Anaemia

nikpmup

Hi all,
I'm not looking for medical advice, I'm going to the doc tomorrow for just that, more want to see if anyone has had similar experiences....

I had my son just over 2 years ago. Emergency c-section, healed well. When my periods returned, they were super heavy, and still are. I got blood tests done last week and the doc phoned me yesterday to tell me my haemoglobin is fairly low.
I never went back on contraception after my son was born, and we've been having unprotected sex since. I've just turned 40, and I'm starting to worry that we haven't conceived yet. I guess my question is, could anaemia affect fertility? I will be asking the GP tomorrow, she said she's going to put me on an iron supplement as well as "something to reduce my menstrual flow" (her words, I'll find out exactly what)
At the moment, my priority is to get some energy back and hopefully make my periods more manageable, but I'll be looking to get pregnant this year. It makes sense to me that if I'm anaemic enough that I need supplements that it could affect fertility, but I'm no expert! Thoughts?

Roesy

nikpmup wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm not looking for medical advice, I'm going to the doc tomorrow for just that, more want to see if anyone has had similar experiences....

I had my son just over 2 years ago. Emergency c-section, healed well. When my periods returned, they were super heavy, and still are. I got blood tests done last week and the doc phoned me yesterday to tell me my haemoglobin is fairly low.
I never went back on contraception after my son was born, and we've been having unprotected sex since. I've just turned 40, and I'm starting to worry that we haven't conceived yet. I guess my question is, could anaemia affect fertility? I will be asking the GP tomorrow, she said she's going to put me on an iron supplement as well as "something to reduce my menstrual flow" (her words, I'll find out exactly what)
At the moment, my priority is to get some energy back and hopefully make my periods more manageable, but I'll be looking to get pregnant this year. It makes sense to me that if I'm anaemic enough that I need supplements that it could affect fertility, but I'm no expert! Thoughts?

Hey nikpmup, hope the wee man is doing well. After both babies my already heavy periods got even heavier. Also had a lot of heavy bleeding after the labours. My iron was good during the pregnancies but the heavy bleeding after my first led to anaemia but not too badly so. My whole system was out of kilter because of it but iron supplements definitely helped. The GP suggested cyclokapron(I think!) to help with the bleeding and said it wasn't contraindicated in ttc. I decided to wait another month or two before starting the medication and actually ended up pregnant in the meantime. She's now nearly 7 months and my periods are still awful, so much so that I had investigations a couple of months back. It's just been put down to my pcos and thyroid problems. They said they'd suggest something hormonal but that they wouldn't advise it unless I was certain we didn't want another baby in the not so distant future. Am now considering going back to talk to the GP again about the cyclokapron again.

nikpmup

Roesy wrote: »

Hey nikpmup, hope the wee man is doing well. After both babies my already heavy periods got even heavier. Also had a lot of heavy bleeding after the labours. My iron was good during the pregnancies but the heavy bleeding after my first led to anaemia but not too badly so. My whole system was out of kilter because of it but iron supplements definitely helped. The GP suggested cyclokapron(I think!) to help with the bleeding and said it wasn't contraindicated in ttc. I decided to wait another month or two before starting the medication and actually ended up pregnant in the meantime. She's now nearly 7 months and my periods are still awful, so much so that I had investigations a couple of months back. It's just been put down to my pcos and thyroid problems. They said they'd suggest something hormonal but that they wouldn't advise it unless I was certain we didn't want another baby in the not so distant future. Am now considering going back to talk to the GP again about the cyclokapron again.

Have only realised that I had notifications turned off on this! Doh!

Well, I'm definitely anaemic; I've been put on iron and I've been given a prescription for the exact med you mentioned, Roesey. I've to go for an ultrasound as well to rule out any untoward cause for the heavy periods. I've also been put on vit b and c supplements. I'm hoping they start to make a difference soon, I'm so drained and worn out constantly. I'm feeling pretty queasy from the iron, hopefully that'll pass. I'll reassess in a few months once I (hopefully) see a difference.

The little man is great, Roesey, hope your two are keeping you busy

Roesy

We're all sick at the moment. Little miss has started in crèche two mornings a week so I'd say we'll be getting everything that's going for a while. Other than that we are good. Hope the iron and vitamins kick in soon and that the ultrasound goes well. I found the supplement definitely helped me.