Overview

Unable to conceive in my 30s, I lost two babies to miscarriage in my early 40s before I had a successful pregnancy and brought home my baby the day before my 43rd birthday.

In this blog I share my thoughts, feelings and recipes around fertility after 40.

My Journey to Parenthood After 40

After abandoning condoms early in 2010, we started TTC in earnest in September.

I cut down on my work hours to decrease stress (which backfired – I ended up doing 5 days worth of work in a 3 day window each week). We made a few small lifestyle changes to ensure we were in optimal health.

By Christmas 2011 I was concerned there may be a problem with one of us and went to the doctor, who sent us both for tests which we passed with flying colours. She offered to give us a referral to a private fertility clinic.

That was it.

We were ineligible for any help on the NHS because of my age, fair
enough, but looking back I am shocked we werent given more information
about conception.

So I set about seeing what I could do to improve our chances given we had no explained problems.

Improving Fertility After 40

I tried lots of things to try to improve our chances of conceiving.

I took a holiday to see family and friends in Australia and New Zealand
and when I returned I found a lower stress job where I worked from home.
I bought Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler and a thermometer and started temping using the Fertility Friend iphone application. �
I learned I have lots of good quality ewcm for a woman of my age and by the temperature shift that occurred mid-cycle I appeared to be ovulating.
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I also bought the Circle and Bloom Natural Cycle for Fertility program which I listened to every night.

I’m not sure exactly what made the difference but we conceived Poppy the first month I started temping a few weeks before my 41st birthday.

When we lost her at 10 weeks, I was shocked and upset, but encouraged by the knowledge that we were able to get pregnant once, it meant it all worked, we could get pregnant again.

I continued temping but 6 months later my cycle didnt seem to have settled down after the miscarriage so after reading a copy of The Infertility Cure by Randine Lewis I made an appointment for acupuncture.

Pregnancy Success After 40

My first period after acupuncture had good flow with no clots and no pain and we conceived Pipkin the following cycle. I continued to get acupuncture up until I was 12 weeks pregnant to ensure good flow to the baby.

Our 12 week scan showed a strong heartbeat but a thick nucal fold and I was told it was likely Pipkin would have Downs Syndrome. I lost Pipkin at 15 weeks a few days before my 42nd birthday.

Testing of her tiny body shows she had Trisomy 13. As horrific as the second miscarriage was, I am glad she passed naturally and I had no need for surgery.

Welcome Baby After 40!

Four months after my last miscarriage I was surprised to find myself pregnant again. We welcomed Pickle in May 2014, the day before my 43rd birthday.