I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of little Cooper, Lynn.

I have a friend who is an OB/gyn registrar who has fed me a LOT of information when I was diagnosed with PCOS. She has said that recent studies have shown that metformin is useful in all cases of PCOS, regardless of whether an abnormal GTT result is obtained or not.

I know of people with PCOS where metformin has been all that has been needed in order to restore a normal cycle, while others have still needed the clomid on top... and I seem to be needing one step further and will have to use IVF/ICSI to conceive, but that is also due to issues with my DH as well.

I was diagnosed with PCOS after only three months off OCP. At that point in time my hormone levels were all mainly normal - it appeared to be a very mild case of PCOS and we thought metformin would be enough. Time showed otherwise and metformin didn't help - possibly also due to the fact that the first gyn had me on a dose that was too low. Clomid caused dreadful side effects for me - I had such severe problems with anxiety that I ended up off work for a week, and had the dosage of anti depressents (used to control a mild anxiety problem) tripled just to allow me to start to get back to work. On top of that, clomid did not make me ovulate. It was only my first cycle of 50mg, but the side effects were so severe I just can't contemplate using it again.

For various reasons we changed specialist and I found myself a fertility specialist who was a reproductive endocrinologist as well as a gyn. All my tests were repeated, and we didn't expect anything too different from the first time. I'm not overweight, I don't have excess hair, I have never had an acne problem in my life - the only PCOS symptoms I had where the polycystic ovaries and the complete and utter absence of a menstrual cycle.

However, now at 12 months of being off OCP, my hormone levels were completely messed up - testosterone was now elevated where it wasn't before, my LH/FSH ratio was completely out of whack where before it was normal. And most scary of all - my GTT results showed that even though I lacked obvious symptoms of PCOS, my case is extremely severe. Without metformin, I could probably expect to be type II diabetic very, very quickly. But now, with the right dose of metformin, the right diet and exercise (which I never took seriously before because I thought it wasn't too bad), I'm losing weight and feeling better and more energetic than I have in years.

I know that was a very long ramble, but I've discovered the hard way that PCOS can be worse than it looks and it is important to get the right testing done - reproductive endocrinologists seem to be much more up to date with research than obs and gyns, and I think it would be very much worth while consulting with one to check that all the right tests have been done. Many obs take the philosophy that PCOS is only a problem when TTC, but the associated health problems run much, much deeper than that.

I've become quite passionate about making sure women with PCOS have all the right information and have been tested and diagnosed properly. I apologise that this is a VERY long post, and I hope that somewhere in there is some useful information for you.

BW