Weight is one I hadn’t heard of. Friends of ours are also looking into adopting from South Korea but now they have to wait until the child they just had (suprise!) is over a year old.
After trying casually for almost two years, I tried temperature charting and couldn’t figure out when I was ovulating. Got an ultrasound and discovered I have polycystic ovaries. Went to Endocrinologist, started taking glucophage, and got pregnant that first month. Ta da! Baby’s due next month. 
About two weeks after MrsDibble went off the pill. Due on Dec. 30th, give or take a week…
First try both times.
Two uneventful pregnancies resulting in the clones of us. YAY!
So now I have three children: one boy. One girl. One husband.
With the first one, we weren’t really trying, but had stopped using any birth control for several months when I got pregnant. (I was 29 when I gave birth)
With the second one, we did the same thing and nothing happened for at least a year. Then we started actively trying since we didn’t want too large of a gap between kids. It was a t least another year before I got pregnant again, resulting in a five and a half year age gap.
We thought about a third (my now-Ex had three daughters at this point and really wanted a son) and didn’t use birth control for several years. Nothing happened so we decided that at that point in our lives, we were done making babies. When I was 42, I gave birth to our son. :eek:
Hey, something like this happened to my best IRL friend. She and her husband were married for five years, and the only birth control they were using was withdrawal (and we all know how effective that is). Then, it was discovered that she was polycystic. She had a couple of procedures done, and three months later she was pregnant. In fact, she had her first baby five weeks after I had my last one.
Don’t give up hope… our neighbour took 12 years to conceive her first child, and a second child followed within a couple of years.
My wife stopped the pill in August of 2002, and I guess it took a month for the hormones from the pills to leave her system.
The following month, I had prostatitis. I was in serious pain and had no desire to do my part, but I had a job to do, and dammit, I was going to do it. I’m afraid my sperm may be too powerful.
I would echo the advise of everyone here, and suggest you see a specialist.
I’ve come to the conclusion that fertility is cyclical. Just because you get pregnant easily with the first, doesn’t mean the second won’t take a while (or never come). I have a number of friends with one bio and one adopted - the first came easily, the second they made the adoption decision (for a variety of reason).
Likewise, I know a lot of people who had a lot of trouble with the first, but pregancy seems to have done a reboot on their hormone levels, and they pop subsequent kids like bunnies.
Of course, there are a lot of reasons for subfertility/infertility. If you have miscarriage problems because of a physical issue (incompetent cervix or whatever they call it), that won’t “spontaneously” disappear.
secondary infertility is pretty common, from what I’ve heard (hard to get pregnant even if the first one was quick and easy).
And it might be subtle things like major diet changes, too.
I know my fertility is cyclical - though I don’t have cysts, I am PCOS and I ovulate in the fall. Period. Once in a while I’ll ovulate a couple other times a year. But I’m a fall ovulator and all my babies will be summer babies.
I wasn’t trying the first time. The condom mysteriously had holes poked in it. :dubious:
This time, once. The condom fell off.
I’m totally waiting for 3 years to get pregnant. It’s mainly because i take a lot of birth control pills before i planned to have a baby, it influences me a lot. But i think it won’t be too long that you can be pregnant as both of you are healthy, you just need the fertile time, don’t be disappointed, keep trying, good luck!
I was 34 at the time, off of birth control for about 3 months. Had been on birth control pills for about 10 years prior. My husband also traveled a lot - at least 50% of the time and we got pregnant when I was sure we had missed that month’s window. Perhaps you ovulate earlier or later in your cycle than you think?
Had a somewhat difficult pregnancy, a perfect baby girl and then adopted a perfect boy 2 years later! I feel so lucky to have been able to experience 2 very different ways to make our family. There are lots of ways to become a mother.
Hi awesomeboy — welcome to the Straight Dope! We value your input and would like for you to join our community. The thread you’re responding to is from 2004 and the originator is long past this stage in her life! If you would like to discuss fertility issues, you are free to start a new thread. For now, I am going to close this one, since people might read it, miss the date, and respond though it was an active problem.
Your input is valued too, wombattver!
Again, please start a new thread if you wish, either of you (or anyone else for that matter). It’s easy — look for the button at the top left of each forum.
Ellen Cherry
IMHO Moderator