I don't find myself on message boards often. Just during those lucid, up-in-the-air, uncertain moments of life. Like now. In our early thirties my husband and I started trying to have children. No luck for two years. When I was thirty-five we went to a fertility clinic and were told that since at the time our insurance covered it (on paper anyway) we should just do what worked best and quickest -- IVF. So after testing with the outcome of 'infertility - reason unknown' we took the IVF route and it was successful. We now have a wonderful three year old daughter. But we really wanted a sibling for our little one. So I did an FET last summer and it didn't work. Worse yet, I had some terrible experiences at the clinic. Very unprofessional behavior, bad reaction to meds, doctor who was never available, evil billing lady who made me wait 1/2 hour longer than other patients (who also waited an hour) in order to give her checks every visit before seeing the doctor (now paying out of pocket) ... And made me feel like I was at a collection agency rather than a fertility ctr, although our savings covered the procedure without a problem ... The stress of traveling to the clinic, long office waits, and multiple meds, coupled with the really unprofessional office experience and the failed FET result ... had me thinking that maybe it was time to take a different route. Maybe take in a foster child in a few years, when my daughter was older. And then on Christmas ... my period was due on Christmas ... But it didn't come. I didn't think much about it. I thought I miscalculated. But now two weeks after the expected date I'm getting all of the symptoms. Lower back pain, vaginal discharge, nausea, fatigue, tender breasts, going to the bathroom every 1/2 hour. Unfortunately, the hpt test I took a few days ago read negative. So I called my GYN and the admin there told me that I was getting older (I'm 39), so I probably just missed a period. Don't be optimistic. I am a realist and I really wasn't expecting to get pregnant naturally. At this point, I wasn't even expecting to get pregnant. But the signs are so clear that I'm certain it's true. I made their office send a form over to the lab so that I could get bloodwork done yesterday, and will find out the results tomorrow. I am hopeful that the result will be positive, but worried that it might not be. And if this is the case, my thought is that perhaps my HCG levels have not spiked as they should ... I have read that this does happen, and when it does women can get really bad prenatal care in the first few months, because the doctors tell them silly things ... like that they have stress, or indigestion... I've been pregnant before, and this is definitely what it feels like. I only hope that it will be a healthy pregnancy and that what was preventing me from conceiving was not a hormone imbalance that could put me at risk for a miscarriage ... Any thoughts? Anyone else with fertility problems who ended up with strong pregnancy symptoms and a negative hpt a week after a missed period (my periods are regular, like clockwork. had never missed one before). I want to be ecstatic, but until that test comes back positive ... Well, if it doesn't I'm going to make the gyn do an ultrasound...