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Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Arizona
Posts: 1,052
My Mood:  Points: 34,073.64 Bank: 0.00 Total Points: 34,073.64 |  WLS (RNY) and fertility
I have seen a ton of questions posted here and elsewhere all encompassing the same basic question - "Will WLS help my fertility?"
For me - the answer was, and is yes. I haven't posted my story as of yet here, though I keep meaning to, and will when I have the time.
To make the long story as brief as possible I was diagnosed with PCOS in 1999, at 19 years old. I had been obese since just before I hit puberty. I graduated high school at around 240 pounds.
As long as I can remember my monthly cycles were never regular. I would have maybe one period a year, and that was if I was lucky.
In October 2000 I married my husband, and we knew, even before we were married that we wanted children. We stopped using protection immediately. Of course, as most with PCOS know, periods just didn't come.
So, I went looking for fertility help, and like I would assume every other overweight female out there I was told to lose weight and things would be fine. (As most of us PCOSers know weight loss doesn't happen easily).
Around the same time I seriously injured my back, again making weight loss harder and harder.
In 2004 I actively started using fertility medications. Even on high doses of clomid we couldn't get me to ovulate, and we couldn't even get my body to have a period on it's own... it was provera, clomid, wait, over and over again. We spent thousands of dollars and time, and tears hoping and praying that the fertility medications might work. They didn't.
In 2007 I finally decided to have weight loss surgery. My two main reasons? To get pregnant, and to help my back problems. Like most I was afraid to believe too much in anything as everything else had failed.
My WLS was on December 7, 2007. Just under 18 months ago. My starting weight? 294 pounds My current weight? 144 pounds
About three months post op my body started having cycles all by itself. No, they weren't the picture perfect count the days cycles for a little while, but at 7 months out I was having 28-29 day cycles like clockwork.
I started temping, and my temps never showed ovulation. I even was setting up an appointment to go talk to my GYN so that we could look into fertility meds again when I hit my 18 month point.
Surprise, surprise, my period was late (it was due February 28). I figured my body was just playing catch up, I had been sick and very stressed lately. After a week, of course I had to "lay my overactive imagination to rest" so I bought a three pack of pregnancy tests. I knew this one wouldn't be positive, and I knew I'd need them again.
Turns out, I'm pregnant. No active trying, just sex without protection at around the right time of month, and here we are after eight years of trying pregnant.
Do I credit WLS with this pregnancy? I most certainly due. I think God gave me the path to follow for the WLS that led to this pregnancy. So for those asking can WLS and weight loss help with fertility? I think so. Will it help everyone, probably not.
I can tell you that after seeing a doctor specializing in high risk pregnancy I did learn something knew. WLS does have it's own risk factors in a pregnancy. I was told that for some reason people having had WLS seem to have a higher occurrance of late term miscarriage. They aren't sure of the reasons, but it does happen. My doctors are planning on keeping an eye on my fluid levels (in the womb) and doing pretty steady stress tests on the baby to make sure that things go well. THIS was something I had never heard before, so it was news to me. This is the first time anyone had mentioned this risk to me, and I was, and am very happy to have a doctor who was aware of the problem.
Would I do it again, even with this risk? In a heart beat. Right now I'm pregnant, which is something that after eight years I had really started to doubt would ever happen to me. I had honestly given up, and just kept praying that if we weren't meant to have a child that was genetically ours, that God would bring a child into our lives however it was meant to happen.
I just figured I would share my story, at least with the fertility parts, since it seems to be a common question, and one thing on many PCOSers minds.
Tammy
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~Christopher Allen Doern~
Forever Loved
Brought into and taken from this world on July 4, 2009 at 22 weeks due to incompetent cervix.
"The true measure of a life and love is not how long the flame burns here on Earth, it's how strong it burns in the heart.
- Tammy Doern
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