TTC at 35 and just been diagnosed with PCOS

[LSarah]

Looking for some support. ❤I got married last year and my husband and I immediately started trying to conceive after I came off the pill. I had just turned 35 and was already feeling worried about our chances of conceiving at my age. My periods have been a mess since coming off the pill (so irregular, one day here, one day there etc). So after 6 months I went to my GP. Had some tests/scans and they confirmed I have PCOS. I've been referred to the fertility clinic but there's a minimum of a 42 week wait. By the time I see a gynecologist at the NHS I will be nearly 37 years old. I'm trying to stay positive but I'm feeling really anxious and upset that this might not happen for us. Has anyone looked into private health care to help induce ovulation? I had a look today and it's extortionate. Can anyone give me any other advice? Just trying to stay positive but it's so hard.

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis op. What I will say is research pcos as much as you can and learn about it. Make sure you and your husband are taking vitamin supplements and increase your exercise and lower your carbs and sugar intake. Pcos is like diabetes of the ovaries so you need to treat it as such.

Hello lovely , I totally get where your coming from.
I started the process of a referral when I was 33 years old . It took 3 years for a gynae referral and It's been a year of emotions . I'm now 37 and I just got started on clomid in April.
I'm now on my third cycle but no success thus far .
If its any help , the one thing that has kept me sane is joining a few groups on mumsnet and realising there's lots of women 35+ having babies. Quite a few have mentioned that it's a normal age group for first time babies nowadays.
I'm in a group on here and it's specifically for us gals of an older age. I also just created a group yesterday for women with pcos 35+ . Your welcome to join either of those groups if you'd like a bit of support

Maybe because she hadn’t met the right partner or she wanted a career?

What kind of a comment is this .

Hi @LSarah, sorry to hear of how you are feeling.

I have PCOS (diagnosed aged 28) - had Dd1 at 35 and am v early pregnant with DC2 at 37. For Dd1, we did ovulation induction through the NHS. It was in 2020, but we got called for our first appt quicker than we expected so the online wait checkers are not always accurate. For dc2, it said a 26w wait for fertility clinic, but we got called for first appt after 3 months so not too long to wait. Dd1 was conceived using a drug called letrozole to induce ovulation.

Some hospitals offer a private service alongside their nhs service (we are in London and our hospital does this). You basically pay to skip the queue. I think it was going to be £1000-1500? So not as expensive as going fully private. Is that more affordable for you?

There's also lots of anecdotal data about other things to help PCOS. I actually conceived DC2 naturally whilst in the middle of doing our pre treatment tests. I had lost 10% of my body weight and switched to a low carb diet to help with the PCOS inflammation. I really think that made a big difference (i was very overweight to begin with). There are also some good threads on MN about inositol, which can help regulate periods for PCOS. So worth trying those whilst you wait.

Good luck 💐 i always think this waiting time is the worst but it will pass and lots of women with PCOS get pregnant every day. So dont lose hope.

That's irrelevant to the OP isnt it so why dont you take your rude comments elsewhere, as you are not contributing anything to this thread.

Don't lose hope. It's still possible to get pregnant with PCOS. (Jools Oliver and Victoria Beckham both had PCOS.)

Are you overweight? If you are and have PCOS then you may well be insulin resistant. In which case you should be prescribed metformin. That along with a low carb diet will help you lose weight and improve
your PCOS symptoms. That may be all you need to help you conceive.
Good luck! 🍀

🤣🤣🤣 ok dear

You're talking absolute nonsense.

Your religion has nothing to do with your ignorance.

Thank you so much to you all for your kind messages. Sorry for the delayed response, we were away at our in-laws over the weekend and I'm just catching up now. Thankfully messages from one user have been deleted before I had the chance to read them, but thank you to all you amazing ladies for jumping in.

Thank you! I've been reading up on PCOS and just ordered myo-inositol as so many recommend that. I never thought about treating it like diabetes so really appreciate the advice!

I'll definitely be joining those groups, thank you so much! I feel so isolated at the moment as everyone around me seems to be pregnant or have children so it means so much to know I'm far from alone.

Thank you so much, that's hugely helpful. I will look into whether I can privately skip the queue. I'm so pleased to hear of your successes and it makes me more hopeful for sure. I have also just ordered myo-inositol and I will try to cut down on the carbs. I'm not overweight but I eat soooo many carbs so this is an area I can definitely improve upon.

I NEVER knew that about Victoria Beckham! I'm not overweight but I can definitely cut down on carbs for sure, thank you for the advice!

I have PCOS and conceived naturally aged 36 and 38. It can and does happen! I had reflexology to regulate my cycle and dropped a few pounds in weight by cutting out sugar which then triggered ovulation (I was tracking it). There are lots of things you can be doing to help whilst waiting - cut carbs and sugar, sleep is important, try to keep stress down, gentle exercise (you want to avoid anything that puts too much pressure on you). Read up around it. Verity UK is a great place to start and there is a FB group especially for fertility as well as a more general group plus website and support groups. Those of us with PCOS often become more fertile as we get older and was definitely case for me so fingers crossed for you.

Hi, just jumping in here as I have similar circumstances.

I'm 32 and have recently been diagnosed with PCOS. We are at the beginning of our TTC journey however we opted to get some tests privately as I wasn't appearing to ovulate every month. I have just picked up a private prescription of letrozole and intend to start this Sep/Oct. I have also been taking a supplement with inositol in it and I actually had a normal cycle last month and had peak ovulation so we are going to try naturally next month and if not try the letrozole.

In terms of the cost of private treatment the tests for my partner and I were around £500 and the private prescription was £55. I then paid £15 for the letrozole tablets. I spoke to my GP after the test results and they wouldn't prescribe the medication, they wanted to refer me to the fertility clinic too but again it was a 8/9 month wait.

I hope that's helpful, I feel like I'm rambling ha.

Haha no rambling at all! It's so helpful to hear what other people are doing. If you don't mind me asking, how did you go about going private? I'm struggling to find information online!!

Not at all, I just researched online private clinics near me and went with who seemed to have the best reviews and package. They didn't need any info from my GP or anything I just rang them up, gave them some history and got booked in. We used Manchester fertility clinic if on the off chance you are anywhere near there.