Ever since I was a teenager, I had chronic fatigue. If I wasn’t able to take an afternoon nap, I’d be exhausted for the rest of the day.
It didn’t make sense:
- I would get 8 hours of sleep or more, yet still wake up feeling tired.
- My iron levels and thyroid were fine.
- I didn’t have mono, Celiac, or any other disease that would explain my chronic fatigue
When I got pregnant, this made me worried. Everyone talks about how little sleep you get when you have a newborn. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to cope, since I could already barely function on a full night’s sleep and an afternoon nap!
Then something miraculous happened. During my 2nd trimester, I suddenly had more energy than ever! I felt like I was on top of the world!
Then the baby came and I thought my energy would come crashing down. Yet, even with the demands of a baby who didn’t sleep well, I still had a ton of energy!
I’m not sure why, but pregnancy was my magic cure for chronic fatigue.
Some people would take this story and try to capitalize on it.
“Find out the secret husbands don’t want you to know about! Cure your chronic fatigue! It worked for me so surely it will work for you!”
Do you see how silly that is? You can’t extrapolate one person’s experience as something that will work for everyone.
My story is true, but it doesn’t mean that you should go out and get pregnant to solve your mysterious fatigue. It can be very misleading and dangerous to try to use an anecdotal success story in this way. What if somebody had a life threatening illness that was causing them fatigue, and instead of getting checked out, they became pregnant and waited several months to figure out whether it had fixed the problem? Some diseases can be lethal in that time.
Remember this the next time somebody makes a health recommendation based solely on their experience. It takes a lot more than that to constitute proper medical advice.
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Maybe you didn’t really have CFS
Chronic fatigue is a symptom whereas chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a medical diagnosis 🙂
It is so interesting how pregnancy can do that! For me, my pregnancy cured my chronic sinusitis and vestibulitis… so crazy!
Just another reason why pregnancy is such a miraculous event!
Haha good point! I struggle with chronic fatigue myself and am baffled why I am so exhausted most days?! I most definitely will NOT be getting pregnant any time soon though 😉