PCOS and endo.. after 3 m/c

my story so far...

diagnosed and treated endo 3 years ago, TTC for 2 years, with 3 miscarriages. now they say PCOS..... i don't think i have a hope in hell..

now i am waiting to go to a gastroentroligist, and $10 says Endo of the bowel..

please someone out there tell me i'm not alone.i keep thinking that you aren't supposed to feel this much constant pain in your body.. surely it will end.

I can't believe the amount of money i have spent on doctors. i have had 11 ultrasounds (a couple looking for PCOS), and sadly only one of them while pregnant. at $170 a pop. seeing my gyno each week for my last pregency at $50 a pop. polus previosly seeing my gyno every 2 weeks before that, my doctors a vampire with the amount of blood tests he takes, and i'm sure i have solely funded his next overseas trip.

i had to have 2 D/C's after my last m/c, 10 days apart. that is a 1 in 100 chance, having 1 m/c puts me in the 1 in 3 group, but then having 3 10% bracket, and now add PCOS and 5%, if i was a good mathematician i would say i am 0% women. 100% pain.

where can you go from here????????????

having children... thats a pipe dream.....i'm only 26 and this much has happened, surely the clock is already ticking with all things considered

Hi,
My heart goes out to you. I also have endo (scraped off fallopian tubes and bowel) and PCOS, as well as a benign pituitary tumour for which I have to be on medication to GET pregnant, but have to come off to STAY pregnant (and risk the tumour growing).
I'm 35 and have had one miscarriage, and am actually waiting to have another right now.
I have been TTC for a year.

This is not hopeless though: I have found using Clomid eventually helped me ovulate, and using ovulation test kits helped me predict when I was ovulating so I could time sex exactly. I also used a sperm friendly lubricant to help things out down there (Clomid can dry you out, and most lubricants actually kill sperm).
I don't know why I'm miscarrying right now, but it's not the endo/PCOS/tumour. Strangely enough, the most helpful thing I did for my endo was become a complete vegetarian (sounds weird, but there is Scandinavian research suggesting a link with hormones ect in distressed animals contributing to endo). I don't eat any meat/seafood, but do have dairy and organic free range eggs. My diet is about half organic, so I'm pretty healthy. This and exercise, along with the occassional evening of drinking way too many Expresso Martinis and dancing with my gay boyfriends til the early hours, is surely helping!

Keep trying, and let me know how you go.
Faith

hey faith,

thanks for the reply, it's nice to know i'm not alone,

I'm over weight which makes things hard cos most doctors don't believe you when you say you eat healthaly and exercise, so it is sickly refreshing to be told PCOS is the reason you can't lose weight.. but being vego, been there, missed streak :O). but does say somthing i guess about orginac farming. hopefully they have a nicer "process". me, i'm a bit of a "raw" freak, raw veg. only cook my meat... the less processing the better for me :O) specially with my stomach issues :redface:

i wonder have you ever gotten a reason for your misscarriage/s? everything you read says you shoud be tested to see what is happening, but i never have???? it really ****ed me off with the last one, we got a strong heart beat 24 hours before i lost it.... why wasn't the doc interested in finding out what happened?????? i'm dumb founded

you've mentioned sperm friendly lube? i can't seem to find any any where.... where do you get it?

i wonder (sorry i tend to wonder a lot :O) how you go with your tablets, my doctors want to see me on anti deppresants, but same thing, need to be on them to be mentally ready to do what is required to be pregnant, but don't like the idea of being on them when pregnant, they've not been tested in pregency. and i hate the idea of being on them and not realising i'm pregnant.

i don't think my body can handle another loss.. the last one really stuffed me up, so i'm scared to try again... but scared what life will hold without children. (the husband doesn't want to adpot, and IVF won't help me stay pregnant) so i'm lost. hubby is happy to just keep trying and loseing, but he can't consider the mental and physical implications....

sorry if i tend to ramble, but i'm in the place after the last straw (if you now what i mean)

good luck.... hope you feel better soon..

First of all, I don't know why I miscarried the first time. I know that you can request "genetic counselling" (Monash Medical Centre in Clayton, Victoria do it for example), but this is usually done after 3 miscarriages (and sometimes more). If they do a D&C, they can test the "sample" (sorry) there and then (although the results can take a few weeks), but again I think you have to request it. Would it be worth you and your husband checking out genetic counselling?

I got the sperm friendly lubricant (called Pre-Seed) online at Lullably Conceptions (just google it, that's how I found it). They are really quick to post it out, pretty cheap, and reliable. I also got my ovulation tester kit from them, and it was obviously accurate!

With anti-depressants, I have not tried them but I know quite a few women who have used them throughout pregnancy. Some of them have been tried and found to have no significant risks for pregnancy, including Edronax (category B1), Efexor (B2), and Lumin (B2). I have heard of good success with Edronax, and if it means it may help you "relax" enough to get pregnant... Do some research :)

I know this is so hard, and it's so easy to lose hope. How old are you? Not that this means much, but hopefully you are younger than me and have time on your side (I'm 35). You can also get "fertility counselling" for support from specialists if you get a specific referral - I know that Monash, the Epworth and the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne have this. If you get referred by a fertility specialist it is free, I think. I am considering it, depending on how things go. There are also PCOS and endo support groups - it helps to not be alone at at time like this, and to know other women "get it".

I'm scared too - my most (hopefully) irrational idea is that my partner will leave me for someone who can have children, and then I won't find anyone, and then... Picture the crazy cat lady who mumbles to herself. It sounds silly, but I'm scared of ending up COMPLETELY alone...

But now, an update:

I got my blood test results last night, and they were still going up but very slowely. The specialist had booked me in for an emergency ultasound for this morning, as she was thinking the pregnancy was either ectopic or getting ready to miscarry.

So this morning I went for the ultrasound, which showed A PERFECTLY SIZED SAC AND FETUS (exactly 6 weeks, 1 day, which is where I know I'm at) and a heart rate of 108-110 (again perfectly normal)! I could even see the tiny heart fluttering! I was crying like crazy!

My specialist is going to do another scan in 10 days, and she said a few women can have "strange" hcg levels but a normal pregnancy, so she is not going to do any more blood tests (which is a big relief).

Maybe there is hope???!!!! I know I could just as easily miscarry still, but the fact that the size and heartbeat are completely normal gives me some hope... And I hope for you to :)
Take care, I'll keep you posted.
Faith