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!

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

You can find our second thread >>>>>>>>> HERE

You can find our third thread >>>>>>>>>HERE

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I had a bit of complication with my hsg - my blood pressure dropped really really low about 4 hours after it and I had to go back into hospital. I couldn't sit up without getting dizzy and vomiting. (My bp really was v v low - I think it was around 80/45 at one point.) reading up on it in hindsight I think they touched my cervix which can apparently cause that to happen. Defo take the day off just in case!

Nurse I was off the day after as was quite sore after it.. Everyone's different though :) xx

Afternoon all, sorry not been around but have been lurking. See we have some new names on here, sorry to see that so many of us have trouble. I really hope you get your BFP's soon, I really do. Just thought I would pop up since I can actually comment on something I know about the issue of hsg!! Mine was an utter failure, they spent nearly 45mins trying to get the tube passed my cervix, it was having none of it, Was sent home crying! Ended up having to have a lap and dye instead!! the failed HSG caused severe bleeding and horrid snot like discharge (sorry if TMI) for about a week, it was horrible, ended up with an infection and needing antibiotics. My GP said that it is quite common not to be able to complete a HSG but i just felt like an even bigger failure! Defo take at least the rest of the day off and warn anyone who needs to know that it could be another day after!!!

So little update, got my appointment for my follow up after the normal lap and dye (that took some time to recover from!) it was booked for the 06/04, they have just called and cancelled moved it to the 20/04....so more waiting! Anyway I am CD20 or 7DPO. Got a positive OPK on the CD12/13, think i might have ovulated on CD13. BD all the way round that date before and after, so you never know. Trying not to stress and symptom spot, not really talked to anyone this cycle, trying to put that face on that says I am not really thinking about it. I am really trying! It is in God's hands..........Anyway AF due 07/04, DH b'day 10/04 so could be a great present or not lol!!

Good all to all xx

Hi ladies,

I've had a busy week and not been on much, too many posts to catch up on!

Banana You are a fountain of knowledge, I am in total awe of you!

Dunlin Wow!!! HUGE congratulations! So very pleased for you and hoping all goes swimmingly for you. How long were you ttc?

Shell How's things? So did you ovulate then from the clomid?

I'm looking for some advice, finally booked myself in for my consultation for my clomid (14th April) I'm very excited, but then I ovulate on my own fairly often, so is there much point? Will they be able to check my lining? I know there are monitoring scans included the first month in the package.

We've done everything we can (I think) I have had 2 blood tests that confirmed ov both months, DP's sperm analysis results were fantastic, my internal scan showed PCO and my other symptoms lead them to diagnose me with PCOS, my egg reserve was great, my hycosy results showed no blockage, so why on earth aren't I getting caught? Will clomid even help??

I was hoping you could help me put a list of questions together for the consultant. If you were me, what would you be asking him? It's coming to £500 so I want to get my money's worth!

I would ask some of the questions you've asked here, such as whether they would monitor your lining and how Clomid could help in your situation.
For what it's worth, I've heard of people who ovulate on their own being given Clomid.
I would also ask if there's anything you can do to help the Clomid work, what dosage they would start you on (usually 50mg I think), how many cycles you could have, what monitoring they provide and what the plan is if the first cycle doesn't work. Have a chat about minimising side effects as well. I remember being told to take it at night as that helps you sleep through some of the side effects.

Hey all.

Right, I really wanted to catch up with you all, but I have 5 pages to catch up on!
I'm sorry I'm a bit of an intermittent poster here. It was mainly because we weren't officially trying.

I have good news though, we are officially going for it! So I can finally participate now, for real
I have to be totally honest though, I'm so out of date with TTC and I'm extremely unfamiliar with IVF and other medical interventions so I feel like I've nothing to add which makes me feel bad.

I need to learn though, as your advice and support has been so helpful the past few weeks and I wish I had more to give back. If anyone has any pointers to help me to understand things then feel free to give me a lesson! I seem to have forgotten how everything works, especially when trying to work out what the hell is going on my my cycles which now are onloy 10 days long after a lifetime of epic cycles. This started in September last year. I thought getting pregnant then the MC would have re-booted my cycles, but no. Not sure how I can ovulate with 10 day cycles, though I managed it with our little Shrimpy so it must happen somehow.

I also have a bit more good news, we completed on DP's flat today! Just need to complete on mine, he's now moved into my flat. Then we can, hopefully (fingers crossed), move into the house we're buying. This was all spurred on when we discovered I was pregnant. We decided to keep the ball rolling despite the MC, something else to stress about look forward to...

I hope you're all well

Hey Village :)

Yeh the nurse said she could see fluid lying so could tell I had bit had to get the bloods done yesterday to confirm. To call tomorrow for my results..
When I go for scans the measure my lining each time! I also eat pomegranate which I have heard helps xx

Frazzle Yay for officially TTC! I've spent over 3 years altogether (including trying for DS) and I'm still learning. It's a complicated business especially when fertility treatment is involved. I wonder how people coped with it before Internet forums?

Shell I didn't realise pomegranate could help with lining. I love pomegranate but it's so much work to prepare. Sounds worth it though!

I was wondering if anyone knew if metformin can reduce bbt? The lowest my temp normally goes is around 35.9 but I've been getting temps as low as 35.5. They're still all over the place but could there be anything else causing the low temps?

Magpie I read pomegranate juice but I just bought the wee pack of pomegranate out the supermarket and had that a few times!
Can I ask what was your BBT before you started metformin?

I have been taking mine each day but get confused with it xx

My temp varies around 35.9-36.5 usually. On the rare occasions I've ovulated it's gone to between 36.6-36.9. This cycle has been between 35.5-36.3ish.

My temp has been between 36.6 and 36.8 for the last week or so.. Dipped to 36.1 one day and then back up... Never tracked the bbt before.. So confusing xx

Thanks Magpie! I've not officially TTC for about 8 years, that was for 11 months (for DC2) and before that 2.5 years with DS1. so it's all been forgotten.
I remember taking my temp every single bloody morning and charting it, but my chart was all over the place so I couldn't pin point ovulation. Plus my cycles were epically long. Sometimes over 150 days. It was such a bore.
I'm also taking Metformin but not charting this time so I can't help you with temps I'm afraid! I've not had the stomach aches I've read about on here though. I know it's best to build it up slowly. So after my MC, I asked my GP if I should go back onto Metformin (I was on 1500 pre preg) and she said build up slowly over 2/3 weeks from 500 per day. Not had any issue, and annoyingly not lost any weight!

Shell interesting about Pomegranate. I love it! I know nothing about thickness of lining. Assuming this is to help implantation? (see, told you I was clueless)

Bananafish How are you feeling now?

Not out yet. AF is due tomorrow. Aaah!

Nothing much to report from me. Just waiting for post ERPC follow up with my consultant, to discuss the results of the tissue testing and next steps

Body still very much thinks it's pregnant as my boobs still look pregnant (small changes are very noticeable on my small frame) and still getting blazing BFPs. Dr said it could take up to 4 weeks for hCG levels to fall and if I'm still getting positive tests he will do a blood test when I come in.

So just waiting for by body to un-pregnant itself really. Today should have been our 12 week scan

Clinic just called and my bloods show that I definitely ovulated 😁😁😁

I'm sorry banana. Our 12 week scan should have been three weeks ago and I had set a reminder in my phone - as if I needed a reminder, I was counting the seconds until scan day! (along with other appointment reminders which I've had to go through and delete) Receiving that reminder was painful
I wasn't offered tissue testing, is that something you have to ask for? I kind of wish we'd done that, but then part of me doesn't want to know. I wish we could have known the sex at least.
The feeling of the body 'un-pregnanting' itself is hard. My boobs went from full to flat and my hard bump disappeared and left me with a wobbly tummy over night suddenly. It was a harsh wake up call from my body. No point being in denial though.
I hope you're feeling things getting a bit easier. I have just started to start feeling normal again, but have daily wobbles. It's been nearly six weeks now.
But I've been 'lucky' that I have a big distraction in the house move. How's your DP/H coping?

Shell Fabulous news! So 2 week wait then? I don;t understand the 2 week wait though, I got a BFP only 4 days after conception...

Frazzle I’m so very sorry for your loss, it’s so hard when the milestones that should have been keep popping up

Tissue testing isn’t something the NHS will do until you’ve had three consecutive losses. Most miscarriages are chalked up to ‘just bad luck’ so they won’t run any tests until your third successive m/c

We had the ERPC done privately (BUPA don’t cover fertility but they do cover miscarriages) which meant we could pay for the tissue testing, which will hopefully give us some answers as to why the miscarriage happened. It’s most likely that the baby wasn’t chromosomally normal, as that’s why most m/c happen (i.e. bad luck). If however the baby was genetically normal, it means we have to do more investigations to identify why my body might have rejected the foetus

DH is bereft and grief-stricken, and dealing with it in his own way. We are both just very very sad.

I'm a bit confused how you got a BFP 4 days post conception? Are you sure you have your dates right? It’s impossible to get a BFP just 4 days post conception. At day 4 the embryo is a morula, it’s compacting from an 8-cell embryo and doesn’t become a blastocyst until day 5.

We transferred our blastocyst at day 5 and it only hatches on day 6, and implantation can’t start until at least day 6 - the earliest yoou could possibly detect hCG levels would be 9 or 10 dpo.

It’s physically impossible for there to be hCG before implantation can have occurred -day 6 is the absolute earliest it can occur, a morula can’t implant - only a hatching blastocyst (day 6) can implant.

The 2ww is because you wouldn’t miss your period until 14 days post ovulation, based on a normal luteal phase. You may get a positive from 10dpo but really it’s best not to test earlier than 14 dpo. IVF clinics tell you to wait till 9 days post 5 day transfer i.e. 14 dpo because any earlier you might get a false negative

Drew how you doing? Any signs of AF or anything?

Frazzle yeah.. I'm in the second half of it but contemplating just waiting to see if AF comes or not instead of torturing myself with tests etc!!

Banana sending hugs xxx

No AF but BFN this morning

Keep positive nurse... could still happen! Sending hugs xxx

banana That's what the nurse said to us after she scanned me and we discovered our baby had died, that chromosome abnormalities were generally the reason at that stage. I guess we'll never know though.
It'll be interesting to see what your results are. Hmm.... Now you've got me thinking. like I said, I'm clueless with the science behind conception. I had a dating scan at 5 weeks and 3 days iirc. I know that's not from conception so I assumed ovulation/conception would have been 3 weeks and 3 days before that scan.
I worked out that it had to be one of the rare occasions we weren't 'careful' which was a Wednesday, 4 days before I got my BFP. But then I have mental cycles and, from what you've said, I guess that must be way out!

So my question is, how do we know when to test without trying to monitor ovulation? Do we wait for symptoms? Missing a period is pretty normal for PCOS so we can't use that as an indicator. I was also warned about testing for ovulation because PCOS causes false spikes? Like I say, it's been so long I can't remember exactly.

Shell Do you get regular AF's? It's hard not to test isnt it! I remember that bit very well from TTC the boys. I must have got through hundreds of tests over the years!

Drew Do you have any symptoms at all? I'm keeping everything crossed for you. Keep testing. Any sign that AF might be on it's horrid way? Or preg symptoms? Though I know they can be very similar... It's so frustrating isn't it. Keep testing!

Oh jeez, My lovely friend at work had their scan today. I just asked him how it went and he immediately skyped me a photo of their scan. I kind of wish he'd just told me rather than sending the scan pics . I was relieved all was ok, but not ready to see the scan pics. He's the friend who was only two weeks behind me. He was the first person I told I was pregnant at work, and I was the first person he told too, so we shared a lot of excitement before it went shit for us.
I just wish he didn't send the pictures, I'm crying now. I don't know if it's relief all is ok with their baby or if it's because I'm upset I should have a healthy baby too. A mixture I guess. I am genuinely relieved all is ok for them, I was secretly really anxious about their scan after what happened with us.

Frazzle that must be hard, I think it's okay to feel sadness about other's pregnancies especially when you're so raw yourself. I know people experience a lot of guilt about those feelings, probably because it's something that doesn't get talked about very much.
As for knowing when to test, before I started checking for ovulation I was obsessively POAS to test for pregnancy. It's one of the reasons I started charting. Knowing things like my BBT and my CM patterns stop me from convincing myself I'm pregnant when I'm clearly not (well I still POAS sometimes when I know there's no chance).
Definitely yes to building up metformin slowly, I was still really ill the first 3-4 weeks but it would've been much worse if I'd gone to 1000mg straight away.

Banana massive hugs to you!

Shell awesome that ovulation has been confirmed, so exciting!

I'm CD13 today and felt like I was getting PMT symptoms yesterday and have been cramping today. I feel like I'm going to get AF. I can get PMT/cramps for around a week before I start and I'm very irregular but this is early even for me. I hate PCOS!

Hi everyone another crazy week in work hence my not being around much!
My ovia app updates today to say I was ovulating as I've been having egg white cm (though not as egg whitey as is like!) and my clearlblue ovulation tests have been reading high, though I've not had an LH surge yet, will keep testing. I'm only on cd 15 and didn't ovulate till cd 26 last month so plenty of time yet. My clearlblue with dual hormone is driving me insane. Every test I've done for the past 3 days has errored and I'm not sure why, I'm following the instructions perfectly. Getting fed up spending so much money on them when they do things like this, don't think I'll be buying another box

Nurse I just buy the wee ones off amazon! I know how you feel! Sending love

Magpie thank you, actually petrified this month!! Dreading testing!

Frazzled my af normally comes between 33-35, one cycle was 122 days but not anymore thank goodness!!

So got some symptoms but trying not to get my hopes up as feel as though I'm just setting myself up for a big fall!!

Still no AF, white cm ( sorry tmi) is that good? No idea. There's definitely hormone flowing around.