Sunday, March 14, 2010

Sleep Apnea and infertility

I wouldn’t think that Sleep Apnea would have any effect on fertility, but then again before I started to research sleep apnea I though that the only consequence of it was being tired. As I have written over the past year there are many consequences of having sleep apnea besides being tired, some of them are even fatal. So the question today is does sleep apnea cause infertility.


The reason that I am interested in whether there is connection between sleep apnea and infertility is that my wife and I tried to have children for years and we couldn’t. I can’t say that it was the sleep apnea because there were other factors involved that are common among other couples trying to conceive. But it is strange that sleep apnea could be a factor.

It seems that Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a common health disorder with 5 -10% of women. This disorder has side effects like infertility, irregular periods and unfortunately sleep apnea. For more information, go to the following site.

Something else that I found out was that there is a problem with pregnant women developing or exacerbating their current sleep apnea. This puts them at an unhealthy risk of high blood pressure. Like anyone else with this disorder the most common treatment is the cpap.

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7 comments:

  1. My DH and I tried for 3.5 years to conceive, including three rounds of artificial insemination and three IVFs. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and began using a CPAP. Six weeks later, I was pregnant. Our DS is nearly 1!
    I don't know if there is a link between my infertility and my sleep apnea, but I believe there is. It stands to reason that if I wasn't getting anywhere near a good night's sleep my body, especially my hormones, would be adversely affected.

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  2. That is really great! It seems that the cpap helped you in more ways than one. It really seems true that without sleep a lot of the body's functions suffer.
    thanks for the comment
    David

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  3. My parents were trying to conceive for 2yrs w/ no luck then my dad was diagnosed w/ sleep apnea.After he got his sleep machine for it my mom got pregnant right away. And produced my brother.

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  4. That is great news! thanks for the comment
    David

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  5. Hi there! I tried for 9 years to have another child. I spent 25,000 too. After being diagnosed in May of this year, given a CPAP, etc....I became pregnant at 39 years of age, 6 weeks later. My husband is postitive that the CPAP is the reason why. In fact, my Dr. at The Ohio State University is thinking about doing a study based on this.

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  6. Congratulations! I am so glad to hear of folks that solved their sleep apnea problems were able to conceive. there should be a study on this because I have heard from others who have also had the same results.
    thanks for commenting and good luck
    David

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