Feeling anxious and disappointed. I’ve wanted to be a mother more than anything my entire life and I am starting to worry this may be a much more difficult journey for us than we anticipated. My husband and I are both 28 and are now at 1 year of TTC — And 3 years prior of withdrawal as our only protection— with zero positive pregnancy tests. We had full work ups with fertility and were given the diagnosis of Unexplained Infertility. I am feeling crushed. On paper everything is normal for both of us. I have regular cycles and adequate luteal phases. We have tried OPKs, timed intercourse, BBT, even Mucinex lol. Have also tried doing nothing at all to see if “relaxing” would help. I am the only person in my circle of family and friends who has never been pregnant. All of my friends have had multiple accidental pregnancies and I can’t even have one on purpose. Both friends who I had confided in about TTC began trying after my husband and I did, and one was pregnant on her first cycle after her partners vasectomy was reversed, and the other just announced her pregnancy to me this month. I’m exhausted mentally and emotionally. I had to start therapy as this process has been so mentally draining on me as well. I know this isn’t a unique situation, but I just need to vent to people who get what we are going through because the amount of “just relax and it will happen” comments from people who are wildly fertile are driving me mad.

First baby and ended with miscarriage

Second child was conceived spontaneously I was delivered by C-section

Third child I was unsuccessful trying for a full year, I went to the fertility center and was able to conceive with clomid and trigger shot. It was discovered that I have a C-section scar niche. This baby was delivered by C-section.

I had regular cycles. Roughly 30 to 32 days give or take. Now after my third baby, when my period came back it was just a few days longer than it normally was. Chalked it up to just hormones, adjusting out. Around 10 months postpartum, my period started coming later and later and later. It went from a four weeks cycle to six weeks to eight weeks to 10 weeks.

So back to the fertility center I went.

My period never came on its own so they had me do a provera reset. It finally came on day 74. I took clomid. During my midcycle ultrasounds, They said that my follicles were not responding to the clomid. They had me stair step to tamoxifen to hopefully help with my follicles and ovulation. Previously had a bad reaction to the femera in the past (migraines). Tomorrow is my third midcycle ultrasound on day 25 of my cycle.
I don’t have a lot of hope that my ovaries are responding like they should.

I’m just curious if anybody else has been in the same boat. Regular periods, then wonky cycles. How did you get your cycle back on track? Is there something I’m missing? I have been told that they did a hormone check and that they were normal, but I’m convinced that they are missing something else that I can fix. Also, I am wondering if someone has responded to Clomid and then suddenly they don’t anymore.. does that really happen? Or am I ovulating late? I’ve asked these questions and I don’t really get the answers.

Hi everyone,
My husband (37) and I (31) have been TTC for two years now following a termination for medical reasons after our first pregnancy was diagnosed with trisomy 18 in Jan 2025.
Both our karyotypes are normal.

My fertility investigations have been reassuring so far, but my husband has had several semen analyses showing low motility, low vitality and elevated leukocytes. His DNA fragmentation was 36%.

The DNA fragmentation test was done before his first semen culture, which came back positive for Enterococcus faecalis. His doctor prescribed doxycycline once daily for seven days, and a repeat culture a few weeks later came back negative.

We haven’t repeated his semen analysis or DNA fragmentation test since treatment, so we don’t know whether anything has improved.

I’m wondering whether anyone has knowledge or experience of treating E. faecalis in this context, particularly whether seven days of doxycycline is considered an appropriate course depending on antibiotic susceptibility.

We’re trying to understand the next steps, but fertility testing is expensive and isn’t covered by our insurance, so we’d like to avoid repeating tests unnecessarily.

Thank you for any insight!

Hello!

My husband and I (both 27) have been trying to conceive for going on 3.5 years now. We got our referral from our OB/GYN for the fertility clinic and now the first appointment is right around the corner.

I know it’s been a long time coming, but while I’m very excited and optimistic, I’m equally filled with sadness and dread that maybe we won’t get the answers we’re looking for or we won’t be able to afford the treatments.

I would love some words of wisdom/encouragement/ personal anecdotes about how everything might work. I know it’ll all depend on my personal health situation, but how has it been for you or are you in the same boat as me?

I’ve already been to the clinic for an HSG which cost almost $900 which may be why I’m a little anxious about it. I don’t want money to be the reason I can’t work towards building a family, but maybe that’s just what we’re going to have to deal with? We’re comfortable financially but I’m sure the bills could all add up pretty quickly.

Thank you in advance for your words of encouragement and knowledge. 🤍

Title: Abnormal semen analysis at age 30 — looking for advice from fertility experts

Hi everyone,

I'm 30 years old, and my wife is 26. We have been trying to conceive for approximately 2 years without a confirmed pregnancy since her miscarriage.

My wife has PCOS/PCOD, and her menstrual cycles are usually around 40–45 days, sometimes longer.

I recently had a semen analysis on 27 October 2026. These are my results:

Semen analysis results

Abstinence period: 3 days

Semen volume: 1.5 mL

Sperm concentration: 10 million/mL

Estimated total sperm count: 15 million

Progressive motility: 20%

Rapid progression: 0%

Slow progression: 20%

Non-progressive motility: 30%

Immotile sperm: 50%

Total motility: 50%

Normal morphology: 5%

Liquefaction time: 30 minutes

Viscosity: Hyperviscous

Pus cells: “Plenty”

Epithelial cells: 1–2/hpf

Lab impression: Oligo-astheno-spermia.

The sample was collected at 11:16 AM, received by the lab at 11:24 AM, and the report was issued at 11:50 AM.

Additional background

I do not smoke or drink alcohol.

I have no testicular pain, and my testicles appear normal to me.

I was diagnosed with kidney stones about 6 months ago.

I experience considerable stress related to work, finances, and fertility.

My wife had a miscarriage at around 3 months of pregnancy approximately 2 years ago. The ultrasound showed that the baby's heartbeat had stopped.

Neither of us has undergone a complete fertility evaluation yet.

Questions

Is natural conception still possible with these results?

What could cause low sperm concentration and progressive motility?

What should I do about the “pus cells: plenty” and hyperviscosity findings? Should I ask about a semen culture?

Which tests should I discuss with a urologist/andrologist?

Should I repeat the semen analysis, and if so, when?

Given my wife's PCOS and our 2-year history of trying to conceive, what would be the most appropriate next step?

I'd appreciate evidence-based advice from fertility specialists, andrologists, or people with similar experiences. I understand that online comments cannot replace a medical consultation.

Thank you.

Let's see those lovely charts, folks!

If you want to personalize your Fertility Friend URL to make it easier for fellow TFABbers to stalk keep up with you, check out this post!

I started TTC at 29 years old. We got pregnant on our 3rd cycle which unfortunately ended in a MMC at 10w (baby was slowly growing with a heartbeat but 2 week delay). We hopped right back onto the bandwagon to try again and on our first true cycle post miscarriage (consider this cycle 4 in total) I had 2 extremely faint positive tests at 9 and 11 dpo which turned negative thereafter and my period was 2 days late. I am now in this new fresh cycle which in total I guess we can consider 5 cycles. I just turned 30 years old.

Is this normal to experience technically 2 losses within 5 cycles at this age? My OB said all the general blood tests came back normal except for vitamin D. She did complete blood count, coagulation & thrombophilia, all vitamins/electrolytes, organ functions, a thyroid panel, infections diseases and blood typing. Everything was normal. My Pap smear also completely normal nothing interesting to find.

I am slightly overweight but she never mentioned this once. I am 163cm and 85kg, which i gained a good amount due to the last pregnancy coupled with emotional eating - I am getting back on track with this.

Is this normal? Should I be taking my weight more seriously now? What else could I do?

My husband and I (30F) have been trying to conceive on and off again for like 3 years now with no luck. I'm pretty used to the monthly disappointment and feel like I'm generally pretty positive about everything. Today was a bit rough though. I went to a women's group today (about 10 women attended). They are all lovely people, and we had a nice time catching up. At one point, the conversation naturally shifted to the excitement and joy of having babies (one member had brought her adorable baby daughter with her). I just sat there smiling, but had absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation. As I looked around the room, I realized that I was the only one who either had no kids or wasn't currently expecting. I was hit with a wave of jealousy that surprised me with its intensity, combined with a sudden urge to break out into tears. I didn't want to ruin the conversation, so I just silently sat and smiled to mask the pain. I think it hit me extra hard right now because I recently had an HSG test and got my hopes up over the purported increase in fertility rates right after the test. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had experiences like this. I'll be okay tomorrow, but tonight I just want to share my sadness with women who understand. 💜🥺

Sorry I just need to have a little moan.

We are on cycle 29. CYCLE 29! I can’t believe I’m writing this.

My period is due in 3 days and 100% sure AF will arrive as I’m testing negative and my BBT is dropping.

I just can’t believe this is my life. I’m nearly 30, people always say ‘you’re young, you have time’ which is the worst thing anyone can say when you have been trying for 2.5 years, actually quite ignorant. Including Dr’s which is a post in itself.

We have done one IVF round with two failed transfers.
Had a miscarriage in May at 6 weeks, our only ever pregnancy.
We have NHS funding so really need to get moving with our IVF round 2 even though I’m not best impressed with the clinic or we’ll loose our funding
We’ve been to Fertilysis twice to have LIT therapy, first LIT in July and then the 2nd in September. Still nothing.

Everything else has come back fine so far.

My husbands sperm
My Hycosy, bloods and scans always come back fine.

I just don’t know what to do.

I don’t have to particularly do IVF again as we had the miscarriage this year. We’re under Bart’s and whilst the staff are nice I didn’t have the best experience (it was a painful 50 minutes to transfer the final egg… the doctor couldn’t get the catheter in the right place plus 18 follicles, 7 taken and resulted in 2 embryos)

I’ve tried all of the ‘remedies’ you should try pomegranate juice, mucinex, vitamins, acupuncture you name it we’ve tried it.

Although I’ve been writing this post I’ve been strangely relaxed this year. Even with the failed transfer in January and miscarriage in May but as we’re approaching the end of this year I’m just starting to feel so stressed about it and feel so far away from the possibility of having a family.

I don’t know. I just feel at a loss this morning, I’ve seen about 10 pregnancy announcements this weekend and although we are facing infertility I am SO happy for those who are having family but it still hurts a little.

Sorry super long post, I don’t blame anyone for not reading it just had to put my thoughts somewhere.

Sending u all love and luck ✨ 💖 x

Missed miscarriage and the testing on the POC came back as a mosaic microduplication.

We’re going for genetic testing to confirm this wasn’t passed down from one of us, but I’m curious - is mosaicism usually postzygotic? By definition, it kind of sounds that way, which makes me wonder why us as parents would be referred for genetic testing?

Don’t get me wrong - I’m all about being safe rather than sorry. I’m honestly just wondering how concerned I should be…it will be several weeks of waiting for results between appointments, and I’m trying to come to grips with what the reality of the situation could be (ie, should I be concerned, or are we just playing it safe by doing the extra testing?)

My husband (29) and I (29) have been TTC for almost a year now - we started trying in January of 2026 and have never seen a positive test. We have done all the testing possible and my husband was diagnosed with varicoceles in both testicles.

I’ve tried everything - supplements, healthy eating, exercise, we time things properly each month with my Inito, etc.

My husband has had one surgery on the large varicocele and is set to have a second surgery in November for the smaller one. There is little information on varicoceles online and I’m looking to connect with anyone that may have been through the same situation.

If your husband has or had varicoceles, I’d love to hear your story and see how you’re managing! We are currently in the waiting period to see if surgery helped to any degree.

Just a quick question! Would love any input :)

My titer from last week came back with no immunity detected for varicella (chicken pox). My RN at my RE office reached out and said they would like me to get the vaccine at a minute clinic or my PCP if I haven’t been vaccinated for it in the last 10years.

I checked my immunization records and I was vaccinated as a child as well as in 2014. I informed my RN I could have these records sent as my understanding of the CDC guidelines is that 2 doses of vaccination supersede subsequent negative titers. She responded that If the vaccines haven’t taken place in the last 10 years they still need me to either get a booster or sign a waiver before moving forward with anything. This would put us on a TTC pause for 2-3months.

I am going to reach out to my PCP to have records sent but I am a little confused. Based on the CDC guidelines a booster would not be indicated in my case. My understanding is that the tests used to detect immunity cannot pick up small amounts of antibodies and therefore the double dose gives you assumed immunity going forward due to the unlikelihood that immunity would fully be lost.

I am assuming they will reject my records based on this (last doses 11.5 years ago) and either want me to continue with the booster or sign the waiver.

Any input on what I should do in this situation?

I’m 30f and have been TTC unsuccessfully for 15 cycles. No positive tests. I’ve done every standard fertility screening (labs, hysteroscopy, HSG, SA for husband) and everything came back normal. I tried 4 rounds of letrozole with no luck. I ovulate regularly on my own, but do meet some of the criteria for lean/ovulatory PCOS. I have hirsutism, history of bad acne (cleared with aviclear 🙏), and polycystic appearance of ovaries, but cycles are regular at 30 days. The further I get into this, the more I’m considering the possibility that PCOS isn’t the culprit. I do also know that I’m a carrier for CAH and my brother actually has the severe classical form of the disorder. I’m doing research on the possibility of being a symptomatic carrier. Is anyone else having difficulty conceiving as a known CAH carrier?

Hi everyone! I’m 24 and my fiancé and I have been trying to conceive for about 5–6 months. I’ve always struggled with irregular periods, although they were more consistent for a few years before becoming irregular again.
My last period was April 16–20, and I haven’t had any bleeding since. It’s now been almost 6 months without a period, and I’m getting frustrated and worried because having regular cycles and the chance to get pregnant is really important to me.
I’ve been tracking ovulation with LH strips and have had some tests get darker, so I thought I might have caught a surge in August, but I never confirmed ovulation. I’ve also taken multiple pregnancy tests, but they’ve been negative.
I had bloodwork done with my OB/GYN. My TSH was 3.87, FSH was 6.1, and my 17-OH progesterone was 52. I was told my labs looked good overall, although I’m still trying to understand what everything means. I haven’t been able to get the recommended ultrasound yet because of the cost.
I don’t have a PCOS diagnosis, and a previous ovarian ultrasound didn’t raise any concerns that I was told about. I’ve wondered whether stress could be contributing to my irregular cycles, but I don’t know for sure.
I’ve been taking a prenatal, CoQ10, and myo-inositol at different points in this journey, but I haven’t been consistent with them lately.
I’m mainly looking for advice from anyone who has experienced long gaps without a period while TTC, especially if you eventually figured out what was causing it or were able to get your cycles back. What testing or questions should I bring up with my OB/GYN? Has anyone experienced something similar?
I know everyone’s journey is different, but it would be nice to hear from people who understand how frustrating this can be. ❤️

Anything (within the rules) goes. (Commonly broken rules: don't talk about an ongoing pregnancy outside the weekly BFP thread; don't ask for success stories.)

You can find the wiki here!

Don't forget to check out our themed threads:

• Moody Monday
• Temping Tuesday
  
• Waiting Wednesday
• Wondering Wednesday
• Trying Again Thursday
• Thankful Thursday
• Health and Wellness Thursday
• Looking Forward Friday
• Wondering Weekend
• 35 and Ova

There's also the Weekly Introductions and Read Me Thread, which contains links to all sorts of handy bits of info, like popular wiki posts and acronyms.

I’m TCC and I understand that I’m sensitive right now in the sense that I had an MMC not long ago, but I cannot believe that clear blue would sell a product that gives people false positives. I literally got a positive result 2 days ago, not first morning pee, so I went ahead and decided to test with an FRER yesterday morning just so I can get a baseline about where I’m at because I know that I’m supposed to see the long get darker. That way I know from my HCG is doubling. Anyway, so it came back negative and I thought that was really weird because I know that you need more hormone to make a digital test go off and I took that digital one later in the day so that’s really weird because I’m supposed to have more hormone in the morning. Anyways, so I saw the negative from my FR ER and I was like what the heck let me test with another clear blue digital and I literally got not pregnant. I understand that like chemicals can happen, but I know this was not a chemical because literally I tested pregnant at 5 PM and then the next day at 8 AM I was just not pregnant with the same test in the same pack? That’s such bullshit. I mean, women rely on these and I got my hopes up for literally no reason and I went ahead and got my period literally today because I was due for it so this is absolutely ridiculous and I will never be buying clear blue ever again because I’m not only devastated that I’m not pregnant. I’m also now on my period which I didn’t really prep for because I thought for a full day I was pregnant again and now i just wanna cry.

Sorry for mention of loss, pregnancy of unknown location and possible ectopic.

I went in to my clinic last Monday for baseline bloodwork to start my first IUI cycle but the HCG came back positive at only 6.3. I went back for monitoring hoping it would go down to be able to either start the IUI or just know it was a chemical, but on Weds it rose to 15 and Friday it was 30.

My bleeding stopped and cramping is less but I’m still concerned that it’s ectopic, especially if it continues to go up today while checking bloodwork.

Have you had a similar situation? If so, I’m sorry. What was your HCG levels or patterns when you took methotrexate? I know one person who got up to around 36 hcg and then it went down and they didn’t have to take methotrexate.

I have seen online that an ectopic can rupture at any HCG levels and even if they go down, they need to be monitored in case they go back up. Another bit that is like salt in the wound for this situation is that I have insurance, but it doesn’t cover anything at the fertility clinic even though this is technically OB care. No local OB that is covered by my insurance will take on my monitoring so “early” , so this is all out of pocket.

I work rotating 12 hour shifts, which means I’m flip flopping between days and nights, sometimes twice in the same week, so my body pretty much never knows what time it is. we’re on cycle 5, I’ve temped literally the whole time, and I’m finally admitting my chart doesn’t really mean much

when I started I read that you’re supposed to temp at the same time every day after at least 3 or 4 hours of solid sleep. figured doing my best would be close enough lol. it was not. night weeks I’m sleeping from like 9 AM to 3 PM, day weeks it’s more like 10 PM to 5 AM, and on switch days I’m lucky if I get a 2 hour nap, so good luck getting a real temp after that. my temps bounce anywhere from 97.1 to 98.4 and the chart looks like a heart monitor. FF has given me crosshairs once in five cycles and even then the “shift” looked like the same noise as every other week tbh, I just stared at it like ok sure

also using cheapie OPK strips and I usually get a positive somewhere between CD14 and CD20, which is nice and all. but from what I’ve read a positive just means the surge happened, so after that I still don’t really know what’s going on

my OB brought up a CD21 progesterone draw. my cycles run anywhere from 27 to 34 days though, so idk if CD21 is even the right day for me. and getting to the lab during their hours on one specific day is its own whole problem with my schedule, like I’d have to plan my entire week around one blood draw

I’m just so tired of temping every “morning”, whenever that is that day, half asleep with the thermometer in my mouth, and ending up with data I can’t even use. pretty sure I need to drop BBT and try something else, I just have no idea what makes sense with hours like mine

anyone on shift work or with sleep that’s all over the place, what did you end up switching to that actually worked? kinda over it at this point

It's time for us to air the things that have been bothering us, TTC-related or not! It's Monday, complain away!

This is a thread for TFABers of AMA (advanced maternal awesomeness)! TTC past 35 comes with its own challenges -- discuss (and rant about) them here. Like the Pirate's Code, "35 and over" is more of a guideline.

Anything (within the rules) goes. (Commonly broken rules: don't talk about an ongoing pregnancy outside the weekly BFP thread; don't ask for success stories.)

You can find the wiki here!

Don't forget to check out our themed threads:

• Moody Monday
• Temping Tuesday
  
• Waiting Wednesday
• Wondering Wednesday
• Trying Again Thursday
• Thankful Thursday
• Health and Wellness Thursday
• Looking Forward Friday
• Wondering Weekend
• 35 and Ova

There's also the Weekly Introductions and Read Me Thread, which contains links to all sorts of handy bits of info, like popular wiki posts and acronyms.

Hi all,

We're a same sex couple and we've previously had successful IUI with the private clinic at the royal in Glasgow, but now thinking of trying again for another baby. We would probably go with IVF for any future treatments.

Athough we had success with the royal, we were really frustrated dealing with them. We actually ended up putting a complaint in due to how poor everything was in terms of communication and organisation.

I know people who have been with GCRM and also seem to have had some issues with how things are run (although things do seem to happen quicker with GCRM?).

Part of me feels all fertility clinics are just run like this, but another part of me wonders if changing clinics for future treatment would be better? I think it's more when things go wrong, I want to feel like the clinic will actually be supportive whereas at the Royal I feel like you can so easily get forgotten about and you have to hound people to organise anything.

One thing I did find positive with the Royal is that I didn't feel there was any 'overselling' treatments and didn't feel like I was being pressured to add anything on that wasn't needed, but I've no idea how other clinics are in comparison.

Changing to the other clinic would also open up using access fertility as well.

Nobody I know has changed clinic, despite having issues. Has anyone on here used both?

My husband and I have been trying to conceive for 9 months. I’ve had one miscarriage the very first time we tried and then nothing. We finally went to a fertility specialist and I’ve been going through every test under the sun. Bloodwork, HSG, and finally a saline sonogram. They found something taking up 1/3 of my uterus, which, if I’m understanding correctly, could be the thing keeping us from conceiving. I’m scheduled for a hysteroscopy next month and I’m scared, hopeful, sad, and eager all at the same time. Has anyone had this happen to them? Was the hysteroscopy painful? What was the recovery like?

I’m hopeful that this could be the answer to our problems, but I’m sure frustrated that I need to wait yet another month before we can try again.