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IVF /fertility treatment effect on energy

Belgiangirl

Senior Member
Messages
108
To freeze my eggcells in, hoping that one day I might be able to support myself and a family also of course, leaving this disease behind or at least manaegable, I have been on IVF hormones lately.

Ovarian stimulation hormones to stimulate more egg cells getting grown at the same time (within the same cycle) obviously, though avoiding them to "pop" and have an ovolation so they could be picked up.

Nothing strange there.

The strange thing is: it has been years before I was in such a good shape overally (energetic, mentally and physically - my mental energy normally never is a problem but now I was even more sharp).
It seems like it increased my energy to madness ... well yeah, maybe to what a normal life must be like. I was able to do anything. Except... my belly got bloaten really bad since I suffered overstimulation so I couldn't go anywhere since it was in the way of everything and did hurt.

This has left me to the hypothesis that I nearly see in literature:

- Is chronic fatigue synrome a hormonal thing (sex-related hormones)

Other pro arguments:

- CFS woman seem to have their menopause more early
- the ratio CFS woman/man is highly in favourhood of the woman
- I have seen case reports across the internet of CFS or be it having its onset or being stopped after "big hormonal changes" speaking: abortion, miscarriage, pregnancy, C-section, ...


Does anyone else here have similar experiences?
To start: did you undergo an IVF cycle or other fertility treatment to induce hormonal changes and what was the effect on your fatigue / energy level / other symptoms?

Do you take contracptive pills (if female)?

Does anyone else have an explanation for this?
 

Basilico

Florida
Messages
948
I don't exactly have an explanation, but I know that there is often a temporary improvement when women with autoimmune diseases (like MS) get pregnant, because during pregnancy there is a major suppression of the immune system. I don't know if the ovarian stimulating hormones can have this same effect, but perhaps this is what was happening?

Did you ever get your sex hormones checked? Perhaps you were really low in something and this treatment resulted in your levels getting normalized.

I took a contraceptive pill for 1 year, never had any change in how I felt.

My husband and I decided that we would not have biological children, both because we hate babies, and because since we both have chronic health conditions that are poorly understood, we felt it would be extremely selfish to have children who would be more likely to inherit health problems and suffer. From reading other threads, it's not uncommon for people with CFS to have children with autism or other conditions.

So, we've always been extremely careful about birth control....until at some point, we decided to try the family planning rhythm method out of curiosity (and because we hate condoms). Well the rhythm method is the biggest load of BS because the very first time that we had unprotected sex (not during a time when I should have been fertile) I got pregnant. We'd already decided what we'd do in that event, so I had an abortion which was the best decision I ever made. However, in the 2.5 months that I was pregnant before the abortion, my normal fatigue was definitely much worse and I overall felt pretty shitty.

Funny thing is, we learned that at the time I got pregnant I had severe anemia and my sex hormones were insanely off-the-charts low...I should not have even been able to have periods anymore, yet my body had no trouble conceiving. And we also found out that my husband's sperm count is off the charts high - it was 5x higher than what's necessary to conceive (and this was immediately after he tried an experiment to temporarily sterilize himself with hot water that was supposed to have good efficacy). So the two people who should have been the least able to conceive healthwise are actually insanely fertile...the human body is really stupid sometimes!

Regarding the hypothesis that CFS is a hormonal thing (sex-related hormones), I think that's unlikely. Mainly because there are millions of men and women that have hormonal imbalances but don't have CFS. And not all CFS people have hormonal problems.
 
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Belgiangirl

Senior Member
Messages
108
Thank you for your personal answer.

I understand your case and respect your decision. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but i'm very happy you still stand by what you decided then.
I heart different things, but from average woman of course they're experiencing all kind of health issues especially fatigue. I would like to have chrildren myself very much and have a very strong caring characteristic so I feel there's a lot of love and care I can give.

I must admit maybe some details: my BMI is at the low site: 15-16, whilst I eat normal. I have always been this slim.
This concluded my GP that I also wouldn't get my menarche nor menstruate. How wrong could he be as for me it as terrible and like a river of blood... Then he thought that would be just because I'm this slim. Again wrong: endometrioses was the answer... So just even because of my weight I'm not supposed to be fertile either, though I heart by incident my gynaecologist say that my arteries towards the uterus are kind of having a larger diameter than normal (no idea what that means concrete, never asked it anymore, i don't think he was really supposed to say that since it wa never noted anywhere).

The hormone I had to inject said it hadn't been tested for woman unter 50 kgs, which I (obviously) am. Above that I got a huge dose, because this is very expensive the doctor didn't want to let me go a second time around and of course he never knows what reaction to expect in a woman, with supposedly fertility problems.
Because I have been diagnosed with endometriosis (grade 3) in my early 20ies... when it had been there all along leading to cysts and all kind of trouble.

After all indeed I had lots and lots of ovaries, leading to shock the gynaecologists of the local hospital and make them conclude it had to stop and there had to come a soon pick-up (not to kill me, though she didn't mention that ;) ) and I had Polycistic ovarian syndrome and was on my way to hyperstimulation.

I know studied the leaflet and it said the drug contained L-methionine. That's something that does ring a bell since I'm studying about supplements and alternative "drugs" you can use?

I never had my sex-hormones study, apart from before and during I was on the IVF. I never got the results so I guess nothing shocking there. I live in Belgium and we can't go to our doctors and randomly ask to check this or that, though we have a magnificent and not expensive health system. (Unfortunately supplemnts we have to pay ourselves of course).

Hormonal imbalances are extremely hard to diagnose. And a certain imbalance can lead to one problem, but not to another. Most of the impact of hormones is unknown, except in some very obvious cases of disease (diabetes, addison, ...).
Of course what is cause, and what is effect? I believe our melatonin is off, cortisol, .. and a lot more probably? Still I think there may be a key role in this.
Actually what you're saying: technically you couldn't become pregnant. Neither should I technically even have got my menstruation. Still we did ... sounds for me in favor of the hypothesis that it might be sex-hormone related.

Though it is probably not the whole story. The other declaration that is (too) appealing to me is the cardiovascular problem.
 

Yuno

Senior Member
Messages
118
Same for me. I had a gradual onset, which was most certainly triggered by the fertility treatment and the resulting ovarian hyperstimulation, when I had my eggs frozen.