want to concieve in near future

ButterflyGirl23

Hello

Just looking for some advice, I will be 30 in September and my boyfriend and I are starting to make plans for the future. We plan to do an extenstion in my house to make it family friendly, then to marry and to have a baby. We have been together for about two years now and want the same things in life.
I am just worried that I will have difficulty in concieving as the clock is ticking and my mom had a lot of trouble in getting pregnant with me. She had a miscarriage and had to go through a couple of operations and after 7 years she had me. I don't know if that will mean I will have difficulty in getting pregnant too?
I was just thinking of starting to get my body ready now ie: eating the right food, folic acid etc.
Would getting a blood test from the doctor help determine if I will get pregnant easy enough?
I have been on the pill since I was a teenager due to chronic period pain and I have been a healthy vegetarian for the past few years.
I am only starting to look into this now but it has always been something that has concerned me.
Any advice or direction where to find information out would be greatly appreciated.

MurdyWurdy

ButterflyGirl23 wrote: »

Hello

Just looking for some advice, I will be 30 in September and my boyfriend and I are starting to make plans for the future. We plan to do an extenstion in my house to make it family friendly, then to marry and to have a baby. We have been together for about two years now and want the same things in life.
I am just worried that I will have difficulty in concieving as the clock is ticking and my mom had a lot of trouble in getting pregnant with me. She had a miscarriage and had to go through a couple of operations and after 7 years she had me. I don't know if that will mean I will have difficulty in getting pregnant too?
I was just thinking of starting to get my body ready now ie: eating the right food, folic acid etc.
Would getting a blood test from the doctor help determine if I will get pregnant easy enough?
I have been on the pill since I was a teenager due to chronic period pain and I have been a healthy vegetarian for the past few years.
I am only starting to look into this now but it has always been something that has concerned me.
Any advice or direction where to find information out would be greatly appreciated.

I think everyone worries that they will have trouble conceiving. I know I did and I conceived the first month we tried. To be honest, you won't really know if you have trouble conceiving until you start trying. As far as I know, most doctor's won't test you in advance, only when you have been trying for a certain amount of time.

My advice would be not to get too worried about it, just continue to live healthily and start taking folic acid. Also, how far in advance were you planning to come off the pill. I was on depo provera and it took almost a year for my cycles to get back to anything resembling normal. I then had another 6/7 months of keeping track of my cycles so I could try and figure out when I would be ovulating. That info was really handy to have.

Hobbitfeet

The best thing for you to do would be to stop taking the pill now, do a course on natural family planning so you know your body and can access you fertility. Have you ever taken a break from the pill? Long term use of the pill or any artificial contraceptive can really affect fertility.

Ive been doing NFP for about 5 years now, I use Basal body temp and observation of cervical mucus. Google NFP or Billings method for more info. Once you have been doing it for awhile and you learn your own bodies natural rhythms its an excellent form of contraceptive, you simply abstain or use a condom on your fertile days. We got pregnant exactly when we planned

pwurple

Hobbitfeet wrote: »

The best thing for you to do would be to stop taking the pill now, Have you ever taken a break from the pill? Long term use of the pill or any artificial contraceptive can really affect fertility.

Sorry to contradict, but that isn't exactly true. The evidence for long term contraception is that it has no effect on fertility whatsoever. if anything the opposite it true. I hadn't used the pill in over a decade and had difficulty conceiving as my cycles had completely slowed. Going ON the pill was what sorted out my cycles again. The hormonal pill mimics pregnancy, you can actually be super-fertile coming off it. This is what my GP tells me, and also why you hear all those stories about people getting pregnant 1 month off the pill, or 2 months after a pregnancy.

Everyone is different.

Start taking folic acid and maybe reducing booze / smoking. Don't come off the pill until you want to get pregnant.

If you are going to the GP to renew your prescription, ask their advice on it while you are there. They will know your family history better.

Hobbitfeet

Yes everyone is different and there is research showing that prolonged usage of the pill can affect fertility not everyone will experience this and the OP won't know how her cycles are until she stops the pill. So better sooner rather than latet. Your not going to lose anything by getting to know your body and letting it get back to its natural rhytmns.

pwurple

Hobbitfeet wrote: »

Yes everyone is different and there is research showing that prolonged usage of the pill can affect fertility not everyone will experience this and the OP won't know how her cycles are until she stops the pill. So better sooner rather than latet. Your not going to lose anything by getting to know your body and letting it get back to its natural rhytmns.

Can you link to this research please. Pubmed, not quakery sites.

There is plenty to lose. Being a single mother is no joke.

And as I said above, you can lose that super-fertile space just after coming off the pill by using condoms instead of trying straight away.

Hobbitfeet

Sure here's some research from reputable sources
http://m.humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/2/344.full
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/6148320/
http://www.fertilityfriend.com/Faqs/Fertility-After-Oral-Contraceptives.html

Everybody is different and numerous different lifestyle choices and environmental factors also have an effect on fertility. Age is quite a big factor. Use of the pill surpresses the bodies natural hormonal rhythms, these may return to normal very quickly but it can also go they other way. We are seeing such a large increase of women with fertility problems, there is many reasons for this age, family history, lifestyle, environmental factors, and the use of hormone suppressing or altering drugs.
There is no way of knowing what your fertility is like until you come off hormonal contraceptives and monitor your cycles and ovulation.
The OP said she is in a relationship and that her and her partner have been actively discussing the future and having children, what makes you think she would become a single mum?
NFP is a highly reliable form of contraceptive once practiced correctly. Pwurple do you know anything about NFP? Have you been to any classes explaining how exactly it is done?
Personally when I came off the pill aged nearly 23 my cycles took about 9mths to return to normal. Using NFP as contraceptive does take some commitment and for the 1st while it is harder than just taking a pill everyday. Some people don't want to make this commitment but for the people who are it is an excellent form of contraceptive. I now have a 15mth old, we get pregnant exactly when we wanted to and prevented pregnancy for over 5 years using this method.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070221065200.htm
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2012/1115/od1.html

Hobbitfeet

Pwurple I have never heard of a super fertile period directly after stopping the pill, I have tired to look for some research that shows this but can't find anything. Could you post some? Would be very intersting to read. Thanks