Posted by Christiane Williams on February 16, 2012

Trying To Conceive: Oh, The Things We Do….

After listening to the recent PregTASTIC episode on Hypnofertility, I was reminded of the time when we were actively trying to conceive. What had started out as an exciting project over the months became a chore, a science project and finally a desperate “I’ll do anything” approach…

If you go to any internet forum about pregnancy, you are bound to found a section on “TTC” (Trying To Conceive), often sub grouped into categories like “Not trying, not preventing”, “Assisted Conception”, “Trying for our first”, “Older moms TTC” and sadly also “Trying after a loss”, “Secondary Infertility” and “Long Term TTC”. You never imagine that you will go beyond the generic “TTC” and end up in one of the more desperate subgroups… After all, most of us have spent our twenties trying NOT to get pregnant. Surely it would happen rather quickly as our mothers warned us once we stopped using contraception.

Alas, that’s often not the case – and as the months pass by without that positive pregnancy test, you start reading (and wondering) about the many things you can do to get pregnant, encouraged by the success stories that are posted on forums or the promises made on websites!

There are basically three approaches you can try before you see the doc and start prescription medication (like Clomid) or other fertility treatments (like IVF):

First, there are the various non-invasive ways in which you can monitor ovulation to pinpoint the perfect time to conceive – ranging from simple charting of your body temperature, cervical mucus observations or monitoring your estrogen level with a saliva scope to ovulation sticks or a fertility monitor. While a basal body temperature thermometer might only be $10, a saliva scope will cost you around $50 and a monitor with enough sticks for a couple of months can be up to $300. While getting pregnant is free, active TTC can be very expensive!

Secondly there are various products that promise to increase your (and your partners) fertility – some people religiously drink certain teas (e.g. FertiliTea) or take multivitamins specific for him & her, others swear by soy supplements or specific herbs (e.g. Agnus Castus). Especially the fertility supplements can be very costly over time! And of course there is the opposite of taking stuff –avoiding consumption (of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol etc) or certain activities (hot baths, tight underwear or cycling for him…)!

Finally, there are treatments like acupuncture, yoga, reiki, cranio-sacral therapy or hypnosis who all claim to reduce stress, eliminate blockages or otherwise increase your chance of getting pregnant. Chinese herbalists and Chiropractors are also catching on to the trend and specifically advertise to couples with fertility problems.

Usually when you get impatient with not getting pregnant you start with the easy stuff – clean up your diet, sleep and exercise more (maybe lose some weight), reduce stress and take a multi vitamin. Then you try to pinpoint your ovulation a little more closely, and from there it’s a slippery slope down the monitoring and supplementing route until you’ve spent enough money to furnish a nursery! BTW, one of the big cost factors of TTC I haven’t even mentioned yet: the price of all those pregnancy tests that are negative and get tossed… Because just like chocolate you usually can’t take just one!

So how far did I go when I was trying to conceive? Well, the month I fell pregnant I had consumed a special fertility tea, taken a pre-pregnancy supplement, monitored my saliva and cervical mucus for months and was bidding on a fertility monitor on EBay! And I had promised myself to take just one generic pregnancy test on the day my period was late – not 3 days before and no more of those super-expensive digital ones!

Did you do anything I didn’t mention when you were trying to conceive?

2 Comments »

1. [...] I finally wrote that blog about TTC, even though I left out a lot of the heart ache… http://www.pregtastic.com/trying-to-…-things-we-do/ [...]

   Pingback by International bumps to be! - Page 166 - BabyandBump — February 16, 2012 @ 3:20 pm

2. I used cough syrup, original robitussun. After months of trying we conceived the first month I tried this and so did some friends of ours after our recommendation and a long period of trying. Could have been coincidence but it’s always worth a go (especially as its so cheap).

   Comment by Rachael — February 20, 2012 @ 1:44 am

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