Anyone have PCOS with no symptoms but irregular periods?

[takethatlady]

Hi there,

I came off the pill six months ago and immediately began to ttc with DH. I am 28 (I was 27 then) and had been on the pill for 11 years straight. Before that I had four years of periods which were always extremely irregular - anything from 28-70 days apart, and often very very heavy for the first couple of days.

Since coming off the pill my cycle lengths have been 32 days, 47 days, 51 days (including a chemical pregnancy lost at 4 weeks 2 days), and I am now on day 37 and am not even sure if I have ovulated. I had some EWCM 16, 17 and 18 days ago but my temperatures have been significantly lower all month than they have ever been before and did not rise very much at all (if at all) afterwards.

I am going to the doctors tomorrow to try to get them to take me seriously, and I will be armed with my charts. But the only thing I can find that it might be is PCOS. The thing is I'm not overweight at all (or underweight - BMI 22), I have no excess hair or acne, and I don't have any other symptoms associated with PCOS.

Has anybody else been through this? Has anybody else got PCOS with no symptoms but irregular/long menstrual cycles? What else might it be? I want to be forearmed when I go to the doctor as I'm pretty sure he/she will just try to fob me off by telling me it's normal to have irregular periods after the pill. But I'm sure there's something wrong, and I'm worried that if I conceive again I'll lose it again because my cycle lengths are so long that when I finally do ovulate each cycle I'm releasing geriatric eggs into an impoverished womb lining.

Thanks.

Hi,

My menstrual history is infact very similar to yours reading it and I was diagnosed with PCOS.

PCOS is a very individualistic disorder and affects each woman with it very differently.
What is a problem therefore for one is not for another (when I was dx'd I did not have any problems with acne, hirsuitism or weight). The commonality though amongst all those with PCOS is the cystic follicles on the ovaries. These follicles do disappear - only to be replaced by further cystic follicles. Some of these cystic follicles release hormones, others are dormant and one may contain an egg.

Cycles that are consistently over 35 days in length are more often than not anovulatory ones. It is quite possible to have periods without ovulating.

As your irregular cycles are a long standing problem as well it is better to get the underlying cause established sooner rather than later. Stress to the GP that this is a long standing problem and you would like to be referred to a gynae for a diagnosis (you need this first and foremost) and further investigation. If you are diagnosed with PCOS it is not a problem for GPs to mess around with.

BTW temp charting is of no benefit or use at all if cycles are irregular. With regards to the charts the GP may not take much if any notice of them, many gynaes certainly do not as these can be inherently unreliable. You need blood tests and an internal ultrasound to see if your ovaries are indeed polycystic. I would refrain from temp charting forthwith and seek proper answers. You will need to be persistant in order to get answers.

You may find Verity's website helpful:-

www.verity-pcos.org.uk

Good luck and seek proper answers.

Hi attila thank you that is massively helpful.

I know I ovulated last cycle because I conceived. My temps were really obviously biphasic that month too - they jumped from around 97.2 to 97.8-98 overnight after 5 days of increasingly copious EWCM. This month I suspect is annovulatory, as you say.

This is all really helpful - I will definitely stress it's a longstanding problem and ask to see a gynae - didn't even think of that, so thanks.

Thanks for the link, too. Anyone else?