PCOS - what is your story?

[Lynn]

Meagan - I hope you get the results you are after for your dad. I have everything crossed for you Thank you for your beautiful words Is your son called Jasper? I looooooooove the name Jasper! I bet he is a real cutie!

Belinda - Ohhh I'm so jealous of you building again. We built our house in 01 and I am so ready to build again. I think Meagan is right, you either love it or you don't. Good luck with getting your house sold!

Sara - like Meagan I felt like a complete failure when we lost Cooper. I think it is a natural feeling. And they have come a long way medically in helping people like us to fall pg. Although it took us 2 years to conceive Cooper I didn't actually know I had PCOS until after a year of trying. Good luck!

Well another scare for me today..............does this ever get easier Every morning I have breakfast and a drink and bub wakes up and I feel a bit relieved for the day. Well this morning.........nothing. So I layed down and had cold drink, hot drink, cold drink, hot drink - nothing! I rang DH upset and confused because these things usually work to waking bubs up. So I called my ob and went up to the hospital for a CTG scan. I was petrified - it was the first time I have been back in the delivery suites since Cooper's birth. They hooked me up and to my relief there was the heartbeat.............bubs was in a funny position so I couldn't feel it moving - DOESN'T IT KNOW IT CAN'T DO THAT TO ME!!!!!! Anyway after calming down and coming home and resting, bubs has been a good little bubbie and is kicking away and letting me know all is ok. I hate these frights!! And to top it off my face has broken out!! I don't know if it is all the stress or what - anyway enough whinging from me today. Hope everyone is having a good day.

[megs11]

Hi Girls.

Results are all good!!!!!!

Surgery is booked for the 7th of November, they will still check what they take out for cancer but so far so good, he is a very lucky man!!!!!!

Lynn - Oh you poor darling!! Next time have ten huge coffees!! Naughty baby!!! Scaring his/her mummy like that!!!!! I think sweetie that you will never fully relax until your baby is here in your arms and then you can sing from the roof tops!!!

Yep, he is our youngest Jasper Cooper (which is my maiden name). Jasper is a great name and he has a wonderful little personality!!! He is a very affectionate and loving little boy, but he has his own mind and tries to boss all of us around, he is very secure in his little world and knows how well he is loved, he is a very creative little soul, invents great stories and incredible lands and plays happily and creatively on his own and from when he was tiny he could lie like an angel!!!! He is five now and since he was about three when I put him to bed he says "Good night!! I love you!! I hope you have a lovely dream!!!!" So sweet to his mummy!!!! He is also sensitive, he would hate to think I was ever upset with him, but he get over things quickly, not like Josh who can be moody (although he has his little lovable traits to). And he often just comes up and cuddles me and tells me how much he loves me!! Mummies little man!!!

I must say the one thing I am obsessed with is my boys eyes, Josh has the most stunning hazel eyes with green on the outside and stunning gold flecks really unusual, Jasper has beautiful big brown eyes, I walk past sometimes and make them tip their heads back so I can gaze into their eyes, they truely are the windows to the soul!! Josh says "Muuuuuuummmmmm!!" he is ten and all embarrassed about his mum when she adores him (you'd think he'd be grateful I wasn't yelling) but he gets a little pleased smile on his face.

Take care,

Meagan

[Lynn]

Oh Meagan that is wonderful news Sending you and your dad heaps of positive vibes and that he is on the road to recovery very very soon

You are so right - until this bub is here I will never fully relax. I have had heaps of movement this morning so all is good! But I have my usual Tuesday u/s today so more reassurance won't hurt

OMG I love that name!! DH and I have already decided that if we have another boy it will have Cooper as a middle name. He sounds so adoreable...........just like his name. I loved reading about how your describe your little ones and you sound like such a proud and wonderful mummy. I hope one day soon I will be able to write such things

[megs11]

Hi Everyone!!!

Still on a high!!!

Lynn - You should just call this little one Jasper Cooper, I must say it is an awesome name for a little one!! I think it is nice that you will remember Cooper by using his name as a middle name, Joshua is Joshua Daniel, I didn't really like the name Daniel but he is named after DH's older brother who died of cot death aged three months and his mum was really pleased, so there you go. I hope your little one continues with the baby gymnastics, it will all be fine!! It is just in the interim, it must be the longest 40 weeks of your life. Will they let you go full term? Are you having a C/S or a vaginal birth? I think you are having a girl!!!!

Belinda how is the house sale going? Fingers crossed!!

Meagan

[belmarks]

Oh Meagan, I am soooo pleased for your dad and happy that you have some sort of settled feelings after the op. what great news!! I hope things will just keep looking up from here xxoo House sale is going ahead I think, well it seems that way. We haven't exchanged contracts yet but it will probably be late this week or early next week. Im getting a little bit sad now, I love our house, we built it and everything about this house is "us" so it will be very sad to leave all that behind. I just have to keep telling myself that we will make new memories in the new house....PS: I loved how you were talking about your boys, you really adore them huh!! I can just imagine their eyes after you describing them. You got any photos posted in the gallery of them?

Lynn, how did your u/s go yesterday morning? hope you are a little more settled today, hopefully there are no hiccups from the dr anymore to scare you....

have i asked you lovely ladies whether you take metformin or not?

I do but I don't think it is doing anything for me....its supposed to help you ovulate if you are insulin resistant, but I am pretty sure its not even doing that for me...

CD14 today, so Im bding just in case I do O...

[cessie]

Hi ladies I am around and just so busy at the mo, but I do read whats going on, just no time to respond!!
Meagan I am glad your dads results are good. I was just reading about you talking about your boys eyes, My two have beatufil big dark brown eyes with the most wonderful thick long eye lashes adn I love nothing better to snuggle up on my bed with them and just look into their beautiful eyes and kiss their soft little cheeks and just thank my lucky stars that i have those two on my life.
Belinda good luck with all your house stuff going on, I would be so sad to leave my little house( and I do mean little!!) but we all fit in here somehow.
Lyn I hope you dont have any more scares, wow only fourtween weeks to go... "only fourteen weeks" I hear you say , thats a eternity.
and to everyone else hello, last time I tried to flick back to the last few pages I lost what i had typed so so i cant pop in my two cents to you all!!
My life is just going along we have the most amazingly busy this month this month , october is party month for us , so I wiil be gald when its over! then we hit next month and we start all the prep transition stuff in november for my big boys big year next year. Oh he's going to be going to school........
Ok enough about me I dont want bleat to much ,
Hope you are all well and I hope to be able to be a bit more around from now on.
Take care

[Lynn]

Meagan - that is beautiful that you honoured your DH's brother by using his name. And yes it is the longest 40 weeks ever!!! Well the longest 25 weeks so far. It just seems so far away! I don't think I will be going to term - ob thinks it will be worse for me and bubs but we just need to see how I am (how mental I am that is ) I didn't lose Cooper in labour so I guess in a way I still trust my body that I can give birth vaginally but I don't trust the cord so it will depend on where the cord is and what it is doing prior to birth. I would prefer to go vaginally but at the end of the day I just need a screaming baby and I don't really care how it comes out. How is your dad feeling?

Belinda - scan went well yesterday - bubs is growing nicely and the cord is free so that is always a positive. I took metformin with this bub but didn't ovulate when I took it with Clomid. I was still on it when we did FSH/IUI and I ovulated but it is hard to know whether it helped or not. One thing I think it did help with was losing weight. I presume I will go back on it once I have had this bub but that is something I will need to talk to my fs about. Can you talk to your dr about trying something else or being monitored?

Cessie - yes I did say 'only 14 weeks!!!!' it does feel like an eternity but I'm sure once I get there I will look back and think how fast it went.........well maybe Wow you do sound busy this month - have fun!

[fi1980]

Hi All

This thread has been going a little while but I just wanted to jump in and join you with your frustrations with PCOS! I was diagnosed only recently after coming off the pill and TTC for approx 12 months. The main reason I went the the dr was because my my cycle was so irregular and practically non-existant! Like a lot of you the problems I had when I was younger were ignored and treated by putting me on the pill. Luckily I responded very well to Clomid and fell pg quickly, although you'll note from my signature that it didn't last

My dr says I have milder PCOS as I don't have insulin resistance and my weight is normal and stable However, I still have a lot of the awful symptoms associated with PCOS. My skin is terrible - I have acne everywhere! I too often find myself stroking my chin and looking for stray 'whiskers' as I like to call them! And I have the lovely belly stripe to go with it. And of course TTC is a nightmare when you rarely get AF....

So I just wanted to vent with you all! It seems that PCOS is actually very common. Does anyone know if it is becomming more common or is it just being diagnosed more these days? And does anyone know why we get it, what causes it?

Cheers
Fi

[gumnutbaby]

Hi ladies, another PCOS Cyster here.

I'm Belinda, 32yo, I was dx with PCOS in March 04. Had the symptoms for years but I didn't realise that they were symptoms until someone commented on my chin hairs and said it was caused by "something hormonal". I googled a few things and whadda ya know, PCOS described it perfectly. So I had the ultrasounds and blood tests to confirm it all, I was single at the time so my gyno prescribed Diane 35 pill to help regulate my hormones better. But I had side effects from the pill so stopped taking it. About 3-4 months after stopping the pill I had a stroke which shocked the life out of me. It won't stop me from being able to have children though.

I've been TTC for over two years now. I was taking Clomid in early 06 and I fell pregnant twice but miscarried in June, then in August. Stopped taking Clomid after that because I was on a break from TTC but funnily enough my body continued to ovulate from that point on! I started acupuncture the cycle after the second miscarriage so I believed that the acupuncture was making me ovulate when it probably had more to do with losing some weight and getting regular exercise.

I don't do acupuncture anymore due to the cost but my cycles are still reasonably regular, usually 28-33 days but about once every six months I'll have a 35+ day cycle. They normally coincide with illness or stress so I'm not alarmed when AF doesn't show up.

November 23rd I'm booked in for a Lap/HSG/Hysteroscopy to find out why I'm still not conceiving despite ovulating regularly. I am absolutely certain that DH and I have been getting the timing right so now my gyno is concerned that I might have blocked tubes. I'm so frightened that we would have to resort to IVF, we simply cannot afford it and probably wouldn't be able to for a few years due to our financial situation.

This is turning into an epic post from me so I won't bombard you with too much info for now, I just wanted to say hello and hopefully get to know you all better very soon.

[carlie]

hey there, I'm new here, as you can see lol. aaaanyway, im 25 and have PCOS. was diagnosed when i was 19. Never had a regular preiod after my first one at 14 my Dr used to tell me that it was "normal". I suffer from the excess hair growth especially on my chin and sides of my face, weight, always infrequent or absent periods up until earlier this year when i lost over 10kgs, i have had a period every month since feb yay! also oily hair and skin which i was told was a side affect of PCOS too. Anyways, im a foster carer, have had my lil girl since she was 3 mths old, we have her for ever, very rare case shes almost 4. I love her to death. My partner and i have been having unprotected sex for many many many years and never conceived. I spoke to my doctor(new one) recently and he said that they wouldnt consider me to have fertility problems unless we've been "trying" for a baby for 12mths. I would just like some assistance with getting the ball rolling for when we'd like to start trying, which will be in the next year or so i think.

Where do i start? Any suggestions?

[MrsAznrabbit]

the uk/us thing is my fiance is from the states i have to wait for my college course to finish before i come over on green card, which is gay. However i stay in the states at every chance that i get for up to 3 months at a time. The two years is the date i will be able to stay permanently over there we see it as better to wait until then thats all. Complicated yes, worth the hassle yep yep. Worrying about my DF right now he was in a car accident the other day he wasnt hurt but his car has a huge scratch and the tire has blew out. This guy who rammed into him decided to change lanes on a corner! Anyways i try not to let things bother me but its tough sometimes

[gumnutbaby]

My partner and i have been having unprotected sex for many many many years and never conceived. I spoke to my doctor(new one) recently and he said that they wouldnt consider me to have fertility problems unless we've been "trying" for a baby for 12mths. I would just like some assistance with getting the ball rolling for when we'd like to start trying, which will be in the next year or so i think.

Where do i start? Any suggestions?

Hi Carlie,

If you've been having regular unprotected intercourse for many many years then you ought to have conceived by now! I think your doctor is a moron if he doesn't think you've got a fertility issue. There are so many other couples who have been doing the same as you but have made the surprise discovery that they are pregnant. The fact that you're not having regular cycles is enough cause for concern to warrant investigation by a gyno or FS.

My advice - find a new doctor who will take you seriously. And if you must, stretch the truth a little and say that you've been "trying" for two years because in all honesty, it's been alot longer than that but you've taken the relaxed approach until now.

[belmarks]

Hi Fi, Belinda and Carlie, welcome to our little thread. I started this thread in the hopes that we would find women with similar issues and hopefully we could support each other through the stuff that only we know we have to face on a daily basis. I hope that you find support and comfort here and hopefully feel at ease to talk about what you go through daily.

Good luck to all of you who are trying to conceive. I am amongst you at the moment. I conceived my son through IVF and am really hoping to conceive again naturally this time. I have been undergoing acupuncture for a year now and more recently started to take herbs.

Fi I noticed you are another newcastle girl (yay!) where abouts are you from? Which FS do you see? I am with Dr Hedges at Hunter IVF. I too have the "milder" case of PCOS, so not sure why then I find it harder than most women with PCOS to fall pg??? As for your question re the commonality of PCOS, its becoming much more common, they are now thinking that one in 8 women have PCOS. I think its got a lot to do with our lifestyle and the foods that we eat.

Hi Belinda. I am Belinda and 32 as well. What a coincidence!! What's your date of birth? Would be funny if we were the same day too. tee he he! Wow about the stroke, my goodness, are you ok? Was it a mild one? Do you know if the PCOS caused the stroke? Good luck with the tests. I hope that all it is is blocked tubes, as they are easily fixed xxoo Keep us up to date on your progress matey xxoo

Hi Carlie, Wow to being a foster carer. How did you get into that at such a young age? As for where to start with TTC, I guess you could just go to your GP and ask for a referal to a fertility specialist, considering you already know that you have PCOS, you should be able to skip the whole 12 month waiting business and go straight to a specialist. They will then do some tests and assess your individual case and go from there, each fertility specialist is different though. And they may recommend a different course for you than they do for someone else. I started on a pill called clomid, which supposedly makes you ovulate. You either react to it or you don't. Unfortunately I didn't react to it, so we then went to AIH/IUI and then finally IVF. If you need to know anything about the process of any of these, I will try to help you out as best I can. Good luck with it though xxoo

Sara, good to hear from you. Wow your situation is complicated. How are you coping with being away from fiance? I bet its tough, but look towards the future, it will be something worth looking forward to.

Hi Lynn, how are you feeling honey? Im really glad that your U/S went well, and that the cord is free. I can't imagine how worried you are at the moment. I am thinking about having a monitored cycle. Not keen for it, but Im thinking it might be the only way to really know what's going on. POOOO!

Megs, how is your dad matey? Any news yet? How are you holding up? Thanks for asking about the house sale, I think its going ahead now, we haven't got exchange but its not far off.

Hi Cessie and Bathsheba and anyone else I've missed.

[gumnutbaby]

Hi Belinda. I am Belinda and 32 as well. What a coincidence!! What's your date of birth? Would be funny if we were the same day too. tee he he! Wow about the stroke, my goodness, are you ok? Was it a mild one? Do you know if the PCOS caused the stroke? Good luck with the tests. I hope that all it is is blocked tubes, as they are easily fixed xxoo Keep us up to date on your progress matey xxoo

8th December, so not long til I'm 33

The doctors didn't call my stroke mild, but I think it was a mild one compared to how bad some of the other stroke patients were when I was in hospital. I was allowed to go home after 3 weeks, many others were in there for months before they learnt to walk again. It was really sad and a real eye opener for me.

I was never told what caused the stroke but I believe PCOS had something to do with it. It was an ischaemic stroke as opposed to a blood clot which makes me think it is PCOS related.

Thank you for your good wishes, I am feeling so miserable tonight, seems like this TTC rollercoaster never ends.

[fi1980]

hi all

wow - so many of us with this stupid PCOS!! On the one hand I feel releived that I am not alone but on the other hand I just get so frustrated and wonder why we are all suffering from this!

gumnut baby, I'm so sorry about the stroke! How awful for you at such a young age. I hope you have made a full recovery. And good luck with the lap etc on the 23rd, I hope they can find the problem and fix it easily enough. The girls on this site will give you plenty of support to help you through this difficult and frustrating time.

Carlie - I would definitely get some more answers and a referral to a FS. If you have been TTC for many years with no luck then you really need to find out why and get the treatment that you need. I have PCOS and responded well to Clomid but other people dont and need to try other treatments so it is important that you talk to a specialist to get the right information.

belmarks - I'm in Tighes Hill, about 10 mins out of Newcastle centre. I've only been here about 18 months, I grew up in Melbourne but moved here for my DF who grew up in Scone and wanted to be closer to his family (we met overseas and he moved to Melb with me for 5 years, so now its my turn to be away from my family!) I see dr McIlveen at her office in The Junction, I think she also works for Sydney IVF, Newcastle. She is really fantastic.

Hi to everyone else

hope you all had a nice weekend!

Fi

[MrsAznrabbit]

gumnut, i know how you feel hun about the rollercoaster. I never thought things could be so hard. I am sorry to hear about your stroke thats not right having one at 32 i always thought it was an older persons condition or an extremely unhealthy one. I hope you get well soon.

bel, yeah it is very complicated but we do love each other very much, it seems the only thing we fight about is when to have a baby. I want one asap, he wants one in 5+ years time when he has his masters degree. He has compromised with me but it doesn't feel right because deep inside i know he truly doesn't want it, does that make sense? And all this US health insurance stuff boggles my mind, why cant be free like the UK, and it would seem for maternity cover you would have to wait 2 years after taking the policy out to be covered it makes no sense.

[belmarks]

Hi girls, how are we all?

Sara, I have a friend in the UK at the moment and she's had two babies there and says the health care system there is fabulous so I know what you mean regarding the differences between countries. I knew that the US was bad, they are pretty strict on private health and also IVF is through the roof there. I hope you can do something in the UK. I understand regarding your DF deciding or wanting to wait. I guess he could be worried about how you would cope especially considering the distance between you already. I hope you come to a mutually acceptable decision soon.

Hi Fi, welcome to Newcastle. I moved back here in 93 and met my DH back then, and decided to stay. Obviously we weren't married then though tee he he. Are you working in Newcastle anywhere? I haven't heard anything about your dr, I hope she is good for you though. I started my journey at sydney IVF and moved over to Hunter IVF because my dr is one of the founding drs of that clinic.

Hi gumnutbaby (belinda). Wow, I am still reeling from your news of a stroke. Can you explain what an ischaemic stroke is? Sorry for my ignorance, I just have never known anyone to have a stroke. Do you think that blood pressure and the pill might have had something to do with it? I know when I used to be on the pill a million years ago they used to tell me that they had to check my blood pressure to ensure I wasnt a stroke candidate on the pill....

Hi Lynn, how are you matey?

Megs, how's your dad recovering? Any news yet on the results of his tests? I have everything crossed for you and your dad honey. How are the boys going? Do they understand what is happening to their Pop/Grandpa??

Does anyone in here have weight fluctuations from one day to the next of a kilo or so? I jumped on the scales yesterday and have put on a kilo since the day before. I am carrying a bit of fluid atm and not sure whether that has something to do with it?

Im not sure what's going on with my cycle, I don't know whether I O'd or not this month, even though I have taken clomid earlier in my cycle. Ahhh, the joys of POCS!!!

[megs11]

Hi everyone!!

Wow, we found a whole new bunch of people to chat to!!

Girls I am with you on the hairy chin, gross, plus the soft pelt on your cheeks and mad sideburns!! Zits, oily hair and skin, yep and yep, charming isn't it????

Fi - LOL when I read about the belly stripe, that was one of my whinges earlier in the thread, how gross it it???????? I mean where next? I have fine hairs on either side of my stripe, am I turning into a gorilla??? GROSS!!!

Belinda - hows thing going? Weight gain? Mate I have stacked it on, 5 kilos in 4 months, see what happens when you quit smoking!!! Has the house sold?

Lynn- How is little hope? Hope he/she is behaving!!!!

My dad is doing really well, he is to have his first surgery on Wednesday next week, they will retest all the tissue they remove, they cant guarentee they will get it all as it is so big, if it is cancerous or it comes back it will mean he will have to have a colostomy bag, but lets hope that isn't the case.

Anyway, hope you are all well.

Meagan