I am 40 y.o. 5'4" and weigh 325. My husband & I have
been trying to conceive for the last 9 months and recently started treatment
with a RE.

I have been large all my life, and have no health or gyno issues. My
husband is 35 y.o 400lbs and has been tested with a low sperm count (1.7)
with no apparent cause.

The doc first tried to convince me to do lap band surgery but I told him I
had no interest.

He agreed to move ahead with a clomid challenge and an IUI. My FSH on day 10 FSH was 14.7 which according to him was in the gray area of too high.

We are hopeful but not really expecting success with the IUI given our
situation. We wanted to consider IVF but Doc will not agree to it because
of my weight! Claims he may have trouble finding my ovaries because of my
fat and this makes the situation too dangerous. We are devastated-- but I
suspect a bit of fat phobia/fat discrimination on the docs part.

We are trying IUI with Donor Sperm next month (along with 450IU of Gonal F for 10 days) -- we are not willing to give up yet-- we've
just begun this journey!

Would appreciate hearing from anyone in a similar situation.

eventchick, just wanted to say welcome to the boards.


There are varying opinions on the matter of weight and IVF outcomes. From what my RE told me being overweight doesn't have a noticeable effect on the outcome of IVF, ie there aren't more failures in overweight women than there are in women of normal weight. He did say it is better if your BMI is under 35 for IVF, but that is due to added stresses such as Blood Pressure. As long as your RE signs off on it, though, I would say you are good to go.

Personally for DH and I we are waiting until my BMI hits the 35 mark before we try IVF. Only 40 more pounds to go for me but that still seems so far away.

I weigh a little less than you, and I had trouble finding an RE who would work with me at all. Several had BMI limits for IUI as well as IVF. I found a great RE and did 5 months of Clomid and injectibles, but had trouble inducing ovulation and had only one (unsuccessful) IUI. All hormones tested by the RE were always at the right levels, I don't have high blood pressure or any other health concerns other than failure to ovulate. My RE would not do IVF not because of trouble finding the ovaries (I had about 15 ultrasounds in that time and there was never any trouble finding either one) but because he does everything in his office, and there are anesthesia concerns with larger patients. He was willing to refer me to a hospital IVF program, but I'm not interested in that right now. I'm working on losing weight, and planning to try again in October after our vacation.

I'm using donor sperm as well, but used Repronex instead of Gonal-F so I don't have any advice on that. Good luck to you!