TTC irreegular periods- what to take pleeeease?

[plusonemore]

friend is TTC, irregualr periods for 6 moths or so- what can help- evening primrose oil or Agnus Castus have heard of? Thanks!

None of those. AC in particular can make any underlying hormonal imbalance worse; she is better off seeking medical advice asap to determine what the cause of the irregular periods are.

There are two possible causes here; problems with the thyroid gland and/or a condition called polycystic ovaries. She should have blood tests done to see if either of these are present. Internal ultrasound scans can also be done to assess the ovaries and uterine cavity. Both can be treated however, she may well need to be referred to a gynae as well at a subfertility unit.

gosh ok thanks

i will prob get flamed for this.... but my cycles are irregular and painful. i have had a scan and pcos has been ruled out so i take agnus castus and that seemed to sort them out. someone else on another thread takes evening primrose and that has reduced her long cycle by 2 weeks.

perhaps if u spoke to a herbalist then she would help. i phoned 1 and she told me agnus castus was pretty safe and had been used for 100s of years but she did ask if i had pcos.

do you have any kids? how irregular are your periods?

bubblebell,

Has anyone mentioned endometriosis to you - this is a common cause of very painful periods. Its also NOT detected on an ultraound scan but usually diagnosed through keyhole surgery called a laparoscopy.

The cystic follicles associated with PCOS do disappear only to be replaced by further cystic follicles. Why was PCOS ruled out; they should be looking very closely for the cause of your irregular periods too. Have they checked your thyroid levels as well?.

I have very irregular periods, no pain or anything ever . I found acupuncture to be fantastic. hth

Thanks atilla (dont mean to hijack your thread plusonemore)i will ask the GP about that tomorrow.
I had a scan on day 15 of my cycle and they said they were clear. (but after the pain i experienced the cyst could of burst and therefore not show up on my scan) my bloodtests also indicated that there was no problem. It did show however that i didnt ovulate this cycle. TFT was also normal.
Originally i did think that i was suffering pcos as i have other symptoms too. (find it difficult to keep weight off and facial hair) but the gp said that she had ruled it out.
started taking AC back in jan and stopped just after my mc in feb but now AF has gone awol again. i dont know if its linked but thought that if i started taking it again AF may come back?

Underactive thyroid can give you irregular periods and in some cases make them disappear completely. But once diagnose is easily treated - 2 weeks after going on the tablets I got my first AF in 10 months and since then have had a regular cycle.

plusonemore if your friend is having a thyroid test done do get her to specfically ask them to do a thyroid function AND thyroid antibodies test at the same time and ask for the results to be compared.

bluebell if you have irregular periods as Atilla says it's deffo worth getting tested as above for thyroid ... hope they can do something about the painfulness too for you.

Good luck to all

bubblebell,

You need to bear in mind as well that some GPs would not recognise PCOS if presented with a clear case of it. I would insist on a referral to a gynae asap.

The finding difficult to keep weight off along with any excess facial hair can be indicators of PCOS.

Re the blood tests were LH and FSH compared against one another?. That should have been done as a matter of course.

As mentioned before scans will not detect any endometriosis if it is there. This is because the endometrical deposits causing the problems are very small.

Blimey - my gp just did a quick internal exam and took a swab to check for infection and that was all!
Maybe I should see another one.