I Have PCOS And Want To Get Pregnant

[Jojo2025]

Hiya

I'm 40 and I'm 2 years married. I have PCOS, diagnosed at 27. I'm underweight so my type is lean PCOS. I have irregular periods, acne, hirsutism and I'm insulin resistant. I am going to start ttc next month.

I also have a friend who has lean PCOS who is 41. She has a 3 month old DS. She was 40 when she conceived him. She didn't think she would be able to get pregnant but she hoped she could. When she gave birth to him she had severe uterine bleeding and had to get a hysterectomy.

I am certain that I want 2 children at the least. I know it can be hard to have 2 children after 40 or even 1 child, but I've read lots of stories on here about people having 2 children after 40. My friend is upset that she can't have anymore children, although she is greatful to already have a child.

When I was younger, I kept being with men who didn't want to have children, and I met my now dh 5 years ago.

Me and my friend both eat an unhealthy diet. We don't exercise, we go out for walks sometimes but only occasionally. The amount of sleep I get varies, I get somewhere between 7 and 12 hours of sleep.

Is there anything that causes complications that make you need a hysterectomy, such as age, weight, PCOS, unhealthy diet, not exercising, too much sleep? Or does it just happen for no reason?

My sister got pregnant straight away and she had PCOS. She was 31 though. She thought she might have difficulty conceiving but didn't. Except I had difficulty instead, despite not having PCOS!

If you are insulin resistant you need to ask your doctor for metformin. I had to fight to get it but got pregnant in 2 cycles after starting it, after Ttc for 18 months before that

I have PCOS and have never heard of it increasing the risk of bleeding but the risk of complications in general increases with age. Its a good idea to try and be as healthy as possible - that includes diet and exercise.

Given you already have a PCOS diagnosis, you should definitely make sure you are taking myo-inositol and maybe even book an appointment with your GP? My endocrinologist was happy to prescribe me metformin and refer me to the fertility clinic straight away (I was 34 at the time) - we obviously kept ttc whilst waiting for the appointment but it meant we didn't have an added delay of ttc for 6months first and then a long fertility clinic wait. Perhaps your GP would be willing to do something similar? Worth chatting it through with them anyway. I have one DD conceived with metformin + letrozole at 34 and one DD who was a natural conception at 37.

I would say though to approach this with an open mind. There are many reasons why people change their mind about how many children they would like, not just due to hysterectomy. After many years ttc / fertility treatment, when I gave birth to my DD1, she developed sepsis and was very poorly / in NICU. Nothing to do with my age or PCOS or high blood pressure in pregnancy. We were very unsure about having a second child due to our experience - i was worried about my mental health if the same thing happened again. We did in the end and are very grateful that DD2 was born healthy. Some people have difficult labours , or terrible PND or family breakdown and a second child isn't on the cards. Just take each step as it comes.

I was diagnosed with PCOS after my periods failed to return when I stopped the pill to TTC, age 28, BMI 26. We were referred to the fertility clinic and I got pregnant on cycle 7 of clomid. I was only going to be allowed 2 more cycles of clomid before moving to IVF. DC#1 was born almost 3 years after stopping the pill.
We weren't sure about having more children, neither of us had strong feelings either way and we didn't really want to put ourselves through the slog of fertility clinic again. By some miracle I was pregnant in the first month of trying for #2 and about 2 months after coming off the pill and I'd only had 1 period in that time. DC#2 was born 5 weeks early though and that was a worrying time. We definitely didn't want more kids after that.

I'm not aware of PCOS increasing the likelihood of leading to a hysterectomy. Everyone's bodies are so different and individual. Eating an unhealthy diet won't help. A baby takes a lot of your stores when it's growing and developing during pregnancy, I'd aim to get in to a better eating pattern, better variety of foods and start taking folic acid now, if you aren't already.

I've got pcos and tried to get pregnant for 5 years from the age of around 23. Unsuccessful on Metformin, which made me horrendously ill but successful with clomid

Metformin although it didn’t help me get pregnant it did make me ovulate and regulate my cycles. Also clomid