IVF for PCOS Women?

[Calvina44]

Hi all,

I've recently been diagnosed with PCOS and am looking to start IVF in the coming months (we have other factors at play that mean this will be our only option). In addition to the PCOS, I have other risk factors for developing OHSS (high AMH, normal BMI). I am wondering if anyone with PCOS can recommend an IVF clinic in London that took the time and care to try to avoid OHSS? I know there's not a sure-fire way to avoid it yet, but am wondering if anyone out there might have come across a caring practioner who tried their best!

Thanks for any suggestions!

Just because you have PCOS it doesn’t mean you have lots of follicles. It’s the follicle count that causes OHSS and plenty of PCOS women only have three or four on each ovary and never get OHSS. Never go to a clinic where the default setting is to avoid OHSS because plenty of PCOS women (especially older women or women with lean PCOS) may actually need more drugs to produce useable / mature eggs.

I suggest Guys or Barts as they seem to have a sensible approach and treat women as individuals.

Thanks, Cherries. I didn't realize that about the follicle count but in fact I have that too - one ovary the follice count was 20 and the other was >20. I'm also 30, which as I understand it also increases the risk!

Good to hear about Guys/Barts - I will look into them!

I suppose equally if anyone has any thoughts on clinics that might be too busy to attend to someone with high risk factors that'd be good to hear too!

I have pcos with high amh and lots of follies and went to CARE. My consultant was aiming for 15 follies and we got 37 eggs (!) - I did avoid the worst of ohss but was definitely not feeling great for a few days. I would say that unless you definitively go for a natural ivf approach (a la create - I don’t know anything about them so can’t help) it’s mostly about your consultant starting stims low and not going in too hard. I never took more than 75ug gonal-f per day. Also after care - taking cabergoline etc. And not doing fresh transfer - they wouldn’t let me do one, I waited and did a fet the next month.

Good luck! My consultant always said results for pcos women with no other issues were very good. It’s one of the “easier” infertility scenarios to treat. Hopefully you’ll be lucky.

Thanks so much, stealthbanana, I really really appreciate it! Thanks also for sharing your experience with the meds - good to have a general idea of what they might tell me to take. Any chance you'd be willing to message me who your consultant was? We've had another recommendation to go there and wondering if it's the same consultant. Thanks!

Done!

I was put on 250 iu of pcos plus metformin plus menopur to produce the same amount of eggs as stealth (also by care). The goal is not numbers of eggs for pcos but mature eggs and a strong protocol will help boost this. Out of 37 eggs I got 14 mature and 14 embryos. That wouldn’t have happened, for me, on a lower protocol.

I don’t recommend the London Care clinic - it’s very difficult to get monitoring appointments to suit you and their consultant for PCOS isn’t as well regarded as the one in their Northampton clinic (at least when I used them).

However, their Northampton clinic is amazing & would definitely recommend them if it’s possible for you to go there.

We're using Zita West in London - it's very much individual care there and they did their best to avoid OHSS (I had over 25 follicles each side). They use the Care London facilities for egg collection and transfer, but the actual appointments are done in their offices.

Interesting. I had 33 mature eggs of my 37 which created 24 day 5 blastocysts so extremely good results on a much lower protocol. Which just goes to show that it’s the individual monitoring that counts!

Sounds like there are lots of independent consultants that use CARE and you’ve got a few options. I do think the CARE embryology is extremely good - their results are excellent.