Polycystic Ovaries

[LilyRosie23]

Hi! Just wondering if anyone can shed any light as I'm a little confused.
I'm 33, have children all conceived naturally and fairly easily within a year of trying.
For the past 6 months been trying to conceive baby number 4, haven't been too concerned expected it to take a little longer with being older.
However was in hospital this weekend with what they suspected was a ruptured ovarian cyst, however after a few scans turns out it wasn't although was told I do have polycystic ovaries! Have no other symptoms of pcos, regular periods etc.
As i was in hospital for other reasons, they seemed a little unwilling to discuss what this could mean for fertility.
So wanted to pick your brains!
Will I always have had polycystic ovaries ? And obviously successfully managed to concieve or is this something I have developed and now may face problems with conceiving?
My youngest child has just turned 3 if that makes any difference!

Edit: meant to say I have 3 children

PCOS can develop after having a baby although it’s rare. It doesn’t always start at puberty. Lots of women do have babies with pcos so you may just have been lucky so far.
i would be asking them why you weren’t diagnosed before now as they’ve clearly ultrasound scanned your womb before.

some women struggle with conceiving with pcos, some don’t, some don’t struggle and then suddenly start to like you.

They said it can have polycystic ovaries without having PCOS! Very strange it's never been picked up before. I have no symptoms of PCOS

This is true, polycystic ovaries do not automatically mean PCOS. You can also technically have PCOS without having polycystic ovaries. I have PCOS, diagnosed after I’d had my first child but before my second, although I’ve always had irregular periods my GP never felt it needed investigating. My first scan with DC1 they commented that my ovary appeared enlarged, but again, no further investigation. Both of my children were conceived without intervention although I had been told I’d need treatment before DC2.

You say you conceived naturally "within a year" for your previous pregnancies? That screams PCOS to me. For a couple with no fertility issues and having sufficeint sex, it would usually take significantly less time to get pregnant.

I think the "average time is 6months" narrative has really skewed the reality. Women having unprotected sex, at the right time, with no issues will get pregnant pretty quickly. For everyone else, it's a much slower process. Combine and average those and you get 6 months.

PCOS does not impact your ability to get pregnant. it impacts the liklihood of you having a ovum that is in the right place, at the right time. If you Do have an ovum in the right place and you have unprotected sex, your chances of getting pregnant are pretty much the same as for any other couple having unprotected sex with an ovum ready to go.

It is completely normal for people without PCOS to take up to a year to conceive so please don’t worry about the previous answers.

I have PCOS and I have gotten pregnant 5 times now.
Having pcos doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant - it usually means you ovulate less reliably. But if you have regular periods and do ovulate, then that’s fine.

For some people it doesn’t change anything other than giving you some unpleasant symptoms (body hair, acne)

all that being said, what can affect fertility is also the quality of sperm. So if you find it more difficult than usual make sure both gets tested :)

This is true, sorry I presumed you’d been diagnosed with both

Thankyou everybody. We was taking the stance with baby number 4 that if it happens it happens, if it don't it don't! So I'm just going to think like that from now and not stress about it. What will be will be!