I have to admit, before getting pregnant at 32 years old, I didn’t think I needed any getting pregnant after 30 tips. I just assumed getting pregnant in your 30s was still pretty straight forward. I mean, women have been getting knocked up for generations, right? and they didn’t do anything fancy except for maybe a few crazy moves in the bedroom. I did have a few close friends who had troubles falling pregnant and I now know more and more friends having to turn to IVF for help, but then there was also the girls who “accidentally” fell pregnant in high school and those who just seemed to be capable of pumping out kid after kid by just looking at a guy so I assumed that those that had trouble were the minority and a very rare thing.
Turns out I was wrong. In the US, approximately 10% of couples have fertility issues and this can be caused by anything from low sperm count to endometriosis and uterine fibroids. For the other 90% though that are still taking a while to fall pregnant, there are a few things we can do to help with having a baby after 30. Read on for my best getting pregnant after 30 tips and preparing for pregnancy checklist to hopefully help you fall pregnant faster.
Because it’s such a complex thing (who knew?), I’ve split the article into two parts. In part one we will cover your ovulation cycle and pregnancy tips including how to use a pregnancy ovulation calendar and in part two I’ll go into other getting pregnant after 30 tips and give you my preparing for pregnancy checklist to make it really easy for you to ensure your doing everything you can for getting pregnant in your 30s.
Ovulation and pregnancy
As females we generally have a pretty good idea about ovulation and pregnancy; how they are linked, the way we are born with all the eggs we’ll every have and how each month most woman have one or more eggs released that can lead to a successful pregnancy. But ovulation and pregnancy can also be difficult if you don’t know when you ovulate or if you even ovulate at all. This is why the first part of my getting pregnant after 30 tips is all about ovulation and pregnancy.
Getting pregnant after 30 tip #1 – regulating your cycle
If you’re like me and many other women getting pregnant in their 30s then you may have been on the contraceptive pill for some time. I know for me, I started on the pill at around 16 or 17 to help with painful menstruation cramps so, when getting pregnant at age 32, I’d now been on the contraceptive pill for over 15 years.
The other thing the pill did for me and many other women was to regulate my body to a normal 28-day ovulation cycle. Before this I was a bit all over the place and would never know when my lovely period might surprise me in the middle of class or out socialising with friends. So, it’s been a good thing to have this regularity from the pill.
What I discovered though is that my ovulation cycle was once again thrown into chaos once I went off the contraceptive pill to try fall pregnant. I’d been told by my doctor it could take a few months to regulate itself to my natural ovulation cycle, especially as I was having a baby after 30, so I went off as soon as we were ready. Over the next few months, I went anywhere from 31 to 39 days in an ovulation cycle.
So, my first tip in my preparing for pregnancy checklist is to consider going off the pill a little earlier than you hope to fall pregnant (at least 1-3 months) and let your ovulation cycle get back to its normal timings. This might mean you need to use alternative contraception in the meantime if you don’t want to risk falling pregnant straight away (yes it does happen apparently).
Getting pregnant after 30 tip #2 – using a pregnancy ovulation calendar
The second point of my preparing for pregnancy checklist is kind of related to the first tip above about getting pregnant in your 30s and that is to use a pregnancy ovulation calendar to help track your ovulation cycle. I personally used Ovia (which is a free app) to track my ovulation cycle length as well as exact ovulation days, days we had sex and sometimes cervical mucus and basal body temperature. I’ll go into more detail on these below. It has other features like cervix height and a symptoms tracker but I used these more sporadically.
As you enter data over the months, the app automatically calculates your next menstruation period and predicts your most fertile week on a pregnancy ovulation calendar so you can try to have sex in this time and increase your chances of getting pregnant and having a baby after 30.
Another app I’ve been using second time round is the Premom app. It works similar to Ovia with similar tracking features but also has the ability to read ovulation tests via your phones camera and then plot this into a pregnancy ovulation chart that shows your hormone levels rising and finally peaking just before ovulation.
Getting pregnant after 30 tip #3 – Use ovulation test kits to pinpoint your ovulation
This tip in my preparing for pregnancy checklist was huge for me in getting pregnant at 32 years old. If you look at the pregnancy ovulation calendars of average woman then they have a regular 28 day cycle. Since ovulation usually happens about 14 days before your period starts, this means most woman ovulate around day 14 of their cycle and therefore their most fertile days are around days 12-14.
But what if you don’t have a regular cycle? What if you sometimes have a 39-day cycle? Or what if you don’t ovulate at all? How would you know? Ovulation test kits take the guesswork out and make it super easy to track and pinpoint ovulation so you can see your most fertile days, making getting pregnant in your 30s a hell of a lot easier.
My first pregnancy, I used the Clearblue Digital Ovulation tests. These come in a pack of 10 and can be quite pricey so I spent quite a bit of money on kits trying to test from about day 12 to whenever I got a positive result. The test works by peeing on the stick, which is inserted into a digital monitor. It then reads the results and provides either a blank circle or a smiley face after a few minutes. Smiley face means the surge in your Luteinising Hormone (LH) levels has been detected and ovulation should occur in the next 24-48 hours. In other words, its time to get on it.
For my second time round, I’m been using a brand called Wondfo which comes in different sizes but the kit I have has got 50 ovulation text strips and 20 pregnancy tests. It works in a similar way. You pee in a cup this time and submerge the stick for a few seconds and then wait for 3 minutes to read the test. The bonus with this one is you can take a photo of the test with the Premom app and it will analyse it for you.
I’ve been using these to save a bit of money and still be able to test every day as part of my preparing for pregnancy checklist. When the surge is detected or rising, I also use the Clearblue tester to confirm that I have a smiley face. I know, probably a bit of overkill, but I had a few Clearblue leftover from my first pregnancy, so I figure I may as well use them up and it provides a definitive answer, giving you a greater chance of getting pregnant in your 30s.
Getting pregnant after 30 tip #4 – track your basal body temperature
Another method for tracking ovulation and increasing your chances of having a baby after 30 is to track your basal body temperature and add this data to your pregnancy ovulation calendar. This is done by taking your temperature as soon as you wake up so it’s your resting temperature.
You can get special basal body temperature thermometers but I just used my normal digital thermometer and had it on my bedside table to I could stick it in my mouth as soon as I woke up and just lay still. The way this works to predict ovulation is that your temperature should dip slightly just before you ovulate and then about 24 hours after the egg is release, your body temperature should rise and stay up for a few days. This rise is usually about one-degree farenhight.
Enter your results into one of the apps like Ovia so you can get a pattern for what your normal temperature might be and when it changes.
Getting pregnant after 30 tip #5 – assess your cervical mucus
The final method I tracked in my pregnancy ovulation calendar and I recommend for increasing your chances of getting pregnant in your 30s, was to look at my cervical mucus. I know gross right? But most things involved with pregnancy and having a baby after 30 are and it can be a very good and free part of the preparing for pregnancy checklist to predict your most fertile window.
I’m sure you already know, but cervical mucus is that lovely discharge we get throughout various stages of the month and in case you haven’t noticed, its thickness and amount changes throughout the month and for good reason.
Obviously during your menstrual period, we have blood so you can’t see the mucus. Just after your period, it will usually dry up and there might not be any discharge at this stage. In the lead up to ovulation, the mucus becomes yellow, white or cloudy and may be likened to glue or feel stretchy. This is what we are looking for to predict our fertile window.
During ovulation it becomes clear and stretchy, kind of like egg whites. This is the perfect texture and pH balance to protect sperm and is the best time to have sex. After ovulation it will lessen again and may either be dry or go thicker, cloudy or gluey again.
Click here to read my Getting Pregnant After 30 Tips – Part 2