TTC with PCOS (Thread lucky #4!)

[RoseBud2016]

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!

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63.8 means you definitely ovulated village

Not sure how those cb machines work but perhaps you missed testing at the right time? LH surges are short remember.

Thanks Stealth the machine asked me to test from day 10, and to test for 10 days. It picked up low on the first day, then high all the rest. It needs to show peak to indicate ovulation & it didn't. My blood test was done on day 21 and progesterone result was 63.8, so do you know if it means I could have ov'd on day 21? Doubt i'd ov later than day 21 or the result wouldn't have been so high, would it?

Bloody hell, I hope i'm pregnant

*Needs to show peak to indicate LH surge that should say.

Nope you must have ovulated a few days beforehand (not necessarily 7 but a few)

If you google progesterone levels in menstrual cycle you'll see a chart that helps you understand when they rise and fall

But 64 is v strong ov

village I thought anything over 30-something indicated ov? Sounds v good to me!

Hmm... Well it certainly didn't pick up on it! I'll google that chart, thanks so much. Trying to remember how often we DTD that week now.

Not holding my breath, as I got bloods done last May with a result of 90 and of course still not pregnant. I suppose the good thing is that I do ovulate sometimes, but why aren't I falling pregnant?!

The CBFM can miss your peak as it only lets you test once a day. So you might have surged in between two high readings....

The progesterone blood test is far more reliable than the ovulation monitor (and I have a CBFM!)

village well if "normal healthy couples" () have a 25% chance each month, but you are only occasionally ovulating (like me), you have a smaller chance at getting pregnant. Ovulating every month would put you on more of a level footing. Do you ovulate every month? It's a very particular business, this whole actually getting pregnant thing, I wish they'd warned me more at school!

Also village - the chances of any healthy fertile couple conceiving in any one cycle are only 15-20% max. 75% of fertilised eggs don't become babies, a fact that blew my mind when I read it in the Robert Winston book that came out last year. So ovulation doesn't automatically equal baby straight away xxx

Not every month, no. Looking back at all my charts, it seems I ov when my cycle is less than 35 days, anything over that and I don't. I'm just so sick of DTD!! I don't know how me & DP are still together! It's pressure!

bananafish Thanks for that, hadn't thought of that.

Sorry banana cross posted with you. 75%?!?!? That is crazy! Every person really is a miracle. I'm 19 months in & getting fed up!

village if i were you i would focus on the fact that all you need is a little push from maybe met or clomid seeing as you do ovulate on your own. I think that's really encouraging! And hey, this cycle could be your cycle. Don't give up hope! Can totally sympathise re: dtd. Was dtd eod earlier in my cycle but once I got past day 50 I just thought fuck it! And then I ovulated. Typical!

What is everyone's opinion on soy iso at the moment? Any success stories? That could be an alternative to Clomid

Stealth that sounds like really good news from the clinic. Fx for you!

Drew I would speak to the GP in your situation, I think they're more flexible on the waiting for a year thing when you've got something like PCOS.

Village that sounds like pretty decent ovulation! I've spoken to a few people who have had issues like that with the monitor.

Aaarghno I'm considering trying soy if I don't get any luck with the metformin. I was going to try it last time I was TTC but got put on clomid anyway.

So despite the almost positive OPKs, a smiley on the digi, EWCM and one temp rise, my temp has gone back down the last couple of days. No ovulation for me. I thought it was too good to be true!

Ok ladies I need help...

So this month I was taking 5mg of Letrozole as they doubled my doze... I'm now on day 8 of my cycle but when went to the toilet and done a no 2 ( sorry for tmi) when I wiped I had some cm!! White and stretchy!! Don't get scanned til Monday xxx

Ah magpie. How annoying. Do you usually ov or is this a regular occurrence?

village dtd sex is the worst. One great thing about IVF if that the pressure is off in that regard just as well as I have NOT felt particularly attractive . Remind me, have you done all the obvious tests (SA, hycosy etc)? I think if you're 19 months in and no dice (notwithstanding irregular ovulation) it's time to be moving to the next stage. and to you - sorry it's been such a marathon.

shell white and stretchy is fine. I believe it's clear and stretchy that signals ovulation. In any case you will be scanned v soon! It's v unlikely you'd ov before cd11.

Stealth I think the only time I've ever ov'd in the last few years is when I've been on clomid. Although my periods were slightly more regular for a few months when they came back after my DS was born but I wasn't monitoring that closely so may have ov'd then? It's very frustrating though!

Thanks stealth! How are you today?

Magpie... Maybe you did ovulate? Have you been to get checked?

Xx

Thanks stealth very kind of you. Yes, initially it was a blood test that confirmed ovulation, so we just carried on trying, but then a few months after that, we still had no luck so went for an internal scan (which confirmed PCO, and then Consultant diagnosed me with PCOS due to the other symptoms I have, as well as what he called "a pearl necklace" on my ovaries. He also checked my egg reserve (I have lots) and DP had a Sperm analysis (Brilliant results, very mobile and plenty of it) and then I asked for a hycosy and it was granted. That came back all clear.

So, here I am. Ovulating on my own a fair bit (although not every month) fairly regular periods (between around 32-35 days, although at one time i'd go 40 odd days without one) no blocked tubes and apparently DP has super sperm, so where is my pregnancy?!

I don't even know what the next step is now. Is it clomid, or is that futile due to me ov'ing on my own? Am I supposed to just go for IVF? We don't qualify for it & it's so expensive.

Rang clearblue, they have no idea why the machine didn't pick up on my LH surge, and they agreed that the blood test was far more accurate than the machine. They said PCOS may give a false positive result, but never a false negative

village I think it would just be a case of getting you to ovulate more often, possibly shortening your cycles. Met or clomid would be well worth a go. A friend has PCOS with fairly regular periods like you, and conceived on her first month of clomid. Obviously it doesn't work for everyone, but it is quite effective for some women

Hmm. It may be that clomid does the trick. It may be that you need to move to IVF. It might just be that you have a problem with your lining so you're making babies that can't implant. But if you think you are oving more often than not then I think it's definitely time to think about next steps. (Sorry to be harsh - but something is obviously not right!)

I would be tempted to do a monitored (scanned) natural cycle so you can see follicle development and how the lining is growing. Is that an option?

Thanks Cwtchy That's reassuring to hear & makes me think clomid is still worth a try.

Stealth Thanks for all your advice, you are a fountain of knowledge! I would hope it was an option, do you know how i'd go about it? Is their any way of knowing if there's a problem with my lining or is the scan you suggested how i'd know?

I already have a 6 year old. I know i'm so, so lucky. But that pregnancy wasn't planned, I had crippling PND, very traumatic birth resulting in emergency section which left me ill & kept me in hospital for a long time afterwards. I resented my child & wished my child's life away I just feel cheated & need to do it again "properly" I love my child more than life itself, she is my everything and i'm guilt ridden that it wasn't like that for the first year of her life. She is desperate for a sibling & gets quite lonely.

Due to having DD, we aren't eligible for any more NHS help, so would now be private. I thought my only other option was clomid.

Village my problem was lining (as well as borderline premature ovarian failure) and that's exactly what scans will show

Tbh I think you'd probably have to go private as the NHS doesn't really accommodate for anything that doesn't fit in the easy boxes

I couldn't get pregnant naturally because although I was ovulating, my lining was too thin to be able to support a pregnancy

This is fairly unusual as most people with lining issues tend to find it's Clomid related

But I do think lining is overlooked by the NHS especially with Clomid monitoring. Cumulatively Clomid thins the lining and there's no bloody point taking medication to help you ovulate if it's simultaneously going to make it impossible to conceive if nothing can implant xxx

Yes I suspect you'd have to do scans privately. They are around £70-100 each and I guess you'd have 2-4. Not sure if that's doable for you but I would be very tempted - as banana says, NHS are likely to be Sloooooooooow.

am so sorry you had such a difficult first birth. That must make everything more heightened and pressured. If it's any consolation, it sounds like you have a very good chance of having another baby - although the hoops we have to jump through are mega frustrating.

More good news from the lab - day 3 and 29 little embies are going strong. So we will definitely go to day 5 and biopsy for genetic screening, barring some catastrophe. Which is just as well as I still feel like absolute crap - no way is anyone implanting anything back into me at the moment!

stealth that's fantastic! Question for you - are you allowed to know the sex of the embryos? I saw that Chrissy Teigen (american model) knew what sex she was having from the word go, and wondered if it was a commonly done thing. It's all very interesting