Poly cystic ovaries (sorry very long)

Hi,
Quick history- my first period i had i was 12 got them twice (6 months inbetween) it stayed this way until i was 15 and started putting on the weight My GP at the time advised i start the pill to make me regular which worked. I then had very heavy periods that would last 3-5 days after my pill started again. At 19 i fell preg on the pill and had a healthy baby boy. i suffer from weight problems and hair loss but GP said bloods didnt show any signs of PCOS.
In Late january this year after TTC for over a year my GP sent me for an ultrasound that showed i have PCO after lots of blood work he found that i dont suffer from the syndrome(PCOS). My ovaries are covered in the small cysts and blood work showed i wasnt producing any progestrone which is why i dont release any egg. i was told that i would have great difficulty having another bubs without some kind of fertillity treatment.
After taking a few progesterone tablets(which were supposed to make me have a period) one week later i had a small amount of bleeding that lasted a few hours (very minor, didnt think anything of it)
After being severly sick (throwing up) for a week and a half and doc not knowing why he eventually did a preg test and came up that i was preg. Shocked and surprised my DP and i were over the moon.

I was wondering will having PCO have any effect on my baby??? I was 4-6 weeks Over due with my first and i was told that labour is started by a hormone reaction or something, could this be why i was OD and will it mean i will be OD again???

Hi Jess,

PCO is common - 25% of women will have it at any one time. There are some very interesting theories as to why it exists and why it is possibly perfectly normal. I wouldn't worry - I don't think PCO in itself will have any affect on bubs. Ask your health care provider if you are not sure.

Me - I am the same - always told I would never concieve naturally by Drs but it is not necessarily true with PCO or PCOS - it affects us all differently. I have been lucky.

PCOS is less common.

The progesterone test will depend at what point it was done in your cycle. It needs to be done after O to show O but when you are irregular this can be difficult. I got pregnant with DS after all BTs showed I wasn't Oing and therefore wasn't producing progesterone - ie because I wasn't O'ing - so O can sneak up at anytime and drs can miss it and say it is not happening when in fact it is!!

As to being overdue - having irregular periods can make it more difficult to date a pregnancy - me, I have early BT and US to do this. Are you sure you were 4 - 6 weeks overdue!! I haven't heard of PCO being a cause for being OD and I would doubt it - hormones can just be funny things.

HTH
TICKLISH

Thanks for your reply-
I have heard that it is common but all research i can find relates mostly to PCOS itself.

I had several BT to determine my progesterone levels and work out when i was O. I hadnt had a monthly since dec 06 and actually though i was preg. It wasnt until i had an US in late Jan that we found out i wasnt preg and that i had PCO.

My first bubs i concieved without problems and i was on the pill at the time. I had a dating US and it was a few days out from my LMP which my GP said was fine and to go by the US date being october 6th, at my 12 week US they changed my EDD by almost 2 weeks. At my 18-20 week US they changed my EDD back to the first date. i should have been due in early to mid October (40-42 weeks) but had my son in mid nov. The hospital when my EDD came up told me that they book inductions after 42 weeks so we waited, i went back to my GP and he found my BP to be very high and my legs and feet were very swollen. I told him what the hospital had said and he wrote me a letter asking them to book me in, The next day i had my appointment there and gave them the letter, the midwife was terribly rude and organised another appointment in the FMU for an internal. The next week i went for the internal (making me at this stage almost 44 weeks according to my first date) the doc was very rough and it hurt like hell and he told them to book me. i couldnt get a booking for another week and a half. the day beforei was book in i started having contractions and within an hour i was 3 mins apart and we were off to the hospital. they were going to send me home as i wasnt dilated enough but DP told them all the probs and the took me in to break my water. 1 hour later i had a beautiful son. He was grey, my waters were discribed my the midwives as "the greenest they had ever seen" and within 2-3 days my sons skin began to peel.

Hi Jess,

Sounds like you have a pretty rough time last time :hugs:. At least you will be better prepared this time. Altering a EDD by 2 weeks is a HUGE difference. The early scans are more likely to be accurate than later ones. Glad everything worked out in the end.

I too had several BT is checked progesterone levels when we were TTC and the Drs missed O totally so it is not very accurate, especially when cycles are irregular because O can sneak up quickly and be missed - my DS is proof of this - found out I was UTD a week after being told I was very unlikely to concieve AT ALL because I wasn't O'ing - yeah, right!.

There are a few sources about PCOS that discuss PCO. Essentially, I find it is about keeping as healthy as possible and keeping weight under control. Colette Harris, an english health journalist with PCOS has written a few books on PCOS with recommendations to help PCO as well with some good advice about keeping healthy, dealing with stress and keeping symptoms under control.

Good luck.
TICKLISH