Susan Pettitt: I always wanted to have kids that was never off,
off the plan, but I just thought it would happen. So for me, my
career came first and there was never a thought in my mid 20s
that it wasn't gonna happen. It was just, it will happen when
I'm finished netball.
Dr Natasha Andreadis: I think what perturbs me is that these
women are not really freaked out by the thought of not having
regular cycles, they don't really care that they're not
getting regular periods. They actually like not getting
regular periods, of course, until the time comes when they
actually need to have regular cycles to fall pregnant.
Kylie Johnson: Every time you left the doctor's surgery you
feel kind of deflated and almost what's wrong with me and why
isn't this happening? And I'm doing everything that they're
telling me to do. Everyone said like, you know, it just takes
time, it could take a year. But when you get to two and a half
years, you're like, well, why not me?
When we decided to have Henry we were at a point in our lives
where we we were thought we were ready, we were healthy, we were
fit, and we were trying and basically nothing was happening
and nothing happened for, I'd probably say two and a half
years. And we weren't quite sure what was going on because I was
doing my running, my partner's quite athletic and fit himself
so we were both in fantastic spot. But yeah, nothing was
quite right.
Having to ease up that exercise just to give my body that little
bit of de-stress, because I don't think people realise when
you run ultramarathons, it's not a normal load of running. You're
putting your body through so much strain and stress. So you
could be healthy, you may have the lowest body fat percentage
possible. But the fact is, is that you are constantly pushing
your body to achieve more and more and more and more. And it's
that kind of self talk where it's like, okay, A, now you
found out there's something wrong with you but B, you also
need to take a step back and start to realise that if you
want to actually achieve this goal of being a mother, you need
to then allow your body to do that.
Susan Pettitt: I retired in 2018 and I thought straightaway I'd
be, you know, family was my next step. We tried to have kids
straightaway, was even trying when I was playing but obviously
not too strict with all the procedures and things like that,
but it didn't happen for me straightaway. So for me it was
getting impatient, my body usually does what I want it to
do in terms of training, things like that, but it just wasn't
happening.
We train so hard that our menstrual cycle is a lot
smaller, a lot irregular. We don't have it monthly, we might
have three or four months without it, or we might even
skip them. We just do that because it's convenient at the
time because it's all about your competition schedule and your
training schedule and what you're gonna get best out of
your body. So you're not actually thinking, what that's
going to do long term to your body.
Dr Natasha Andreadis: When a woman's not having a regular
menstrual cycle, it can mean that she's actually not
ovulating at all. And if you're not ovulating, you're not going
to be able to fall pregnant or if you're not ovulating
regularly, you won't know when to time intercourse to fall
pregnant. And often, these menstrual irregularities are
because women are over exercising, but to match the
exercise, they're not eating enough. So it's usually because
they're not actually getting enough fuel. And as a
consequence, are not sufficient in their fat mass, which is
really important. So menstrual irregularities can play a huge
role in these women conceiving.
Kylie Johnson: I think I was malnourished. I was eating a
lot, but not enough for someone that was running so far. So if I
was to look at what I was eating in a day, a regular person who
was not doing any running and was having a healthy diet was
probably eating the same amount that I was eating. My nails were
brittle, my hair was breaking. All the signs were there, I
just, I didn't want to see it because I loved what I did so
much. And I think that's the problem where my body was kind
of screaming at me and telling me what you're doing isn't
healthy, but I loved what I did so much that I just didn't want
to hear.
Susan Pettitt: We do have medical examinations every year
and we go through every muscle and every joint and everything
about our bodies, but we just don't talk about fertility.
There's more talk of it now, but it's still not really openly
spoken about. Yes, you don't want kids right now and we're
not going to try and change your training schedule or anything
like that, but maybe you should go talk to someone just to see
what there is available for you. And I speak to a lot of the
younger girls now and say just go get your eggs frozen, like
it's not a hard process, you're not going to miss training
sessions or games. It's just a process that you should think
about. So we plan everything else in our lives, but we just
don't plan that part of it.
Dr Natasha Andreadis: I feel that it's important that we
stress to these women, there's absolutely no guarantee that if
you freeze 30 or 40, mature eggs in your 20s, that you will
absolutely get pregnant from that batch of eggs. So I think
it's important that women are aware of the fact that you won't
know if you will be able to fall pregnant until you absolutely
start trying.
Susan Pettitt: We think let's just keep going, keep going and
then we'll do that at the end. Whereas New Zealanders and that
often have babies, come back and are very successful. I think
it's because as Australian athletes, if we give that year
up or that two years up, we lose our sport to a younger player,
and it's very hard to come back, which it is. But it also, it's
competitive and we don't want to give up that opportunity to
someone else who might take it and run with it and then we're
never coming back. So it's a mindset of I'm in there at the
moment, I don't want to give that up, I'll worry about that
later.
Kylie Johnson: I love running but Henry is my greatest love of
all. We do everything together and I'm so grateful because he's
so much like me. He's a little outdoorsy, active little gem, he
loves people and we go on so many adventures together. I
wouldn't change Henry for the world. He is my absolute
everything.
Susan Pettitt: I've always been in control of everything in my
life so all of a sudden my life is just gonna be turned upside
down, which is exciting. But yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones.
And that's probably one thing that I wake up and realise, if
I'm not feeling well I'm like hang on, so many people going
through this that can't. So for me, it's just that gratefulness
that it actually worked for me.