Gluten's Impact On Conception?

[amwayxsj]

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Good morning!

My husband and I are trying to conceive a child and from what I have read under the other posts, eating gluten may be the reason we have not conceived a child yet. I was diagnosed by endoscopy/bloodwoork in 2006 and as of March, 2008 was doing fine. Unfortunately, the doctor caring for me told me to slowly reintroduce gluten back into my diet, which coincided with dating and ultimately marrying my husband a year ago.

Since then, I have lost 30 pounds and have been experiencing mood swings and constant tiredness. So, two weeks ago I took myself in to have blood work done. All of my labs are within normal range but the Celiac Panel came back positive again. I stopped eating gluten and feel back to normal emotionally, have gained 10 pounds and have my energy level back.

The fertility doctor we are working with appears clueless about gluten's apparent role in interfering with conception and FSH levels. I get labs done Thursday to check my hormone levels and next Thursday to see if I am pregnant.

Is there a direct correlation between gluten and conception?

Susan

[lovegrov]

Short answer. Yes.

I can't say you don't have any other issues, but untreated celiac most definitely can hinder having children. If you just went back to gluten-free, give it some time.

If your fertility doctor doesn't know about this connection, then he/she is either not keeping up with the facts. And do not, do not listen to any physician telling you to start eating gluten again. I hope you've stopped going to the idiot who told you to reintroduce gluten.

I am not a physician and I most certainly cannot guarantee that going gluten-free will result in pregnancy; nobody can. There may be other factors involved. But there are many stories out there of people who have conceived after going gluten-free.

richard

[tarnalberry]

I'd like to add - as long as you are getting enough nutrition to ovulate (and that includes having enough body fat, as that plays a significant role in the hormone cycle), gluten intolerance doesn't really affect CONCEPTION.

BUT it most certainly CAN affect gestation. Nutritional deficiencies can greatly affect what happens as the embryo implants, including the body deciding that it cannot support a growing embryo, and releasing it. Of course, that process usually happens before a person knows they're pregnant (within the first one to three weeks, which is before most pregnancy are terribly useful, outside of blood work.)

Good luck! I'm glad you're back gluten-free. You might get your vitamin/mineral levels checked, to see if there are any deficiencies that you should be addressing. You're just recovering your body from a MAJOR impact (eating gluten for a while), so it may take time for that to heal.

[corasmomma]

Susan,

My husband and I had secondary infertility for the last 6 years. We had tried everything and were about to do the last step, IVF, when I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I went off gluten and 4 weeks later I had a positive pregnancy test (naturally)! I realized looking back that my first pregnancy also occurred after going on the Atkin's diet for 4 weeks (which is so limited in carbs I essentially also went off gluten then, unknowingly).

My husband is a physician and one of the residents he graduated with was hired at the Mayo Clinic in their OB Ward. They were chatting about our success when she announced that Mayo clinic is currently wanting to give a grant to any physician who wants to run study trials about gluten and fertility. They have seen so many cases at mayo clinic of a celiac disease/fertility connection that they are willing to back it with money. My husband turned down their offer for him to run the study because we were expecting and it was too much responsibility for now, but we are hoping they found another physician to run it.

All that to say, in my mind, there is definitely a connection. I hope you and your husband conceive soon and you find your own answers!

Angela

Post #1

New Community Member

Group: Members

Posts: 2

Joined: 29-June 09

Member No.: 30,146

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Good morning!

My husband and I are trying to conceive a child and from what I have read under the other posts, eating gluten may be the reason we have not conceived a child yet. I was diagnosed by endoscopy/bloodwoork in 2006 and as of March, 2008 was doing fine. Unfortunately, the doctor caring for me told me to slowly reintroduce gluten back into my diet, which coincided with dating and ultimately marrying my husband a year ago.

Since then, I have lost 30 pounds and have been experiencing mood swings and constant tiredness. So, two weeks ago I took myself in to have blood work done. All of my labs are within normal range but the Celiac Panel came back positive again. I stopped eating gluten and feel back to normal emotionally, have gained 10 pounds and have my energy level back.

The fertility doctor we are working with appears clueless about gluten's apparent role in interfering with conception and FSH levels. I get labs done Thursday to check my hormone levels and next Thursday to see if I am pregnant.

Is there a direct correlation between gluten and conception?

Susan

[Sunshine24]

Susan,

My husband and I had secondary infertility for the last 6 years. We had tried everything and were about to do the last step, IVF, when I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I went off gluten and 4 weeks later I had a positive pregnancy test (naturally)! I realized looking back that my first pregnancy also occurred after going on the Atkin's diet for 4 weeks (which is so limited in carbs I essentially also went off gluten then, unknowingly).

My husband is a physician and one of the residents he graduated with was hired at the Mayo Clinic in their OB Ward. They were chatting about our success when she announced that Mayo clinic is currently wanting to give a grant to any physician who wants to run study trials about gluten and fertility. They have seen so many cases at mayo clinic of a celiac disease/fertility connection that they are willing to back it with money. My husband turned down their offer for him to run the study because we were expecting and it was too much responsibility for now, but we are hoping they found another physician to run it.

All that to say, in my mind, there is definitely a connection. I hope you and your husband conceive soon and you find your own answers!

Angela

Hi Angela!

As someone (only 33) who has "unexplained" infertility and endured 10 IVFs (7 with my own eggs, the rest some combo of donor eggs and a surroagte) and 4 m/c, inlcuding a devastating one at 20 weeks, I am very interested in learning more of this Mayo clinic study. I was recenlty dx with celiac disease via blood panel, edoscopy, biopsy, gene panel, you name it, and we are now not in the "unexplained" camp any longer. I am VERY active in the infertility world, have gone to DC twice to lobby on behalf of infertility insurance and adoption tax credits, have a well read blog, am quoted often in articles, blah blah blah. My "new" crusdae is getting the word out on celiac disease and making *SURE* that fertility doctors check for this!! If they check for other autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, thyroid issues and Factor V Leiden, why not this? It would have saved me 4 years of heartache and the death of 4 babies....So....if your DH has ANY information about this new program or study, please- I would love to know about it (I can even be a part of it if they need someone!)

If you feel more comfortable, you can email me at waitinginsunshine at gmail dot com. I hope you come back to this post and read this!!

Sunshine