COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE TRUE????

[ckc]

After 2 and a half years of ttc and numerous doctors appointments and tests, eventually got reffered to fertility clinic, appointment was yesterday so braced myself went had an internal, was given pots, n blood test envelopes to do when my next af arrives, took some history off me, then was basically told to go away lose 3 stone and then make another appointment when Ive lost it, I feel very disheartened now.

are you sure they are saying the y won't see you again until you lose the weight? Am presuming they will need to see you for the blood test results...

I can ring for them, but she will not do anything till I have lost the weight I've already lost 2 and a half stone, then she said I will probably find out that I will just fall on naturally, thought these people were here to help, and if my doctor thought my weight was a problem why did she refer me?

does seem strange, have your other tests revealed anything which might be stopping you from having kids? It may be that the weight is having an effect so it wouldn't do any harm to lose it but it's odd that they would refer you without telling you this first.

not that I know of nobody has said antything, and all test have come back fine, I might ring my gp and see what she says because she is really nice and not once said anything about my weight, she actually said when I said about my weight that there us larger ladies out there having babies but she wants to rule out any other medical conditions first.

bump

Hi CKC,

Sorry to hear about how you were treated with so little understanding. Unfortunately, many fertility specialists will not treat women who are overweight as fertility treatements tend to not be as effective (or not work at all) due to hormone imbalances. The same applies to women who are too underweight.

If all your tests came back as normal and you were given the unexplained infertility diagnosis perhaps the weight issue is the only thing standing in your path?

Has your partner also been tested?

I would definitely call your gp to see what she thinks.

Best of luck to you...

there is a definite link between weight and conception. Many fertility clinics will not treat women who are over or underweight because the success rates are much lower.

It is also possible that your gp hasn't mentioned it, and has referred you, because she is not a fertility expert and therefore doesn't want to start guessing at what may or may not be the problem. This is in fact a positive thing, as GP's really don't know generally, so it's better that they don't guess at it iyswim and leave the diagnosis to the experts.

ckc - as wannaBe says there is a link with weight and conception
old news story here

Why your GP has not talked about weight as a possible issue is a question for you to ask him or her

Your GP may have assumed you knew about the weight issue as you are successfully losing weight

Did speak to gp today and could't understand what her problem was said she has refered larger women than me on and not had any feed back like this, she was really apologetic and that she would definatly speak to the hospital, which I said not to worry, woman at fertility clinic said she wanted my bmi to be 40 the doctor worked it out today and it's actually 38, so that puzzled us, she has prescribed me reductil to help me lose the weight faster which I thought was nice of her. My point is tho surley they would have done all test for endo and pcos and what ever else they do, then looked at the weight, what if I lose this weightand then they find it's something else wrong with me or I just can't have kids????

Hello ! EldonAve pointed me over this way.

Hmm.. not sure what to say really - am no expert. But, I think there have been some studies which show a correlation but then I know of plenty of overweight people who have conceived no problem.

That said, when I was struggling to conceive I was about 1.5 stone overweight (and am v. little so relatively was quite a lot I guess) and i did lose it and then I did fall pregnant (although helped by clomid although as I said before I think that the consultant said it probably wouldn't work as I was already ovulating).

I certainly think it doesn't hurt but on the other hand it seems a bit unfair to say don't come back until its lost. It sounds like they are at least running all the basic tests in the meantime though.

I lost my weight through running which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea but mentally I found it really helped as well which may have been a factor.

Sorry I can't be more help and good luck !

It's ok love thanks for the reply, and hope all goes well for you tomorrow keep us informed.... X x

If your BMI is 40 or even 38 that is significantly high and will very likely be having an impact on your fertility. It is an extremely good idea to lose some of the excess weight as not only will it improve the chances of conception, it will also reduce the risk of problems if you do get pregnant. You do need to weight for your blood results and so on to see if there is a cause - but the weight may well be having an impact, PCOS or not. However bear in mind that even if they do find another problem most fertility clinics would not do anything much else in the way of active treatment at that BMI as the chances of it being successful are lower.

Good luck!

When I was referred for fertility treatment one of the criteria (for NHS funding of fertility treatment) was that my BMI was in the 'healthy' range of between 18 and 25 HTH

ckc, at 38 your BMI is very high and I'm quite surprised that your GP did not mention this as an issue before.

You will be hard pushed to find any fertility clinic that will offer you treatment with a BMI over 30 (I think some may consider 35), not only because the tx is unlikely to work but also because of the risk factors of any resulting pg.

I know how hard it is to lose weight - I had a BMI of 36 when I first started ttc. I got it down to 25 before I started IVF, although it had crept back up to 30 by the time I had my 3rd IVF tx.

Good luck with the weight loss - if they can't find anything else then it really could be the only thing standing in the way of conception. I have 3 friends who lost huge amounts of weight because they couldn't conceive and all 3 went onto conceive naturally.

HTH

I'm not denying link between weight and fertility but specialists have told me that if you ovulate every month (determined by blood tests) then your fertility is same as normal weight women and that only if it is affecting ovulation is it a problem.

There is a good American website on this here
here

I am big too and am just about to buy this book for reassurance too

book

Cheers yellowflowers, I do ovulate every month and I definatley have plenty of cm and bd around ovulation, I will just do as I am told and lose the weight and see, but according to the graphs if I was my ideal weight for my height I would look anorexic, so that doesn't work for me either so I will never win, like I say the doctor has prescribed me some slimming pills to aid a quicker loss, who knows I might just concieve naturally after that with a bit of look, it's just after 2and a half years you feel like your going to get a bit of help so there's some hope and then you go and are told what I was it's just very disheartening and the fact it could take up to a year to lose the weight in the first place x x

I hope you don't take this the wrong way - have no wish to offend - but can they get a good transabdominal view of your ovaries? If not, assisted conception is going to be pretty hard.......(and its pretty hard anyway!). Might this be it?

I really don't know, could possibly be x