Recent PCOS diagnosis

Mamph25 · February 2016

I recently had all my bloodwork done and had a hcg test and passed with flying colors. All my bloodwork is normal, my husband's sperm in great. I just have irregular periods. After reviewing all my blood my RE said its PCOS. I was a bit taken back seeing that I'm not overweight, my sugar and incilin levels were all normal and I've never had any cysts. With that being said he recommended we either do IUI or IVf with a perference of IVF because of the higher success rates. I don't know why but I'm very emotional after this doctor visit. Has anyone had a similar diagnosis or situation?

AandDM2014 · February 2016

Welcome. I too was given a surprise PCOS diagnosis as I had never even heard of it before my RE told me I had it. I do have high AMH and cysts. It was quite a shock for me as no woman in my family has trouble getting pregnant and I have always been on the lower end of the healthy weight range for my height. From personal experience I would recommend going right into IVF. I did 6 round of Clomid with IUI and got two positives (one ectopic, one chemical) but no take-home baby. I know that IVF is expensive, but so is doing 6 round of IUI then having to do IVF anyway. GL with whatever you decide to do!

Mamph25 · February 2016

Thank you for replying! Before I went to the RE I was at my regular OBGYN and she did 5 rounds of clomid there so the RE said no more clomid for me. Is there is anything vitamin wise I could consider taking to help regulate my period?

mtpbadger · February 2016

I was diagnosed with PCOS and like @AandDM2014 have always been on the lower end of healthy weight for my height but no cysts. What does your insurance cover in terms of IF treatment bc that might play into your decision. I did three IUIs with two resulting in chemicals and am in the process of starting my first IVF cycle. It might be worth it to try one IUI with injectables if your insurance covers it otherwise I agree, I wish we had moved to IVF sooner bc in the end the costs still added up and it would have been nice to put those funds towards IVF, especially since the odds are better.

You will find quite a few women on here with PCOS diagnosis and it impacts each one differently. As far as I know, there is no vitamin or "magic pill" to regulate your cycle but some people explore changes in diet, acupuncture, etc and may have comments for you. Good luck!

PCOSat25 · February 2016

Sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. I also have health weight, no blood sugar/insulin issue PCOS. I too states with my obgyn and did 4 rounds of clomid. When I didn't have success, I was referred to an RE. I am currently on my third (and final) IUI cycle. We began treatment with IUI as it is covered by our insurance but it has still be expensive (over $1000 a cycle with monitoring and injectible meds). Due to the expense we have decided to only do three IUI. If no success this time around we will take a break to save for IVF which will not be covered by insurance at all.

What at is your RE recommending for you at this time?

tvh1982 · February 2016

Hi and welcome.
Same goes for me, no symptoms of PCOS 'just' the not getting pregnant part.
Ive done 5 IUI and done 2 IVF (fresh and frozen) If I could it do all over I would saved my money, my worries about, did we hit the timeframe and the TWW of did an egg actually got fertilised .. and started straight with IVF where I was 100% sure the egg that entered my uterus was mature and fertilised.

GL on your journey.

Oh and if you wonder which way you should go, read the monthly IVF and IUI discussion on this board...you'll get a little insight of what goes through our minds.

laurenlalap · February 2016

*child mentioned*

I just want to share my story to give some hope, as I remember how upset I was when I received my diagnosis.
I was in grade 10 and bled for a month. After a slew of testing, I was dx with PCOS. I had many cyst issues over the next 10 years, and on every u/s I had it showed "multiple follicles" aka I still had PCOS.

My husband and I decided to try for our first baby in February 2013, and on our second month of trying I was pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby. I automatically assumed I wouldn't be able to get pregnant, or would have a very difficult time so this pregnancy was a complete shock to me.

I'm now trying to get pregnant with our 2nd and my current RE doesn't see any PCOS with me, I'm completely unexplained. He indicated that sometimes it can be monitored well and then just "go away." PCOS isn't the reason I'm not getting pregnant now.

What is your RE suggesting?

Mamph25 · February 2016

I've always been regular until I went off the pill this last time which was January of 2015. My RE is suggesting going straight to IVF. What I don't understand though is why can't I try trigger shots since everything else came out normal in my testing as well as my husband's. My only symtom of PCOS is the irregular periods.

mtpbadger · February 2016

Definetly advocate for yourself if you want to start with an IUI with injects first! Also ask your RE what the reasoning is, they might not have fully explained why they want to go straight to IVF. One reason may be that women with PCOS can produce a lot of eggs even during IUI and if you get too many you may have to cancel that cycle....total speculation but that may be a reason why.

PCOSat25 · February 2016

There may be more to the story as to why your doctor is recommending you go directly to ivf. What is your age? The older you are, the more likely it is the doctor will what to just jump into whatever has the highest success rate. Even if you are just in your early-mid thirties the doctor may feel you don't have time to waste with IUIs.

However i will say most women with PCOS that I have seen on this board start with IUI with letrozole/femera or injectables.

once you get to the IVF stage (if you do other treatments first) it may be really easy to say "I wish I had smiles everything else and just started here." But remember the people making Those comments HAVE had the chance at pregnancy with the other treatments. Unfortunately the odds worked agains them. Anyway what oil mean by that is IVF is like as final resort in my opinion. It is soooooo expensive and most insurances won't touch it. Gosh it is almost the equivalent in cost as buying a car!!! And though percentages may be higher there is no garuntee!!! In my opinion that is not the place to START (If there are other options). I prefer to give the other treatments a shot. If they don't work then at least I KNOW that spending the money on IVF Is necessary. If I just jumped right into IVF I would always wonder if something cheaper and less taxing on my body would have worked if I gave it a chance.

Mamph25 · February 2016

My RE said my age isn't a factor. My egg supply is great, bloodwork as well. The only hang up is irregular periods. I believe his reasoning is the success rates of IVF versus IUI. I just feel like IVF is a last resort and I'm not that old, but at the same time I don't want to waste time on IUIs and have my egg supply dimish or quality die down.

PCOSat25 · February 2016

Yeah I guess I just don't understand why your RE would go straight to IVF. If it is just an issue of irregular periods you would just need to induce a period with a medication like provera or a BC cycle. Once you have a period there is a WIDE range of medications they can use to develops mature eggs and ovulate (clomid, letrozole/femera, injectables). You can trigger ovulation with an HCG shot once a mature follicle is available and then do TI or IUI. It essentially puts you on a level playing field with women who ovulate naturally. So the odds are about as good as any other women having unprotected sex at ovulation time (about 20%).

If you are anything like me, you may have NEVER even ovulated before. Which would basically mean than just with the medications you are taking yourself from a 0% chance each month to 20%. That is definitely an improvement and even if you did multiple IUI cylces it would likely still only be a fraction of IVF cost.

Total with my three IUI I will have spend about $4000 including meds. ONE chance at IVf will cost 3-4 times that amount...

i would probably seek a second opinion.

KilgraveMadeMeDoIt · February 2016

Funny thing about IUI vs IVF... 3 cycles of IUI in good candidates has as high a live birth rate as one cycle of IVF. I was just reading a big systematic review yesterday. IUI is much less invasive and expensive, though, which is why it's more common to start with that. I agree with the others, it seems a bit odd that your RE would jump right to that. I'd suggest a second opinion.

Side note, the funny thing about PCOS is that the diagnostic criteria for it don't have anything to do with weight or insulin status, and you can be diagnosed with it without having polycystic ovaries.

You need to have at least two out of three findings from a list, but you don't have to have all three (called the Rotterdam Criteria.) And while PCOS usually goes hand in hand with insulin resistance, it doesn't always. Funny, eh? It's so common and so variable.

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