Thanks ladies. Obv I would love to be surprised but I'm not expecting a magic turnaround.
lozza the 'good' news is that counterintuitively classic PCOS, if you are overweight, is actually easier to treat from an infertility POV. If you are overweight then it's likely your PCOS is related to insulin resistance, and my consultant says when overweight PCOS patients lose weight, go on meds like metformin and inositol, and eat low GL, this very often restores ovulation. Or mean a decent response to Clomid. He said unfortunately patients with lean PCOS are more difficult to treat, as losing weight will definitely not help (he told me I had to get my BMI up to a minimum of 18 as being underweight was harmful for fertility and you need a minimum % of body fat to ovulate) and lean PCOS patients were more likely to be Clomid resistant. So the good news is that there is a very good chance you won't need such aggressive interventions as ovarian drilling or injectables or IVF, as lifestyle changes have the potential to make a big difference
Inositol is an insulin sensitiser in a similar vein to metformin, only not as potent. My Dr said even though I'm lean PCOS, it was still fundamentally an endocrine disorder, so eating low GL and taking inofolic and metformin would certainly help to regulate my hormones
Vitamins wise even though we have no male factor and DH has super swimmers, my consultant advised him to take vitamin C, zinc and selenium as a minimum, as anti oxidants help improve sperm quality. Wellman has it all in one, you get the pregnacare his and hers which have pre conception multivitamins for you both. Or you can get him to take them separately - DH just found one pill more convenient
The book 'it starts with the egg' has lots of advice about diet and supplements for fertility - incl lots of advice about PCOS
In addition to my prenatal multivitamin and the inofolic, I took a lot of antioxidants for my egg quality: CoQ10 as ubiquinol; resveratrol; high dose vitamin D, C and E; as well as a good quality omega 3. I also take prescription strength folic acid, but that's because I have epilepsy, and during IVF I took melatonin (don't take when TTC naturally because it can affect ovulation).
The biggest difference you can make with PCOS is to eat low GL and to take metformin & inositol (and if you're overweight / underweight to get your BMI into healthy range)
star completely agree. This year ALL I have done is infertility. Quite apart from the fact I've been earning fuck all while haemorrhaging money on treatment, and I've been pretty miserable from poor pain control, I just feel like a complete non person. As I suspect many of us are, I'm a type A person who's always been a high achiever if I've worked hard and applied myself. Which of course makes fuck all difference when it comes to infertility, cos that's not how it works - never have I tried so hard to achieve so little. So without work I've not only had no other distraction or focus, but I've just felt like a completely useless individual, because I've accomplished the sum total of fuck all this year. My sense of self worth has just plummeted, because I feel like I'm just not good at anything right now. Whilst the prospect of an enforced break from tx (while we work on my lining with an IUD) is unappealing, at least I'd know I wasn't going to be able to cycle again imminently and could throw myself into work. Couldn't agree with you more about feeling like everything is a total waste of energy!! At least if we put our money into doing up the house we would end up with a nice house, instead of sinking thousands and thousands into a project baby where we get precisely nowhere....