TTC with PCOS

[Ainat266]

Are there any other ladies out there trying to conceive with PCOS? Or any success stories of conceiving with PCOS?

We've been ttc and off of bc since August. Since then I've been diagnosed with PCOS and put on Metformin. I am overweight, especially for my height as I'm only short - but am trying to lose the weight. I'm almost at a 10% weight loss since getting the PCOS diagnosis in November 14. I haven't had any periods since coming off of bc in August 14, apart from what I'm guessing was a withdrawal bleed (that happened pretty much straight away - end of August) and a couple of very light bleeds that lasted no longer than a day.

I'm just feeling all a bit fed up now and think I need to hear from others that are either in a similar boat or have been able to have healthy normal pregnancies despite the PCOS.

Just catching up folks.

Hi to Rosebud Of course you can join us! I am on the angry pubes bus, as I started the February bus after I took the Norethisterone in January. I was getting signs of everything 'working' ok, so I took the plunge and joined the bus. Since then I've made a few cronies on there and it turned into a permanent bus, rather than a monthly one, so am reluctant to leave it, but I do feel a bit out of it all sometimes, especially when they are discussing AF and the 2WW, and my 2WW has been a 5MW!

Hi also to Msr12 Glad you found us I'm afraid I don't know much about timescales in terms of when you can start fertility treatment. I got referred at the end of February by my GP and had my first app on March 19th, followed by my US (dildocam) on April 1st. Am now on a course of prog tablets to bring on a bleed so I can have a HSG.

Hi to bucket Sorry you're here, but at the same time, it feels like a bit of a progression from the dark days of the 'no period' thread doesn't it? At least, if we're on here, it signifies that things are moving forward in some way. Even though I've had no period yet, I've had some appointments and scans that will hopefully shed a bit more light. It's a bit like a 'grad' thread isn't it?

Rufus That is moving fast! Wow. But in a good way, even if it is all overwhelming. Good luck with the clomid. What are the 3 clinics like? Is there a lot of difference between them? Do you have a choice of using an embryoscope at one of them? I think that's the way forward if you can. Have heard a lot of good things x x

Ponty Yay for ovulation! FX for you that this is the cycle.

Waves to Ab and Gin How are you both doing? Ab are you having some tests done after this bleed? Is that the reason you were given prog pills? I can't be bothered to read back remember?

Popcorn How long has your cycle been before AF? Did it arrive in the end?

It's beautiful sunshine here. Need to hang out some washing, tidy the spare room and then have a hair appointment this afternoon. Also really need to start marking some coursework. Go back to work next Tuesday, but am away for the weekend, so if I don't start soon, I'm going to be in trouble!

Oops crossed posts Gin I know nothing about BBT and temping, but FX for you! Exciting! All we need is a home ultrasound kit that will confirm it to us... Dragon's Den anyone?!

Haha I would love a home u/s that would be fab! It's such a slow process isn't it? Wish the GPs could just give out clomid without having to be referred. Eskimo do you remember how long after your appointment with the gp until you got referral letter? It's just I have private healthcare and can use them as soon as I have the form which would bypass the long wait. Or did you not get the letter untill after you had waited a long time?

Gin It wasn't long at all. I had my second GP appointment at the end of Feb and the letter came through about 10 days- 2 weeks later for an appointment on March 19th.

GPs did used to be able to prescribe clomid up until about 4 years ago. Not sure why they can't anymore

Woop Woop Ponty So exciting! What I'd give to see a dramatic rise in my temp chart my right arm

Fingers crossed Gin Has ff given you solid cross hairs? It gave me dotted cross hairs once, then cruelly took them away again Hopefully yours are there to stay!

Eskimo I'm a teacher too! Spending my Easter break trying to stop thinking about work and failing miserably!!

So after 11weeks since my gp referral and still no appointment with clinic, I phoned to find out what the delay was and they said they hadn't received it! Immediately started balling my eyes out 11 weeks of waiting for nothing! I've been re-referred now but who knows how long that will take! I'm tempted to follow Rufus down the private route! Do you mind me asking how much you've spent so far?

Woohoo ponty and gin I so hope you have ovulated! Have you both been DTD lots? (Said in teacher voice) Eeek I'm so excited!
Who's going to be our first BFP???

Eskimo don't talk about coursework. We're not allowed to get stressed when we're TTC, ergo no thoughts of coursework or anything related. I have a 12 week term coming up with no half term, so I'm refusing to think about work at all at the moment

I'm not lined up to have any more tests now, but I think I'll email the gynae woman and ask if I need to have a 21 day test. My FSH was higher than my LH in the blood tests I had a fortnight ago (6.8 and 4.8). I've no idea what that means. The FSH though means I was in the follicular phase, which at day 100+ is obviously not the most normal.

Sorry about the delay in the stats table. I will do it ASAP! Someone get a BFP before I do it, go on!

Rosebud so sorry the incompetent staff didn't send your referral through I can just imagine how crushed you must've felt. Hopefully now you won't have to wait too much longer. I know everyone is human and makes mistakes, but when we're literally fighting through each day (and not killing idiots who get pregnant from a nearby male sneezing on them) I think staff should be a bit more considerate.

Oh no Rosebud That's awful! 11 weeks of waiting must have been a nightmare, and now it seems like it's been for nothing. FX for you that it won't be long for you to wait now. I'm really fed up for you!

What age do you teach? I teach secondary English. Too much marking. I really should have considered that before I trained. Don't think I'd choose this job again. The holidays are lovely, but I do spend most of them stressing and fretting about work.

Duly noted Ab I will absolutely try not to think about anything school related and just 'get it done.' Thanks miss.

Argh rosebud! I really feel for you, that's so awful I would have reacted exactly the same way. As much as I am pro NHS it's things like this that get my bk up. I also felt like because I wasn't over weight my gp wouldn't help me! And plus being told you have PCOS over the phone without any chance to ask questions wasn't ideal.
Ff hasn't put a cross line but the ovia app has so will just have to see now if AF arrives. Don't think we dtd ive been pretty down since this whole diagnosis and didn't exactly feel up to it.

Ta daa! Please shout at me if I've missed you off or got your details wrong and I'll change them :)

Thanks ladies. Yes its been a challenged 24 hours that's for sure!

Eskimo I teach in a sixth form so mainly 16 to 19 year olds with some adults. The marking workload is horrendous as is the crushing pressure to deliver results, and now its compulsory education to 18 we don't even get the luxury of "at least they are there because they want to be there" so pretty much the same as secondary I would imagine! I also live for the holidays!!! Its the only thing that keeps me sane Lol!

When we first starting TTC we were aiming for a Sept 2015 due date to fit nicely with end of term.... how naive were we!?

rosebud I am SO annoyed for you! as if it's not shit enough being in this position, they have ONE job - ONE JOB - to do and they don't do it. As you can see from my use of capitals, incompetency like that gives me the rage hopefully it comes through ASAP now

I didn't DTD much this month at all actually since I only had a period because of the provera, I wasn't expecting much to happen. I DTD 4 days before OV and on the day of OV. I highly doubt this will be my month, my life just doesn't seem to go like that though everyone else that I know seems to get lucky it's sunny, I'm happy, bring it on.

Ab That's er.. fab! Cannot wait to see some BFPs on this thread!

Rosebud Tell me about it! I came off the pill beginning of November thinking that I would get a BFP at the end of December. Doh! I really wish I'd come off much, much earlier.

Ponty I like your thinking about the weather. I don't normally like the sun, or heat, but the sunshine in the last couple of days has really brightened me up

Going to try and persuade DH to put up a shelf and a couple of pictures in our bedroom now. He's been at work this morning and did a 6am while 11am shift, so is currently snoozing on the sofa. He's back at work at 4. Wish me luck! x x

I teach Computing and Economics and the marking for them is plenty- definitely could be an English teacher!! DH is a secondary English teacher and is often carting sacks of books around for marking.

It's a total joke with the pill isn't it? I was terrified in my early 20s that if I was antibiotics or missed a pill then I'd definitely get pregnant. As if!! I came off it in November thinking we'd start trying in February once my cycles had come back. Still waiting for that one. Nobody here is a biology teacher are they? They're all bloody liars, clearly.

Duh meant to say definitely couldn't be an English teacher!

Boo I'm the oldest on here No wonder my Dr is going at lightening speed. I'm 34 next month!

My consults range from £150-350 depending on wether I have an ultrasound during my appointment . My blood tests yesterday cost £750! Jaw dropping I know but a lot of that was for IVF! I could of had a lot of them on the NHS but my GP surgery is really stingy and wouldn't let me have a smear done back in December as despite a long history of abnormalities they put me on a 3 year cycle and won't listen to referral letters! Also when I had an abnormal mole on my back last year and needed it removed, my GP whined at me why couldn't I do it privately and not through the NHS! So I couldn't be bothered with fighting with them to have the bloods. My insurance doesn't pay for anything fertilty related but I have a very lovely mummy who wants a grandchild and so far has paid for my appointments and tests.

Fertility tests
AMH £94 FSH £40.50 LH £40.50 Prolactin £40.50
Thyroid £66 Vit D £35

IVF tests
Hep C £80 Hep B £38 Rubella £60.50 CMV £64 HIV £40 Syphillis £50
Biochem and Haem £76

Just catching up...
rosebud Sorry they've been rubbish with your referral to the clinic. Hope they get a move on with your appointment!
eskimo my cycle appears to be a fairly steady 32 days. This should mean AF due 11th April. I thought I had ov pain on 26th March which makes me 13dpo but who knows. Why can't we use opks, does anyone know the real reason?
ab can I join the list please? 32 ttc #1. No meds at the moment.

Ab Lol at biology teachers. Funnily enough, two of the biology teachers at my school have been through IVF. One of them has a 3 year old and the other is about 6 months pregnant now.

Rufus That is really interesting about the tests. They are really expensive aren't they?!

Popcorn Forgive me; I know pretty much nothing about PCOS, but if you have a steady cycle, does that mean you ovulate regularly? If so, what are your symptoms of PCOS? To answer your question about OPKs, they are unreliable in women with PCOS because of the elevated levels of LH that are usually present anyway. x

Eskimo is right that PCOS suffers often have a constant level of LH and will caus false positives on OPKs but I've found that I get complete negatives on FMU when I'm not in my window so can use them. My problem is that last cycle I had 3 surges with negatives in between. CD 12, 16 and 21. I may not have ovulated on any of them and there were no difference in physical symptoms to tell them apart, other then AF came 2 weeks after the day 21 surge, so I assume if I ovulated then that was the one! I use clear blue and cheap ones off Amazon, the cheap ones I can see by the colour change just how strong it was. CD 21 was far stronger then the others!

I got the CB ones off their website for free by being part of their clinical trial but I have found doing a urine sample every morning and then having to package them all up and doing the paperwork a major bore! Plus I forgot some mornings. I got one pack of dual hormone 20 tests and 3 preg tests in case anyone is interested.

Here you go Popcorn!

Rufus that's useful to see how much the tests are in the UK. Thankfully (very thankfully indeed!) my health insurance here covers fertility treatment to some level. It still makes me wince a bit though when I see how much is being charged! My endocrinologist decided I could do with a vitamin D boost the other day, so said he'd give me a double dose injection. When I signed the bill it was £200 quids worth of vitamin D that had been injected into my arse! Blimey. Also, don't worry at all about your age. 34 is absolutely fine to have a baby! I know lots of 40+ yr olds who have successfully had happy healthy children

Popcorn that's great that you've got a regularly cycle! Does that mean we can hope for our first BFP around 11th April??

Rufus do you mean you then get lines on your OPKs with FMU in your fertile window? If so, I'll give that a go. I always get faint lines, perhaps I'll get darker ones during a surge? I have sacks of ICs anyway so will keep POASing!

Thank you Rufus that us really helpful knowing all the costs. I have to admit I wasn't expecting all of the tests to be so high! I had a vague idea of the cost for consultations and thought it might be doable but with the cost of tests as well I'm not sure its an option for us. I presume that if you switched from NHS to private part way through they would insist on all the tests being done again?

Hi popcorn That's fab that your cycles are so regular Did you take something to regulate them to start with?

Eskimo and Rufus I am also one that gets numerous surges on opks throughout the month! However all my tests so far confirm I'm not ov'ing so I think they can be very misleading. I think doing them alongside tempung is better. That way if you get a surge but no temp shift, you know its a false alarm. My temp chart was like a mountain range but now it is pretty much flatlining! Apparently that indicates a progesterone deficiency which ties in with my blood results.

Ab thanks for the stats list....loving how short and cute it looks!

DH is currently looking into his private health insurance and whether it would cover me for fertility related issues. I doubt it but its worth a shot!

Wow, its all go here!

Thank you all for being so welcoming, its really nice to chat. Sounds really posfive that people are starting to have tests and treatments.fingers crossed for BFPs.

Can I join the ranks of also a teacher? I'm primary though. Did the same as you Ab and Eskimo and stupidly thought we could time a baby for maximum maternity etc, how naive we were eh?

Do many of you temp? I've been trying but I really struggle with doing it as soon as I wake up (I always forget before I get out of bed) does it have to be done straight away, if so, any tips as to how to remember?

ab Aww, I'd hope so but I don't have any other symptoms so I think it's unlikely. I have started imagining them, which isn't helping. I was convinced my nipples had expanded last night, lol. I don't know if that's even a symptom of pregnancy Thanks for adding me to the stats list.
eskimo my symptoms are joyful! extra body hair, weight gain, thinning hair, skin problems. Initially irregular periods but these seem to have been sorted by being on the pill for a few years. I keep expecting my cycle to pause but so far, so good. FX. I know I'm lucky but I worry my weight is going to be a problem. It's not a good number
Thanks for the answers about the opks!