TTC with PCOS (Thread #2)

[RoseBud2015]

If you have been diagnosed with PCOS and would like a small group of very friendly ladies in the same position as you to talk to, then this is the thread for you!

You can find our first thread >>>>>>>>> HERE

You can find the stats >>>>> HERE

Zinnher Hello and welcome! Yes, the cheap OPKs do the exact same job as the more expensive ones. I had a not-CB-but-not-the-cheapest pack and tested once with both those and the cheapest of the cheap and got the same result. Got mine off amazon... Really recommend them!

Zinnher sorry, forgot to add that I've also found them helpful when I haven't actually had an LH surge and consequently not OVd. Means I can be a little more clued up about what's going on in there...

Thanks chandelier, just ordered off amazon

Rosebud - Fingers crossed for your scan on Thursday.

Banana - You've really been through the wars! Glad you're on the mend now. I can't believe they gave you the fertility mot after you've only just come off the pill knowing it would give you inaccurate results and cause you unnecessary worry and anxiety. Just hold on to the fact that the scans may well not have given a true reflection of your actual fertility.

Would you mind me asking how much the mot cost?

Pebbles - Hope you're recovering well after your lap and dye.

Cobblestones and Chandelier - Congrats on the +ve opks!

Freddiesmother - Hello and welcome! Hope 150mg clomid works for you.

So I was on cd 29 on Friday and thought f* it, I'll poas and see what happens. For the first time in 19 months of ttc I saw the faintest pink 2nd line on the (ic) test. I I did another one incase my eyes were deceiving me and the same thing happened. I was so excited, yet quietly cautious because It was negative on a free. I stupidly let my mind wonder and spent the day dreaming about baby clothes and due dates, etc. even though I said to myself I wouldn't get too excited. Anyway, poas (actually, about 10) yesterday and nothing. Nada. To say I was disappointed couldn't be more of an understatement. I was devastated. To make matters worse, af arrived with a vengeance this morning. I'm still frustrated but also over it at the same time. I don't want to dwell on things, I just want to move forward. My question are:

1. Does anyone think it could have been a chemical pregnancy? Or was it just a couple of duff ics? The former would still be good as it would mean my eggs and dh's sperm are working which is obviously a big positive...

1. My follow up appointment after my hsg and dh's latest sperm analysis is on Thursday (which will be cd 5); should I start taking si on cd3 or hold off until next cycle? Do consultants frown upon herbal remedies or does it not make a difference?

I guess another positive I can take from this is my cycle was 31 days so my last three cycles were 28, 35 and 31 days respectively. This is much better than the 77/79 days I had last year!

Sorry for the long and indulgent post but any advice you could give would be much appreciated.

Hope all your weekends have been better than mine!

This is foofin pants btw!!!!!!

Ps chandlierswing what are you using?

Welcome too freddiesmother Hope your stay with us is a short one.

Wow banana- your MOT produced some unexpected findings indeed, bless you I really hope that you get some proper answers soon that can help you to move on with your ttc journey. I conceived DC1 when I came off the pill (literally first month) and had very few PCOS symptoms at all. As others have said, the pill (dianette) suppressed the cysts. Everything's got worse the longer it's been since having no hormone input, iyswim.

Thanks battenberg I really would give the OPKs a try. I have learnt a lot from doing them (4th cycle this time round but also used them when ttc before). I now know that I have an LH surge just before AF, and I also know that there are certain times in the month when I have some LH present (although not a surge) when other people might not.

pebbles So sorry to hear you had some discomfort from the lap and dye. Hope you're back on your feet a bit now and not on forced rest!! Interesting what that nurse said... Maybe she was only looking for notes on blockages? When's your follow up?

Oh Shorty that's just cruel It makes AF's arrival doubly hard doesn't it? Could poss have been a chem pg. My cons. (well his reg.) was very pro natural remedies but they're all different. Are you hoping you'll be prescribed something at your appt? I took SI from CD3-7 but you can take them from CD5-9 (makes the egg you have stronger at this point in the cycle), so you could always delay starting? Your cycle change sounds really positive; it's all moving in the right direction!

Ain Hope the announcements have dwindled... Be kind to yourself.

Dollface I had really bad headaches then a migraine on the SI, but I don't know whether that's linked. If I get to try another SI cycle which I'm really hoping I don't, I'll let you know! I did take mine at night so as to minimise any side effects.

Rosebud sorry to hear about your shit week (my interpretation of your words!)... Will be thinking of you when you have your appt.

Shellbell Sorry to hear about your disappointing appt. I know that weight struggle only too well, but it's totally mean to only let you have tablets when you've lost some weight. I can imagine your frustration Are you going to try anything specific weight loss wise?

AbFab whoop whoop for your hcg results!!!! Delighted for you!!!

Blimey! Epic post!!! That'll teach me for taking time away from the forum rather selfishly during my boring phase of ttc!

X-post... Do you mean my array of weird and wonderful natural remedies ShellBell?

Shorty I remember being told that faint line is positive. Could well be a chemical pregnancy. As false positive are very rare if not impossible

Thanks Chandelier. What's the difference between taking it between cd3-7 and cd5-9? Also my si comes in 50mg tablets. What quantity are you meant to take?

I'm hoping to be prescribed clomid but dh has low motility and I have a bmi of 32 so not sure if they will. Also with dh's slow swimmers, I'm not sure if we'll have to go straight to IVF or something similar... Whatever happens I need to lose weight. And fast!

Shellbell - What tablets are you after? Clomid? What did your consultant say about weight loss?

Forgot to say welcome Zinnher!!

shorty the only time I ever had a faint positive was with a chemical pg, even the doctor took one look at the stick and said "well there is a line" e must of thought I was mad carrying around this pg test with me in my handbag!

Here's hoping for a better week/month for everyone as we move into July!

Shorty mine were 40mg so I took x2, then x3, then x4 (twice) ending with x5. The idea is to build up gradually. You can take SI from CD1-5 or CD2-6; this is meant to increase the no. of eggs but not the quality. CD5-9 increases the quality but not the quantity. CD3-7 (and CD4-6, depending on where you research it) helps both quantity and quality, so best of both worlds. I had very strong sharp stabbing pains on CD8/9 and now have a dull ache on CD20 (OVing- have EWCM- yay!!!). Took 2000mg EPO up to today as well; now switching to 1000mg Vit C.

Evening ladies, hope you are all well.
Sorry I've been quiet lately, more so than usual - there's been a lot going on. Poor doggy had operation on Friday, having been poorly for a few weeks.
Also having trouble with a colleague in work, potential disciplinary coming up (for her, not me)
TTC has taken a bit of a back seat even with the presence of ewcm

Shorty sorry for the bfn, I don't really know if it was a chemical. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will be able to comment.

for all!

Thanks for asking ladies, I am feeling much better! Back to work tmz, I would rather take longer off if and when my dodgy tube has to be removed! Ibruprofen has helped with the pain, I am now
having some sought of AF at the mo. Obviously it's not a natural one but a girl can dream ay?! Maybe the procedure has given my pipes a good clean and polish
shorty that must of been real crap, testing again and getting nothing. It's so hard POAS and getting varied results. You've given me a lot of hope though with how your cycles have got better. How have you managed that?
Chand I love how in control you seem with taking your tabs on the correct days and knowing your cycle etc, Ive googled it all and it really confuses the hell out of me. Hope this is your month xxx
Welcome Zinher so did you also have non existent cycles? How did you get them back?! I haven't had AF naturally since Dec, very frustrating. Hope the OPKs work for you.
Rosebud I hope this week goes fast for you and your appt, goes well. I am not sure what the next step will be for me now. DH has his SA next week. More appts and waiting, oh the joys.
Shellbell I hope your DH is supporting you 100% with the weight loss, a few small changes can make a big difference in a short space of time. I do wish GPs wouldn't put so many hurdles in front of us.

Have a good week ladies xxxx

Hi ladies
Thanks for all your support, you really are awesome and do genuinely get how obsessive this all is, and how with PCOS it’s not like ‘normal’ TTC where it’s a case of ‘have enough sex to catch that egg’, as we’re focusing on trying to lay an egg first off. Maybe we should call it TTLAE - trying to lay an egg - instead of TTC, haha

Dollface136 thanks so much for the hug, right back atcha. Hoping the SI helps you too. Would be awesome if you, me and Chandelierswinger could all be SI-evangelists [smile}

RoseBud2015 more hugs back to you, keeping all fingers and toes crossed for good news for ya, I think we all deserve some positive test results news!! I know how horrible it is waiting for news, so hope you can keep yourself busy in a good way until Thursday, when you’ll know more. We’re all rooting for you

Rufus200 it’s incredibly reassuring to hear your experience with the follicle scan during vs after the pill (i.e. once it was out of your system). Makes complete sense - and esp as I was on a double dose of a high-dose oestrogen pill, I’d expect the suppressing of FSH to be double what it is if taking the pill normally, which I imagine would suppress the follicles in my ovaries (follicle stimulating hormone being the giveaway, haha). Thank you so much for sharing, you’ve no idea what a comfort it is to know there’s probably a very logical explanation for my eggs seemingly all have vanished out of the blue!!

Pebbles086 thank you also for support, so glad to hear the great news from your lap+dye, and glad your DH is spoiling you like crazy, you deserve it

soontobemrslizzy thank you also - I started (somewhat ambitiously!!) testing with the cheap OPK strips, so I could have something to compare it to if (hopefully) the CBFM shows a ‘high’ or even (fx!)’peak’, so I know if the line really is a line, if that makes sense! I got excited by a faint line, but we all have some level of LH circulating in our blood (and more so if we’re PCOS) so my excitement was somewhat premature. Though at least we know what to compare to if/when we get a dark positive line!

I don’t know if you are temping, I know it’s absolutely useless for predicting ovulation, and EWCM (& OPKs) are better for predicting, but apart from progesterone test (or a BFP!) it’s the only at-home way of confirming if ovulation happened, so I’m temping in the hope of being able to pick up if I did in fact lay an egg or not until I go on the Clomid and get blood tests…

chandelierswinger OMG OMG OMG. This is awesome!! I’m punching the air, hoping that I might get a similar result from the SI - I’m at CD 14 and the idiot Dr on Thursday said to test from CD20 onwards, as she reckoned this would be a long cycle (and may or may not ovulate, although 1 dominant follicle is all it takes….she says, hoping!!)…bloody awesome news for you and keeping fx for you. I’ll be leaping from the chandeliers too if I get a similar result, so hope you’re keeping swinging in the mean time, haha. Whoop whoop indeed!!!

I’m not sure if my stonking headache was from the SI, although I do often get headaches from my nighttime teeth grinding, it seemed to go on for longer throughout the day (although I may be symptom spotting). The day I went up to 150mg from 135mg I did feel nauseous and have hot flashes, so stepped back down to 135mg for the next two days as I didn’t want to be puking during a family wedding…next month I will definitely take the higher dose but at night to alleviate side effects (although I took them during the day so I could see if any side effects were happening, if that makes sense?!!!)

ShortyK Thanks so much for lovely words, you ladies have been such a comfort! The scan was £200, the AMH test would have been extra but wasn’t charged for it cos they weren’t supposed to have done it in the first place (although apparently not the scan either!). If my consultant says they shouldn’t have done it, I will be donning my best schoolmarm spectacles and writing a very stern letter of complaint!! Mainly cos I wouldn’t want anyone else to have the shits put up them unnecessarily - I’m lucky I’ve got a great consultant who I trust I can go to and get it set the record straight.

I can’t imagine how stressful the POAS must be for you, unfortunately with this bloody condition we end up testing much earlier than someone without it might do, cos we never quite know when our AF is necessarily due- and although false positives are unlikely, it does mean that we know about chemical pregnancies when those who test later AFTER a missed AF often have them but never know about it . All the hugs to you

Freddiesmother hello and welcome! This is a great group

Hi ladies..

I'm doing low carb, high protein to try and lose the weight!! Lost 7lb in 2 weeks so far... Just a stone to go ???? Hubby is being great, he's doing low carb too!!
The consultant said she is going to send me for an X-ray and dye test whilst losing the weight but need to go after my AF comes!! Told her I can't face another 110 day cycle!!

Telling myself I can do this!! She said once I get under 30 bmi then she will give me the tablets.. I think clomid..
Yea chandlier what's the herbal ones that's helping?

Still having some issues with OH... Still advising ou until he's 40 :'( we have fell out for last 3 days...
Xx

Also just curious, ladies taking Inositol (takes quick look at stats - Rosebud Shorty Ponty Pebbles) - are any of you finding it's affected your appetite?

My appetite seems to have plummeted, and I'm not sure how much of that is coming off the pill (my boobs have bloody shrunk, and there wasn't much there to start with!!), and how much is the Inositol?

Took bloody ages to get the weight on to get my BMI up, I don't want to go down, consultant said I could only start treatment if I got over BMI of 18 (preferably 18.5, and ideally 19). I do understand why the BMI parameters are in place, but whether it's over or underweight, it just feels like they're putting extra hurdles we could do without!!

Also forgot to say welcome Zinnher!

Chandelier - you seem so well informed about si! I think I might try and order some more tablets of slightly less than 59mg so I can increase the amount taken over the days. Also think I will take them cd 5-9 so I can see what true consultant says. Thanks for the advice.

Popcorn - Sorry you've had a rubbish time at work. Hopefully next week will be better. Hope your dog is on the mend. It's so sad when animals are ill. Pets mean so much to us humans.

Battenberg - Ha ha re stick in your handbag! These doctors must think us pcos ttcers are a bunch of loonies!

Pebbles - I feel like I have done loads of things since January (but probs haven't done that many!) so couldn't pin it on one thing but so far I have: bought a diet book for pcos (Collete Harris), joined the gym, followed a low gi diet (most of the time!), cut out caffeine, reduced alcohol intake, try to drink filtered/bottled water when I can, started to take pregnacare, etc.

I think changing my diet (not that I've lost any weight!) and cutting out caffeine has made the most difference to afs but obviously can't be sure. Of course, my periods could have just settled after 19 months off the pill and maybe nothing I've done has made a blind but of difference!

Banana - Thanks for the info. Depending on what happens at my app this Thursday, I think I might book in for an mot. It sounds like a really good idea to find out what's going on inside. You should definitely wrote a letter of complaint and then maybe the lady you spoke to on the phone will follow the correct procedures in future. It's so good that you have a lovely consultant though.

You're so right about pcos and poas. It's just not the same as a standard 28 day cycle, oving on day 14. I find it so hard to track ov that I just poas out of curiosity. I will try to resist the temptation next month and wait for af but not sure if I'll be able to.

Shell - 7lbs in 2 weeks?! Way to go!!!

Unfortunately, inositols has not had the desired affect of a decreased appetite! I have just upped my dose to 4000 mg a day though so hopefully I won't eat as much. To be honest though, I don't usually eat out of hunger, more comfort and habit.

I got mine from a website Rufus recommended on the first thread (first couple of pages in) puritans pride. It was reasonable but then had to pay £15 pp then another £14 import because I forgot to take Rufus' advice on keeping the order below a certain amount. I'll be interested to hear where other people got theirs incase they got a better deal...

I have the opposite problem to you but I guess you could ask your consultant to refer you to a dietician to help you put on weight. I'm going to ask for a referral see one to help lose weight and if they won't offer the service on nhs, I'm going to at least ask them to recommend one to see privately ...

Hi ladies
I haven't been awol, I've been on holiday and actively pushing ttc out of my mind because I desperately needed a break from it. And holiday was amazing - very busy (I can't do the whole lie back and burn type holiday) and me and DH got ourselves back to normal. It also made me realise what a strain we've been under, both a little obsessed with babies and with constant pressure to dtd.
Back to it now though (well from tomorrow anyway)
I'm on my phone so can't scroll through and reply individually but just wanted to give an update.

I'm on cd 60-something, no AF, no symptoms still so will be starting to take meds to bring AF on tomorrow. Can't remember what it's called - starts with an N I think? Then once that's all ok, I'm up to 150mg Clomid, although I have to have day 3 and day21 bloods done this cycle so will be taking Clomid day 3-8 instead of my usual 2-7. Hopefully this will guarantee OV

Also, to the people asking about weight - I'm quite overweight, need to lose a minimum 3 stone but ideally 5 and I've been prescribed metformin and Clomid quite easily. I definately wish I'd pushed myself and lost more weight before starting all this though.

Welcome newbies!

I'll be back later to post more

Those ladies that are on Chlomid, what investigations did you have to go through to get it? Also is metformin only used if you have a high BMI?

I am waiting for my day 21 blood test and wondering if it is worth getting DH in for a SA now to speed things up?

Also, DH and I have started dtd every two days since CD9 to be on the safe side. Should we keep doing that until we get af or a bfp do you think? If I have another 50 day cycle my poor DF might collapse from exhaustion haha.

*DH not DF haha

Dollface I had metformin without an excessively high BMI. If you're dtd every other day (great tactic) you might want to see whether you are ovulating at all so you can slow down a little after ovulation! I'm (currently!!!) ovulating this month but know I don't every month. I'm not on clomid (yet...) so can't help you with that one, sorry. I'm sure the clomid expert gals will be able to help though.

Oh IsIt Boo hiss to the long cycle and absent AF... It's so disheartening Good luck with the N drug (I've only ever heard of provera) and your increased clomid. The break you've had sounds like it was well needed. Chin up

Shell 7 lbs!!! Way to go!!