Infertility, weight-loss and HOPE! (My story)

While losing weight is no guaranteed solution for everyone, I just want to give hope to someone battling infertility due to being overweight. :flowerforyou:

When I got married at age 20 I was around 160 lbs at 5'4", so overweight but not obese. I'd been overweight since junior high but figured "that's just who I am." We waited a year for me to finish college before trying to conceive, but in that time I put on a lot of weight and my periods suddenly went screwy on me. I became very irregular which is incredibly frustrating when you're trying. I tipped the scales around 198 lbs before I woke up and realized I needed to lose some weight. I worked out some for about 4-5 months and got down to about 183 lbs when I had several false positive HPTs that sent me to the doctor only to be told there was no baby but instead I had multiple cysts on my ovaries and was diagnosed with PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). We'd been trying for more than a year at this point so my doctor told me I could either go on birth control to regulate my cycles or try clomid. Well since we wanted a baby, clomid made the most sense. 2 cycles of that and I was pregnant with our first. It took 18 months total to conceive him. I started the pregnancy at 183 and ended up near 212 lbs. Yikes!

A week before delivering, April 2005


When my son was a year old we decided to start trying again for baby #2 knowing it could take a while. We decided not to go the fertility drug route since we felt strongly we could conceive on our own this time. During the 18 months it took to conceive, I again worked on losing weight and got down to 165 lbs before getting pregnant. I gained about 25 that pregnancy.

In the hospital with #2, June 2008


For baby #3 we again started trying after #2 turned one. This time we were thrilled when it ONLY took a year to conceive, which can be considered normal for a healthy couple. I had AGAIN worked hard to lose weight and had gotten down to 155 before getting pregnant. That pregnancy I topped out at just 177 lbs.

Baby #3 ready to go home, April 2011


The bad news is once the baby came, I got myself back down to 162 . . . then let myself go completely and climbed the scale back up to 178 only with no pregnancy. :frown: I was so ashamed at myself for completely "letting go" and using the excuse of the stress I felt raising 3 kids as a reason to do so. I was a big time emotional eater (which I still battle) and just allowed myself to be so.

That's when I found MFP in February of last year when my baby was 9 months old. I read a million success stories and decided if everyone else could do it, then why not me!?! I exercised 20-60 minutes a day (Sundays off) and counted calories for the first time in my life. I was so pleased when I managed to hit a healthy BMI of 145 in July and decided to go even further. I got to 136 in September, a number I didn't think was POSSIBLE for my scale to even say! I felt great about myself! I had started heavy lifting and was enjoying feeling strong.


February to Sept 2012





We decided to try for baby #4 at the end of summer (yes, we wanted more) thinking it would take as long as it always does, when to my surprise we learned we were pregnant after just 2 months! Being a healthy weight had returned my cycles completely to normal. I never thought it would ever be possible for us to get pregnant so easily, but here I sit at 18 weeks with the proof tapping me in my belly as I type this. My youngest will have just turned 2 when this baby comes.



I know a lot of women who suffer from infertility have been told by their doctor "If you'd just lose some weight . . ." and you don't want to hear it, but losing weight did improve my fertility each time and once I was finally at a healthy weight it seemed to get rid of my PCOS issues completely. Being pregnant this time is different for me because it's the first time I've worked out while expecting. I still go to my Zumba class 2-3 times a week, though I did stop lifting because I was just too dang exhausted to keep doing it at night after the kids went to bed.

Good luck to each of you on your journey. And a special prayer for those out there who want children so badly and haven't had that dream realized yet. :flowerforyou: