jeez, attila, way to make a girl feel wanted...
i have PCOS, i charted for about a year and a half. i found it really INTERESTING and so did my GP and my gynaecologist. they clearly saw the patterns to my long cycles, as did i, and they weren't even remotely sniffy about it. in fact the gynae told me to keep doing it and bring the charts to my next appointment so that he could see if the metformin was making any difference. (as a matter of interest i used a computer programme which did any calculations for me so the effort was minimal).
the gynae was the one who told me about the day 18 thing, and having spotted that my two previous (sadly ectopic) pregnancies were created on day 18 so he was looking for my ovulation (then occuring at about day 30 or not at all) to occur earlier on metformin, which it did.
i have always tended to have other symptoms of ovulation as well, such as lubricative cervical fluid, so when i saw my temperatures rise in combination with the CF i gathered i was ovulating. i was also part of the oxford university conception study which gave out ovulation sticks like lollies so i was using them too. (for fun, i wasn't completely obsessed... well a bit obsessed ). every single time my symptoms and ov stick results coincided with my temping charts.
i am not advocating the charting above everything else - but i did not find it in the slightest bit difficult or stressful and just for the record the toni weschler book is a good read about female fertility as much as it is about charting - it's about two inches thick, and charting isn't that difficult to explain.
but ladies, as Attila rightly says PCOS is a very individualistic disorder. your symptoms might be like mine, or they might not, you might find charting to be of use or you might not. i really liked it, because i felt i was regaining some measure of control in a life that seemed to be utterly overwhelmed by trying to conceive.
However, some women find charting very stressful, and it makes them feel pressurised and anxious. It depends on the individual. i wouldn't be as quick as attila has been to dismiss it, obviously, because i found it easy, interesting and useful.
The first thing is that i would definitely ask your GPs to do blood tests, and i would also think about getting ovulation sticks (although technically they only tell you about ovulation after the fact and they are pretty expensive). you could even use a Persona machine backwards, as that's kinda what the Oxford Conception Study was about.
Let's face it, if you badly want to have a baby you'll probably get them all... but judging by most of the happy stories on here you won't even need them...
the very best of luck to you both