Being overweight presents many challenges, fertility being one of them.

When you’re chronically overweight your hormones tend not to be so active. Maybe you want to start a family or grow your family, but because of those hormones not kicking in like they are supposed to, getting pregnant seems like a distant dream.

Well I’m not a fertility doctor nor a hormone doctor, but rather a sleeve doctor. “A what”, you say? I’m a sleeve doctor…a weight loss surgeon specializing in the gastric sleeve surgery which helps obese patients gain a new lease on life. Over the years we have received hundreds of referrals from OB/GYN’s across the United States because of infertility, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), or a combination, and those patients get pregnant right away.

After sleeve surgery or in medical terms a “vertical sleeve gastrectomy” (which is where a surgeon removes roughly 80% of your stomach) your body starts to reset those hormones.

Fertility in women skyrockets when they start to lose weight.

Let’s pretend for a moment you’re in the shower. When you’re overweight the water from the shower doesn’t cover your whole body at once, just portions. Well hormones are like that shower…if you’re too big to get covered properly then your body is missing out. A thinner body gets the best hormone coverage.

As patients lose weight they start to feel better about themselves, they have more energy, they are more confident and they may notice their mojo returns. That’s the power of those hormones.   

“I’ve never gotten pregnant. Come on, doctor, I’ve tried for years. It’s not going to work,” and then they’re knocking on my door, three, four months out from surgery. “I’m pregnant. Now what?”

My advice…wait!

Getting pregnant after the sleeve is very common. Although I would encourage you to resist the urge to do so.

Here’s why…your body is going through a huge transformation, getting smaller and smaller and you’re losing weight at an incredible rate. But if you become pregnant during this process, your body is naturally going to want to put weight on trying to create this new being inside you. Your hormones are going to get out of whack and your body is going to feel like a yo-yo. It’s just not optimal. My advice…wait at least 12 months from your sleeve surgery to get pregnant.

After those 12 months…you’re good to go!

If you go to my YouTube channel and look for the playlist labeled “Pregnancy After Sleeve Surgery” you should be able to bring up at least a few of my videos. One of those videos answers frequently asked questions and the other one is an interview with Kathryn from Las Vegas.

Last year I had a patient who had already stabilized (that meant her body adjusted after weight loss surgery) and she got pregnant. She had triplets. Now the babies are growing fast. Amazing right!

If you’d like to learn more about gastric sleeve surgery, getting pregnant after losing weight or all the other benefits associated with vertical sleeve gastrectomy I invite you to visit our website at www.Endobariatric.com today. I would also encourage you to follow us on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. And if you Snapchat you can connect directly with me (Dr Alvarez) with the username: gmoalvarez