Adoption and the Weight Connection

My granddaughter came with me recently to a meeting of a local group of women at various stages in the adoption process. The group is a support system for couples who had gone or were going through fertility treatments without success, who are now moving forward with plans to adopt, but all the members are women (and that's a topic for another blog). After the meeting, my granddaughter turned to me and asked, "Why are so many of them fat?" Of course, to an 8 year-old, "fat" is relative, but I have to admit that more than a few were on the high side of overweight. I know many of the women in the group well enough to ask some pretty personal questions, so I thought I'd see if those carrying the extra pounds had anything in common. This was not a scientific study, so these results are in no way relevant to any group other than this one, but here's what I found: 80 percent of the overweight women reported that they had not carried around the extra weight before starting fertility treatments. So I went out on the Web and this is what I found: Did you know... - that one of the symptoms of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome - the most common ovarian disorder, affecting 15-20 percent of all women of reproductive age) is weight gain and obesity? - that treatment to lower sperm antibodies that may be causing infertility in men can cause weight gain? - that at least one of the medications used to treat endometriosis causes significant weight gain? - that women who take fertility drugs may experience significant weight gain because their bodies are reacting *too* well to treatment? - that women preparing for an IVF cycle can gain 10 pounds in 3-5 days as a result of the drugs they have to take? And that many women go through more than one cycle in their attempt to conceive? And the weight gain doesn't necessarily just go away when treatment or medications stop. Now, consider that you've gone through fertility treatments or are experiencing fertility-related problems that have packed on the pounds... and then you enter the quest to adopt with its attendant excitement, anxieties, and stress. Evidence is that stress increases your body's level of cortisol which - you guessed it - is associated with increased abdominal fat. Certainly, many who experience fertility-related weight gain do manage to get rid of the weight reasonably quickly, but for many, it just isn't that easy. Back to my granddaughter who wanted an answer to her question. I did my best to explain in 8-year old language, and her reaction was a shrug and a comment that closed the discussion for her: "So even people who don't get fat from being pregnant have to get fat to have a baby."