Infertility and PCOS

[KylieP]

Hi, I've just finished the Colette Harris 'PCOS and your fertility' book and for the first half I felt really motivated but then got on to the chapter about accepting being infertile if you really can't have kids...and freaked out. I was following the seven step plan and after 90+ days of no AF I actually got some bleeding today, very light though. It says in the book that 70% of those with PCOS conceive naturally and 20% with fertility treatment. Erm...what about the other 10%??Has anyone followed the plan in the book and it worked for them?

Hi Kylie i remember u from.our earlier pcos&ttc thread! I read another one of Collette Harris's books, she is v.informative and the stuff is def helpful to know but at the same time stats can make your head spib!

I have pcos, my cycles are lobgish but they used to be totally irregular. I've been pg 3 times, 2 mcs and one very healthy 2 yo boy. I've never had any fertility treatment. I also found Zita West very good to read and her attitude of eating well, looking after your body and having plenty of sex is a good method of getting pg.

Best of luck to you, hope u get the bfp ur looking for. Have you been.onto the Verity website? Their forum is great too!

She is informative but some of it didn't make sense - don't eat bananas because they are high GI, then the next chapter a food plan with bananas in! Anyway it is funny that I've been doing the 7 steps plan for a couple of weeks and my period has come after three months, I know it could be coincidence but am going to keep up the plan and see if I can regulate the periods and get myself ovulating - fingers crossed! Can you recommend anything in particular you did? Do you know if you were ovulating when your periods were irregular? Any tips would help

Sorry Kylie, missed this reply!! Only tips I have are basically healthy eating, agnus castus drops, plenty of shagging and try and relax as much as possible since stress seems to just make the cycles more irregular so I found stuff like swimming, reflexology, and those new agey meditation cds when i was going to sleep were great. I didn't track temp or bother trying to use opks since they aren't too reliable for ladies with pcos and they're not that cheap, but i just watched out for ewcm and also i'd still recommend dtd as much as humanly possible throughout your whole cycle cos when they are irregular lengths it's v hard to be sure whether you have ov or not

Trying to practice what I preach cos ttc again now after mmc in July.

fx for us both!!

Hi Kylie, I remember you from the other thread. I followed the Collette Harris plan, not to the letter, but I did a low-GI diet, regular exercise, meditation and yoga to de-stress and I took lots of extra vitamins that she recommended and cut out alcohol and caffeine. I'm 6 weeks pregnant today, so something worked for me!

It's so hard to stay positive when you're ttc, but you should look at statistics the other way around. Instead of thinking that you have a 10% of it not working for you, you should think that you have a 90% chance of it working! That's huge!! If you were sick and were offered an operation that had a 90% chance of working, you'd jump at it, wouldn't you?

Good luck!

Hi Kylie, I'm a PCOSer too - what is this seven step plan you speak of? I've been following Dr Marilyn Glenville's recommendations for PCOSers (a boatload of supplements including Agnus Castus, zinc, omega 3, prenatal vits, Vitamin B and milk thistle drops) plus no dairy (have reduced but not eliminated this) no alcohol and no caffeine. I'm a slim PCOSer so my doctor told me I don't need to do the low carb diet. Would love to know more about what you're doing, I am now on FSH injectibles (which seem to be working) after no AF since coming off the pill 18 months ago and no response to Clomid. But I'd really truly love to get my body to ovulate naturally again, as I used to before the Pill.

Sorry only just seen this! How are you getting on littlemiss? congrats tremolo that is really encouraging, thanks! You must be over the moon, is it your first? What were your cycles like? I haven't given up on booze but maybe I should try that too, I have cut down a bit.

critterpants how did you know it was fine to take agnus castus or did you just go for it and try it out? Colette's book basically recommends low GI diet to stabilise sugar/insulin, vitamins and eating well, low stress, exercise, no coffee, little or no booze. I'm a slim pcos'er too. How long have you been doing your recommendations and have you noticed a difference? Have you ovulated yet and are you having AFs?

My.cycles pre-mc were down to a pretty regular 33 days or so, but all.over the place at the min. Started agnus castus 4 days ago and immediately got stabbing sort of cramps all round left ovary and then af showed up quite unexpectedly a day later. Wtf!? Anyway, im going to be doing low gi diet, no caffeine, low alcohol and loads of supplements cos that always seemed to help get things back on track before...and obvs dtd loads too! Ah joys of pcos :)

Hope u ladies are all doing ok & hanging on in there!

Kylie I just went for it. I know you're supposed to consult a herbalist, but as my cycles never came back post-pill I decided that I couldn't make things any worse than they already were, and was sick of spending money (am in the US and it's at least a hundred dollars here to see alternative medicine practictioners). Just cancelled injectibles as I overstimmed (apparently common with PCOS) so now looking at IVF... sorry, I may not be the best person to offer advice on this. I'm hoping that my cycles will come back on their own accord, but I know it's unlikely.

FWIW, I did do the recommendations in the summer for a month and it was the only time that I responded well to the Clomid that I was taking at the time. Didn't get pregnant but did ovulate. Then I stopped, and didn't respond well to the next round of Clomid which was cancelled. So I'm trying again (with the supplements and no-joy diet. Two weeks in so far. No idea if it will work or not, but at this stage (18 months without natural ovulation since being off the pill) I have nothing to lose.

Hmm low alcohol part of diet not working well this week lol.... To be continued next week!