Thinking about Becoming Pregnant?

10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Trying to Conceive

4. There is an abundance of fertility aids! I never imagined how many products were specifically designed for increasing someone’s fertility. Herbs, teas, fertility monitors, ovulation predictor kits (OPK), charting software, sperm-friendly lubricant – the list is endless! Some I used and found really helpful, while others were a complete waste of money. If the conventional methods aren’t working and you want to try something new, search the internet for reviews on fertility products and there is bound to be something that will be of interest to you!

5. Scheduled sex is not fun! No matter how great a sex life you and your partner have before TTC, having to perform "on-demand" will inevitably suck the fun right out of it. There are ways to try to combat this (trying out new things or fantasies, planning a romantic date around it, etc.) but sometimes, it WILL become a duty. I discovered it's easier just to accept this fact than getting upset about it.

6. Infertility can take over your life! Before trying to get pregnant, I thought myself a pretty level-headed, practical person – not obsessive or neurotic at all! But all that changed when I was (unsuccessfully) TTC. I became absolutely obsessed with all things related to TTC, pregnancy or babies. I spent hours and hours on the Internet each day, looking for that one bit of information that would help me. Baby showers, pregnant women, and diaper commercials became too much to bear. It got to the point where I could honestly think of nothing else and nothing else seemed to matter. Although this is not good or healthy, I do think it’s more common than people realize.

7. Men and women handle it differently! The longer we spent trying to get pregnant, the more obsessed I became and the more I needed to talk about it. My husband, however, handled it much differently. I think because it was something he couldn’t “fix”, the longer we spent trying to get pregnant, the more he ignored it and DIDN”T want to talk about it. He would show up for his “duty” of having sex on demand, but other than that, I think he really tried his hardest to push it out of his mind. This caused many fights between us, which only added to the stress. I wish I had known now that it wasn’t that getting pregnant wasn’t important to him, it was just that he handled the stress of it differently than I did.