How hard to get pregnant in your late 30's

[oneontheway]

I'm wondering how long it took to conceive in your LATE 30's early 40s totally naturally (no meds, etc). I know everyone is different and you can't really generalize these types of questions but I'm curious to see each persons experience. I've thought about trying to get pregnant at at 37.5 and wondering if it will be a long road of up and downs. DC 1 and 2 were concevied on the first month of trying (age 30 and 32) DC3 took over 6 months at age 35. TIA!

[Beth24]

Very similar to you...had my first 2 at 32 and 34 and got pregnant right away, as soon as I stopped using birth control. I had my third at 37. I think it took 2 months instead of 1, again really fast. It took me a year to get pregnant at 44 though. I started trying at 43. HTH.

[oneontheway]

Beth, thanks for sharing your experience!

[zag95]

I found out I was pregnant on my 38th birthday last Nov...... I had had a D&C following a miscarriage a yr ago in June. After waiting a month to have a cycle, I got out the chart and looked at when I was ovulating/temps/cervical mucus, etc. I highly recommend charting. So it took about 4 mos.... our other DD was conceived when I was 34.

[daphne]

I was 31 and 34 when I had my 1st 2 children - they were both conceived after about 2-4 months of trying. I m/c when I was 37, then it took me about 4 months to conceive dd#2, who was born a couple of months after I turned 39.

[SkyrMommy]

DD was conceived when I was 34, she only took 1 month. DS was conceived when I was 37, we had been trying for 7 months. Neither pregnancies involved any meds other than switching to prenatal vitamins when we started to TTC, and I didn't do any charting other than nothing when my period started each month.

[lovin2shop]

At 30, I was pregnant within 3 months of stopping birth control. Starting at 35, it took 2 years, but that included 2 miscarriages after about a year and half of trying. Almost went to a RE for assistance, but was pregnant right after scheduling the testing. I had just brought home "the cup" for DH to get tested, and I often tease him that it took the cup to scare the good sperm out of him!

[citymama]

Obviously this is so different between individuals. Some women have a harder time getting pg at 28 than others do at 40. In general, fertility drops precipitously after 40. You just have that many fewer eggs, and fewer that are viable. In my case, it was as easy to conceive at 32 and 36, but the second pregnancy was MUCH harder on my body. Your age also affects your overall resiliency during pregnancy and post partum.

[AnnieW625]

I am not in my late 30s so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I really think a lot of it has to do with family history, and stress levels.

I got pregnant within one month of stopping birth control with DD1 at just 28 yrs. old.

With the baby we lost we tried for 6 months before I got pregnant. I was 31 yrs. old.

With DD2 we weren't trying and I was 32 as well, but I was not on birth control (DH was using condoms) and I was watching my cycle on MyMonthlyPlanner.com, and after our forgetting to use the condom I went and checked the MMP.com and low and behold it was time and I ended up pregnant. I was two normal periods post loss of baby 2.

I will say that when DH and I started talking about having a family I looked in the family history as well and found that I came from a pretty fertile bunch of women. My maternal great grandma had her 5th and final in 1929 at the age of 42. My maternal grandma had her 5th and final at 38, and all of my 3 maternal aunts, plus my mom had a baby at 35 or older; one aunt had her second at 39 yrs. old. I figured if we decided to wait, which we didn't that we'd probably be okay.

On the flip side though my paternal grandma got pregnant at 20 yrs. old with my dad, had a few miscarriages in a three or four year period and then had my uncle at 25. She had a few more miscarriages after that as well. As a solution in 1963 or so at 34 she had a hysterectomy. Her mother had similar issues as well, but her sister didn't (had 3 kids in 30 months), but two of her sister's kids had similar issues, and I have a second cousin (the daughter of the daughter who didn't have issues) who had a baby at 32 who was told at 17 that she'd probably never be able to have kids.

Good luck!

[123LuckyMom]

I had a hard time getting pregnant at 36/37, and my OB was getting ready to start me on infertility treatment. A friend recommended the book _Taking Charge of Your Fertility_, and I got pregnant within 2 cycles! All that was "wrong" with me was not understanding the way my body worked (and relying on a bad doctor). Similarly, at 40, it took 2 cycles. I did not have any trouble due to being older.