PCOS & Ovulation

[Butterfly2000]

Help! Not sure if I'm overthinking! I've not long started my ttc journey. First the time I've had a positive ovulation test and had the most pain I've had around when I think I'm ovulating though it's only been Nout 4 days since the end of my period. The pain bad I thought I'd pulled a muscle while exercising the day before! 😂🙈 I'm so excited that despite being overweight and having PCOS my body seems to work. But then I suddenly thought, how do I know I've released an egg?! This might be a stupid question and super overthinking but I'm learning about my body. The best part of 20 yrs on the pill so patterns and pains are quite enlightening. I'm loving getting to know my body it's amazing but scary too x

Hi fellow PCOS sufferer! There are different types of PCOS (Insulin resistant, post pill etc) but for me, a positive ovulation test unfortunately did not mean I had ovulated.

With PCOS your LH levels will always be high, so those “smart” clearblue ovulation sticks would give a low reading as it’s supposed to for the first test and then a lot of high readings but never a peak because it never detects a peak in LH. I spent hundreds on those tests just to find out (because I could see in my blood test results) that it was pointless. If you’ve been using them for a while and you’ve just got a positive after months of negatives then that may be a sign that you’ll ovulate in the next 48 hours and the tests do work for you.

I did try Basal Temp checking every morning with the Premom app but my temperature never seemed to raise to confirm ovulation so I probably didn’t ovulate those months.

If you think you’re having ovulation pain then that’s a good sign! If you have a way of writing down any symptoms you have daily (CM, temperature, ovulation test result, mood) you might find a pattern for the months you do and don’t ovulate.

Also, hang in there! It’s tough and it can feel like forever when TTC with PCOS but don’t let the doctors fob you off. Best of luck to you.

Thanks for that! My tests have all been negative the last couple of months even when I've had pain. I'm keeping everything crossed! It's so hard and confusing. Will hopefully have bloods done soon. There's one GP at my surgery who's really good so I'm hoping she'll do all she can if needed. Even when I spoke to her about my weight over the years she listened and was willing to let me try medication to help.
I'm taking Metformin too. Am going to try hard at exercising, eating better and losing weight. This is such a hard journey for all. How's it going for you?

That’s really encouraging news if they are normally negative. Could be that the LH levels for you do rise even higher for you to trigger ovulation, fingers crossed for you that it was a LH trigger and you’ll ovulate in the next day or so.

For me they had to do two months of blood tests (a day 2 and day 21 blood test done twice) and send me for a scan of my ovaries to confirm I had the “string of pearls” which is the immature follicles before they referred me to a fertility clinic. They wanted to do a HSG - Hysterosalpingography test before prescribing clomid. Husband came back fine with his tests so she said it was just me that needed help.

I’ve heard metformin can really be quite helpful but I never got prescribed it. I took MyOva brand myo-inositol tablets which were quite expensive but they were double the dose that conceive plus sold. I took conceive plus for five months and nothing, I switched to the MyOva brand and fell pregnant on the second batch. I can’t confirm that’s what worked because I was also walking 20,000+ steps a day and trying to cut out all foods that I heard weren’t helpful with PCOS. It was probably just good luck as I’d been trying for a long time and I finally ovulated.

I’m glad it sounds like you’ve got good doctors who are willing to help, it’s one less thing to get frustrated with when they actually want to help. I really hope you get good news soon, I wouldn’t wish PCOS and the struggle with ttc on anyone.

I've been on a long ttc journey thanks to pcos. I tried Clomid (at all strengths), metformin, bbt monitoring, follicle tracking, losing weight and finally I had a laparoscopy where my ovaries were 'drilled'. It was this operation which helped me to conceive. It was the first cycle following the operation where I had ovulation pain, like you're describing, and so we dtd and the result is my 16 year old!!!

I'd really recommend keeping track using a bbt monitor. The cycle I conceived my ds,I actually ovulated on day 32. Without the spike in my temp, my due date would have been wrong! I really began to understand my cycles more, ovulation or no ovulation, through this. I had a monitor from Boots which I had next to my bed and I'd do it like clockwork every morning.

I wish you all the best with your ttc journey. If you can lose 10% of your weight, that can really help with shortening longer cycles. Metformin helped me as it stopped me from eating greasy food but in terms of fertility it did nothing.

Best of luck.

The pain your describing sounds like ovulation. It's been such a long journey for me , almost 18 years and I've never had regular periods , have suffered numerous bouts of amenorrhea and was told I was not ovulating. Only in these past few months have my periods become regular and im not ovulating . ( managed to get pregnant dec but it didn't stick) I get awful pains for a few days around ovary. Tends to always be my right. I never feel anything from my left.
Without a progesterone test you don't know if you've released an egg. Same for any woman , pcos or not. Annovulatory cycles are common. You could try tempting and take your temp every morning upon wakening . It's pretty good, I was able to predict my period 2 days became it came. I'm now cycle day 1.

Hi everyone, hope you don't mind me popping on here, seems like you all are super well-informed! Sorry to hear that some of you have had hard journeys.
@MK85 So sorry to hear you've had such a long journey and wish you v best of luck on this cycle.
I have possible, but unconfirmed, PCOS (they investigated me in my mid 20s bc I didn't get a period for two years but were never sure I had PCOS, and ended up saying 'Come back if you're struggling to have a baby') My periods are way more regular now since I've been off the pill for several months, roughly every 35 days, although my skin has gotten pretty bad :/

I was just wondering, if you're having periods, does that mean you're definitely ovulating? I feel like I've read / heard things about people finding out they weren't ovulating despite periods? My partner and I are TTC for the first time this month, so all pretty new!

Hello, shocking but not unexpected that they never fully investigated. Unfortunately with PCOS they never seem to help with any symptoms until you want to conceive.

With regards to bleeding, sometimes you’ll get what is called breakthrough bleeding which can be mistaken for a period. If the lining has built up over a long period of time it can start to shed even if you haven’t ovulated.

For me however, my hormones must have been quite off as I had brown spotting or bleeding every single day. In the cycle I conceived I didn’t get the spotting so it must have been related to low progesterone.

I wish you the best of luck!

@Gielinor thanks for your reply! Oh that's interesting about the spotting. I feel like there is so much to learn about this stuff, it's all very mysterious.

And ah yes okay about the breakthrough bleeding. I guess it's hard to say which is which.

Anyway, I guess the advice is probably just to keep at it! It's a weird and unique experience to suddenly be aware of all these things our bodies are doing. Thanks again. 😊