Trying to conceive

[tingalayo]

Does anyone here have experience trying to conceive while also suffering with health anxiety? My husband and I have been trying to conceive for literally a month and I just don't know how I'm going to cope. I wasn't built for this kind of uncertainty, constant uncertainty all the time. It's like waiting for some blood test results or something, except every day of your life for as long as it takes to get pregnant. Fear every time I go to the toilet, in case my period's started, checking my nipples every half an hour to see if they're still sore...Does anyone have any tips for getting through this? If I'm this anxious in month 1, how much worrying energy will I have left in me if/when we're several months down the line??
I don't even wanna think about how anxious I'll be during pregnancy!

[swgrl09]

I just went through this! I have had HA for a long time, sometimes it's better than others. We started trying to conceive in November and I had come off my lexapro as well, so my anxiety was getting worse. The first few months I really was just as anxious about it. After a few months, I think the "excitement" of trying to conceive kind of wore off. I will say I went through some really sad months too. All in all I ended up pregnant after maybe 7-8 months of trying? It's frustrating because a lot of the PMS signs are the same as pregnancy signs. Honestly the month I actually was pregnant I didn't feel any different than when I just had PMS and got my period.

A lot of the work I had to do was really reminding myself that, yes some people get pregnant right away, but honestly that is NOT the norm. Each cycle you have like a 15% chance of getting pregnant even if you time everything perfectly. Doctors say to not worry until it's been at least a year. And oddly enough, once I started to let go of the anxiety after 7-8 months, I actually got pregnant. Go figure. I even ended up quitting my job and finding a new job, thinking "Well it hasn't happened yet, so whatever. I can't wait around." And now I'm 11 weeks into pregnancy.

Hope that helps a little. It's tough to not be anxious about it, but you are so early so I would say to just try to have fun and whatever is meant to happen will!

[tingalayo]

Thank you so much for replying to me! It really does help a lot to hear from someone who has been through the same thing, and who had success in the end. Do you find that your anxiety has ramped up more since you got pregnant though? Worrying about your pregnancy?

[swgrl09]

Honestly not really related to the pregnancy, which is surprising to me. I have been anxious about financials, figuring out daycare, telling work, but I think that's all normal. But health anxiety-wise, I thought I would be much worse and I am actually surprising myself. My husband gets more anxious than me!

[cattia]

I found that I went a bit insane when I was TTC too, but luckily it didn't take us that long (4 months first time, got pregnant by accident when I was still breastfeeding second time, four months third time). I did find the first 12 weeks hard going waiting for the scan. After that I did relax a bit. I was worried throughout all my pregnancies but I have to say it was more worry than obsessive anxiety. I probably worried more than the average person but I didn't get out of control anxiety which I thought I might do.