Pregnancy/cycles thread?

[Susy]

Soooo... Since I'm coming to love so many of you girls already, I'd like to share with you in my excitement of possibly having baby number 2 soon. And my journey to get there. I figured it could also be a good place to talk about cycle-related questions and what not. Since it seems a lot of you have questions!! I consider myself somewhat of a guru in that area, since it took over a year to conceive my son. I did nothing but research research research in that time! So if anyone has questions, feel free to ask. There's no such thing as TMI. (PM me if you feel uncomfortable.) But I can help you figure out what's going on, if you might have messed up periods, or whether you might be pregnant, when a pregnancy test would be accurate, or anythign that's on your mind!

[SkinKnee28]

I always wonder if taking plan b (which from my pharm friends say its just birth control in a high dose) can cause damage and hurt your chances in getting pregnant later on in life. Or contribute to some form of cancer. Ive had to take it once and it made me the most paranoid person (and still am) about how much harm it could cause.

Another question to pick your brain and your views- More and more women are having a hard time concieving their first child. (which i blame for the obesity epidemic, and people being so stressed out with the hustle and bustle of life that they just dont take care of themselves) but it was brought up in my system phys class if the higher rate of abortions which are performed on more inidviduals (and younger than ever) now might have a causation to the reason it is becomming more relevant than ever.

[Susy]

Very good questions!! About plan B. It IS kind of like a really high dose of the pill. They work in the same way, to delay or prevent ovulation, and if ovulation and fertilization (sperm entering egg) DOES occur, it prevents the embryo from implanting in the uterus.
Now, with any type of hormonal birth control, you CAN affect your future cycles, but they normally regulate within a few months. I personally was on the pill for a year. When I went off it, I got pregnant in only 3 months (pretty average), but miscarried. I'll never know if that was a result of the pill.
Some studies do suggest the time it takes to conceive is slightly longer, after having been on the pill in the past.
I think if you want to become pregnant you should go off the pill months, or even a year in advance, to give your body ample time to recover. But if you don't want kids for a long time, I think it's ok for now.
I personally won't go back on hormonal birth control until after I'm done having kids.

I absolutely agree that obesity, and bad lifestyle in general, is contributing to mild, or even serious infertility. I even know a friend who was morbidly overweight. TTC for 7 years and had as many miscarriages!! Went on fertility meds and still couldn't conceive. Lost 60 lbs. Bam. Pregnant. She's 18 weeks now.
And also, stress definately impacts fertility. Stress can delay or prevent ovulation, giving you fewer chances to conceive within a year. (a year without conceiving classifies you as infertile)

But yes. To get to the main point. Abortion ABSOLUTELY can impact future fertility. Each abortion has the potential to create scar tissue, which either a) leaves less opportunity for an embryo to implant, or b ) causes you to miscarry as the placenta grows and can't attach properly over the scar tissue.
after my miscarriage I was very afraid I had scar tissue that was hurting my chances of conceiving again. I also had a lot of bleeding with my second pregnancy, that the ultrasound tech couldn't explain. Could have been scar tissue. You never know.
Plus the hormone rollercoaster that results from having a miscarriage or abortion, or even being on the pill or plan b... It just doesn't do good things to the body. It's not meant to have to deal with such things. The more we leave our body alone the better.


Anyways. Other side effects and risks of abortion include, infection, PERFERATION of your uterus and other organs!! Damage to the cervix (the opening between teh vagina and uterus), a host of side effects from the anesthesia, heavy bleeding, and parts of the baby or placenta left behind. I've heard stories of women who go home and go to the bathroom and a little hand or foot or even the baby's FACE fell out, into the toilet.
I'd be horrified.
As you can see, I'm very anti-abortion lol.

[SkinKnee28]

I was thinking the exact same thing. My prof was going on and on about how abortions can cause extensive scar tissue that causes the chance of the baby implanting to the wall harder than if there was, no abortion in the first place. There were then talks about whether many eggs get fertilized but then never has the chance to implant leaving to no pregnancy.

Funny thing about weight, overweight and underweight plays the same rolls in the ability to concieve. I was working at a retail store while in school a couple years ago and my boss was trying to concieve for like 2 years with no luck. Went to a fertility clinic who had no answers as to why she wasn't concieving (she was fine as was sperm count). I overheard her talking to a co manager about it and butted in and asked a whole slew of questions. At the end i said yanno rach gain like 5-10 lbs and you'll probably get pregnant. 2 months later and 5lbs heavier she was pregnant with TWINS!. That was her last straw until they were going to save up to get fertility treatments. My cousin who is overweight as is her husband miscarried twice in the last year. I blame it on her weight (she's a good 75-100lbs overweight) but i don't have the guts to break it to her that most likely due to her obesity the hormones are not working as properly as they would if she was an average or slightly above average.

I was watching that show i didn't know i was pregnant on the discovery channel and they say the chances of concieving twins the first month off birth control you have a very high chance of concieving twins. As is sweet potatoes. Weird...

Anyways i was just wondering about the Plan B. I was on hormonal birth control for years and years and then the last year i started becomming depressed. and really moody to the point i thought my world was just collapsing on me.. Myself a rather upbeat person and i usually can get up and get out of bed i knew this just wasnt right. after failing 2 classes last semester i started testing different things that may change this. I went off the pill for a month and all of the depression vanished within a couple weeks. My parents had even commented how much happier i seemed. So i stopped taking it all together now and it has been months. The condom broke 3 months ago and i took plan B that next morning. I know i want to have a child later on in life, i just kept thinking i hope this pill doesn't kill my chances of concieving.

[Susy]

Yea, no I think if you give your body time to straighten out you'll be fine. Stupid hormones though. I'm staying away from them from now on.

Yep I don't know why the chance of conceiving twins is higher after the pill but I know the skin of the sweet potatoe has an estrogen-like hormone that can cause hyper ovulation.

That's SO crazy about your friend having twins. Do you think she was secretly already on clomid or something? That's what I took to get pregnant. And there's a 10% chance of twins on clomid!!

It's funny though. When fat people go to the doc about their infertility, the doc usually suggests they lose weight first. (why mess with meds when the problem is obvious)
The woman usually get's all offended.
No. Lose some damn weight and you'll get pregnnat. lol. If not, we'll do clomid. Clomid works better if you're thinner anyways. (as does the pill)

[SkinKnee28]

i work at Express the clothing store and i swear its cursed... i will never have a child while working there. Out of the last 5 people that got pregnant 3 of them were with twins (the two that are preggers right now are singles). Somethings gotta be in the water. Thats my all time fear, i can only imagine what thats like. The one girl is due... the 7th! in two days!

[Susy]

Lol!! Holy. Something about that place makes you overly fertile. Watchout!

[Susy]

Ok little update on me. Ovulation kinda caught me by suprise and we didn't really have sex on the right days. (sex on monday, ov'ed on thursday) so lets hope those spermies survived the 3 days. Because I'm now 3dpo (days past ovulation) which means I can test in about a week. Wish me luck.