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taking prog. for infertility and gaining weight

by Alia
(Las Vegas)

Hello. I'm 24 years old and have been struggling with infertility for 4 years. My husband and i stopped using condoms when we got married (I was 20 at the time). It wasn't until a year later that I realized that even though I wasn't on birth control and we never used condoms I never even had as much as a pregnancy scare. That's when I really started paying attention to what was going on with my body.

My history:
I've always had low iron (I didn't take the supplements when I should have because they cause constipation), heavy/long/painful periods (lasting 5-7 days) & recurring cysts (usually just 1 at a time). I tried birth control pills when I was 18 but they made me gain 10lbs so I stopped after 3 months. I've never had any other health problems.

Things I've tried:
I've been to at least 6 ob-gyns over the last few years and have had a lot of blood work done. They all tell me the same thing: my tests all come back normal and the only issues may be my anemia & a cyst. One doctor suggested that I get on birth control pills for 6 months to regulate my cycle. I did that and gained 19 lbs during those 6 months. That was june-December 2012. No baby yet and I can't drop the weight. I went from 158 to 177 and was devastated. I worked out & changed my eating habits. I only managed to keep 6lbs off.

I recently moved to a new city so I found a new ob gyn and we did the regular blood tests. Of course my iron was severely low so she put me on iron supplements twice a day. She also put me on 100 mg progesterone pills for 10 days of my cycle (starting at day 14). This was supposed to help lighten my periods so that it would be easier to build my iron levels back up fast. I started this in September. At the time I weighed 171. During my last visit on December 4 I weighed 184. That's 13 lbs in 3 months with no changes in my diet or lifestyle. My periods are just as heavy as they were without the progesterone. The only difference is that I have spotting a few days before my period so to me things have gotten worse. On top of the weight gain I'm also extremely bloated. I don't look like myself and I really feel like the progesterone pills are hurting more than they're helping. I know a lot of ppl say this weight gain is only temporary but seriously.......I can't do this. Am I really supposed to just wait a few more months and gain even more weight? Its especially disheartening bc I know the weight gain is just going to open the door for even more problems and make having a baby even harder. Not to mention how depressed i feel having gained almost 30 lbs in a year. What should I do? Am I just sensitive to hormones? Should I see an endocrinologist?

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