About

About Eating For Fertility After Forty

Unable to conceive in my 30s, I lost two babies to miscarriage in my early 40s. Here I share my thoughts/feelings/recipes around fertility after 40 and loss - and success in bringing a baby to term.

My Journey to Pregnancy 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 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.

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 Forty

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.

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.

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NOTE:  I am not a medical doctor or a nutritionist and do not intend to be recognised as such - any information I provide with regard to health and nutrition is based solely on my own experience and research.  Additionally, all photos on this blog are taken by myself (the terrible ones), or Mr Duncan (the good ones) and may not be re-used without permission.

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