(This is a guest post by Dr. Rachael Keilin, a Texarkana, TX Lap Band doctor .)
Today was a particularly fun day in my office. A patient who is 3 years out from having her band came in with her two week old son to get an adjustment. The baby had tons of hair and precious feet, which made for a nice break in clinic. We laughed at her husband’s eagerness to have baby number two while her better memory of recent events suggested to her that an only child would be just fine.
But it was the other four phone calls I received that prompted me to write this note: four phone calls from women who had lost over 50 pounds who said that they were feeling a bit too much restriction and could they come in for an “unfill”. Four follow-up calls to say, “uh, scratch that……be seeing you in a few months during third trimester.”
I vaguely remember some mention in medical school about the link between infertility and being overweight. But never has it hit home like it has with my Lap Band patients. Countless women who never had regular menstrual cycles, who give me the stink eye when they come in for follow-up because now they are as regular as clockwork (with the bloating and salt cravings nobody had missed). Stories like one of my four patients today who had adopted three children having been told after multiple rounds of fertility treatments that she would never conceive. She’s happy…. but never imagined herself in either a size eight or with a fourth child on its way. I’ve got several older moms with teenagers at home, who forgot my warnings that the first sign of renewed fertility could be a positive pregnancy test. One has twins on the way, but is grateful for her built-in babysitters.
There are many causes of infertility, some of which cannot be reversed by weight loss. But since obesity is such a strong contributor to the hormonal imbalances that make infertility more likely, then I have to warn all women interested in weight loss: beware!! You might just have an “oops!” moment in your future.