Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
16 Replies
Jase and Erica - September 1

I have been diagnosed with PCOS and have been researching it for awhile now. I do have a question that I can not seem to find the answer to. I want children more than anything and I am aware that PCOS hurts my chances of becoming pregnant. My question is whether or not time is of the essence? Is it the longer I wait the harder it becomes? Or due to the fertility treatment I will need, time doesn't matter?

If anyone can help me with the question I would be so greatful. Or if anyone can direct me to the answer it would ease my mind. Thank you in advance.

Erica

 

chorona - September 1

Hi Jase and Erica,

I too have PCOS and was diagnosed with it when I was 15, I'm now 32 and have been ttc for 6 months. I think the answer to your question depends on your age. PCOS definitely makes it harder to get pregnant as timing is everything when it comes to ovulation and intercourse. How old are you? If you are under 35 and ttc then the only thing to worry about is the fertility treatments itself. If you are over 35 (and this applies to people needing treatment, or those that conceive on their own) then it gets harder and harder to get pregnant as you get older.

Are you ttc right now? Are you considering fertility treatment?

Hope this hepls!

 

Jase and Erica - September 3

Hi Chorona,

I have had problems since I was 15 years old but I never had a name for it until a year ago. My soon to be husband and I have been talking for a while now about trying to start a family but didn't really know what the first step was. I am 25 years old and am considering fertility treatment since I have not been on birth control for 5 years.

This may sound bad but I am not exactly sure what ttc is. I would assume that it is trying to conceive but I don't want to assume. If that is what ttc stands for then yes we are trying to conceive.

We are hoping to be more financially stable but I do not want to wait if my chance to become pregnant will suffer. I mean, people have a baby without being financially ready all of the time and we want children more than anything. I do have an appointment with a fertility doctor but was hoping for anwers before then.

Thank you again for your reply and it is very calming to know that other women are going through the same thing I am.

Erica

 

chorona - September 3

Hi Erica,
TTC means trying to conceive. I had to adjust to the language on here as well because everyone speaks in abbreviations. lol
If you know that you want to have a baby then tell your doctor to refer you to a clinic. The sooner you start the sooner you will have a baby!
My doctor didn't make me wait the usual year after ttc to refer me. She refered me right away because she knew it would be difficult with PCOS.
I actually tested today after having done my 3rd set of IUIs and it came back negative! :(
So now I go back on meds, we're doing injections this month and they should give me 2-4 follicles which will hopefully up my chances of at least one working.

let me know when you do start treatment. I find this forum such a great palce to vent and learn about different treatments.

Best of luck and baby dust!!! :)

 

Jase and Erica - September 4

Chorona,

I am very sorry to hear about your latest IUI. I am sending a lot of baby dust your way...

I do have an appointment with my regular doctor and she is planning on sending me to a fertility doctor right away. I'm still nervous and don't exactly know what to expect but I will find out when I get there I guess.

Did you start with injections or were you taking a form of Clomid first? It seems Clomid is the first step to take and after that are injections. I can read the side effects but what did you think? How did you feel?

Thanks again,

Erica

 

chorona - September 7

Hi Erica,

I started fertility treatments this past March. The initial appointment is a bit overwhelming. The doctor will go over all the different types of treatments and they will make you and your husband provide a whole bunch of blood tests to test for everything under the sun! They took 20 tubes of blood from me that first day and about 10 from my husband. Plus, they will also ask your husband for a sample to make sure that he has good swimmers.
Every doctor is different so yours might go a different route but for the most part this is what you should expect. I live in Toronto, Canada and this is how they do it here. Not sure where you're located but I would imagine that it's the same.

For my first round, I took 100mg of Clomid from cd3-cd9. It didn't start working right away for me. Clomid tends to make your cycles longer and usually women who have PCOS don't respond well to it. I ended up ovulating on cd21 and had back to back IUIs with 2 good follicles from my left ovary. I got pregnant but lost it right away. They call it a chemical pregnancy because the sac didn't really implant properly. By the time I tested 2 wks after the IUI, they already knew that I wasn't going to keep it.
My dr originally wanted me to take Letrozole (aka Femara) but my husband was nervous about it because it's technically a breast cancer medication and Health Canada does not recommend it for fertility treatments only for cancer treatments.
By the time I went on to my second and third rounds I did 5mg of Letrozole and both times had 2 great follicles, 1 from each ovary. Both sets of IUIs failed and now I move on to injections. They should give me about 2-4 lead follicles, so hopefully that will increase my chances. I'm now just waiting for my period to show and then I can start treatment again.

As for Clomid side effects, you can read up on them but it doesn't mean you'll get any of them. As far as I can remember I didn't really feel any different. Maybe a bit moodier because of the extra hormones but nothing crazy. The first time I took Letrozole I had to leave work because I threw up and felt like I was going to faint. But that was only on the first day.
I take all of my meds at night so that by the time I wake up I really don't feel any of the side effects.

I hope this helps you. I know it's easier said than done, but try to not stress over this. Stress has a huge impact on this whole process, so try to relax and not think about the process. I'm telling you this but I'm queen of stressing! :-) This last round my husband and I tried to not talk about it at all until the day I tested and I was sure that I was pregnant. It was a huge let down when they called to tell me that I wasn't.

Anyway, have a great day and please keep me posted.

Baby dust to you!!!

 

Jase and Erica - September 7

Chorona,

Thank you so much for your last post! The doctors office can you give statistics but it's nice to hear it from another person. Having an idea of what to expect at the first appointment is settling. I try not to stress but it is very hard!

It sounds like you have been through so much with all of the fertility treatments, I really wish you the best. You will have to keep me updated on the injections. I got some great tips from you such as taking the clomid at night.

I will keep you posted and I look forward to reading your updateds!

Thanks again and baby dust!
Erica

 

chorona - September 15

Hi Erica, hope you're well.
I wanted to update you on what's going on with my cycle.
I started 75iu of Puregon last Friday and last night was my last injection. Today is CD and I already have one 22mm follie and a 12.5mm follie!!! Crazy. This normally doesn't happen until day 12 or 13. Anyway, Dr. decided to not do the IUI this month because he was expecting 2-4 follies and I really only have one good one. Instead we are timing intercourse to when I ovulate to optimize our chanes. I doubt that I will get pregnant on this cycle but in a way I feel good about taking a break from the IUIs. I've been taking meds to plower my prolactin levels and I have a feeling that that is what's helping my body work on it's own. Dr. seems to think that I responded well to Puregon but because of the big follie, the smaller ones aren't growing. Had we waited until day 12 then he thinks that I would have more follies and maybe even too many. I have a different opinion, but I'm no dr. I think that the small dosage of Puregon didn't work and that it is in fact my own body working (finally!!!) on it's own. Already on day 3 I had 2 follies at 10mm and I hadn't even started meds yet.
I have to go back tomorrow to monitor again to see when I will ovulate and they will instruct us on when to have intercourse. In a way I'm happy there's no IUI. I'm so tired and I need a break from all of this pressure. Just going to let nature do her own thing these next 2 months. DH is going to Dublin in October so we'll have to skip that cycle because I will probably be ovulating while he's away.

What's going onwith you? Have you seen a specialist yet?

 

Jase and Erica - September 16

That's great that you body is working on its own! That has to be a relef... It sounds like all this treatment gets pretty crazy and stressful. It's good that your taking a break, I'm sure your body needs it every now and then. Good luck with your cycle.

I haven't seen a specialist yet but I do have an appointment with my regular doctor on the 28th of this month and she is going to refer me to a specialist. We are waiting on hormone and other tests to come back before I see someone. I'm getting kind of restless waiting though... It will be nice when I can finially get started and not have to just wait around anymore.

Good luck, keep me updated.

 

chorona - September 17

Hi there!
There is a lot of waiting around when it comes to treatments. If there's anything that I can impart on you now is to be PATIENT!! I know it's hard but even when you do go to the clinic and start treatment, you're always playing the waiting game. Like I told you before, we've been with the clinic for 6.5 months and we've only done 4 cycles (still working on the 4th). If you have to wait for your period, for the follies to grow, for ovulation to occur, and then the dreaded 2ww until you can test. It's all very hard to take when it's all you're thinking about.
I had it really rough in the beginning because I hoped that going to the clinic would speed things up....it doesn't because your body is going to do what it's going to do. At this point, it doesn't bother me as much. It's all part of the process. You have to keep positive and it will happen eventually. You're still so young so you already have a head start.

It looks like I'm in the middle of my LH surge, which is great. I'm ovulating on my own!!! As far as I know that has never happened before. I went to the clinic today (CD10) and I still have a 25mm follie and a 15mm follie. Depending on my b/w results today I may have already ovulated the 25mm and it's just the sac that is left over. The nurse gave me the ovidrel shot anyway to make sure that ovulation takes place. We were instructed to have intercourse last night and tonight. We're going to take it a step further and do it tomorrow and Sunday as well. It doesn't hurt to try and it's fun!! The nurse also told me to take my progesterone supplements and I have to go back to test on Oct. 1. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Dr. has scheduled and IVF appointment for us on Octboer 28th. It's just to discuss that as an option and what to expect from it. We have decided that we don't want to go to IVF yet. I would rather do a few more IUIs and then in the new year we can start thinking about it. We have to skip October if this one doesn't work but the next cycle we do we will be doing Puregon injections again but most likely at a higher dosage.
Well, enought of my rambling. Hopefully I ovulated and then I don't have to go back to the clinic tomorrow morning. If not, there goes my dream of sleeping in.

All the best to you!

 

jirrammissa - November 7

Hey dear. Fortunately for you, PCOS is curable. In some cases, though it might be hard. Especially if you have had it for a very long time. If this is the case for you, then there is still no need to get hopeless. There are alternate options. Surrogacy or adoption can be viable solutions.

 

onefiqab - November 8

Hey, lilac! Well, your post turned out to be really long but I read all of it because I want to help people here as I can understand their feelings and emotions. I know how does it feel not to become a mother. It is what every woman wants to have in her life. Children are the most important part of a family and a family is incomplete without them. I am with you on your decision for surrogacy. It seems to be an unnatural process but your family should look out at the outcomes. They will have a new member of the family and you will become a mother. Everything will be fine again and everyone will be happy. But I think they are not looking straight towards surrogacy. They have a few doubts and you need to clear them up. You should tell them that the baby will be yours at will carry your genes. They might be thinking that the surrogate mother is the one whose baby it will be. So you need to clear their doubt that the surrogate mother is just to carry your baby. The embryo inserted in her will be made from your eggs and your husband’s sperm. I hope they will understand if you tell them in detail. And you also need to take your husband with confidence. Because if your husband agrees to surrogacy, your whole family will not be able to stop you to have your own child.

 

onefiqab - November 8

Yes, dear, time is the most important thing. As you have been diagnosed with PCOS so it makes the chances very less to get pregnant. You should not wait more and try to conceive. Age matters a lot in this condition. How old are you? Please find a solution for yourself ASAP if you want to be a mother. If you cannot conceive, there is nothing to cry for or be worried because you have the option of surrogacy to have your own baby. I also went for surrogacy and my surrogate mother is 28 weeks pregnant now. I cannot wait to see my baby. You should also try it.

 

natalika2017 - November 29

Hello! Many women manage to successfully give birth to a healthy child with polycystic disease. In some cases, pregnancy occurs on its own. Sometimes, in order to become pregnant. ? woman needs to undergo a course of medical treatment or even undergo an operation on the ovaries. You know, not all women with polycystic ovaries need treatment to get pregnant. If you have a regular period, then perhaps you will get pregnant on your own, without medical intervention. Usually, in this case the doctor gives 1 year for conception.
At this time, it is recommended to keep the basal temperature charts. Use ovulation tests, which will help to understand on what days the conception of a child is most likely. If during the year pregnancy does not occur - you need to be treated.
If you have irregular periods, or did not succeed in conceiving a child for a year, then the doctor prescribes treatment. It is necessary to prepare for the fact that pregnancy can not occur immediately after the start of treatment, and after 6-12 months.
The choice of the drug is carried out by the attending physician in each specific case. Do not self-medicate.
If polycystic ovaries have irregular menstruation and there is no ovulation, the gynecologist can recommend stimulation of ovulation.
Stimulation of ovulation is a course of treatment during which. ?n certain days of the menstrual cycle, you take certain hormones in the form of pills or injections. It is on the day of ovulation that a woman can become pregnant. To stimulate ovulation was effective and yet lead to pregnancy. It is necessary that your husband had quality sperm. And you had passable uterine tubes. Otherwise, all treatment will be in vain.
Before stimulating ovulation, your husband must pass a semen analysis. You need to undergo an examination of the patency of the fallopian tubes. If these tests are all right. Then you can begin to stimulate ovulation. In some cases, pregnancy occurs on its own, and sometimes in order to become pregnant a woman needs to undergo a course of drug treatment or even to undergo surgery on the ovaries.
And of course, I agree with the other posts. The younger the body, the greater the chance of becoming pregnant. Although my friend is 45 years pregnant after a long treatment.

 

wellspringivf - May 8

PCOS is one of the common reasons for women's infertility. The common symptoms are irregular periods, heavy bleeding and pain during intercourse. This causes difficulty to get pregnant, you should visit infertility specialist and take following treatment as the doctor suggests.

 

arogyam917 - May 21

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Courtney137 - August 27

Try not to stress dear my petitions are with you something great and positive will happen soon. Remain solid and remain confident. There are numerous women like you who have experienced PCOS, later on, they brought forth solid infants and now living cheerfully with their entire family. It doesn't matter if it takes time. You'll additionally have an uplifting news soon. These things are a piece of our life and ought to be confronted boldly. I am anticipating hearing something incredible from your side. Good fortunes!

 

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