Skinny woman trying to conceive.....

[foreveryours]

I've been told that I'm not ovulating...doc has advised me to gain at least a stone in weight to see if that will work. I'm about 7st and I've always been this slim, Ive never weighed more than 7 and a half! Ive got a 8yr old DS and would love a sibling for him. I haven't been pregnant since I had my DS but I've only been trying the last 2years. Has anyone else had to gain/lose weight to try and get the body ovulating again? If so did it work? Are there any happy stories out there? I can't stand the thought of not being able to conceive naturally! Also anyone have any idea on how to gain weight? I eat loads and drink calorie shakes in between meals. I'm naturally skinny, it is a curse....

How tall are you and what is your BMI?

I'm 5'7 bmi is 15.4 I think? Very underweight but naturally so..

Have you had your thyroid checked?

Gosh, that is quite underweight but I know you know that. Could you ask your GP to refer you to a dietician or pay for one privately?

I would be careful with gaining weight for the sake of it. Yes, your bmi is low but it is such a simplistic calculation that it doesn't take account of all factors. What is your calorie and fat intake per day and what balance of fruit and veg is there in that? You may be eating unhealthily and that is hindering your ttc but in that case gaining weight per se won't cure that. I'd request a referral to a dietician as your gp is wrong to just tell you to gain weight without looking at how you do so (and ensuring you do so safely). Sorry, bit of a rant but is a big bug bear of mine as I'm naturally slim and gp started to argue our ttc issues are because of that (despite my bmi being, just, within normal range) and totally disregarded my dh's SA as the possible cause (despite them being poor). Makes me mad when they get caught up on weight (either high or low based on over simplistic bmi figures).

That sounds very low, but I think (and this is based on my own feelings rather than any kind of medical knowhow) that it's more the body fat percentage that matters (you need fat for oestrogen) rather than just weight, so you need to target fat. But yeah, you need proper advice on how to do that. My advice would be to introduce regular snacks, muesli bars, bananas and so on. I think for every 100 calories extra per day you have you put on about a pound over a year or something like that.

And I second minipie, have you had your thyroid checked? because that turned out to be my problem initially. Do you have anything like palpitations, muscle weakness, having to poo quite often/ large amounts, amnesia, feeling like you're buzzing, memory loss, difficulty concentrating?

Thanks for the replies

Over the past two months I've had ever blood test known to man! All hormones checked, thyroid, diabetes, full blood count etc. All came back fine apart from two hormones, prolactin which was a little high but nothing to worry about and my testosterone level was very low which the doctor said is causing me not to ovulate.

Were you this thin when you had DS? Did you have issues with conceiving him?

I can't remember how much I weighed but I was very slim then, probably the same weight if not less. I was very young when I fell pregnant with him. No trouble at all in getting pregnant either...

In my teens and twenties I always had a lowish BMI. That was just my shape. I'm the same height as you and was often about 8 to 8 and a half stone, which out me just into the underweight category. I noticed that if I lost just a tiny bit of weight, my periods would almost disappear and then reappear rapidly if I ate more. The link was very easy to see for me.

It sounds very odd to be that slim if you are eating properly AND having calorie shakes between meals. I think you need to push your doctor for more tests.