r/tryingtoconceive

officially back on CD1 after my period was late three days. was holding out hope still because even today my BBT was not below baseline. really feeling so done and unmotivated this time around. not going to be pregnant for mother's day, not gonna have a 2026 baby… sigh. just wanna throw in the towel

Another month and more hopes 🥲 question - how many of you are doing the deed everyday of every other day? I know they say it’s likely to do it one of those options. I’m trying to plan out the best decision for this cycle but I’m trying not to stress me or my husband out ya know? What do you guys do?

Hey ladies 💕 I’m hoping to get some real-life advice from this amazing group.

We’ve been trying to conceive (TTC) for over 2 years now, and I feel like I’m stuck in that frustrating cycle of month after month of negatives, plus dealing with irregular or missing periods at times. It’s starting to feel overwhelming and I know I’m not alone in this.

What are your TTC must-haves, tips, tricks, or even just little things that helped you stay sane through the process? 🫶

Apps you swear by

Vitamins/supplements that actually made a difference

Tracking methods (ovulation strips, BBT, etc.)

Lifestyle changes

Anything that helped regulate cycles or support your body

Or honestly just emotional/mental tips for getting through the wait

I’d really love to hear what worked for you, what didn’t, and anything you wish you knew sooner. 💛

I have been TTC for 8months with nothing. This last cycle I have been 42days and now on CD41 and showing as not pregnant. I haven’t missed a period in years but I feel like the stress is now affecting my body. I honestly don’t know how some of you keep going because the disappointment makes me want to give up and just accept it. I feel deep down I will never become pregnant or a mother. How do you keep up the positivity? Any suggestions on how to be less stressed and obsessed with the consistent not pregnant month after month?

Bonus if any tips for not being so bitter about everyone else around me getting pregnant so easily.

Sorry for feeling sorry for myself I’m just fed up and now my cycle is all screwed up it feels as though continuing to try is even more pointless.

I saw someone on here post about pomegranate juice causing them to have more abundant EWCM. I tried it this cycle and I definitely saw a good amount of EWCM leading up to, the day of, and the day after my ovulation. I’m now 5DPO and I just saw more EWCM when I went to the bathroom, and I’m pretty confused. 2DPO I had no CM and 3 and 4DPO I had creamy CM, so I don’t think it’s leftover from ovulation. I also haven’t BD since ovulation, so I know it’s not sperm.

This is really not normal for me, so I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the pomegranate juice. Would appreciate any insights on this!

As an aside, my google and chatGPT research did not yield any information about pomegranate juice causing more fertile CM, but it did talk about how it has many fertility benefits (ie increased blood supply to uterus, helps improve endometrial lining and also it’s a strong antioxidant). Pretty interesting stuff!

How do you manage the tiredness of the body? We really wanted to have a baby but the thing is that my husband is a servicemen (Military personnel), he is deprived in sleep most of the time as they have rotational midnight duties aside from the dayshift work. He’s waking up as early as 5am in the morning (or earlier than that sometimes).

I truly understand his situation because I do feel that way sometimes because I’m a working professional.

Recently, I got emotional because I felt like I was the only one who’s putting an effort and that we’re missing the chance to get pregnant since I’m in my fertile week (high chance).

I already opened this up to him and he was really sorry. I accepted his apology because it was truly understandable.

Do you have any recommendations or tips about our situation?

We recently got married by the way, and we’re both in mid 30s. I also went to my OB last weekend and had a general check-up, undergone laboratories, and I also have a scheduled ultrasound (TVS) tomorrow.

I started using the clearblue digital OPK sticks instead of the regular ovulation strips because the reading the results were super confusing. I have an irregular cycle and I haven’t had a full bleeding period in months. I feel like I ovulate. I’ll get the pains, cervical mucus etc but the results on the clearblue OPK are confusing. On 4/12 when I took the ovulation test, I got the solid smiley face. It stayed like that for 24 hours. Then after that the test just gave me the low fertility result. I take the test today (it’s the same digital reader because I still had test strips from that pack) and now I’m getting a blinking smiley face on 4/22. Does that sound right? I’m just so overwhelmed trying to figure out my fertile days with an irregular cycle. I made an appointment with a fertility clinic but that is super overwhelming too and I feel like after I get the bloodwork and diagnostic stuff done I’m going to have to decide if I want to do medicated cycles or straight IUI. I just wish u knew how my cycles were with regular OPKs.

Is there any other type of OPK or hormone trackers that can help me determine where I am in my cycle and what my fertile days really are?

So we have been trying for 17 months with 3 failed IUI’s. We’ve gotten two different opinions from doctors who both have said me and my husband are doing great and everything looks good so for now it’s “unexplained infertility” but looking back at his Sperm analysis I know some numbers say low/high but the providers assured us since he has a high total sperm count it is fine. Every IUI his numbers have been great per the Dr. Should we get a 3rd opinion? I can post his Sperm analysis in the comments if that helps anyone, just didn’t know if it was aloud. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

Hi, I just wanted to let this out.

I’m a medical doctor and a wife, and I’ve been dealing with PCOS since 2018. After getting married last year, we spent a few months just enjoying that phase before deciding to try for a baby.

When I stopped my pills, my cycle became irregular again, so I had to go back on them for three months. After stopping again, I waited for about two cycles to regulate.

Last month was my first letrozole cycle, but it didn’t work. Now we’re moving on to the next step. My husband had a repeat sperm analysis, and it didn’t come out very good, according to our OB. He’s now being referred to a urologist and advised to take vitamins for now.

For me, I just have to wait until his results improve before trying a second cycle of letrozole. If that still doesn’t work, my doctor said we might need to do an HSG to check if my tubes are patent.

I know it hasn’t even been a year of trying, but it doesn’t feel like “just less than a year.” It feels like months of hoping, adjusting, waiting, and then dealing with new variables along the way. It’s exhausting—especially when I’m used to being the one who understands the science and guides other people through it.

I didn’t expect it to be this hard, and honestly, it’s been really heavy emotionally.

Praying for baby dust for everyone who’s hoping and waiting too.

I’ve always had extremely irregular cycles, usually upwards of 150 days, and super painful and heavy periods. Initially my family doctor thought it was PCOS and put me on the pill after an ultrasound showed multiple cysts on both ovaries.

Flash forward 8 years, I’m off the pill for a few months before getting married and TTC pretty much immediately after the wedding. I had 5 cycles in the next 12 months, so I thought I was getting more regular. I noticed fertile CM only once in those 12 months and started tracking BBT using a smart ring.

I started seeing a fertility specialist this past august and my bloodwork came back normal (so not PCOS) and my HSG showed open tubes, but my left ovary may be adhered to something in my abdomen since they couldn’t visualize it in my pelvic cavity. My husband’s sample is good. My doctor doesn’t think I’m ovulating on my own so we’re currently using letrozole and Ovidrel to induce ovulation and BD using that for timing. We’re currently on the 5th round and still nothing.

Long story short, I think there might be something else going on. My mom has endo and with my period symptoms and rogue left ovary I think I may also have it.

How much longer would you keep trying before looking for a cause for “unexplained infertility”?

Hello

Wondering if anyone has dealt with prolonged spotting before their actual period flow and successfully gotten pregnant?. I have usually spotted 5-7 days before my period, I've gotten my hormones checked, ultrasounds, exams, etc and apparently everything looks normal. I'm just coming off 3 months of birth control as my dr wanted to ensure that it wasn't anything structural, so thankfully I did not have spotting on birth control.

Has anyone also dealt with this?

Hey everyone, I’m kinda confused and hoping someone can relate 😅

I’m on CD33 with no period yet, which is late for me (I’m usually 25–26 days). I’ve been having cramping and that heavy/heavy uterus feeling like my period is about to start, but nothing yet.

This is my 3rd cycle since an 8-week miscarriage in January, so I’m wondering if my body is still regulating. We did try this month and timed it during my peak ovulation days, but I’ve already gotten two negative tests, so now I’m not sure what to think.

I also had acupuncture today, and she mentioned it could be a chemical preg but I’ve never gotten a positive test, so I’m not sure how that would even be confirmed.

Has anyone had delayed periods like this after a miscarriage? Or cramps like your period is coming but it just doesn’t?

Would really appreciate any similar experiences!

I normally get peak opk (my goes from negative to peak the same day, sometimes within hours) on days 15-17.

This cycle I have been feeling a bit crampy, with mucus, took a test on CD 11 and it was peak.

We immediately had sex.

Based on the sex timings / opk result, have I significantly hindered my chances of getting pregnancy this month? This was our first time having sex this cycle.

Thank you.

Until you started actively researching and TTC?

I'll go first, I didn't know advil at any point of my cycle (except maybe the beginning of my period), could affect my egg. I knew it was bad for pregnancy but I didn't know that it can cause multiple fertility issues such as the egg not being released (but the corpus luteum still forming so you get no signs), ovulation delays and wacked up cycles. I know I should have done the research before hand but I put my head in the sand the first half of my cycle.

Please share what you've learned!

Okay, so ever since I started TTC and tracking my ovulation, my ovulation symptoms used to be screaming, ‘notice us, we’re here!’:

Uterus twinges, side abdominal discomfort, increased discharge, horny as f*, rising body temperature, mild cramps, hormones all over the place… But this cycle and the last one, however, Miss Ovulation decided to show up silently, with nothing except increased discharge. Have any of you experienced a similar thing?

Has anyone had experience with using a kegg data vs the natural cycles app? I’ve been using natural cycles for almost 2 years but just got my kegg and have been using about 1.5 weeks. The kegg says “low fertility” but my natural cycles says “very high fertility”. I’m not sure if it’s because my kegg doesn’t have enough data to know but I’m conflicted which info to use.

I need help determining if mine is good or bad ? Maybe a false test idk I’m not sure whether or not it’s supposed to be more darker or lighter I need some help if anyone has taken it yet

My partner and I have been trying for only 5 months. Not that long, but I've wanted kids for more than half my life now. In those 5 months, I've had 5 friends/coworkers share pregnancy announcements. It's been a little hard to hear, but I've been able to be happy and excited for them. Yesterday, a coworker announced she was going to have twins and I just lost it. I managed to make it to the bathroom before balling my eyes out. I cried 3 more times over the course of the day before I was able to go home, and sobbed more. I hope she didn't notice; I really am very excited for her. I'm worried about breaking down again at work and making her feel bad or like I'm trying to take attention away. My partner has been very supportive of me, being reassuring cause its still early. I didn't expect to become so discouraged so quickly; it makes me feel weak and guilty. There are so many emotions I didn't expect to have ao early on.