Weight, IVF and refusal of treatment

[redlady]

Hello I wish to ask everyone on here a questions please if I may.

Were you refused treatment on IVF until you lost weight? Using donor sperm.

Were you refused treatment on IVF until you lost weight? Using your own husbands sperm.

Which clinic?

I seen the nurse and the doctor at WFC who have refused me treatment because I am 10kg over weight. I can go away and loose the weight but until then I can't have treatment.

They have measured me using the BMI body mass index, which is inheritantly flawed as elite athletes will often score in the obese category.

They have warned me that I might get gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, that I might have to have a caesarean because of my weight.

I have low blood pressure 100/70, i have low blood sugar 4.1mmol. Im 166cm and 104kg. I walk everywhere and I climb stairs, I walk up escalators. I can't exercise because of my inner ear condition. It gives me vertigo. The nurse laughed at me when I said I walk everywhere. She said how about a jog. I said I wish I could because now i have vertigo i can't jog otherwise I would be at the gym 2hrs per day. I felt berated and treated unfairly.

I have had skinny friends who ended up with gestational diabetes and/or high blood pressure during pregnancy. Weight has nothing to do with it as far as Im concerned

I was talked to like a child by the nurse. I was told do you know anything about portion size. Ummm I have cut down dramatically. My husband came to my defense because he can see it what I have done to my portions over the past 6 months. And only 1 kilo weight loss.

She was assuming I ate at Mcdonalds, KFC or whatever every night. I actually eat quite healthy. I have genetics on my side working against me. My mum, her sister, her mother, cousins, Dads side of the family all from good stock with weight conserving bodies. Not everyone is meant to be skinny.

I felt down, depressed and down right cranky after this.

I can shoot up herion or take speed or take ecstasy every week and probably loose weight. That wouldnt be a problem, they dont drug test. But apparently 10kg overweight is a big problem.

Im in NO WAY going to do the above. Im just saying what happens if someone did do this and thats how they maintained their weight. (I know of people who do) and they needed IVF. Thats ok cause they are in the healthy weight range..never mind they take drugs which is damaging for the child and conception.

I know of people in my town extremely overweight to look at them. They have had children naturally and they didnt have a problem. One lady looks like she may be a size 20. The other one I wouldnt know if she could even buy clothes from a store. I have a friend who is a size 24 concieving naturally. And no one tells her you can't have kids because of your weight.


ARGHHHHH!!!! Sorry this is turned into a rant. I need to finish up.

Redlady

[~breeze~]

I'm sorry to hear you were treated that way & spoke to so rudely.
I dont have any experience with IVF but I'm sure others will be in here shortly.
I just wanted to give you a & wish you all the best. I can imagine how frustrating & infuriating this is for you

[Kailani]

Sorry I can't answer your questions as I have no experience with IVF but just wanted to say how sorry I am for your treatment. I cannnot believe how incredibly rude that nurse was to you. That is so unprofessional and unethical - I would be reporting her to her superior.

That is just an awful experience and so unfair!

[Beth-n-Sara]

*Hugs* I'm truly sorry you were treated like that.
We are not doing IVF but our clinic weighs me before each donor IUI cycle. I'm now 25kg over my "ideal" weight and nobody has ever said anything to me. (Although 10 of those kg is from bl**dy Clomid- How I hate that stuff!)

My best friend is doing IVF at the same clinic as us (using DH's sperm) and she is well over 100kg. No one has mentioned her weight either.

I believe you should fight them on that. I don't believe being 10kg over weight has been proven to have an impact on the outcome of a pregnancy, don't you need to be "obese" to start running into those kind of troubles?

Hope everything works our for you hun

[kelebek]

it sounds like they are being really harsh, almost discriminating against you. Is there another dr you could see or another fertility clinic?

Hope you get some better answers soon.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

10kgs isnt even that much over weight! sounds fishy to me! find somewhere else if possible.

[helle]

I agree with Hollo... although I have read that losing 10% of your weight can sometimes increase your chances of fertility by X% - maybe this is what they're getting at? (I can't remember what that %age was though) And they have taken a completely wrong approach to explaining that to you!

BUT, weight has nothing to do with GD, my SIL is a bigger girl (much bigger than you) and has never had any of these problems. That nurse sounds plain rude as well..

Is there another clinic that you're able to go to?

And don't trust that BMI thing either! I hate that thing!! My Df is 6foot3 and weights 105kg's and it reckons he's obese, but he's a bean pole and he'd have to lose a limb to lose weight.

[Muppity]

Hi Red lady

I am really sorry that you feel that the clinic was rude. Maybe you should consider going elsewhere.

While I know that BMI is not the be all and end all it is in most cases a fair and reasonable way to measure weight. I am also 166cm tall, weight significantly less than you and it has still been recommended to me by my FS that I try and drop a few kg. I too know the trought with being genetically predisposed to being chunky (but lest face it - we will last longer in the famines!) and I can't imagine how terrible it would be not to be able to exercise regularly. Are you possibly able to try evercise in a stationery position such as an exercise bike, or how would swimming go (sorry - I'm not up on which exercises can cause vertigo)

There are plenty of studies that show that even loosing a little bit of weight makes falling pregnant easier and pregnancy far more comfortable. There are also studies which do show that overweight people are far more likely to suffer pregnancy complications. I am not saying that this means that all overweight people do, or that no skinny peopld do, it just means that we are more likely to suffer from these issues.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that your clinic is probably only trying to do the very best they can by you, however misguided their approach may have been.

I wish you the very best of luck whatever you decide to do.