Sleep issues & Infertility

[Wales81]

Hi all
I wanted to share my experience in the hope it might just help even 1 other person.

I have PCOS, a high bmi and struggled with infertility for the best part of 10 years. Currently 39. My periods where irregular and it didn't matter what I did I just couldn't get pregnant. 18 months ago we went to a private fertility centre, my bmi was to high for ivf however they did agree to do ovulation induction therapy. I had that for 2 monitored cycles both of which came to nothing. I spoke to my GP who agreed with the recommendation from the clinic to leave me on letrozole for the foreseeable to at least make me ovulate and give me a fighting chance. Fast forward 12 months and 12 cycles of letrozole and nothing. Not even a hint of a bfp.

I then spoke to my gp in desperation for help and agreed my weight was a significant factor. I was referred to the NHS weight management program for my area. Part of that induction was a questionnaire on sleep. The nurse said I scored high and said she would refer me to get assessed. Then covid hit and I knew it would take ages to be seen by nhs so decided to go private. I had the sleep assessment at home over 2 nights. It came back with severe obstructive sleep apnea, I was surprised but when doc said I was waking up 118 times per hour and my oxygen saturation was dropping to 90% it was no wonder I was tired all the time and just able to function.

I went on to cpap therapy in October and it changed my life. I'm no longer tired or groggy all the time and no longer constantly nap. In the mean time we carried on with the letrozole and bang I got bfp this month. Currently 6wk and terrified of miscarriage, however am pregnant and got the furthest we ever have in 10 years. Both me and my GP are convinced sorting my sleep helped with my overall fertility. I've since done some research and found that there is research underway looking at the connection between sleep and infertility.

So my message to anyone who may have sleep issues, is its definitely worth getting checked out. Xx

Fantastic to read - so happy for your BDP - best of health and luck in the pregnancy ☺️ my sleep is awful so this is so useful - been trying 3 years and trying to go private for treatment now. Can I ask - what did they do to help sort out your sleep? X

Because I was diagnosed with sleep apnea I went on to cpap therapy. Sleeping with a mask at night basically. Took a couple of weeks to get use to but definitely worth it x

@Wales81 thank you for this! That's amazing news - congrats on your BFP!

Can I ask, before you got assessed, did you know you had really poor sleep? As in do you realise how often you're 'waking up' or is it somewhat unconscious?

Also, how did they assess you and how much did it cost privately?

I had no idea I had a sleep disorder. I was tired a LOT but thought that was just me. I work hard and have a lot on so thought it was normal. Id snooze a lot and if a passenger in a car is always fall asleep, but never thought anything was wrong.

As for the waking up.. had no idea. When my sleep assessment came back as waking 118 per hour average. I was gobsmacked. The waking is seconds.. and as a result of stopping breathing for a second the waking is the bodys way of kick starting breathing again. I was oblivious. I snored but that was it.

Private assessment I paid approx £200 2 day assessment with. Sent it all to the house and did it remotely. There are a few clinics, I went with the sleep disorder clinic harley st.

This is really interesting, thanks for letting us know @Wales81 . I've been trying to conceive my first child for the past year, and I assumed it was because of my age (almost 40) that I hadn't been successful, as so far as all my test results have come back okay for my age.

But I have really terrible sleep - not sleep apnea (as far as I know) but I've always been a night owl and sometimes only get 4 or 5 hours sleep (or sleep during the daylight hours instead). I'm doing my best to improve it, but I'd wondered if poor sleep could affect fertility.