TTC with PCOS (Thread #3)

[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 our second thread >>>>>>>>> HERE

You can find the stats >>>>>HERE

Stealth I'm a scaredy cat so if it were me I think I would wait and speak to the doctor first. Then you could wait and do the FRER with FMU too. I can't see what harm starting stims one day late would do! But I also know the fear of being told to wait for the next cycle. I vote wait, to be on the safe side X

Will reply properly later but I would def check with the Dr rose - with PCOS I would imagine it would be less of a problem to start a bit late because if you don't ov on your own you won't have early recruitment of the follicles and so won't miss the window

However if you start before the lining has thinned (if that is the case) then that could be a problem

Do you have a baseline scan scheduled to check the lining is thin and the ovaries are quiet before you start? If not can you find an ultrasound direct clinic (or other private ultrasound clinic) and get one for £99 to see what's going on? I wouldn't panic about missing the window for the drugs though I appreciate any delay is massively frustrating and disruptive, I can massively relate!!

In the mean time (I imagine you're already doing this!) try to invoke sod's law by wearing white knickers with no liner, hot bath, exercise (and a shag)?

Xxxxxxx

Same for stealth - ring his secretary in the morning. He won't be in first thing as he is doing my egg collection at 9am but his secretary should be able to advise.

If you're not ovulating naturally then I wouldn't worry about missing the window too much, you won't have early recruitment of follicles to worry about like someone who does ovulate. I would def hold off injecting

When I wasn't sure when to start I emailed his secretary and she checked with him for me - she got back to me really quickly xxx

Rose - technically if the bleeding I've had does count im already 2 days late (should have started on Friday). I am going to wait but ffs why can't my body just behave?! Xx

Ps banana I totally did the white knicker thing - ha ha! Not even a drop of blood yesterday until I changed into my evening dress (had a wedding last night) and put on my granny panties - then I had a teeny tiny bit more brown gunk. It's Sod's law squared!

Just did a frer and resoundingly negative. I think this is just a weird period....

Stealth Have you emailed the dr? Let us know what he says. Even if this is just a weird period, if you had good lining and haven't bled they might want the lining cleared out before you start taking more drugs.

Rose lots of sympathy. Am I right in thinking your work know about TTC? Will they be sympathetic if you need to change things?

Banana what's the next step?

AFM, I'm on CD9 of clomid 100mg so we're about to start dtd every other day. Our ancient house is freezing. As if dtd to a schedule wasn't unromantic enough, we now need hot water bottles and bedsocks FFS.

Yes I have oranges - and will call tomorrow am too. That's what I'm wondering re clearing out the lining. I have bled to some extent, but I haven't got close to having a flow and it's been v minimal. If I ovulated properly surely it should be more than this? I've had less than I had on either my provera induced bleed or my natural bleed on cd52 of my anovulatory cycle!

Ps at your sexy bed socks. Ttc sex is just the worst! Have you had a scan yet? Follies growing nicely?

Sorry for being rubbish at sending messages during the week. Stealthbanana, Rosebud, thanks for asking about the baby shower. It was actually fine as it was really nice to see my friends. And because the IVF treatment is imminent, I’m feeling a bit more optimistic. If the first round fails, I’ll start finding it harder and harder I’m sure.

Oranges sorry to hear you had a ‘mare on Norethisterone – I’m glad the clomid was easier for you. Are you being scanned tomorrow?

Bananafish, I was so pleased to see your post about the amazing tracking scan you had. Fantastic result – well done your ovaries . Really hope the progynova has been working for you. I am thinking thickening thoughts for you . How was the trigger shot? You must be so super excited. Best of luck for tomorrow. Update us when you get a chance, but make sure you rest up properly.

Rosebud, I’m so sorry to hear about the delay to your AF with all the logistics riding on it. Really hope you can get everything rearranged without too much difficulty.

Stealthbanana, I’ve got no useful knowledge for you on the question of when to start the gonal-f, but just wanted to send you and commiserations. I hope your clinic gets back to you quickly tomorrow and that you can get started (unless, of course, you get that BFP tomorrow with FMU!).

Dizzy, agree with the others that testing out whether there are other issues sounds a good idea – i.e. checking tubes and SA, so it’s great that your DP is on the waiting list.

Nurse, I’m sorry to hear you were (are?) in hospital. Are you feeling better now?

I’ve got the first appointment in the fertility clinic this week, which will hopefully mean I’ll find out all about timings, and the specific protocol I’ll be on. I’m going to start the pill as soon as AF arrives – had a temp drop on Friday and some cramping so thought it was on its way, but then my temp went up again. Bit of a relief as it would have meant an even shorter LP than my previous two cycles if it had arrived already. Anyway, presumably it will be here soon which will mean I can start injecting a few weeks after that, all being well.

Hope you all have good weeks and aren’t suffering from the Sunday evening blues too much.

And one more time as it is such a momentous occasion - Bananafish, good luck tomorrow! So pleased for you that’s it been going so well this time.

Hi ladies, hope you’re having lovely weekends and wrapped up warm!

Dizzy just to echo what the others have said about IUI my Dr (who stealth is also seeing and reported back his opinion) said it’s really only worthwhile if there is mild male factor

If you have moderate to severe male factor then there’s no point doing IUI as you’ll need ICSI

If you have no male factor issues at all, then he said there’s bugger all difference in success rates vs timed intercourse.

If there’s mild male factor then the sperm washing & putting the sperm directly into the uterus might make a difference. But the reason it’s so infrequently used in this country is because it’s only really beneficial in certain cases i.e. male factor or donor sperm

Voldy thanks for good wishes lovely! I’m afraid those hormone levels sound pretty classic PCOS (says the completely unqualified Dr Banana) - but you are in the right place, as these ladies have an absolute wealth of knowledge, and it’s such a well understood condition that you should be able to get some great help

freddie woohoo on the follie - any +ve OPK yet? Follies can be slower growing - some are 2mm a day, others are more like 1mm, and in a natural cycle they can get quite big, so it’s entirely possible you could take longer than 6 days to get that +ve. DTD eod def a good strategy either way!

nurse hope you’re feeling better, you poor thing. Thinking of you, hope it’s nothing too sinister

chandelier how are you and bean getting on? Thinking of you both!

Oranges keeping everything crossed for you with the Clomid. And PMSL with the sexy bedsocks! How about an electric blanket? (god I LOVE getting into a toasty bed!)

Feefee thanks soo much, thinking thick!! Very sweet of you, how are you doing? Hopefully all the IVF thread chats make it seem a bit less daunting? tonnes of luck for your appt at the clinic this week, do update us how you get on, really excited for you to get this show on the road!

So, I triggered last night (‘release the hounds!!!’ as my friend said her DH said when she triggered ) and I go into theatre @ 9am tomorrow morning for egg collection. Feefee in answer to your question the trigger is fine, it’s basically no different to any of the other meds, just has to be timed very specifically.

We’ll know before I leave the clinic, once I’ve come round from the sedation, how many eggs they got - although we won’t know at that point how many are mature.

Then squeaky bum time begins. We go home, and my eggs and DH’s sperm get jiggy in the love lab overnight (we have several hundred million of his finest swimmers in the freezer as an insurance policy after last time, so even if he comes down with amoebic dysentery tomorrow, we still have sperm). Sleepless night waiting for the phone call on Tues morning to say how many have fertilised. A good fertilisation rate is 75%, so I’m desperately hoping that my high FSH won’t mean my eggs are absolute crap and we get shocking fertilisation.

If there are at least 3 good quality embryos on day 3 (Thursday) then they will recommend culturing to day 5. There is usually quite a drop off between day 3 and 5, but anything that doesn’t make it to blastocyst was never going to be able to become a person.

‘Normal’ women who don’t have crappy lining then have embryo transfer at either day 3 or day 5, however whether or not we can do a fresh transfer really depends on what my lining is doing.

Dr said he will scan me next week and if there is any doubt about the thickness of the endometrium, we will freeze all the embryos and try and build my lining up next month for a frozen transfer.

I have chronic pain due to a spinal injury and take pretty hardcore pain meds - which obv I have to be off by transfer. It takes a while to come off everything slowly enough to avoid going into withdrawal, so I’ve been in a fuck of a lot of pain the last few weeks and I’m not even off everything yet. If I don’t get a transfer AGAIN and I’ve been tapering off everything for nothing - which is a distinct possibility - I will hit the fucking roof.

Scuse potty mouth but BLOODY BODY!!!

The priority right now is getting some embryos, so here’s hoping we get some decent eggs, and that they’re not all total duds and we get absolutely shit fertilisation

I think I will be breaking out the valium on Monday night, waiting for the Tues morning phone call with fertilisation numbers!!!! As well as some well earned haha

Will report back tomorrow, hopefully with positive news xxx

Ps you are absolutely right rose that at 7.2mm I'm over the minimum. Problem is last time it was at 7.6mm the day before I triggered, and had regressed to 6.4mm a couple of days later at EC. So we really really don't have much wiggle room if it plays silly buggers again and decides to just spontaneously combust on itself. DH keeps talking to my abdomen telling the eggs and lining to grow!

PPS check out my socks for egg collection tomorrow! It gets cold in theatre and when your legs are up in stirrups you might as well give the consultant a giggle when he's down the business end. DH got me these Superman socks after I saw someone wearing them on Gogglebox and remarked how awesome they were. They have little capes!!!

Fee good luck this week and Banana and Stealth fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Banana your socks are wonderful.

I may buy DH a pair - hero that he is, he hairdried the bed so it was warm enough for us to get in, and I think he's just ordered us an electric blanket. But until that arrives, I need to get us some sexier bedsocks, and those Superman ones are winners!

No scan for me, just day 21 and day 28 blood test on the NHS. I did investigate going private for scans, but I found out that the most recommended private clinic in the area is actually the clinic I've been referred to on the NHS. The head nurse told me to save my money for any future IVF treatment and just keep dtd on clomid.

Socks are ace banana! Good luck this morning!

Fair enough oranges, hope that electric blanket arrives soon

AFM, now I am a little bit confused and perhaps deluded. I did a frer with fmu this morning and there is the ever so faintest trace of a line - MAYBE. It's so faint it might be the indent of the test, i can only see it if I angle the test in a very particular light and I can't tell if it is pink or not. DH can't see anything (although he is looking for a line the same colour as the test line!). So now I'm not sure whether my mind is playing tricks on me or if it is a v v v v faint line (no way to photograph it unfortunately). Surely the line would be a bit more visible given I am a minimum of 14dpo?

stealth I reckon you should do another tomorrow (or Weds if you can bear the wait)... It's based on concentration of HCG rather than DPO, so it's possible that your levels aren't high enough to be picked up yet... With my youngest, I OVd later than I thought and it took aaaages for the swimmers to meet the eggy. Conception occurred at CD28ish!!

banana LOVING the socks! Thinking of you and hoping all goes well, eeek, in about 3 mins!!

oranges that's genius on your DH's part!! I often warm the DCs up with the hairdryer post-bath

Rosebud argh!!!!! F*ing AF!!! Always there when you don't want her and missing when you do! Hope the clinic can be helpful in moving you forward so you can go ahead with your plans and get out to the CR. Thinking of you

Fee GL for your appt!

Apologies for the multiple posts btw. I'm on my phone and struggling to read back and post.

Sorry, last one I promise!

nurse sorry to hear you've been so poorly. Hope you're being well looked after

banana missed your Q about me! Sorry!! And thanks for asking. Had a viability scan at EPU on Fri which, because of my dodgy positioned uterus, they had to do with dildocam and now I have thrush, as always! but they found a prawn shaped 7 week embryo with a heartbeat apparently...I couldn't see it and passed me back to my consultant and antenatal care I'm permanently nauseous and chucking up and dry retching most days but still in denial about the whole thing. Hope that doesn't sound too weird. Think it's a bit of self preservation tbh... Thank you for thinking of me

Hurrah chandelier! (not about the nauseousness and up chucking and thrush, but about prawny). Hang in there!

I pulled the test apart to look closer and it is still inconclusive although I lean closer to it being an indent line than a pink line. And to top it all off, I started spotting again 5mins ago. This is just ridiculous....

Holy moly. Back from egg collection.

17 eggs retrieved!

All 6 frozen eggs from the last cycle survived the thaw.

So that's 23 eggs in the love lab!

They have to do ICSI on the frozen eggs (because they have harder shells) but will do standard IVF on the fresh, as DH's sample was 'excellent'.

Consultant said he wished he knew what was going on with my AMH as he is completely stumped how someone with perimenopausal AMH and FSH has responded like this. But he is very very pleased, as am I!

Lining is 'so so', so I'm desperately hoping the oestrogen tablets help to thicken it up so we can have a fresh transfer. Dr will scan me later this week and we will see where we're at. If there is any doubt we will freeze all, and transfer in a FET, as he doesn't want to risk transferring a decent embryo into a suboptimal endometrium.

But for now, the focus is on trying to get some embryos. Our eggs and sperm are getting jiggy in the love lab so keeping everything crossed for a decent fertilisation rate when we get the call tomorrow!!

Oh Banana I am so very pleased for you......

Misses a bit last week, will catch up with all the posts this lunchtime! But sounds like we are all just bobbing along this rough journey.

AFM - AF arrived CD27 so 2 days early than it should have, what a way to start a Monday morning ..

banana Oh best of luck to you! Fingers crossed.

I'm a little confused by my body this month. My cycle was 28 days which is unusual for me. It used to be between 32-35 (it was between 35 and 42 at one point) My clearblue advanced fertility monitor told me to test on day 9 this month due to last month's 28 day cycle and I got high fertility straight away, so i'm assuming if I get a peak this month it will be around day 14/15. I rang clearblue and they said that if you have PCOS then it's not accurate, but if you have PCO it is accurate. How do I know what I have?! I stupidly didn't know you could have either, I just though everyone has PCOS.

I have booked a Dr's appt this Fri to ask for a blood test to confirm or deny ovulation, and hopefully it will correspond with what the monitor tells me (peak or no peak this months) Hopefully he will have my notes from the hospital which will say PCOS or PCO? I just don't know if it's worth going for clomid if I ovulate most months anyway?

On the plus side, i'm about a stone over weight and have sorted my diet out and I lost 5lb last week. Hoping for a 1 to 2lb loss a week from now on. Hopefully this will help me conceive.

Bananafish - have evrything crossed for you!! laughing at your comment of egg and sperm getting jiggy!! (if we dont laugh we'll cry eh?) good luck with the oestrogen - fingers crossed for thick lining! Love the socks, anything to get a laugh :D

Rosebud - hope youve managed to find some resoultion to the lack of AF, or where able to reschedule without too much bother. Theres nothing more to say other than having confused ovaries is pants :( Also, quick question for you, you had mentioned inositol to me. I bought some in powder form and have been throwing it in with a hot drink every morning as its unflavoured, is this okay do you think? Have been taking a teaspoon a day which equates to 4000mg apparently

Feefee - good luck with the appointment etc, will be keeping an eye out for the outcome!

Oranges - your house sounds like mine! Always freezing. I quite often worry that overnight the cat may freeze - unlikely though given that half of her night she seems to spend on my head for warmth. maybe shes got the right idea! Totally love sticking my electric blanket on low about two hours before getting into bed - so toasty when i get in! good luck with the clomid. will be watching out for you!

stealth - im too lazy to go back a page and look, but if i remember correctly youre waiting on a procedure (which ive forgotten the name of!!) to check for blocked tubes etc? if that isnt you i am very sorry - i had no internet access all last week unless i practically threw myself out the hospital window - was all a bit suicidal looking so thought best not do it too often!!

I was in hopsital mon - friday last week for IV antibiotics so was super glad to get home on friday! My medical doctor discussed me with gynae who would't see me on the ward as it wasnt an acute gynae issue but have said that they will move me to the urgent outpatient list (i am not convinced they will but we'll see) - I am planning to still go for my private appointment on thursday with the lady doctor who specialises in PCOS and infertility (and she even delivers babies too, she is such a multitasker!!) I have received a dietician appointment for thursday too so will be all go on thursday!
Will be off work this week at least and see how it goes for next week, We are due to go on holiday on 7th February and I won't be able to go if I am on sick leave so definitely need to be back before that! Priorities eh?

I am on cycle day 93 currently. Stopped my pill last february and have only had one period! GP doesnt seem overly concerned by this, but then again he is a man :D

So glad everyone is getting places on this thread, it's fab!!

Oranges Yeah my HR department know about TTC and IVF so they are being great. The supply teacher has been changed to the following week now so I'm just praying it comes soon.

Fee Woop for fertility appointments! Getting closer!!! eek! And Glad the baby shower was ok and you got to have a nice time with friends.

Banana Rocking the socks! Where are they from?

I've PM'ed you but I'll say it on here publicly too...... CONGRATULATIONS on your amazing egg count I am truly over the moon for you One step at a time; you are doing great xxx

Stealth Your very faint line is not a complete surprise to me- your spotting really sounds like implantation bleeding! Any news from your consultant? What was his advice? x

Chandelier Yay! That's such good news about your little one growing nicely. So happy for you.

Village Well done on the weight loss and well done for booking a doctors appointment to discuss blood tests- don't leave until he/she agrees!

Nurse Yes with the inositol a heaped teaspoon in water is around 4000mg and that's what's recommended to help alleviate some of the symptoms of PCOS. Take it daily for the best results- I find it really suppresses my appetite so I have to really focus on eating at meal times. I have a low BMI too so definitely don't want to lose anymore weight. But for those with classic PCOS it could be great to aid weight loss.

AF feels like it's coming and I've had a little bit of brown spotting since yesterday but it doesn't really seem to be turning into anything. Stealth and I are a right pair! Grrrrrr!

Thanks rosebud. You know I had realised my appetite was less but I thought it maybe a result of other things - inositol makes more sense! Thanks for recommending it to me, hopefully help with some weight loss (I've a bit to lose!)