stardust82

Hi, All - I recently relocated to Texas and do not know people here who have had DS. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in helping to support each other with daily check-ins, support, encouragement, tips, etc. If so, feel free to introduce yourself on this thread! I am 40 years old woman, single, and dealing with infertility (I am trying to freeze my eggs). I had DS 8.5 years ago and lost 50% of my excess body weight at the time but did not push myself to lose even more (I was in grad school and my mom was deemed terminally ill at the time). I would like to re-commit to healthy eating and working out and have been flying solo for about a month now. I am highly motivated to lose quickly (but safely!) to improve my chances with egg freezing/harvesting given that I'm also up against my biological clock! Hoping there might be some other people who want to join me!

I am 8.5 years out and never really lost my hunger with the surgery. I am taking Ozempic now and it is helping. I am 6 lbs down!

Hi, Everyone - I've seen a few posts about how many calories people have been eating to maintain their goal weight but none about how much they have to eat to lose weight and was curious, as my surgeon never gave me a target caloric intake (I had my procedure in 2014). He just told me to eat 80-100 grams of protein a day and to focus on avoiding refined carbs. I was also wondering if the target caloric intake people are talking about is total consumption or absorbed amount. (For example, they eat/consume 2000 calories a day but only absorb 1200 of those consumed calories so their target is 1200 absorbed calories?) Thanks in advance for the insight!!!

Hi, I am 8.5 years post-op. I've needed IV iron infusions 2x now and am likely going to need them again now. I see a reproductive endocrinologist (trying to freeze my eggs) who put me on synthroid for hypothyroidism. I also have fibromyalgia. I never lost nearly as much as I wanted to with DS but also started grad school within 6 months of getting the surgery and then lost both my parents within 3 years of each other and starting school. So it's been a challenging 8 years! I'm now refocusing on losing weight and my health (both physical and mental health!) and making that my sole focus for the next 6 months as I was laid off. I'm working out, going to therapy, counting calories, and seeing a slew of doctors. Happy to be a sounding board and cheerleader to you as you navigate things!

I am going to start Wegovy once insurance approves it. I am being monitored by a nurse practitioner through a medical weight loss program -- most of the people in the program are trying to lose weight to become eligible for bariatric surgery. But I am 8.5 years out and definitely struggling to reduce my caloric intake. I have been walking and doing vibration plate sessions multiple times a week. I have been trying to focus on eating high protein.

Hi, All - Tomorrow is my first egg retrieval day and I am disappointed, to say the least, that I did not respond well to the meds (300 IU of gonal rediject and 300 IU of menopur) and they are only expecting to retrieve 2 eggs. I have pcos and have been taking 50 mg of spironolactone. I was told I no longer needed metformin a few years ago after losing 100 lbs (that I was no longer pre-diabetic) but I've read that some women took it and that it helped with weight loss and getting pregnant. So I'm going to look into that. I've also been told to look into taking wegovy through a local medical weight loss program that is run as a part of that particular hospital's bariatric surgery program. has anyone done something similar? basically, i was told losing weight could yield me a better response to the meds. I will be 41 in February and the quality of eggs goes down even further by then. I am told that I can do 2 more cycles before then and am fortunate to have decent health insurance that covers a big chunk of the expense up to 8 times if i am only doing the egg freezing part (though the cost still comes out to about $2000 a cycle). any advice would be much appreciated now from women who have gone through ivf. I was sad enough about not having found a life partner yet at 40. now the thought of not being able to have even one biological child on top of that is devastating.

you took menopur for 28 days? I was on the injections for 12 days. I was slower to respond but had 4 eggs growing. I wonder if a lower dose but longer course of treatment would work for me too!

I ended up not having any mature eggs ☹️😧

thanks for your response, kaylee. did your doctor predict the right # of eggs for you? mine said that she was only expecting 4 eggs based on the # of antral follicles that i had. i have 2 that are the "right" size but the other 2 are too small/grew too slowly. my doctor did not adjust my meds at all, sadly, during the course of this first round. i'm going to look into some who know more about working with women with pcos to see if they can offer any more advice. and also work like hell to lose as much as i can in the next 6 weeks before starting this again!

Would also love to hear updates and if anything has changed since the OP last posted here.

Joining the conversation a bit late. I am 40 years old and trying to date but the apps are driving me nuts. I am also freezing my eggs in the hopes of still being able to have at least one biological child. Try telling a guy that you are trying to drop 75 lbs in a year and that your hormones are even more out of whack than usual for the next 6 months 😉 I currently live in Austin, TX and am thinking of moving to the Bay Area in the new year. Would love to hear people's tips on dating.

I re-read your post and am encouraged to hear that once you broke the 200 lb mark, you got pregnant. You are quite a bit taller than me though! So happy that your wish came true. It gives the rest of us some hope. ❤️

Feeling really discouraged today as I have my egg retrieval tomorrow and they said there only seems to be 2 follicles that are the right growth. 2 more (finally) started responding to the FSH & LH meds on day 13 but it was too late. As it was, they had predicted I would only get 4 eggs. I have another cycle planned at the end of November giving me about 6 weeks to lose weight. I was told that even a 5-10% loss of my weight (10-20 lbs) would improve my chances. It seems daunting to lose that much weight in 6 weeks though given that I have just managed to maintain for so many years rather than to lose. I did the math and if I have been eating about 2000 calories and maintaining then I should be able to lose about 15 lbs by eating 800 calories/day for 45 days. If I continue to walk as I have been for the past month, I may be able to lose even more before starting the next round of injections. Someone tell me if this sounds crazy, please!

Wow! Your weight loss has been incredible! I am 1/2 an inch shorter than you and started at about the same place (328 lbs) but have stayed at 215 lbs for years now. I haven't been happy with that weight but am only now REALLY motivated to do something about it since I really want to have kids. I think I need to adjust my thinking about all of this though. I've been eating way more calories (2000 or so!) and maintaining where I am at. I never adjusted down further. I also started at about 1500 or so after the initial liquids stages. I now realize that I really need to be more restrictive if I want to drop more weight -- the malabsorption can only do so much!

Thanks! I definitely took the weight loss coming so easily in the first year for granted and did not do anything further when I stalled. I now see that others constantly worked at it and adjusted to succeed and that I need to show that same level of persistence/tenacity to get to where I want to be!

Thanks so much for all the feedback everyone! It's super helpful. I know that I have not been making high enough caloric deficits so I am going to heed your advice and try to play this by ear/do some trial and error. I know now that my numbers were way off (too high!!) though. I think I will try to focus on 1000 calories max each day comprised of protein shakes, eggs, milk, salads with chicken, and lots of fruit this week and will see how it goes!

This is awesome advice, thank you! I think I do need to more dramatically cut my caloric intake for sure, as I am basically able to eat normal sized meals now. I've easily been eating 1800-2000 calories a day and not losing at 215 lbs. I think I am losing a bit now as I have been exercising a lot more now but even still, my progress has been quite slow. I am going to take your suggestion and try to do protein shakes for the next few days and see if that helps with my stall! Thank you!

Curious if anyone has any new tips since this was posted a few years ago....

all of these posts are giving me some hope! i'm 40 and was diagnosed with pcos when i was 15. i've only gotten to a bmi of 39 and am told i have very few follicles (i'm currently in the process of freezing my eggs). i am trying my best to lose more weight rapidly to improve my chances of having at least one baby! any advice would be much appreciated! i'd also love to hear more success stories!

Hi, friends! I am freezing my eggs now at age 40 and came across this post. I was hoping to resurrect the conversation. I have been deemed virtually infertile -- only 4 follicles in total (1 on my left ovary and 3 on m right). i'm on a high dose of FSH meds to try to stimulate follicle growth and the one ovary with only 1 follicle is doing nothing. the other 3 are growing along but slowly. my team said that having children over 40 + pcos since I was a teenager (in spite of completely normal periods now) + having a high bmi still (super happy to have a bmi of 39 instead of 59 but still not healthy!) is all working against me. they recommended losing weight as safely and as rapidly as possible while also doing subsequent cycles (since my insurance covers a few and i'm also up against my biological clock -- i'll be 41 in feb). any advice/tips/recommendations? anyone else been through this?

I am in a similar boat with very little family support as my siblings live in another state, I'm not married, and my parents have passed away. I'm also trying to navigate dating apps, pcos, and infertility at the same time and living in a new town! (I'm about an hour south of you!) I lost 50% of my excess weight and did nothing about losing the rest for years (til now) so I have essentially been plateaued for 7 years but didn't watch what I ate or restrict myself further to lose more weight. I just tried to stick with healthy eating for the most part and was able to maintain. We have got this though! We know what we need to do and just need to keep chipping away at this bit by bit, day by day!

This was one of the best encouraging posts I have seen here. You should seriously consider being a life coach! 🙂 Great explanations too.

How are you doing now that you are a few weeks out?

Hi, K! How did your DS go? I too had a band taken out to get DS (many years ago!) and do not regret the choice. How are things going for you, post-surgery?

Apparently I got 37 views but no responses! Anyone out there looking for support? 😳