Hi all,

We finally have a positive after 8 months of trying! I've found it valuable being on this app managing my own emotions, learning and helping others. So I hope sharing my experience with anyone trying to conceive may help you in some way.

First some personal profiling: I'm 37 planning first child, married, have a pretty busy 9-5 lifestyle with early mornings work and try to scrape some kind of evening life by getting home on time.

Generally my health is good, blood tests all ok, just slightly high on Hypothyroid (under active thyroid) but apparently this shouldn't affect fertility. I'm on a 30 day cycle but sometimes this would be messed up either by stress from work or just down about not conceiving yet.

I had to unlearn everything I was taught about women's fertility and figure it all out based on my late 30-something body. So there was quite a bit of work to do e.g charting and getting my partner on board to check his health and lifestyle.

I started testing my propensity to fall pregnant/ fertility by randomly trying for a baby (still around fertile period) for an accidental occurance pregnancy. Nope-that didn't work.

So next was charting and monitoring through OPK sticks to see how my body works as it can fluctuate. E.g one month my OPK sticks were positive cycle day 10, really early and we missed it. Glow gives you all the info on checking fertile signs. Even if you know you want a child but just not yet- start doing these things anyway so you cut out signs of not ovulating etc. It makes things easier and you hopefully will save time just learning about yourself.

Some people say take pre-pregnancy vitamins but these had an adverse effect on my cycle. It messed me up for 3 months before I figured out it was exhausting me. I then just took folic acid only tabs which were better.

Your health and partner's health carry the same importance. I got my husband to take a fertility supplement. Zinc and Selenium are important features for sperm development. I think this helped but I should have started him at the same time as me and not waited until I went through all my checks since it takes 3 months for new sperm to develop.

I used agnus cactus to regulate my hormones if my period was acting up. I started on a low dose before going to the advised dose because I tend to be more sensitive to recommended daily allowances. I stopped taking it once regulated as it is not recommended for conceiving. This is a bit of a time out from conception.

Some advice given to me that I felt rang true was that at my age it can just take longer to get pregnant. Glow says there's a very high probability for up to a year trying and even two years. So don't get down about this-we just have to learn to be really patient the older we get.

Also working a hectic lifestyle could affect your chances at those moments. I rush around a lot. I took work down a notch mentally and physically.

We used Babystart's Presseed after 6 months of trying. We only bought one tube so worth the cost.

What I didn't think was true for us is that sperm could live up to 3-4 days inside me. There are articles saying 40% of fertility issues it is more likely to be sperm quality. I also had to throw out the rule that the egg can be fertilised within 12-24 hours. I reduced this to 6 hrs viable time and 12 hours sperm life time. This meant that once got OPK first positive, we had to baby dance around three times and definitely cover the morning or even middle of the night. When we figured this we got a bfp! Glow advises having sex at least 5 times around the fertile period.

So as a women the journey of conception seems like trying to figure out how your body works with your level of fertility, between you and your partner, and your working/home lifestyle. Good luck ladies!

Getting a blood test really put my own mind at ease, but this came at the end when we managed to conceive anyway. Maybe its worth paying to know this much earlier and save you the worry or help figure out a plan quicker.

Now I have new anxieties and hope that I can grow a healthy child to full term. Feel free to ask questions- I'm no expert but can tell you from personal experience. Good luck ladies!