49 and Pregnant Again Part II

It's official: I miscarried. I'm sad but not devastated like I have been in the past. I started to bleed somewhat heavily on Monday and never went to the doctor - just to a nurse to get a Rhogam shot (Rh negative blood). My body seems perfectly capable of dealing with this without medical intervention. The funny thing is the nurse kept stressing that if I didn't want to get pregnant, I should seriously consider going on birth control. She lectured me like I was a teenager ..."If you still have periods, you can still get pregnant". Who would have ever thought anyone would say that to me - especially at my age? How ironic! I felt like telling her she was preaching to the choir, but I just nodded my head and tried to sound sincere when I said "we'll be more careful next time". I'm telling you, my 40's have been my most fertile decade so far. For those of you trying to conceive, hopefully this is a lesson in reproductive physiology - IF YOU STILL HAVE PERIODS, YOU CAN STILL GET PREGNANT!

I'm thankful that this had a quick resolution. Although I've probably been pregnant for awhile, I only found out on Friday and miscarried on Monday. I've had pregnancies in the past where I knew I miscarried, but since my hCG levels declined so slowly, it took a month and a half to finally expel. That can be quite torturous (i.e. knowing you miscarried but still feeling pregnant.)

Anyway, I find comfort in the fact that my body still knows what to do and even though I just turned 49, it got half way there. Why did I miscarry? Was it my age? Was it my hormones? Who knows. It's not important now. Since I wasn't trying to conceive, I can't say I currently do everything I did when I conceived my daughter in terms of my pregnancy protocol (although I do still lead a very healthy lifestyle.) It just goes to show you - age is just a number. Fertility is determined by many things, not just how old you are.

And to my child that could have been: maybe we'll meet again someday.