Kissing ovaries & pcos

[Nat9424]

Hiya,
Found out last week from my ultrasound I have kissing ovaries; 'both ovaries adjacent to each other suggesting endometriosis. No adnexal mass, cysts, fluids or fibroids seen'. I have no pain. On the top of that I've got known PCOS. I got pregnant 2 ys ago on letrozole as wasn't ovulating. Trying for another baby and I have a million of questions now. First of all, is it possible to develop endo during pregnancy? or perhaps I've had endo before and just didn't know about it? Secondly, would I benefit from surgery? No adnexal mass, cysts or fluid tells me my ovaries are fairly clear (Unless ultrasound doesn't show?). Thirdly, is it possible to get pregnant just on letrozole again?According to my research online kissing ovaries indicates usually stage 3-4 endo. I found also an info that someone was told by their gynaecologist that kissing ovaries are also 'wandering ovaries' and may go back in a right place' I'm not even sure if my ovaries are literally touching each other or are just very close. I can't wait for my referral and hear about the next steps. I'm expecting to be sent for HSG to check fallopian tubes and I'm very hopeful that I can count just on letrozole. I would love to hear some stories, especially for those with both endo and PCOS.

I have kissing ovaries, had one baby after 3 full rounds of ivf and 4 transfers and have recently been going through ivf for sibling. Spent loads of money and after 3 full cycles again it hasn’t worked. Went to Greece for the first time to an ivf clinic there, after one scan they were concerned by my kissing ovaries and saw a tube looking like it had fluid in it. Bear in mind, I had multiple scans at my clinic in the uk who weren’t bothered about the ovaries and hadn’t seen a tube. Had a laparoscopy in Greece…turns out I had endometriosis all over, my ovaries were together and attached with inflammation and endo behind the uterus, and some bowel attached too. One tube filled with fluid and attached to an ovary, the other covered in endo. An endo cyst in one ovary. None of this would have shown up on a simple ultrasound but will definitely have had a huge impact on my fertility. I can’t believe it’s all been missed or overlooked here. They said in Greece after being pregnant with everything really squashed together that will have also impacted things. I have had the tubes removed, cyst removed, lots of lesions and endo removed, ovaries and bowel back to where they should be whilst preserving my fertility for future IVF (obviously now have no tubes so natural pregnancy is now out of the question for us)

I’m just glad that the consultant in Greece was so confident and sure I needed looking into properly as I’d probably still be wasting money on ivf that wouldn’t have worked!

also to note, before starting ivf originally I had been told I had polycystic ovaries. Then when starting treatment they said I didn’t have it but has anyone mentioned endometriosis then after that didn’t mention anything about either again.

So in answer to a few things:

a scan can only show so much but you also need a confident scanner who knows exactly what to look for and what to suggest moving forwards. From what they told me if the tube is dilated and filled with fluid then the environment will be toxic for sperm, egg, etc.

although a lot of people say pregnancy can help with endo, in my case it hasn’t

normal anatomy shows that ovaries shouldn’t be kissing or that close to each other so potentially must be something holding them there, in my case inflammation and lesions

not sure if any of the above helps but literally all just happened in the last few days so thought I’d share

I’m so sorry to hear about this. Have you had HSG done to check your tubes before IVF rounds?

No, no one ever brought anything up to suggest I needed anything looking at, I feel like the care and attention has been very different here to me going abroad xx

@MammaKG
Oh dear, I think pregnancy had made my endo worse too (I believe I’ve had it before just unnoticed). Have you tried claiming any money back for treatment abroad? If I had to go through a surgery I would probably consider going abroad. Apparently you can claim refund from NHS for a private treatment abroad.

I don’t think I can claim anything as I only had one round of ivf on the nhs then everything was private over here. But I am definitely questioning the ivf clinic about how they have raised no alarms to anything in all the scans i have had with them and money I have spent with them.

i too think I had endo (and not polycystic ovaries as they initially said) and the pregnancy has made it worse. My ovaries have always been so close together on all scans so you’d think after a while they would think it’s not normal. Even the surgeon who did my c-section was concerned and asked if the fertility clinic had mentioned anything about the ovaries being tucked behind my womb, when we took out baby to meet them I asked them and they said being pregnant will have just moved things round a little, so again zero concern! The consultant in Greece also said that after my c-section it’s possible that they’ve stitched some of the inflammation together which has encouraged the spread a bit more.

I honestly believe they were as delicate as they could be to preserve my fertility and so glad I had it done over there. I don’t think my fertility would have been preserved as much if I was here xx

@MammaKG perhaps have a read about it anyway, you can find info on medrefund.co.uk. Might want to get cost refunded for consultation in Greece. I’ve found out that with both pcos and ends it’s also good to keep inducing periods every month so you avoid exposure to estrogen and further progression of endo

That’s really interesting, I’ll definitely have a look. When I have had any frozen embryo transfers they have put me on the highest doses of oestrogen too!! Thanks for this xx