Although everything looks quite different, I actually weigh about 10 pounds less now than I did before I had the twins. If it weren’t for poor eating habits prompted by a need to prepare and eat meals in a hurry and a lack of time to work out regularly, I would probably be back to my “fighting” weight these days. That is a big change from what was happening while undergoing fertility treatments.
Whether from depression eating or from the medications weight began to creep on when I started taking clomid. Weight gain is a common side effect of clomid so I choose to blame it on that. From there, I moved onto IVF and once I began birth control and then lupron (with a PCOS diagnosies) it was pretty much inevitable that I was not going to stay slim and trim during the whole process. Not only are you stressed (and if like me eating to try to curb that) and overwhelmed, but the drugs that you take truly do have an impact on weight gain and the ability to lose weight.
When all was said and done I began my pregnancy from the IVF cycle about 20 pounds more than what I typically was when not on fertility medications. I actually lost weight when first pregnant because I stopped drinking all alcohol and caffeine and was unable to eat fattening or greasy foods. This seems to correspond with common widsom that to avoid weight gain you should work to lose weight before or during fertility treatments. They say to start an exercise regime that can be sustained throughout the pregnancy, to eat healthy and to do all the things you would normally do to lose weight. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will lose weight, but the idea is that you won’t gain as much.
For me, it just wasn’t worth the extra worry. I tried to tell myself that the weight gained during IVF is often fluid or a result of the medications and that it typically goes away once you get your period. Even better, if you get pregnant the extra weight is a miniscule concern in the grand scheme of things and you’ll have even more to worry (or not) about losing in 9 (or actually 18) months. Extreme weight gain should be checked out as it could be a sign of OHSS. However, if you are just talking about 5 or 10 pounds of gradual weight gain thanks to all that your body has been through then try not to worry about it and try to make it one less thing on your stress list while undergoing treatment.
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