49 and Pregnant Again?

Whoa! You'll never guess what...even after writing a book on getting pregnant over 40 and writing/researching my blogs on fertility, pregnancy and miscarriage, I was completely and totally taken by surprise when I had a positive pregnancy test last Friday. Unfortunately, I don't think this pregnancy will make it because I had a light "period" two weeks ago which makes me think I may have miscarried (the pregnancy hormone (hCG) stays in your system for a while after a miscarriage which could be why I had a positive pregnancy test). Aside from sore breasts (which I attributed to the chest presses I did in my weight lifting class) and some light spotting now, I don't have any other symptoms. The only reason I did a pregnancy test is because I had the spotting at an odd time in my cycle (which I've had with all my pregnancies - including my successful one).

I'm going to try to get into my doctor's office Monday to see if we can do an ultrasound or at the very least check if my hCG levels are going up or down (I have a history of two ectopic pregnancies). I debated whether or not to share this news because I don't really know my diagnosis, but I thought maybe this would provide some encouragement to some of you over-40 women who think getting pregnant is unattainable. If you've visited my website or blogs in the past, you know I tried desperately to get pregnant for many years and my fertility treatments either didn't work or ended in miscarriage. Even though we're currently not trying to conceive (we're perfectly happy with one child although I would certainly welcome another), I'm not on birth control - I guess you could say we were "passively" avoiding pregnancy. On top of all that, due to a flu bug that's made it's way around our house, our intercourse has been quite infrequent in the last month.

My point in sharing all of this with you is that even though I've previously been labeled hopelessly infertile (and old) by the medical community, I only have one fallopian tube, I just turned 49, and I was "passively" avoiding pregnancy, I still got pregnant. I may lose this pregnancy, but maybe sharing this could provide some inspiration for the rest of you who think getting pregnant is impossible. It's not. A healthy lifestyle goes a long way when it comes to fertility.

Stay tuned, I'll let you know what happens.