The Over 40 Crowd

[ButterflyKiss]

Catharine I am so very sorry for your loss cycle I had a lot of hope that this would be the one for you friend (((CHOCOLATE HUGS)))

Sunshine and stars hang in there! I will pray for you tonight as I head to bed! I know that fear is the one emotion that can effect our bodies, so hold onto faith and I will be praying for a great scan and progress report for you and baby

Hello and love to all.

We are not sure what we are doing, for now I am happy so that is all that counts. Perhaps God has a baby for us or not, for now I am trusting Him and that is more than enough!

Blessings,

BFK
xxx

[Catharine]

Greetings All

First a thank you for the words of empathy it is greatly appreciated.

Sunshine and stars, thinking of you PMA as you have your imaging scan.

Butterfly kisses- I will pray with you.

AFM-got right back on the horse and am taking femara over clomid. Turns out my lining was not very thick and clomid has a history of contributing 2 thinning of the lining. Femara is from the same family of stims as clomid however, some women do not have the thinning as with clomid. The RE and I are hoping I'm one of them. In the meantime I'll be increasing my celery intake and red beans [supposedly estrogen like chemicals from these 'veggies' promote thickening of endometrium---and when I got the BFP with IVF I ate celery every day, not this past cycle though]. We still have one vial of donor sperm on storage so we are still good. Also I'm doing the acupuncture to destress. I've increased my intake of fatty yogurt and have fresh pineapple on hand as well.

Thinking of everyone.

TGIF!
Catharine

[margi26]

Catharine: Woohoo!! Way to go!! Looks like we are cycling together! How awesome! I will need someone "our age" who gets it all...yes, I have heard that about clomid. I am stimming now, started 2 days ago. I am trying to make an appt for acupuncture--when do you do it relative to your cycle? Just anytime to destress? Right before insemination? I hadn't heard about the celery, but I will go out today and get some and get munching!

Looking forward to keeping up with you....could start our own IUI thread, but not sure how many ladies are out there....what do you think? Maybe a small thread might be nice? I think I may throw out the bait this evening and see if anyone joins...

How is the new house?!?!? In the middle of all of this you moved in, right? You sound a lot like me....doing, doing, and then doing!

Sending Baby Dust!!

[teachertam]

Hello Ladies:

Catharine: Sorry to hear about your BFN, but glad to hear you are right back on the horse.
I used Femara for my last few cycles and it did help me produce several eggs each cycle and no thinning of the uterine
lining. Good luck!!

Margie: Good luck on your upcoming cycle.

Sunshine and Stars: I hope your scan was normal this past week.

Hello to Rhonda, BFK, CarolineP, Yasmina and anyone else on this site.

PS: We expect our adoption referral Dec/Jan. with travel to China Feb/March 2011. It will be here before we
know it.

Take care all,
Tammy

[Catharine]

Tammy-
So good to hear from you. wishing you well and luck with the adoption. I know you must be excited.
I thought I remembered you had used femara. Your story gives me hope. I'm afraid my age is finally catching up to me w/r/t endometrial lining. I've notice that AF is not as heavy as once before. Kind of a good news bad news type of feeling. Good news that I don't feel I'll have any accidents, bad news for wanting to conceive. But as I'm writing I've chowed down my celery and my tomatoes.

Looking forward to hearing more from you as you embark on your exciting journey.

All the best,
Catharine

[margi26]

Tammy: I know we don't know each other well, but thank you for the well wishes. I go tomorrow for my HSG....let's hope that my one tube is open so that we can proceed....I don't know what we will do if it is blocked.

Trying to keep up the PMA, though!

And a big CONGRATULATIONS to you on your adoption moving forward! That is so exciting...and yes, February/March will be here before you know it and you will be getting your bundle of joy in your arms!

Catharine: I have indeed heard that about clomid, so femara will be a good choice for you! Best of luck!! Keep us (me) posted.

And, I have an appt for acupuncturist for Friday....anything and everything that might help! Right?

[teachertam]

Margi:

Let me tell you how I got pregnant with my 3.5 year old son, Andrew. I had already had 2 failed IUI's and 2 failed
IVF's and was waiting to do a frozen cycle. My RE suggested that I have a HSG x-ray, the test you are going to have.
He said that it increased your chances of getting pregnant for 1-2 cycles after the test. They do not know exactly why it
increases your chances. Well, I told DH that we were going to have timed intercourse that very cycle and guess what
happened? I got pregnant naturally!! My RE and Embryologist could not believe it. I am not an expert but why not
try it? I suggested this to a 40 something friend of mine and she got pregnant right after her HSG as well. Her baby
was born this past July.

If you are going tomorrow for your HSG, it must be right before you ovulate this cycle.

Take care,
Tammy

[margi26]

Tammy: Thank you so much for your inspiration story! It is just what I needed--really .

Actually, I am in the process of an IUI cycle now. I have been stimming with Gonal-F and went in this morning for my sns to show 3 good size follies (16,16,14) on my left side with 5 just under 10. My right side has only one lead at 13, but there is no tube there anyway!

I hear that the HSG can sometimes "clear" things out a bit in the tubes, so hopefully that will be the case and I will be on my way to a BFP!!

My HSG is in a couple hours....I pray that my one tube is not blocked and that I can move ahead with insemination. Nurse said possibly on Thursday or Friday! I was shocked because during IVF I needed to stim for like 12 days, and I only started with Gonal-F on Thursday last week. Maybe this is THE cycle for me!

Thanks again! And I'll keep you ladies posted.

[teachertam]

Margi:

That is great news! I think the HSG also cleanses the uterine lining (in my opinion). Since I had two IVF's,
my tubes were not a factor, so I think implantation was my problem. I transferred 5 embies on my last IVF
before I became pregnant naturally at 42 years old. It sounds like this will be a good cycle for you, as you have 3 good sized
follies and a few more may catch up. When I had my 2nd IVF, the RE thought that I had 10 follies, but he
ended up retrieving 12 eggs!

Good luck!!

Take care,
Tammy

[margi26]

Well,

My left tube looks "great" he says! Whew....what a relief....and estrogen level is on target as well. So we will stim for probably 2 more days--probably trigger Thursday night--after sns Thursday morning we shall know for sure. Tammy, I hope that we have some of your good fortune floating around!! What such a terrific story about your Andrew. I am actually feeling fairly positive--although initially not too excited about only 3 follies. There is time for some of the others to catch up yet... and IUI is so less taxing on my body than any of my previous IVF cycles. I have an appt with the acupuncturist on Friday (my first time ever) so I figure that should help some too---if for no other reason than to help me relax.

Thanks for all your support!!

Catharine--all going well with you?

[margi26]

Hello there ladies!!

Catharine: How are you doing?? How are you feeling? Where are you in your cycle?

AFM: I had my IUI today! U/S on Thursday showed follies: 22, 21, 19, and 2-16 and 2-15 with 4 more >10 and 5 more <10. All on the left side I was pretty excited! So I triggered Thursday and had IUI this afternoon. DH's sperm looked great--33.5 million, with 99% motility and fine morphology so hopefully they found their targets! IUI is so much easier on my body...I feel so much better than I did after any of my transfers. I went straight to the acupuncturist (for the first time) after the IUI and it was fabulous. I totally recommend it to anyone. I left feeling completely relaxed--which is just what I needed. And if it helps with fertility, or Qi, or kidney, or whatever else she tried to explain to me, then even better!

Thank you ladies for all your support. Hope that everyone is doing well.

[NY4thtry]

Ladies can i join you?

43 in january and have been on this journey for 3 + years . started BCPs for cycle number 15.. yes 15. Surrogate had two chemical pregnancies and i am determined to keep trying with my own eggs..

NY

[margi26]

Welcome NY4thtry: I admire your tenacity. And your desire to use your own eggs. I too have continued to try despite my "advanced" age. So what schedule are you looking at in terms of timing?

There are lots of supportive women here and some terrific stories if you scroll back some. I only joined her recently.

Sorry about your struggles and losses. I think almost all of us can relate to some degree.

Wishing you the best of luck!!!

[mrscutter]

welcome ny. can i ask why you are using surrogate? I got pregnant 2 months before my 42 birthday naturally after a failed ivf the month before. my baby just turned 1 sept . we were hoping for another but hasnt happened. we started trying after she was born. oh and i only have one tube!! miracles can happen. wish you all the baby dust.
hello to everyone else.
rhonda

[NY4thtry]

Mre Cutter

because i tried 6 times myself .. i have killer cells AND a big job so was afraid that stress was also effecting my chnaces. Given my age i didnt want to risk the good egg i might get not liking my uterus.

Lucky you to get pg naTURALLY....
Wont happen for us as DH sperm is terrible and he smokes.. so i am using a donor as well.

NY