TTC no luck , 124 day cycle

[Elspeth01]

Hi,

My partner and I have decided to try and conceive our first baby over a year ago. At the time I was on the pill , came off it and gave my body time to get itself right. My periods since then have went crazy ! They went from 28-32 day cycles to 60-80 days . And now I’m currently on day 124 since my last period .

I rang the doctor when I missed my 3rd period and was basically told we can’t do anything until Covid-19 has gone (which is totally understandable!!) but I’m seriously worried . I have tried taking ovulation tests every day and no hope .

If anyone has any advice on what I could do or try would be a great help. Thanks

Hopefully someone will be along soon with useful advice. @Elspeth01

Sorry to hear about this. The exact same thing happened to me. I saw my GP after 1 year and they said that that was too long for just “post pill” settling down and they did some blood tests. I was diagnosed with PCOS and blood tests showed I wasn’t ovulating, hence the long Irregular cycles. Having now done some research PCOS is a very common cause of irregular periods. You could have a look and see if you have any of the symptoms? If you’re not ovulating there are drugs that can help but would require a referral to gynaecology. In the meantime if you think there’s any chance you might have PCOS you could start the non-drug treatments which essentially involves getting your BMI under 25 if it is higher, and following a low carb diet even if you have a normal BMI. How old are you if you don’t mind me asking? If you have got plenty of time to wait then that’s fine but otherwise you could think of going private. I saw a gynaecologist privately because the NHS waiting time was 6 months (and that was pre Covid!) and it cost I think £175. Might be an option for you to consider.

The NHS page is here www.nhs.uk/conditions/irregular-periods/

Thank you for your reply !

I’m 27 so I still have time which is a great plus side !
I have been looking into POCS for a while . The only symptoms I have is the irregular periods and finding it hard to lose weight. But doctors have been watching my thyroid for years , not sure if that’s a factor too .

Ifyou don’t mind me asking . Did yours happen gradually ? Or sudden ?

Thank you for the help !

No problem. Yes thyroid is a definite possibility (and hopefully more easily treated). Thyroid was one of the very first blood tests my GP did. If you are already in the system with your GP for thyroid it might be possible to get your thyroid function tested despite the current Covid situation? Otherwise they did prolactin, LH, FSH, testosterone, Glucose, and then started doing progesterone at certain points in my cycle and that’s how they knew I hadn’t ovulated. You do it I think 3 days after your period starts which is easy enough, but then you do it again 7 days before your next period Starts which is obviously really difficult if you have an irregular cycle!

So I think it’s still a possibility for you - I don’t have any PCOS symptoms other than the periods. I get spots but nothing outside the the realms of normal I don’t think. So it’s a bit hard to tell when it started. I remember having irregular periods as a teenager but my GP started me on the pill which sorted it out and I never though anything of it until I came off the pill to TTC, and then they were all over the place like you. It’s a shame this is happening to you in the time of Covid because it really does sound like you need investigating and probably referring to gynae. Hopefully some of these services are restarting soon. Keep a period diary (my gynaecologist wanted to see this) and I would check with the GP every few weeks as to when you can have the first round of blood tests.

I know weight loss is hard with thyroid problems but just to warn you, depending on how high your BMI is, this can be an issue and some of the fertility drugs are not prescribed if you have a BMI over 30. So it’s worth trying really hard on because not only can it cure the problem but it would be awful to go through the referral process and wait ages to be told that you can’t have clomid due to weight.

Yeah I may chase up about that , see if they can do anything more with the thyroid tests.
I’m really worried about it because I was regular as clockwork before the pill and was only on it a year and had to stop it due to the weight gain being more than what I could shift easily .

I will carry on with my diet and hopefully it will help .
Thank you so much for the info , it’s difficult . Quite a lonely process .

It is lonely and gets really hard I’m afraid. Imagine more so at the current time. Good luck. I should have mentioned one good thing which is I managed to conceive naturally in the end with cycles like yours so do keep having regular sex! Big surprise!

I know it’s a bit taboo but I felt much better once I had talked to a couple of friends in real life. I chose people I was very close to and one has kids so understood a bit. I was quite open about how it was affecting me. It made a big difference so maybe consider it.