No Babies yet!

[Joymarie333 41]

I am 27 years old and I have never been pregnant, I have tried over the years but no luck. I am waiting on approval for VSG right now. I'm not in a hurry to have kids. When I get down to a normal weight, do you think there's a good chance I could be a mother one day?

[Smye 695]

I know I'm a man, but happen to have quite a bit of training on this one - I was practically raised in an IVF clinic, abused my needs-based scholarship in college to take graduate medical coursework for free, and am a research obsessed data nut. That said, it depends...

According to the literature, there does not appear to be any reason to believe your surgery will negatively impact your ability to become pregnant, it will just mean extra care will have to be taken during pregnancy to make sure you're eating sufficient amounts of all the right things, even when you're nauseous and it's 10pm and you've only had 300 calories so far

Women who are classified as obese generally do have a harder time becoming pregnant, particularly if their BMI is above 40 - so it's possible that the weight loss will help your body reduce it's excess estrogenic production (yay fat cells, they make estrogens, lots and lots of them!) and regulate/stabilize your cycle/fertility. There are a number of cases of women experiencing regular 'spotting' and thinking their cycle is A-OK when in reality they're just spotting and not even ovulating and/or ovulating erratically. It's worth noting though that women are most fertile just a smidgeon overweight. All in all, the weight loss should help your fertility UNLESS:

Something else entirely is going on. If you've tried for a few years with no success, I recommend seeing your OB and/or a fertility specialist. It's possible you have something else altogether going on that will continue to plague you and prevent successful pregnancy. Maybe it's something that's easily fixed laparoscopically (a blocked tube), something that can be fixed in-office (an issue with a blocked os, I once worked with a pathologist and help him dissect a woman's uterus [which had been removed due to excruciating periods] only to find that the cervix had no os whatsoever - no wonder she was in pain), it could be a hormonal imbalance of some sort, or it could be something bigger requiring IVF. I figure it's better to know sooner than later, but that's entirely up to you.

You also could just have historically had bad timing. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Taking Charge of Your Fertility as an entry-level, yet sophisticated and thorough look at all of this, and explains the science clearly how to get your timing down. Mrs. Smye and I, having read this resource and each bringing our own backgrounds to the table, were able to determine her fertility, get pregnant first try each time, and time out our children's births closely enough to have them land during the beginning of summer break to maximize my paternity leave with summer. We know we're incredibly lucky to have managed this, even with all of the resources we brought to bear, but couldn't have managed it without the book.

Sorry for the novel, I hope this is helpful!

Edited July 18, 2015 by Smye

[Jason In Houston 93]

Anecdotal, of course, but I've read a few posts on here from women who thought or were told by medical professionals they were basically infertile due to various conditions, and then they got pregnant soon after (and a few even during) their first year post-op, sometimes unexpectedly.

Edited July 18, 2015 by Jason In Houston

[Joymarie333 41]

I know I'm a man, but happen to have quite a bit of training on this one - I was practically raised in an IVF clinic, abused my needs-based scholarship in college to take graduate medical coursework for free, and am a research obsessed data nut. That said, it depends...

According to the literature, there does not appear to be any reason to believe your surgery will negatively impact your ability to become pregnant, it will just mean extra care will have to be taken during pregnancy to make sure you're eating sufficient amounts of all the right things, even when you're nauseous and it's 10pm and you've only had 300 calories so far

Women who are classified as obese generally do have a harder time becoming pregnant, particularly if their BMI is above 40 - so it's possible that the weight loss will help your body reduce it's excess estrogenic production (yay fat cells, they make estrogens, lots and lots of them!) and regulate/stabilize your cycle/fertility. There are a number of cases of women experiencing regular 'spotting' and thinking their cycle is A-OK when in reality they're just spotting and not even ovulating and/or ovulating erratically. It's worth noting though that women are most fertile just a smidgeon overweight. All in all, the weight loss should help your fertility UNLESS:

Something else entirely is going on. If you've tried for a few years with no success, I recommend seeing your OB and/or a fertility specialist. It's possible you have something else altogether going on that will continue to plague you and prevent successful pregnancy. Maybe it's something that's easily fixed laparoscopically (a blocked tube), something that can be fixed in-office (an issue with a blocked os, I once worked with a pathologist and help him dissect a woman's uterus [which had been removed due to excruciating periods] only to find that the cervix had no os whatsoever - no wonder she was in pain), it could be a hormonal imbalance of some sort, or it could be something bigger requiring IVF. I figure it's better to know sooner than later, but that's entirely up to you.

You also could just have historically had bad timing. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Taking Charge of Your Fertility as an entry-level, yet sophisticated and thorough look at all of this, and explains the science clearly how to get your timing down. Mrs. Smye and I, having read this resource and each bringing our own backgrounds to the table, were able to determine her fertility, get pregnant first try each time, and time out our children's births closely enough to have them land during the beginning of summer break to maximize my paternity leave with summer. We know we're incredibly lucky to have managed this, even with all of the resources we brought to bear, but couldn't have managed it without the book.

Sorry for the novel, I hope this is helpful!

thank you so much to take time out to explain all of this to me I really do appreciate it. I'm more concerned about my health as I just want to live a healthy life but I do want a family so I'm really going to check into all of this you gave a clear understanding. Hopefully I have two beautiful kids one day! God bless you and I hope all is well

[AngelEyesInNJ 187]

The sleeve helped make me a mommy I was never able to conceive but after the weightloss it happened I had my surgery 11/2012 and had my son 3/2015

[Smye 695]

@@Joymarie333, no problem. Good luck and do keep us posted! Let us know if there's every anything you need.