For the past four weeks, we have learned about four different Glow contest winners and their unique path to Glow.

This week, we round up these amazing tales with one last one from Patti. This is her story:

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When my fiancé, James, and I started trying to conceive, we feared we had two big double whammies to overcome. I had not only taken birth control for 20 non-stop years, but I was also on the cusp of turning 40.

I felt the odds were stacked against us. And we both assumed we’d have a long journey before ever having a viable pregnancy — especially given the statistics — which are intimidating to say the least for a so-called “older” woman.

By age 40, a woman’s chance of conceiving is less than 5% per cycle. Therefore, fewer than 5 out of every 100 women are expected to be successful each month.Women over 40 become less likely to become pregnant and more likely to have miscarriages because egg quality decreases as the number of remaining eggs dwindle in number.And, approximately one in four women age 35 or older have trouble getting pregnant.Faced with such daunting facts, I knew I needed to take charge of my fertility. Something easy and handy to keep me on track, in-tune, and also be a positive influence. I heard about Glow from a close girlfriend a few months before we started trying to conceive and knew that this was just the tool for me.

As soon as I stopped using the pill I downloaded the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glow.android">Glow app</a>, entered all my data, and the very first insight that Glow gave me was:

“More 39 year old women are getting pregnant than ever before. The number of births by women ages 35 and older increased 64% between 1990 and 2008, rising across all major race and ethnic groups.”That was incredibly reassuring. I felt like I was not alone. And quickly realized that I truly wasn’t.

From the very beginning, Glow was spot on with my cycles. It was so accurate with my period start dates that it felt a bit uncanny. Because I felt Glow’s ability to tell me my fertile window was so precise, I also used it to prompt me on when to start taking Clearblue’s Digital Ovulation Tests to track my LH surge. I loved knowing exactly which days gave us our highest chances of pregnancy with Glow. And we definitely abided by those days!

Before long, I was using Glow religiously to track every aspect of my cycles. And I am so incredibly happy that I did… because just three short months later, on Christmas day, I was able to wrap up a very special last minute gift for James — our first positive home pregnancy test!

Today, I am fourteen weeks pregnant and am extremely aware of how incredibly lucky I was to conceive with such seeming ease. But I also know that I had the deck stacked for me by the dynamic duo of Glow and Clearblue’s Digital Ovulation Test. Knowledge is a powerful tool. And by using Glow, not only did I feel much more in control of my reproductive journey than I would have had otherwise, it gave us the advantage we needed to beat all the grim statistics and create our own tiny Christmas miracle!