94: Don’t just focus on your weight when trying to conceive, here’s why...

The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast

Are you trying to get pregnant with PCOS at the moment, but struggling? If so, keep on reading.

You’ve likely been told by your doctor that you ‘just need to lose some weight and try for at least a year to 18 months before coming back’. There’s a lot of emphasis in PCOS on losing weight to get pregnant. Sure, losing a little weight won’t do you any harm if you’re not already on the lower end weight wise but it’s definitely not the magical pill that will help you get pregnant with PCOS.

When it comes to getting pregnant with PCOS, we need to ensure that we have all 3 fertile ingredients - good quality eggs and sperm, timing sex correctly so there is sperm waiting for the egg to be released i.e. pre ovulation and keeping your uterine lining intact for at least the first 12-14 weeks. We also need to make sure you’re ovulating on the regular so you actually can carry out the above steps.

In some cases losing weight can help this but we also need to ensure that your hormones are in check - like your insulin, your thyroid, your progesterone and all of the other wonderful hormones that are so important for conception. It can be a bit of a battle to figure out what’s out of whack, what changes specifically will help and also the less talked about side: getting your partner on board with changes and getting checked out for any potential fertility issues.

Today’s guest Ana, who has been a patient of mine in The PCOS Protocol for a while now, has been going through the struggle of conceiving of PCOS. She was told a similar spiel to what you were: It’s just about losing weight through eating less and moving more when getting pregnant with PCOS. But for most people, it’s not that simple. Ana had other things going on that have played into her fertility struggles.

In today’s episode of The PCOS Nutritionist Podcast, we go through Ana’s story. From being diagnosed with PCOS, to other conditions and health concerns, struggling with getting her partner on board with testing, understanding her root cause, her journey with using medications AND lifestyle changes and her advice to other women struggling with TTC and those doing fertility treatment.

This episode is for you if:

• You’re struggling to conceive
• You don’t know what the fertile ingredients are or what you might be missing for you
• You think or know you have insulin resistance
• You wonder if your thyroid is playing into your PCOS
• You’re tossing up whether or not to use fertility medications and treatments in your journey

Some things we cover in this episode:

• Ana’s PCOS journey
• Struggling with other conditions and health concerns alongside PCOS
• Understanding how your root cause impacts fertility
• Dealing with a partner who doesn’t want to get testing done or is resistant to change
• Understanding the role of your thyroid in getting pregnant
• Using medications and lifestyle changes for improving fertility
• Advice for other couples TTC

Resources and References:

• My Book: Getting Pregnant with PCOS

Links to our programs:

• The PCOS Protocol
• Eggducated