Hi there, I would love to help if you can provide more info (are you and your husband currently trying; are you worried about impact of meds on baby, etc). I am a very anxious person and also have OCD and yes, it's a struggle being pregnant (I'm 36, this is my 2nd, had my 1st last year) and post-partum, but it IS possible for people with our mental health issues to have families!! Feel free to share more. I look forward to talking to you :-)

Hey! Yes we are currently trying ... ( i may have fertility issues, but thats a whole different story) im worried about the possible repercussions for the baby with the meds..... ive also heard hormones play a big role in depression and anxiety.... ive never had my hormones checked..... i just cant imagine feeling any worse ( mostly with my anxiety) then i do not being pregnant!!!!! Just hoping that for some people it helped with their anxiety...??

So I can only tell you my experience. The one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that you must have the MOST SUPPORTIVE partner in the world who is willing to stand by you. Pregnancy did increase my anxiety, and then actually having the baby increased it way more. But it was still totally worth it, and I was lucky to have a husband who understood both the hormone changes of pregnancy and postpartum AND the level of my anxiety and who was patient with it. A less supportive partner would not have been there for me through all of that. As to the meds, I did not use them, but I have researched them exhaustively and can truly tell you it's just a risk versus benefit situation -- there are risks to the meds, yes, but many would say there's more risk to being super mentally unstable with a baby on the way and honestly only you and your dr can make that decision!

In terms of hormone testing, I did do that once with a naturopath, maybe two years before I got married and started trying, and while my hormones were all over the place in the testing, I was still able to get pregnant, so while that was helpful, don't worry TOO much about that if it's not something you can afford / have time for right now. I was also temping, using ovulation predictor strips, and charting, (and eating all the "fertility foods" lol) which was super helpful. I even had quite a few "cycle" issues including a recent surgery to remove a polyp from my uterus (and I"m not exactly young either, lol) and it was still fairly easy to get pregnant using FAM / NFP so please try not to stress about that too much right now.

Knowing your anxiety, see if an OB or doctor can try referring you to a specialist in maternal fetal medicine or a counselor who specializes in anxiety and mamas / pregnancy. Once you are pregnant and feeling more anxious, and especially once you have a baby, you will find you are too tired to pursue some of the support you need, so have all the info you need (like about bf-ing on meds, etc, which is not as bad as you would think -- some meds are very safe during bf-ing and not all docs are well informed about that!) BEFORE you get to that point.

Feel free to write with anything else; I don't know if any of this helped but while my anxiety did increase during pregnancy and postpartum, it was also worth it for sure!!

I forgot to add; make sure you have your thyroid checked, your iron level checked, and if you do see a naturopath, get your cortisol checked -- those things can all influence anxiety and depression for sure. Those would be more likely to cause your symptoms than a hormone imbalance -- a hormone imbalance will cause more obvious symptoms first, like extreme weight gain or loss, major cycle irregularities (like PCOS for example), abnormal hair growth, etc. If you struggle long-term with infertility, that would also indicate hormone imbalance and if you're over 30, most conventional doctors will check your hormones if you have been trying for a year without getting pregnant -- if you're over 35, they will check hormones if you've been trying for 6 months. Anyway, good luck, those things just popped into my head :-)

Thank you so much for all your input Kaylee~! you have been a great help to me :) I think I do need to see a different Dr. My current family Dr. does not prescribe me anything for my anxiety and it sucks~! I'm still using the Klonopin I for from another Dr. 4 years ago~! Ive been to 2 or 3 sessions and don't really understand how it is supposed to help-- great idea looking for a counselor who specializes in pregnancy and anxiety~ (that will work well when the time comes)

I'm 23 and just started having anxiety. It seems to be related to my periods and hormones. I'm also scared of ever being pregnant. Being a woman SUCKS!