I'm about to start an IVF cycle with Dr. Sacks at Columbia Fertility and have a very high BMI (45+). While I've lost some weight and am using a low carb diet to do so - Dr. Sacks believes that the benefits of weight loss do not outweigh the passage of time it will take to do it. I recommend talking with him. We were told we'd be a no-go at both Shady Grove and CCRM.

Good luck to you. Yes, the author does make that point to forge ahead in the article.

The weight issue leads to so much shame for many women that they are not assertive and instead avoid medical care. It's very difficult.

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry reading that article was traumatic - I hope you found a way to reach your goal in the end.

Thank you for your kind words. I am plugging forward (why I still read this forum) and have moved on to DE, gearing up for a transfer later this summer. I posted my reply specifically bc I hope, if other overweight women read this thread, they can learn from my experience. One thing I have learned from this forum is to stand up for yourself in this process and be your own advocate.

I'm sorry reading that article was traumatic - I hope you found a way to reach your goal in the end.

Anonymous wrote:Reviving this thread to post this https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/magazine/fertility-weight-obesity-ivf.html

Shady Grove was always very good about this, and Dr. Widra in particular was very respectful and no-nonsense about it. I was his patient a while ago, but at the time, I thought he took a kind of feminist approach to these things and was very respectful to the female patients who were likely already beating themselves up over their fertility issues.

I posted above on 3/11/18. I had the opposite experience at Shady Grove. I read this article yesterday and was sick with grief again. I was turned away from IVF at age 39 when I had a strong AFC count but was just 20 pounds on a tall frame from their cutoff. I spent 9 months working with a nutritionist before a friend suggested i seek a 2nd opinion and was treated by Dr. Sachs at Columbia. The big problem for me is that during the interim months my AFC dropped considerably as crossed the milestone from 39 to 40. A better approach would have been to bank younger embryos and work on my weight after the retrievals.

Reviving this thread to post this https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/magazine/fertility-weight-obesity-ivf.html

Shady Grove was always very good about this, and Dr. Widra in particular was very respectful and no-nonsense about it. I was his patient a while ago, but at the time, I thought he took a kind of feminist approach to these things and was very respectful to the female patients who were likely already beating themselves up over their fertility issues.

It’s really for your health (and potential success)... you will need to go under anesthesia for the egg retrieval and will hopefully get pregnant - both which come with more risks when you’re overweight. Clinics are a lot more strict these days. Good luck to you!

You have 3 healthy, beautiful kids. Move on. Don't waste your time trying different doctors who are probably going to just lecture you about your weight.

Do FETs also have these weight considerations? Am a former SG patient. tx

Anonymous wrote:Um, I was extremely overweight and very old when I saw Eric Widra and he took me on and was very nice about it.

In the middle of all the cycles I told him I would commit to lose weight and he said that would be helpful. Then he never commented on it again after I lost a lot of weight quickly, which I thought was great. (I may have asked if starvation would harm my pregnancy and he said, well, are you taking vitamins?)

Go see him.

Same. He never said one thing to me about my weight and I was...very. PCOS. Now have 13 YO twins. He was great!

I saw Dr. Rafat Abbasi at Columbia Fertility with no problem. I was about 42 BMI and 36yo (with PCOS).

I started trying to have a baby when I was 39 and went to SGF on a former classmate's recommendation. First we tried 3 IUIs which failed but I was ineligible for IVF bc of my weight. I was 20lbs over their limit on a 5'10 frame. Dr. Kimberly Moon didnt give me an explanation but said broadly re IVF "It just wont work." I took her at her word, got a nutritionist and spent 9 months trying to lose the weight. At the recommendation of another friend I got a 2nd opinion at another clinic that had no problem with my weight. I responded well to meds. and had no trouble with IVF. However during that break between ages 39 and 40 my AFC dropped from 16 to 6; my AMH and FSH levels were steady in the normal range. I deeply regret the wasted time although I know it is my cross to bear. I post this story so that other overweight women pursing IVF will not waste time and be intimidated by doctors who are likely just cherry picking patients to make their SART stats look good.

This is an older post but wanted to let anyone else searching that the GW RE practice was willing to consider me for IVF when I had a BMI over 40. I ended up pregnant by the IUIs my insurance wanted me to do first. I had a textbook healthy pregnancy, delivery, and child. I actually lost 25 lbs from IUI day to two weeks post partum, only 15 lbs gained during the pregnancy.

I am at Shady Grove and doing freeze all cycles because I hope to have gastric sleeve surgery and then (hopefully) begin FETs a year or so after. My doctor and nurse never brought up my weight until I gained close to ten pounds and even then they only mentioned it because I was coming dangerously close to the 40 BMI cutoff for the egg retrieval anesthesia. (I don't have PCOS and respond well to medications despite my advanced age, so perhaps that's why they didn't care otherwise...)