PCOS Club!

[sunshine1217]

Guess what guess what?! I just had my 1st acupuncture session and it was impromptu! I walked into a local traditional chinese medicine shop and the doctor was there. I asked about acupuncture and she said she has many clients with infertility issue. I went back an hour later for my 1st session. Because I am on cycle day 14, she said most likely it is too late for me this month but she poked me anyways to cleanse? my body in preparation for next cycle. She is very familiar with PCOS because majority of her infertility issue women have the same thing. She asked me the regular questions - how regular my period is, do I know if I ovulate, cysts on my ovaries, if my tubes are blocked and suddenly, "have you put on a lot of weight recently?" I was like ... woooowwww... not even the gynae asked me that!

Anyway, I feel normal and slightly relaxed after the needles and mini head massage after. Maybe because I have a cold now so the massage really helped my headache!

I got a letter yesterday to confirm my next FS appointment is on 06 Dec. That is 4 months' away! I was devastated and cried whole night. If only the gynaecologist gave me my well-deserve Clomid last week. She insisted on having a CD3 blood test and take it from there. FOUR MONTHS!!! It doesn't help that DH is away abroad on business trip... Hence the spontaneous acupuncture session.

Another thing I want to share/ask is ... my OPK is about 3/4 as dark as the control line today but my temps have shot up and FF indicated I've ovulated 4 days ago which I can almost guarantee I didn't. I know my temps went up due to the heatwave we got over the last week in London and I've had this cold 4 days ago. So I don't know what to think about this. OPKs have never worked for me nor temp-ing. *sigh*

I know I am not alone when I say this -- the "big guy up there" is really not keen on seeing me pregnant.

Wow, 4 months is a long time, is there any way to get around it? I can't believe they are m aking you wait so long. I am on day 12 and on cd 10, my opk was getting 9retty dark but I just had an ultrasound done by fx and he says I look like I am probaby sstill a few days away. Sorry for the typos, on my mobile.

Keep us posted on the acupuncture. I've always wondered about that

 

[tinks80]

well i just went for my u/s and sooo confused, i am CD11 now and i have about 8-10 follicles that have come up to about 10mm-11mm each on both ovaries and theyre now saying i look polycystic? only two weeks ago these tiny follicles were only 1-2mm each in size? is this normal? my opk's are extremely close to being positive, but i am now concerned i just getting a high lh surge because of there being soo many follicles as ive perhaps over stimulated my ovaries?

is CD11 too early to tell my accurate size of my follicles? will i still be able to grow a mture follicle/egg and ovulate?

please note i did take soy this cycle from days 3-9 to help stimulate them

 

[Soili]

Tinks, it's impossible to tell if you'll develop a dominant follicle at this point or not. Also, Soy cycles very rarely get monitored, so there's pretty much no data on what's normally supposed to be happening in there when you take Soy.

Buy a thermometer and start charting. Aside from charting, only progesterone test done at CD3 and another 7 days past the day you think you've ovulated, can tell for sure if you have or not.

I know everything seems very confusing when you first suspect you might not be ovulating and there's a lot of information to absorb, but charting will give you the best understanding of the whole process.

 

[Clobo]

MissusL, aw chick thats awful that they just sign you off saying they cant help you, but glad they LW are now setting you off on Metformin, ive heard good things about it so really hoping it works for you. Yep losing just a bit of weight can help to kick strat your body into ovulating. Google the Low GI diet too and maybe its worth giving that a go too.

Yellow, yay for acupuncture, ive been having it too and had about 7 sessions so far, I really have faith in it and have heard so many good stories, yep mine did the same asked so many questions and does different things depending on where i am in my cycle too! Go for it!!

As for the FS appt, thats terrible its such a long wait. Mind you I waited 13 weeks for mine too ... have you rung them to ask why its so long?? Why dont you ask if you could be put on a cancellation list once you have had your cd3 results?? Its worth a go.

Your chart certainly does look like you ovulated but i think the only thing you can do is to wait a few more days and see whether they come down after your cold has gone and after the heatwave. Keep just in case the OPK is a positive one.

Tinks, well to be honest to have follicles that size sounds about right for now, usually the dominant one takes over about now and that one will then grow over the next few days to about 20mm and then hopefully the LH surge will release the eggy. PCOS usually looks like a string of pearls around your ovary which are all the little cysts from previously overgrown/not released follicles so wonder whether they saw that as a separate thing?? hey should really have explained all this to you .... do you have GP/FS appt soon that you can ask more questions??

Good luck ladies ... the big man in the sky is im sure working on us all in his own wierd, wonderful and sometimes very confusing way!! xxx

 

[Soili]

Hey guys, I have a question to those of you who use OPK a lot On cycles when you know you've ovulated (temps confirming), with Clomid or on your own, do you get second test line on OPK AFTER ovulating? I hear it's supposed to be pretty much non-existent past ovulation for girls without PCOS, because LH is supposed to drop under influence of progesterone and stay put until next cycle. But what about us?

Also, once ovulated, do the cysts shrink for the duration of luteal phase or are they still there just the same?

 

[Missus_L]

Thanks Clobo, I have just started to do this to shift as much weight as possible for November (and beyond) so that I possibly get caught naturally or being put on the list for IVF

 

[tinks80]

Clobo- I tested positive on my opk this morning though will this matter? I tested again tonight & it's negative though :-S soo confusing

also if I don't O this month will the follicles continue to grow till eventually release an egg or will fill with fluid and remain as cyst?

 

[wantanerd]

I don't get a dominant follie until day 14 or 15 and then I usually get triggered on day 17-20. On day 9-10, my follies are around 8-10mm.

If you don't O, (in my case) it caused cysts for me but I am not sure for everyone.

 

[tinks80]

I don't get a dominant follie until day 14 or 15 and then I usually get triggered on day 17-20. On day 9-10, my follies are around 8-10mm.

If you don't O, (in my case) it caused cysts for me but I am not sure for everyone.

thanks heaps, its great to hear from someone in a similar position to me thanks so frustrating not knowing wats going on, ive got soo many follicles, so bit scared lol, not worried about multiples though

well i guess ill sit back and wait and see fx i get my and all will be ok, if not off to doc to get a hsg next month & try again

 

[sunshine1217]

I don't get a dominant follie until day 14 or 15 and then I usually get triggered on day 17-20. On day 9-10, my follies are around 8-10mm.

If you don't O, (in my case) it caused cysts for me but I am not sure for everyone.

Hi Wantanerd, when you don't O, do you not get a period either?

 

[wantanerd]

I dont get a period if I dont ovulate. I have ovulated the past two cycles so heres to ovulating this cycle as well. I don't think my ovulation will be triggered until late next week. My follicles are taking their damn sweet time growing this month. Hopefully they jump start over the weekend.

 

[Clobo]

Hi all

Soili, hmmm, i think some peoples LH surge can go on for longer than others. If you are at all in doubt then keep for now so that you dont miss it! Usually the follicles shrink back down after the one dominant one takes over, however with PCOS you dont always get a big LH surge and so the growing follicles arent release and they all get too big, then finally shrink and cause little cysts ... hence the cysts and the long cycles.

Tinks, it might be worth you temperature charting if the OPKs are causng confusion. Are you on clomid or anything like that??

Wantanerd, good luck ovulating, hope those eggys grow nice and strong over the weekend for you

xxx

 

[Soili]

Clobo, my doubt is not exactly that I know it can take a few days for LH to clear off after initial surge, but say you're supposed 10dpo and know for sure you're out with pregnancy (were preventing), should your baseline LH stay elevated because of PCOS or should it go down a lot, because of progesterone?

This is also why I'm asking about the cysts. As in, many cysts=higher than normal baseline LH. Say, I haven't ovulated for a while, but then did. All those tiny cysts that are there because of PCOS, do they go away, like non-dominant follicles are supposed to or do they stay anyway? What happens if one gets pregnant then? Do ovaries continue looking polycystic or they clear up at some point?

I know at least in my case, they went away when I was on BCP for a few months. But they were still there when I took Provera to induce AF.

 

[Clobo]

Hiya

Ah i see, well to be totally honest im not really sure, plus i think PCOS differs from woman to woman too, ive tried googling it and this website gives a lot of medical infohttps://www.gfmer.ch/Endo/Course2003/Menstrual_cycle/Menstrual_cycle_Bischof.htm

Im guessing the cysts do go away after a while otherwise we would have hundreds of them after a while. Also i think pregnancy hormones mean you dont produce eggs during that time, same with BCP and so there is nothing there to become a cyst.

Our bodies are such a mystery most of the time arent they, its so confusing, why cant they just do what we want??



Sorry im not much use

 

[Soili]

No, no, actually this was very helpful!! I got a lot of information from that link! I wish someone made a study like that with PCOS women too though, I'd like to see at what point exactly the normal ovulatory cycle gets interrupted. I just need to get my head around what's going on exactly, feels like that way I'll be better in control somehow

 

[Clobo]

Ah thats good, some websites turn out to be rubbish and some are really useful, i find it all fascinating to be honest and although i dont understand all the words i like to know medically what goes on!! Im forever googling stuff like that!!

Yes PCOS is so common yet not many GPs know anything about it, they just push you off to the FS and wash their hands of you when there is so much they could be telling us while we wait for our FS appointments that we could do to help ourselves! ;grr:

Know what you mean about feeling in control, im gradually losing my positivity about this cycle, not sure why just managing my expectations i think!!

xxxx

 

[BabyForMe83]

Hi guys hope you're all well! Just a quick question- for any of you that are on metformin and clomid. Didi your doctor have you try metformin alone first before introducing clomid or did you just start them together? I've started mine together and wondering if metformin will have any influence on me ovulating for this first clomid cycle...

 

[Soili]

BabyForMe83, the only thing I know is according to studies Metformin increases the chances of Clomid being sucessful at inducing ovulating for PCOS girls. Apparently, even if you fail to ovulated on high doses of Clomid, combining it with Metformin can lead to success.

 

[Soili]

Clobo, hang it there! Gotta keep PMA, only a few day till you get to POAS

 

[lolageorgia]

Hi guys hope you're all well! Just a quick question- for any of you that are on metformin and clomid. Didi your doctor have you try metformin alone first before introducing clomid or did you just start them together? I've started mine together and wondering if metformin will have any influence on me ovulating for this first clomid cycle...

What dose of metformin are you on? I remember when I fist started MF I had horrible side effects for days, and I did with Clomid so hoping you dont feel too ill with them put together! xx