Symptoms of PCOS

Some people don't understand PCOS and what it can cause. It doesn't just affect your ovaries, but your whole body. About 56% of women with PCOS are overweight or obese. Not everyone but it is very common. And those of us that are overweight have an EXTREMELY difficult time just to lose a pound. We can't completely blame the PCOS, but it is definitely a factor.


The symptoms of PCOS can vary from woman to woman. Some of the symptoms of PCOS include:

• Infertility (not able to get pregnant) because of not ovulating. In fact, PCOS is the most common cause of female infertility.
• Infrequent, absent, and/or irregular menstrual periods
• Hirsutism (HER-suh-tiz-um) — increased hair growth on the face, chest, stomach, back, thumbs, or toes
• Cysts on the ovaries
• Acne, oily skin, or dandruff
• Weight gain or obesity, usually with extra weight around the waist
• Male-pattern baldness or thinning hair
• Patches of skin on the neck, arms, breasts, or thighs that are thick and dark brown or black
• Skin tags — excess flaps of skin in the armpits or neck area
• Pelvic pain
• Anxiety or depression
• Sleep apnea — when breathing stops for short periods of time while asleep

Of the above I have the following:

•  Infertility due to anovulation
• Absent or infrequent periods
• Hirsutism of everywhere listed but back and thumbs
• Cysts on ovaries
• Acne, oily skin, and dandruff
• Weight gain/obesity
• Hair has DEFINITELY thinned since high school
• Occasional skin tags
• And maybe some anxiety

As you can see, I don't have all of the symptoms and others may not have the same ones I do. But PCOS is definitely a contributor to all of these. AND just because you have the symptoms doesn't mean you have PCOS. If you think you do you need to get checked by a physician.

Addicted

Af is due in 2 days and I've been a test-a-holic the past few days but getting BFN's. I keep telling myself that there's still hope but I know I'm kidding myself. We didn't take Clomid this month because we didn't plan on trying but around the time of ovulation I had a HORRIBLE cyst rupture on my right ovary and so my wonderful husband took the day off of work and drove me to the dr. They did a vaginal ultrasound and the dr told me that it appeared as though I was ovulating so we should get busy. Well we did and my hopes have been up ever since! We might have to take a break from Clomid next cycle too because of a possible job opportunity for dh. We don't want to mess up anything with insurance! We haven't decided for sure so I'll keep everyone updated! Xoxo

Vacation and starting our IVF journey

I apologize that I haven't been on here much lately. I just returned from vacation 2/19, we were in Arizona (visiting my grandparents) and Las Vegas (with friends) -we had a wonderful and relaxing time. Before we left things were crazy with work and getting our labs done for our IVF pre-screening. So once we returned we had our nephew's baptism and found out from my husband's brother that they are expecting again (nothing like getting back to reality and getting slapped in the face with that right away) I am excited for them, I just wish they would have handled telling us the news better (we were the last ones to know and were told in front of 20+ people.) Anyhow, we had our first IVF start appointment on 2/22, I'm on BC and will be starting Lurpon 2/29. I have my first baseline US on 3/8, hopefully the cyst that is on my left ovary will be gone so we can start stimulation meds on 3/10. So we'll take it one step at at time. I'm so excited because I feel like this is going to work :)

Good luck to all of you who are TTC!!!!
-Ashley

Surgeries

So I had 2 surgeries in one year...

March 2010- ovarian drilling and cyst removal
I had been asking Dr3 to remove cysts because everyone said it would help but he kept saying no, it doesn't help, it's a waste of time and the recovery is rough blah blah blah... When he gave up on me, my SIL-1 had a surgery for ovarian drilling. So I said hmmmmm and looked into it. I had been feeling like my gyn wasn't doing enough for me so I found another doctor with the woman's clinic with the hospital group I wanted to deliver with one day anyway so I switched. Told him of the pains I get and he did some sonograms and then suggested the surgery if I was interested! Got the surgery a month later in march a week before my moms hysterectomy with the same doctor. Got the surgery, he made holes and said he removed half of my cysts and cleaned up a little bit of endometriosis but said it wasn't much. Then he said I could give it 6 months before trying treatments or jump right in. So we tried to see if thigs would work out on their own. It seemed like it because I got my AF every 32-36 days May, June, July and then... August happened... Well lemme back up, I threw up every day for my June and July cycles... In July I was visiting my SIL-1 who had just moved to Washington dc 6 weeks after having her miracle baby in April. Anyway I get back from DC and shortly after my July cycle 'ended' at the end of July, then I got my August one... Weird... Then it wouldn't stop... 6 weeks! I called the doctor and he saw me and gave me provera and said i needed to go to an RE... I was so happy it looked like I was normalizing and then boom there goes that happy... No more cycle... My other SIL (SIL-2) was pregnant and due in December and nothing make u question your own childless state like a baby shower you are obligated to attend... I started looking into my husbands insurance because we had just changed insurances in June since I quit my job (too much stress) and realized OMG we have infertility coverage!!!

December 2010- surgery number 2, laparoscopy/uterine polyp removal
So we went to a fertility doctor in November right before our anniversary. Well while we were in the middle of our fertility treatments round 1, they said it looked like I had polyup/scar tissue/possible tumor growth in my uterus and a pregnancy would probably end in a miscarriage and advised we stop the cycle and have surgery and resume after they results. I was devastated because earlier in the ear I had a skin cancer scare! (wear sunscreen kids!) surgery was 2 days before Christmas! merry Christmas... Surgery went good, tissue was benign and probably caused by my miscarriage the year before. So I healed up, was on BC for a month and could continue treatments with my February cycle (6wks after surgery)

These made surgery numbers 10 and 11 I think my next one is free ;-)
(5 sinus surgeries 2 knee 1 foot and a gall bladder)

-Mrs Red