High cholesterol and fertility ?

RazzyRN

https://m.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/05/20/researchers-find-link-between-high-cholesterol-and-infertility/


I saw this on the news this morning and thought it was interesting.

Thoughts???

Pintobean39

I saw it this morning too. What's weird is I've had diagnosed high cholesterol since I was 17. I can finally happily say I don't have high cholesterol anymore and I can't seem to get pregnant and stay pregnant now.

The way I look at it my RE told me they want you as healthy as possible when going through treatments. I think it should just be a given that you should always try to be as healthy as possible.

rlpointer

Well that's definitely not exactly good news. I've had high cholesterol since I was younger and and still have it. It has nothing to do with my diet or exercise. I have genetics working against me. We have never been able to get it where it's supposed to be. I hope it doesn't cause too many issues getting pregnant now. Eek!

Pintobean39

How odd. I got a call today from a study I've been in since I was born. It's a study for heart disease and they have been following a bunch of people our whole lives. Anyway they asked me today about the details of all my pregnancies and they mentioned cholesterol.

renbee

I have high cholesterol. It seems to run in my family. I've also heard that there is a link between high cholesterol and pcos - had anyone else heard that?

Pintobean39

Aaren91011 said:

I have high cholesterol. It seems to run in my family. I've also heard that there is a link between high cholesterol and pcos - had anyone else heard that?

In the questions they were asking me today they were asking if I have any signs of PCOS or ever diagnosed with it.

The specific questions were how long it took me to get pregnant, did I have any problems with my pregnancies, how big were my babies at birth, were they full term, did I need any fertility meds, how normal are my cycles, do I have hair growin in places like chin or chest.

There is a Dr at Tulane doing this study and I'm really curious about the findings once it's done.

iloveu4ever

Heck I could have high cholesterol b/c my dad has it and I know it can be genetic.

Pintobean39

rentaduckie said:

I was really worried about this when they mentioned it. I was diagnose with high cholesterol at 21. It was 267. (FTR, I'm tiny. 5'4" and 115.)

It's entirely possible that number was wrong, it was done 5 years ago and I never made it in for follow-up. 

It's down to 191 at my pre-conception visit. Still not great for someone my age, but within normal, so I hope it doesn't affect TTC. I'm also going to just keep doing what I've been doing over the last 5 years regarding diet. 

Cholesterol has nothing to do with weight it's more about diet and genetics. When I was diagnosed I weighed about 100lbs. My mom was always over weight and never had high cholesterol but my dad who's small has high cholesterol. Also, you can't really look at your overall number, you need to know your HDL and LDL numbers. It's possible to have a higher number but have a high (good) HDL and low LDL (bad). The test has to be taken fasting to be accurate.

KatzKiss

I have high cholesterol. Neither GP or OB will put me on anything yet though because I'm TTGP.

Pintobean39

@rentaduckie‌ I can sort of understand being so small everyone thought something was wrong with you. I weighed 26lbs @ 6 years old, I was always so tiny I had to have clothes made for me. In Jr High my mom had to take me to a speciality shop in New Orleans to buy clothes because I wanted cool looking clothes and they didn't sell my size in regular stores. I got picked on growing up for my size, my mom, brother and my whole moms side were bigger ppl so of course I didn't fit in. My mom took me to the Dr once because she was so worried and I'll never forget this Dr (who was married to my cousin) he told her "what do you want, her to be fat like you?" I still smile when I think of him saying that to her, though it didn't stop her from making me eat.

Yes I ate like shit too because it didn't matter BUT I grew up had kids and decided it's time to get healthy. Actually everyone told me having my first son made me look so much better. Now that I'm almost 40, I'm much bigger but I have changed my lifestyle and raised 2 boys that were always so tiny too, but I changed the way we thought of being small. It's just a bitch finding clothes to fit! My boys still didn't eat healthy BUT my oldest who is almost 21 and lives on his own does now. He calls me all the time asking about recipes and about healthy meals. I like to think him watching me growing up eating healthy is why he is now.

My point is just because you have grown up a certain way doesn't define you. I really hope you are in therapy to help overcome some of the body images and anger you have from your childhood.


BTW The highest my total cholesterol was that I can remember was 297 and I remember them telling me bad was high too. My GP said I needed meds but he wanted me to try diet first because I was so young. It did take a while for me to adjust my eating but it worked and now years later it's second nature.