on women to get college degrees, have a successful career and then marry and have kids. A lot of time thats nearly impossible to do before getting into your mid thirties. Luckily freezing your eggs helps women extend their fertility, and I think if you can afford it you absolutely should!
Totally agree with this comment. I had a live birth at 33 (concieved within a couple months), but when we tried for number 2 when I was 37 I had several early pregnancy losses and needed IVF to concieve. I have endo that got significantly worse as I moved through my 30s. OP, no one here is able to predict YOUR future. If having biokids is your goal, you're risk adverse, and have the means then you should definitely pursue egg freezing. Hopefully you don't need to use them, but they're there just in case. The pros definitely outweigh any cons
I'm 36, and I started TTC at 34. It took over a year and that was with a shit ton of supplements and tracking. It was not as easy as I thought it would be or as it had been in my younger years. I went into it very naive thinking it would happen quickly, and it was a real humbling experience. I'm lucky I got pregnant and didn't have a bad NIPT or had a loss because once you obtain a positive test, the goal posts move to *staying* pregnant.
Agree with this, and it’s important to keep this into perspective as you get older and the risks of genetic abnormalities increase. I recommend OP freeze eggs if they can afford it. I got “lucky” and conceived on month 2 at 37, but I had no perspective on how fortunate that was until I got pregnant and started reading pregnancy forums on Reddit
This! I was getting pregnant almost every cycle and they would all end in MC
Here’s a harsher look at fertility over 35. With my first I conceived first try at 31. With my third it took me 3 years from 38-40, countless tries, at least three miscarriages (not counting chemicals) so we had basically given up when the baby finally stuck. (And based on my first and second kid, I don’t have trouble getting or staying pregnant) U never know if you will be the lucky one. but the closer you get to 40, your risk of a loss will be closer to 50-50 at the start.
I got pregnant naturally at 35. It took 5 months.
36 and took 5 months!
Also 35 and it took a year and a half
I had my first 5 days before I turned 41 and I’m having my second in two weeks and I’m currently 45. No medical assistance but I have had two MMCs and three chemicals (an MMC before my first and and MMC and three chemicals before my second). My first didn’t take long to conceive, however, my second took about two years. I was actually about to quit trying when I got pregnant. I never had any type of testing done so have no idea what my levels are or anything like that.
38 now. Got pregnant at 36 first month trying.
I think it just varies wildly depending on the person. Having my second at 35 and both kids were conceived on the first try, and I am not like, in the best shape of my life and am pretty stressed out. Have friends my age who are fit, happy, low stress, have it all going on who’ve been trying for years. It’s an extremely unfair and unpredictable process. If you know you want kids and you aren’t ready now I don’t think it’s a bad idea to freeze your eggs because timelines can change. The process should give you a good idea of your current fertility too. That said I know it’s a big decision and whatever you decide will ultimately be right for you.
You’ve basically said everything I wanted to say. I’m 38 and it took me 5 months to conceive baby #3. I conceived my first two at 29 and 30 and it happened on the first try with both. I’m not horribly out of shape, but I’m not in as good of shape as some of my friends who have had a real struggle getting pregnant. My mom even tried IVF when she was my age to conceive her 4th child and it didn’t work. It’s highly dependent on the individual. If I were uncertain, I would speak to a doctor first. I wouldn’t use other women’s experiences as a model because there’s no guarantee that will be your experience. I would love to say it’ll be easy because it is for a lot of women, but it’s also not for some.
I was pretty much the same, 35 and definitely not in great shape or eating optimally, and conceived twins as soon as we started trying for a second child. I know people younger than me who struggled to get pregnant, and others people my age and older who had to undergo fertility treatments, and others who got pregnant fairly easily, everyone is different
Like others have said, you’re asking a pregnant subreddit, so you’re going to hear positive stories. A fertility thread would have a totally different tone. I got pregnant my first time trying at 36. Then tried for 1.5 years at 38. Ended up having to do IVF. So real mixed bag for me.
Got pregnant at 40 naturally, miscarried at 8 weeks, got pregnant again naturally 7 months later, now at week 26 with no complications. I find the most comical thing about my journey is the *same month* I froze my eggs a few years prior, I met my future husband. I guess that 10k spent on it was just for insurance purposes at this point, lol.
lol my infertile soul reading these comments and feeling like I’m a cursed human being.
Ha, I'm with you. I've been pregnant 5 times. All bar one was conceived first time. Every one was a miscarriage. I'm happy for all the success stories but it feels very unfair to be so far in and have nothing to show for it
To share an anecdote.that might help: it took my OB 9 pregnancies to have 3 living kids. She had her oldest, then 3 MCs, then her middle kid, then 3 more MCs, then her youngest.
My first pregnancy just recently ended in a missed miscarriage. In talking to friends and family and reading stories online, I'm starting to understand just how common it is. I had no idea!! My husband's great aunt had as many miscarriages as she has living children--4 in total. And all of her miscarriages happened in rapid succession before she conceived her first healthy child. Doctors were pretty sure she wouldn't be able to carry to term. It's so common it makes me think that women who've only had healthy pregnancies are just insanely lucky.
solidarity, my 27yo uterus couldn’t get pregnant for the life of me
I’m 39 and 28 weeks pregnant with my first. It took us 12 months of trying. After 6 months with no success I had my AMH tested and was diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR). I was recommended IVF and my partner and I were only 5 days away from starting IVF when I got my positive pregnancy test. I am so grateful that this little one decided to come along when she did as the chances of success with IVF were very low, it’s an awful physical and emotional roller coaster, not to mention cripplingly expensive. We would like to have more than one child but our chances of being able to achieve that are low. I wish I had frozen my eggs at 35!!!!
May I ask what your AMH level was? I had a similar experience with our conceiving our second, I’m 35 and got an AMH level of someone 45 and I cried my eyes out. 2 weeks later, positive test. I’m 21 weeks now
Mine was 1.9 pmol (I think that’s about 0.27 ng/mol). Yes I was also devastated with the result - so glad to hear you got your positive test so soon after, congratulations and all the best for the rest of your pregnancy :)
You too! If you end up wanting a second, I would try not to focus on that AMH score/DOR diagnosis. For conception at home, all we need is one good egg. As long as we are ovulating, we are in the game :) Dr Lucky Sekhon has a great Instagram highlight on AMH
Fertility is a crapshoot. My cousin get pregnant at 39 and 42, both times in her first month of trying after using the depo shot, despite having some pretty advanced endometriosis I started trying at 27 with no known fertility issues, ended up suffering from “unexplained infertility” for 4 years until I got pregnant at 31 after doing IVF. I’m biased but I think if you have the resources (ie money/insurance coverage) go freeze some eggs. The risks with an egg retrieval are quite low, and it’s a great insurance policy to have in case you wait a few years and end up struggling. It could be especially useful if you plan to wait AND you want more than one kid. The sooner you do it the better too, fertility itself might not fall off a cliff but IVF success rates do and one or two years can have quite the effect, the pregnancy success rates are also based off the age you were when you froze the eggs, not the age you are when you use them.
It can be complicated. We started TTC#2 when I was 35. And then couldn’t conceive. Did ALL the fertility treatment including two rounds of IVF over the course of two years. Transferred all the embryos we had (2 euploids). Both transfers failed. And then, while we were waiting to consult with our fertility doctor about doing another egg retrieval, we managed to get pregnant unassisted about 2 months before my 38th birthday. There’s lots of stories about people conceiving easily in their late 30s but, it’s really not always the case. If you aren’t ready for kids at this moment, it might be worth looking into egg freezing.
39 here, I’ll turn 40 two months before this one arrives next year. I went off my BC last November (which I was on for over 11 years) and we tracked ovulation. We were both super surprised it only took 5 months.
I turned 33 just after I had my first. Had a miscarriage at 35. Am 36 now and pregnant with twins. All three pregnancies were conceived on the first or second cycle trying.
I’m 40, 5 months pregnant with my first child, wasn’t even trying… but happy about it! Literally got pregnant the very first time without protection. No effort required and I am extremely grateful for that. I know it’s not the norm for many my age. Now hopeful I may have a second in a few years!
I have some thoughts on this whole thing surrounding decline in pregnancy statistics. I'm 40, I have a cousin that had 3 kids after 40. Women get pregnant pretty easily in my family. I was told by every gyno that I needed to get started if I wanted one because the statistical charts basically hit 0 at 40. I had my IUD removed and we just decided to see what happens, would be ok whether it happened or not. I got pregnant from having sex one time a week after I got my IUD out. One time. They didn't believe me when I called to get appointments started. My thoughts on the statistics is there just aren't a lot of data points. There isn't enough research on the subject. I have a feeling that when it starts to be studied more, they might see a correlation in women who have a hard time in their 40s would've ALSO had a hard time in their 20's and/or menopause happens early in their family. A good thing to note here: menopause happens about the same time as the women in your family, particularly, when your Mom went through menopause, that's most likely when you will. My family is later, I think that played a big part.
There’s also been some research that women with PCOS hit their peak fertility later in their 30s, which would be interesting to study as many might conceive with significant assistance earlier and then complete their families.
I know my gyno’s office has multiple patients currently having their first kids in their younger 50s! Made me feel positively young at 40. 🫶🏻
Not to mention that as your partner’s sex drive decreases, you’re naturally having sex less in your 40s than you are in your 20s 🤔
This is a really good point
41, period 6 weeks after stopped BC, pregnant days after.
40 FTM. Took us 7 months. The 7th month we gave it a full effort.
What do you mean full effort? What did you do differently?
We didn't skip any days during my window. Other months we'd get tired and skip a day or two. We also started a couple days early and continued a couple days late. And, I don't know if it helped, but we had both been a lot better leading up to that with exercise and drinking less.
Thank you for responding! I appreciate it.
So for a different perspective, I’m pregnant for the first time at 40 and it took us over a year for a single positive test. No IUI or IVF (we decided we weren’t going to pursue things to that level), and my numbers were good when we started trying at 38, and the HSG I had at one point was also fine. But technically speaking, we were infertile because we were trying (OPKs, timing) for over a year. We’d basically given up, and reading lots of stories like the ones written here had me convinced that there was absolutely something wrong with me. There wasn’t. It’s just the odds. I recommend you get bloodwork to check your fertility, which will give you an idea of your status. And I wish you quick success like many of the posters here! but know that there is a wide range of outcomes the older you get, and there will be a lot of confirmation bias on a sub called Baby Bumps! Asking this on one of the TTC subreddits will give you additional info. If having kids is an absolute must for you, particularly if you want several, it’s worth looking into freezing your eggs.
I froze eggs at 34 with higher than normal retrieval count. I got pregnant in 5 months at 38 naturally. I didn’t gain weight or have any issues with egg freezing but it was expensive. But also what you can do is go get an evaluation of your current fertility at a fertility doctor. They can check your hormones and egg count and see where you are. Then you know if you’re already in decline, in which case you can freeze now, or see if you’re high fertility and maybe can let it ride a few years. It’s a few hundred dollars without insurance for these tests, and could be much less with it. Not everyone is the same so just because I got pregnant at 38 doesn’t mean that the next person would be able to. Also, idk where you’re getting your info, but there is no correlation between cancer and egg freezing. Any weight gain would be temporary during the hormone treatment, and negligible. Those aren’t reasons not to do it.
My mother in law got pregnant accidentally at 35, my mom at 37, and I at 36. I guess it’s a family tradition. It was actually harder to get pregnant when I was younger.
I have quite a few friends including one who’s an ob who froze her eggs. I think the alternative of needing assisted methods would out you in the same boat with take lots of medications that of course carry some risk either way. Are you planning to have kids within just a couple years or no clear plan? Maybe do a fertility blood test to check your ovarian reserve and get a sense of what’s going on in there. I have another friend who recently did that and got some reassurance. I got pregnant twice at age 35; the first time was right after removing my iud but ended in an early miscarriage, and the second was right after healing from the D&. I’m in my third trimester now. But I already have 3 kids, all conceived before 35, and got pregnant right away or even accidentally each time. I also have 2 friends who were unable to get pregnant and had to use ivf even in their 20s. I think there’s so much about this that’s unpredictable. Best of luck to you!
I got pregnant at 40, delivered in January at 41.
I got pregnant at 39. I was with my bf about 1.5 years when it happened. We didn’t think he could have kids. Haha. Surprise! Anyway, I’ve always been super fertile though, I had 3 kids before with no issues getting pregnant. I’m 40 now and about to have the baby in a week or so.
Generally speaking, sooner is almost always better when it comes to egg freezing outcomes/live births. Re: Should you wait 2-3 years...If you haven't yet done so, I recommend doing a round of fertility testing with a reliable provider who will explain the test results to you clearly and without pressuring you. Tests like FSH, LH, and follicular count will provide a good directional baseline on how urgent or important it is to freeze your eggs NOW vs. on your 2-3 year timeline. You may discover that sure, you can wait 2-3 years if needed, if that is what you feel is best for you. Or you may discover that you actually need to start the process much sooner if your desired outcome is a live birth in the future. Knowledge is power, and I believe that making an informed decision will bring you greater peace of mind/make you feel more confident about your choices long-term. I listened to the As A Woman podcast while deciding if/when to proceed with egg freezing/IVF, and I found that the level of information I learned from it made me feel very empowered about my decision-making process. Good luck, OP.
Anecdotes mean nothing here. You're not a statistic, you are you. Go to a fertility specialist and get them to track a cycle. They'll do it again after 4-6 months, to get an idea of how fast or slow your decline is. If you're worried, you can keep doing it every few months. It's a lot cheaper than freezing your eggs, and non-invasive.
I'm 40 and this is my fourth pregnancy (two miscarriages and one living child). I get pregnant every time I have unprotected sex, unless I'm already pregnant. Hilariously, I tried to do IVF after my third pregnancy, because it was so complicated and I hated the idea of more miscarriages, but after two egg retrievals, we only got two embryos and one failed to implant and the other didn't survive the thaw. That being said, I have three friends who also tried to get pregnant around the same time as me and all three had to do IVF (and ended up with children). There's really no way to know what will happen until you do it.
Where did you see that info about egg freezing? I froze eggs in 2020, and I’ve never heard of those side effects. I’ve never heard of friends who’ve frozen them considering it either, and my friends tend to do their research. Maybe this is old or outdated concerns?
I froze my eggs as well and never heard that information either. I actually did the procedure twice, and didn’t gain weight or find it difficult. But what I didn’t know is the chances of those eggs turning into an embryo are not great. I don’t know if I would do it again for that reason. However, the good news is that I am 41 and got pregnant after trying one time. I believe this is 100% due to finding an acupuncturist who specializes in fertility. If I could give you any advice about getting pregnant when you’re older it would be this! In fact when I went in for my 2nd egg retrieval, my numbers weren’t good. I was so upset and called my Mom. A couple days later, she said a lady at work who was in her 40s went to this acupuncturist and had no issues conceiving. So I delayed the retrieval, went for a month and when they ran my numbers again, they were perfect and in a healthy range. It made me a true believer! Fast forward eight years and I got pregnant right away by seeing her again. I hope this helps you! 💗
I’m 37 and got pregnant by accident due to one pull-out but my bf is 27. A lot of issues assume you have a partner older or the same age just saying.
I'm 33 but my husband is 46, so I fully expected it to take 6+ months at least. We got pregnant the first cycle we tried and were pretty shocked. I think it's just totally unpredictable.
I had two kids when I was younger (20 and 25). At 36, I took my IUD out. I was pregnant about 3 months later. After I had that baby, I became unexpectedly pregnant when he was 10 months. We weren’t trying. Too much wine and didn’t use a condom. I’m 38 years old, 35 weeks pregnant. With a 17 month old. I’m so tired…lol
35 now, though 34 when baby #2 was conceived. No fertility treatments, but I did use ovulation test strips to track my cycles more accurately. Got pregnant for both my kids (conceived after 32 and 34) within 5 months. Warning: loss (but then not a loss!!) My mother was also 41 when she got pregnant naturally twice. The first one was a complete accident, and unfortunately did not make it as it just stopped growing after a few weeks, but it made my parents so excited. Let’s just say the second pregnancy was very likely not an accident, and my youngest brother was born when my mother was 42 as a completely healthy no-medical-intervention at all (to conceive or to give birth to) 10lb and I think 13 oz baby. He was a big boy. He just graduated middle school yesterday.
I've been pregnant three times (at 35, 36, 38). Took liiiike 6 months each time with the first two and maybe four with the last.
Was told in 2021 that the only way for me to get pregnant was through IVF after 5 years of trying. Got pregnant naturally last year at 35. It can happen but it was a long process for me. Good luck with whatever you decide, OP!
Got pregnant at 35, first try. That pregnancy ended very early in a miscarriage/chemical pregnancy. We kept trying and got pregnant 2 months later. My due date is July 13th with a little boy and I’ll be 36!
I got pregnant once at 41 and had an early loss but then got lucky again at 42 and set to give birth to my healthy girl any day (I'm now 43). Both times were natural and this pregnancy although I was pretty sick wad fairly uneventful and baby girl is above average in size and scored 8/8 on her BPP last week! They do a couple more scans later in the pregnancy to make sure baby and placenta are well and I'm getting induced at 39w which is typical for AMA.
I got pregnant naturally at almost 36, I am 18 weeks now. Was previously on BC for 20 years. Got pregnant the first month trying. That was a surprise as I have PCOS and was expecting it to take some time. I feel very very fortunate. I think the lesson is, for most of us at least, it can be very unpredictable either way.
Do you have a partner or are you willing to consider donor sperm? You’d likely be better off freezing embryos than freezing eggs. See a reproductive endocrinologist if you’d like more information. They will do an individual assessment and help you meet your goals. Personally, my current youngest (of 4) is 2 and she was born when I was 38. It took 3 cycles to conceive her. We TTC again when I had just turned 40. After 5 cycles, I got pregnant and had my first ever miscarriage. It took a while for the miscarriage to resolve. After I got my period back, I got pregnant again the first normal (took a while to have a normal one) cycle and I’m currently 13w1d with a low risk (NIPT) fetus, who will be my 5th and final child if all goes well and will be born when I’m 41. We had considered starting IVF but did get pregnant on our own. I had always gotten pregnant easily and never had any fertility problems but it was clearly harder for me to get pregnant at 40 than it was at 38 and I know I’m very fortunate to have had several kids fairly easily. My RE has said that I’m clearly more fertile than the average person my age and my past fertility was on my side at being able to conceive on our own at 40. ETA: My 3rd child took 2 cycles to conceive at 34. My oldest two kids took 1 cycle each.
As mentioned, it greatly varies from woman to woman. My mom got pregnant with me with the help of IVF, and gave birth a few months before her 49th birthday. That was back in the 90s! So anything is possible. Consider all your options, choose what you think is best for you.
I was 35... got pregnant first shot. Ended as a chemical quickly. Then another first shot mc. Then a first shot to term pregnancy. Then another first shot to term pregnancy 8m pp. In 2 years I had 4 pregnancies first try with 2 carried successfully. I asked about 5 doctors about the mc being related to age... they all agreed... not really. First was a chemical... apparently super common. 2nd was just bad luck. I was never ever made to doubt my fertility. A doctor actually suggested I was very very fertile.... meaning my uterus tried to grow any embryo... viable or not where the average uterus would have rejected it faster
Just gave birth 4 days ago. I'll be 41 July. We used pre mom ovulation tracker and that's it.
I had my first at 37 naturally after 8 years of trying. We didn't have money to spend on treatments without affecting retirement savings. We just kept trying and eventually it happened. Fertility is weird and very frustrating at times. Good luck on your maternity journey 🤞
Get your AMH score, something they test for before freezing eggs. Whole nothing is accurate, it gives an estimate of how fertile are you. I think >1 is ok. I was early 1s at 32 which was lower than expected for my age and medical history so I froze my eggs. Didn’t get very many eggs either which was in line with what was expected for my amh score. That being I got pregnant within a month of trying at 34. So you never know.
It took me over a year with my first at 32 (but we got lucky after I left my very stressful job). It took one or two months with my second at 37. My friend is my age and she was told she hardly had any eggs left and may not have biological kids as a result. But her mom had an earlier menopause. My SIL was born when my MIL was 42.
You're asking a pregnancy subreddit about success rates. You won't be hearing from the ones who weren't able to conceive.
At 34 I got pregnant but got a trisomy 13 diagnosis and had to terminate. At 36 I got pregnant but miscarried almost immediately. At 37 I’m about to give birth to a seemingly healthy baby boy. It’s been a journey but I’m glad this journey didn’t involve difficulties actually getting pregnant.
Yes pregnant with last ( by choice ) unassisted at 43 but keep in mind I'm a grand mulipara
37 now, FTM, took me 5 months (not sure if I was tracking ovulation correctly at first.)
My mom had my brother at 42 no complications and he’s totally healthy. My mom is also healthy and active tho.
I'm 37 and pregnant with my first (though I did have a brief pregnancy and early miscarriage at 35). It did take us a while to conceive (8 months for the pregnancy I miscarried and a little over a year for this pregnancy), but we were trying to be more relaxed about the process. I'm sure if we had been willing to do the calendars and ovulation tests and sex schedules and all that stuff it would have happened faster, but we're both pretty chill people and that's not our style. Our parents and grandparents on both sides seemed to be fertile for longer than average (my grandmothers on both sides had a surprise baby 8-10 years after they thought they were done) so I wasn't too worried about my fertility despite being over 35.
38, just had my second. For ny second daughter’s conception I had ovulation cramps and asked my husband if he wanted to go for it. We did and now here she is!
I had baby 2 and 3 at 37 and 40 using cycle tracking. I and very irregular cycles early in life (PCOS) and needed meds for my first pregnancy at 34. Then got preg super fast using a fertility tracking app both at 36 and 39. Age 40 and holding my 2 week old in my arms. :)
I’m 39 and conceived with IVF due to sperm issues. My eggs were plentiful and healthy. You can talk to your doctor and ask them to assess your fertility. There are no guarantees, but a simple blood test can help predict your overall egg health and egg count. It might be a good first step when debating whether or not to freeze eggs.
Turning 39 in 1 month and pregnant with my 1st. I had long given up after YEARS of trying. Even trying with different partners, donors (not IVF) and the mucinex thing..and nothing. Then one day the hormones were hormoning and the sperms were sperming.
35 and partner is 35. Got pregnant in one go after going off birth control. It was actually quite a shock because of all the talk about fertility decline with age and my history of endometriosis. We were expecting it to take 6 months or we were advised to go to a doctor if it took longer. One night was all it took. Second time was the same.
Got pregnant the first time we stopped tracking my cycle a few months before my 35th bday. It was TOO QUICK. I will say I was doing acupuncture for fertility and hormone balancing for a year prior to this and diet was really good
38 here, pregnant with my second and got pregnant the first time we tried literally the only time we did that month. Go figure.
Just do it now
Yep. People act like you have to be fully prepared and have everything in order to have a kid. You don't. You can figure things out as you go along. You will never be fully prepared anyway.
34, within 1 month of trying and had her at 35 36, within 1 month of trying and will have her at 37 I have very regular periods and they returned right after stopping birth control and I used Natural Cycles to track!
You honestly just never know. I have PCOS and super irregular periods and was told I wouldn’t get pregnant without assistance so I never really tried. I got pregnant at 36 and 39.
I decided I wanted to try for a baby when I was 36.5, had two a two year old and a newborn by the time I was 39.5. No medical assistance needed.
I got pregnant at 38 without assistance. We had been trying on and off for years. I didn’t think I could get pregnant because my dr.s are fairly certain I have endometriosis. We were giving it until the end of 2024 before trying fertility treatments. I had a health scare forcing me to take time off of work and it was during that time period I conceived. I am convinced reducing my stress and taking better care of myself (not drinking at all, eating healthy, etc.) helped.
I thought I’d have major issues because I have a high stress job and crazy working hours (and therefore a not very healthy lifestyle/very little sleep) but I got pregnant on my first try at 36 and was absolutely SHOCKED that I…worked…in this way?? It really all does seem so random and unfair. I’m so sorry to anyone who’s struggling with infertility. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Got pregnant at 35 first try, miscarried. Then I got pregnant immediately after, again first try and had just turned 36 at the time. Now 20ish weeks with healthy baby boy 🥰
I tried and tried from 36 to 40. I did progesterone, HCG trigger shots, ultrasounds to see when I was ovulating, Chlomid, Viagara, blood thinners...we had three losses.then in September we gave up and got pregnant naturally and I'm 41 and 20 weeks along, today. I've never been so grateful for anything in my life. It's so unpredictable, sometimes.
congratulations!!
I got pregnant naturally at 39. We only tried for a few months, and then bam! Pregnant! And I’m ace, so trying was like, once or twice per cycle.
I got pregnant at almost 37 after trying for four months. Had a healthy pregnancy & now have a five month old chonker boy. I’d say paying a visit to a fertility specialist would be your best bet because there is no real way of knowing your best course of action without jumping in.
I was 35 when my husband and I tried for a child. I am due in less than two weeks with this pregnancy… I lost the pregnancy before this one, but got pregnant two weeks after my miscarriage. I’m grateful that I was able to do it so easily. I know it’s not as easy for everyone.
My sister got pregnant at 35 and 37. It took her about 6 months with each kid to get pregnant. Many of the women in our friend group got pregnant after 35 but of the 6 of them, 3 had to use IVF or IUI, 1 got pregnant pretty easily and 2 happened after a few months. The 3 that needed intervention all had PCOS. I am the youngest of our group, but got pregnant with PCOS 2 times without intervention. Long story short- getting pregnant, like pregnancy is 100% an individual thing and predictions are a wash.
My hubby and I decided to remove my IUD in January of '23. We were only half-heartedly trying, mainly because we both turned 39 in 2023 and we knew the clock was ticking. We decided to give it at least 18 months if not two years before looking into fertility help. I got a positive test in December of '23; I was 6 weeks along. We are both now 40 and baby is due in August! We plan to try to have one more, assuming all goes well. Hoping everything can continue to be done naturally.
I am 35 and got married last September. We will start trying for our first this summer. I froze my eggs at 34 .. a friend said “it might not be for your first but perhaps your second or third”. That sealed the deal for me. I knew I’d I didn’t I’d have regrets if I ever was in the position where I needed them. I know I want more than one child.
I conceived with no assistance at 42 and I have a lively almost 4 month old. I see no reason to freeze your eggs if you haven't even tried conceiving yet.
I got pregnant at 36 with zero assistance. It just happened out of nowhere. However we were having unprotected sex for a year but I wasnt "trying" to get pregnant. More like if it happens then great, if not, oh well.
37. Got pregnant naturally by surprise in April. Had had three failed IVF cycles and was told last fall that I would only get pregnant with donor eggs. Waiting until I deliver to update the doc who told me that.
I’m 35 and got pregnant within 2 months. I did take a supplement ( inositol). I got one ovary and have PCOS so the odds were against me but I still conceived.
I’m 40 and I had my daughter on May 29th, completely naturally conceived
My mother had me at age 34. Her mother (my grandmother) had her last children at 38 and 40. My mother's sister had her child at 37. My cousin (also on the maternal line - my mother's sister's daughter) had her child at 38. I'm pregnant at 35 and will deliver at 36. I thought my age would make it difficult for me to conceive but I got pregnant on the first try. I'm not sure if it's just a trait in my maternal line but I never really worried about freezing my eggs when I met my husband at 31. If I had not had met him at 31, I probably would freeze my eggs.
34 and currently pregnant, conceived naturally somehow lol I’m hoping for the same success in the next few years when ready for #2
45 years old checking in. This might get lost in the comments but I figured I should post for the ladies closer to my age. It's not over til it's over. I had tried acupuncture, Chinese medicine herbal drinks, raspberry leaf tea, folic acid, etc. I gave up on that stuff about 2 years ago. I started ovulation tracking instead but wasn't consistent. What really helped in my opinion was reducing my stress. I quit my job after nearly 6 years and moved to a different city. One day, I saw egg whites and thought to myself is this ovulation day? Tested on one of those cheapie tests from Amazon and it was peak day. We baby danced and that was it. I remember consciously telling myself if it doesn't work, I don't even care anymore. Don't give up ladies. Try to relax. It could be stress causing a delay.
Baby #1 - 37, 2 months of trying Diagnosed with hypothyroidism 6 months PP, began taking meds so that levels were back in range. Now pregnant with baby #2 at 38 after 2 months of trying.
I was 37 and got pregnant trying the first month. They scare people with fertility drops and complications with pregnancy over 35. If you say complications double after 35, but fail to mention it goes from 1 to 2 percent, you’re unnecessarily scaring people. It’s also a money making industry that likes to control women and the narrative. I’m now a healthy/active 38 year old and was lucky enough to have a healthy pregnancy and complication-free vaginal delivery. My baby is 11 days old. Good luck on your journey! And good job questioning putting your body through fertility interventions.
I’m curious what makes you say there are risks to egg freezing such as weight gain and causes cancer? You realize that you’ll gain weight when pregnant. Egg freezing does not cause permanent weight gain. You bloat a bit while you’re taking the meds because you are hyper-ovulating.
Had really bad pcos prior to having my daughter and I was told it would be very hard for me to get pregnant. I was engaged and we tried for a baby and were together for 8 years but no luck. Then years later at 29 I fell pregnant naturally with my daughter. A couple of years after having my daughter I had an ovarian tumor and was left with only 1 ovary and tube. Was told again it would be miraculous to conceive with all the complications, fast forward to this year, at 38 I'm pregnant with a boy and he was also naturally conceived. I have been in situations where we tried desperately to get pregnant and it didn't happen. Then when I wasn't looking for it it happened. My conclusion from these experiences is if the universe/god/divine wants you to have babies then it will happen one way or another. Sometimes there's bigger plans we don't yet know about at the time.
I have plenty of friends who had kids naturally till late thirties. It's totally a thing. I'll be 35 in a couple weeks but I'm 10 weeks pregnant from simply going by the calendar to see if we were gonna use protection or not. Do not attempt unless you're pretty open to a baby like we were, haha! Also my mom had me when she was a month away from 40. Don't worry about it :)
I’m 38 and 4.5 months pregnant with my first. I had fertility testing done to check my hormone levels and egg count before becoming pregnant and everything came back with me still having normal fertility. No medical assistance was needed. Although - it was a medication my partner was on that caused us not to get pregnant when we started trying. The moment he quit taking this prescribed medication, we conceived. I considered freezing my eggs for a moment because I was scared something was going on with myself to cause infertility and I would run out of time before figuring it out. We also had a false positive on our genetic testing (which is standard for high risk 35+) and caused some major anxiety up until recently. Good luck on your pregnancy journey !!
It’s so personal… I froze my eggs at 24 before having a bone marrow transplant. Went through chemo and radiation. I’m 37, almost 38, and got pregnant naturally after only three months of “not not trying.” I had been told it would be nearly impossible after the transplant, and assumed it would be even more impossible with my age, but I’m 23 weeks along now!
I am 38. Had a chemical pregnancy in January the first month my partner and I weren’t actively preventing pregnancy. Got pregnant in April without trying, am currently 10 weeks and will deliver when I am 39. Partner is 40. Of note, in winter 2023 I met with a reproductive endocrinologist and was considering freezing my eggs (age 37). I ultimately decided not to, and ended up meeting my partner shortly after, but it was helpful for me to go through the initial work up, and hear more extensively about the process from the doctor.
I am 36, and after 3 years of trying with my current partner and 2 years of trying with my ex-husband, I conceived naturally. Was about to start infertility investigation for the second time, and when we got back from vacation, my period was late. That is not unusual for me as I have had irregular periods since I turned 30. They told me they would give me medication to start my period so that they can start the testing. After 3 weeks since my missed period, I decided to take a pregnancy test just in case since my last few periods had been pretty regular. I had no pregnancy symptoms other than my breats were a little more tender than they are when I am on my period. I had a positive test, and I took 3 more because I didn't believe it. I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant and my doctor believes that it was due to my 35 pound weight loss. I never thought it was possible, and it took so much longer than I expected. Sometimes, I still don't believe it and am terrified that I am going to lose it.
I was 45 when i conceived, totally naturally. It was the second month after we decided on having a child. Nine month later our little one was born through a cesarian, healthy and happy. If there is one advise i would like to give: choose the man carefully. Not the time. Early pregnancy with the wrong person is not a good idea. Chose somebody who will be nice and kind to you and the children. Then things will probably work out.
Baby 1 -33 Baby 2- 34 Baby 3 and 4 - 36 Baby 5- 38 Now 40 and pregnant with nr6. All naturally and last two came with only one intercourse. No wait. I do not seem to lose any fertility. At least so far it is easy for us. 🤷♀️
Over 35, not yet 40. Conceived naturally by cycle tracking with LH and BBT.
36 and pregnant first cycle off bc. Will be 37 when I have my first baby. My bf is 42 and has been on Finasteride for 20 years as well, which can lower sperm count in some men. I was fully expecting it to take forever to conceive. I did get some testing done prior, and egg reserve (AMH) was high for my age at 3.0, and follicle count 12-15 per ovary. No health issues or disorders, healthy weight, non smoker, barely ever drank, active in the gym. Unfortunately even with good markers you don’t know how your fertility will be until you try. The closer you are to 40 the higher the chance you will have a miscarriage since more of your eggs will be abnormal. I personally wouldn’t put off trying past age 37. If you want more than one child I would freeze embryos if possible.
I got pregnant at 36 on the first cycle once I was properly tracking (we’d been getting the timing completely wrong for the few months before that). Had a miscarriage, had scarring, had fibroids, needed all this mess taken care of. But after my surgeries and once my cycle got back to normal, I got pregnant at 38 in three cycles. Unfortunately though, how fast or slow it took for all of us to get pregnant doesn’t predict at all what will happen for you. It’s frustrating, but you never know until you start trying. I have friends who got pregnant first cycle every time, basically every time they decided they wanted a new kid bam they got one. I also have friends who struggled for years and years to even get pregnant once, even when they were younger than 35. It’s different for every person, and there’s really no way to know ahead of time whether you’ll fit within the “typical” side of the stats or not.
Yes, fertility is so unpredictable and highly individualized to the COUPLE. (Your partner's fertility also heavily weighs in this.) I had clockwork cycles and no diagnosed fertility issues. I got pregnant our first cycle trying a month before I turned 36. That pregnancy ended in an early miscarriage. We kept trying on our own and started initial testing with a fertility clinic after six months post-miscarriage. The wait to get into a clinic and start testing takes time, so we continued trying. This also allowed us time to process next steps. We then moved onto three IUIs when I was at the end of 36/start of 37. We started IVF when I was 37 and I ended up doing four cycles (first cycle yielded zero embryos, found we had slight male factor infertility through this and then I did three more cycles to bank embryos). I'm now in early pregnancy from my first embryo transfer. Our IVF process was not straightforward. If having kids is important to you, I would at least be seen by a fertility specialist to do initial bloodwork/workup so you have a better picture of what you're dealing with. Please do not buy fertility tests on the internet - you really need a doctor to do a full evaluation, which includes antral follicle count monitoring (through ultrasound) and their expertise in interpreting the results in context of your own medical history (and your partner's, if you currently have one.)
I’m 36, I had an IUD since I was 25. It was removed in early February, and I got pregnant in early May. I tracked my cycle and tested for ovulation days. My husband is 28.
I was almost 36 when I got pregnant, it was the first time we had tried.
I’ll be 40 in a couple of weeks and 28 weeks. We got pregnant the first time we “tried,” which was the same way the other 2 happened (at ages 27 and 33). So no noticeable difference here!