PCOS - successful full term pregnancy without any medication?

[Peasandyoghurt]

I'm 5ish weeks pregnant and the more I read about links between PCOS and miscarriage, the more terrified I become. I almost feel like 'why am I even bothering - it seems like it's just a matter of time before it all goes wrong?!'

One thing that's particularly frustrating me is reading that metformin, progesterone (injections) etc can help, but that whenever I've asked my GP about any of this all I get is variants of 'if you miscarry, you miscarry'. I know this! But I feel like if there is something I can take/ do to protect against miscarriage surely I should be allowed to?! Would I have to be referred to a specialist to be prescribed metformin, or is it actually possible for a GP prescribe this?

Finally, as the title says - has anyone with PCOS had a baby completely naturally without any need for medication? It would be really nice to hear a happy story - if indeed one exists!

Good luck Peasandyoghurt - been watching this thread - like you I am 5 weeks or so pregnant and PCOS. However, I also had a missed miscarriage and then a chemical pg and then spent alot of time reading about PCOS and miscarriage.

There does not seem to be any real scientific evidence that PCOS means that there is a higher risk of mc and I know two people in real life who have PCOS and got pg naturally and held it to term with no medication. However, luteal phase defects are quite common with PCOS and the low progesterone can cause early MCs. (So I am on my own back taking using progesterone cream just to boost it a little.) From some of the PCOS books I have read, they say there is an increased risk of mc with PCOS but there is no solid evidence of this and it is all just opinion and guesses. I have mentioned it to several Dr's and they all deny the link and now I am pg again, I am not considered high risk although they are sorting out an early scan as I am a nervous wreck!

Good luck and I hope your next scan works out ok. I agree with HotpinkGingham that if your cycles are irregular then your dates may be out. Even though I told the Dr I didn't ovulate till day 21 she insists that I am still around 6.4 rather than 5.4 that I know I am. Do you know when you ovulated? (I temped and used OPKs so I am fairly sure to within a day but that doesn't really matter to the NHS.)

Don't have PCOS myself but just want to tell you about a friend of mine who does have PCOS and now has 4 children under 3!

Good luck for the scan peas. I had an early scan that was too early, had to go back a week later and it confirmed my dates were out, I ovulated late in the cycle. Fingers are crossed for you.

I have PCOS and have a 8 month old. I had to take clomid to get pregnant, but I don't think that has any impact on the miscarriage risk, and had a healthy problem-free pregnancy despite also having a chronic health problem. Hope everything goes well for you.

I have PCOS, I had no periods for 3 and a half years, they began again age 22 after losing 20Kg, my cycle was long (39 days) but regular for the following year when I met my XP. I only had 1 visit from AF and then promptly found out I was expecting our very pleasant surprise baby. The PCOS had no impact on my pregnancy whatsoever and I needed no medication, I was just offered a GTT at 28 weeks which peaked at a meagre 4.5

Has the doctor explained that what you eat can very much control PCOS? Obviously pregnancy is not the time to be dieting as in losing weight, but if you try and eat low GI foods this can really help control the PCOS. PCOS is all linked to having too high levels of insulin in the body. You can reduce this by not eating sugary / high carb foods. Try and eat protein with any carbs you do have to reduce the total glycemic load. Have brown rice and wholewheat pasta instead of white, same with bread. If you do this you are doing what the metformin will do anyway which is reduce your insulin. Insulin actually has a huge effect on your lady and pregnancy hormones so if you can get this into check then you are doing a really great thing to help your pregnancy as much as you can.

I'm not saying go on a diet as in lose weight, I'm saying research research research into diet and PCOS! If you need a helpful book i would recommend The Ultimate PCOS Handbook by Collette Harris. I got this from Amazon. good luck!

Hi,

I have been diagnosed with PCOS for 10 years and got pregnant 3 years ago using Metformin to help and I have wonderful DS now 2 1/2. I am now pregnant 21 weeks with a DD and couldn't be happier, I took Metformin to help me conceive, if the medication worked it was quick as it only took 2 weeks! I have noticed in both pregnancies I lost weight in the first half even though eat like a horse. So far this pregnancy I am still 9lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight, I put this down to not having PCOS whilst pregnant and therefore not piling it on because of hormones. Heres hoping the next 19-21 weeks go quickly I can't wait to meet my little girl!

Thanks so much all. I've got my '12 week' scan tomorrow (even though, on the basis of the early private scan I had, I'm pretty sure I'm only going to be 10+3) which, as you can imagine, I'm pretty terrified about, but I've gone from symptom-free when I wrote this post (what seems like years ago - seems like a (pretty stressful) DECADE since I poas!) to having the worst nausea for the last month and being sick at work today, so trying to take that as a good sign.

LIG1979 - do you just get progesterone cream from the chemist? Are there any risks or anything? And no, no idea when ovulated, because the kit that I looked at basically said suitable for anyone except those with PCOS! I was trying to monitor cm but absolutely never, ever noticed any of the eggwhite variety, which only worked to convince me further that I was never going to get pregnant in the first place! DP does actually keep reminding me of this - whenever I say 'I just can't IMAGINE baby being ok at the scan/ actually making it to holding him in my arms' he reminds me of when I said 'I just can't IMAGINE getting a positive pregnancy test result!' And he's right, I was just as convinced that that was never going to happen as I am of this, so maybe it will be ok after all... Please keep fingers crossed for me tomorrow. 1.30pm (yes, on Friday 13th!) xxx

I had miscarriages prior to my son born in September but his pregnancy was medication free with no diabetes.

The result of my successful PCOS pregnancy is currently 1 day old and sleeping on my chest... very easy pregnancy with no problems and very easy birth too

Hope all goes well at your scan

Oh WOW! Congratulations MissRee! And thank you for sharing! xxx

Good luck Peas hope your 12 week scan goes well - let us know how it goes. Got mine in 2 weeks or so. Trying to hold out between now and then without having a panic and needing to pay for another private one. Good one on being sick at work today - I always feel really terrible on the day of a scan - i think it is helped by the nerves!

Got my progesterone cream online but made sure it was natural progesterone. I started taking it because I had a short luteal phase but then when I got a bfp didn't want to stop taking it incase it caused me to miscarry. I am now trying to start cutting it down now I am nearly 10 weeks. You don't need to worry about the cream now. I imagine they say about the cream with PCOS is that if you take it before ovulation then it will stop you ovulating and since people with PCOS have irregular cycles they may not know exactly when they ovulate.

I have PCOS and I am 20 weeks pregnant with a very healthy baby girl. My consultant actually said that Metformin is not good to take during pregnancy because it can mess up tests for Gestational Diabetes.

I know it's really hard, but just relax and enjoy being pregnant, it goes by so quickly!! xx

Update: scan was amazing. I was 10+6 (11 weeks today), strong heart beat, all looks fine - having to go back next week for nuchal bit as too young still this week. The thing I find most amazing of all, and keep going on about is the arms and legs - can't stop going on about how I can't believe he/ she's 'grown arms and legs!' Flipping amazing!

LIG1979 good luck with your scan - let us know how it goes too! x

Brilliant news Peas! So glad it is good news and great they are giving you another scan too! Not long now till the 2nd trimester and starting to feel normal again (hopefully).

Fab news Peas... hope the rest of your pregnancy is happy and healthy

Great news, so happy to hear. Perhaps you're beginning to believe PCOS doesn't have to mean all doom and gloom for conception/pregnancy now? Certainly, my 3 children and 22 week pregnancy are probably testament to that too

I have PCOS and do believe there is a link between PCOS and miscarriage. Right from the start of my TTC I heard that I was at risk of miscarriage because of my PCOS and from hearing others experiences, and then sure enough I had 2 miscarriages. I don't know whether these two miscarriages were linked to me taking Clomid and ovulating late though - no one could give me any answers at the time.

One thing I did a heap of research in to was progesterone, and I pretty much demanded that I be prescribed it if I ever fell pregnant again. The research shows that for women with recurrent miscarriage it can reduce the risk of miscarriage by half. I asked one doctor whether anyone had investigated progesterone for PCOS women having miscarriage but was told there were no such studies.

There's an article about the research here, what I would say is if your doctor doesn't believe in prescribing progesterone then show them the research. There's no serious side effects so it's worth a try to avoid miscarriage.

www.myinformedlife.co.uk/does-supplemental-progesterone-prevent-early-miscarriage/