Why is it difficult to get pregnant with PCOS?

chocolatelemons · July 2016

Hi everyone,

I don't have a PCOS diagnosis, but based on my long irregular cycles, I am starting to suspect it. My bloodwork came back "normal" and I haven't yet had an ultrasound. I set up an appointment with my OB, but unfortunately, I have to wait until November.

My question is, what makes it difficult to get pregnant with PCOS besides lack of ovulation and long cycles (which in turn would mean less chances each year)? Or, are those the main reasons that women experience difficulty? I am asking because, according the charting I did do, the temp shift indicated that I ovulated both cycles. Is there anything else that causes women with PCOS to experience difficulty?

Thanks!

LadyMillil · July 2016

chocolatelemons said:

Hi everyone,

I don't have a PCOS diagnosis, but based on my long irregular cycles, I am starting to suspect it. My bloodwork came back "normal" and I haven't yet had an ultrasound. I set up an appointment with my OB, but unfortunately, I have to wait until November.

My question is, what makes it difficult to get pregnant with PCOS besides lack of ovulation and long cycles (which in turn would mean less chances each year)? Or, are those the main reasons that women experience difficulty? I am asking because, according the charting I did do, the temp shift indicated that I ovulated both cycles. Is there anything else that causes women with PCOS to experience difficulty?

Thanks!

Welcome

I don't have PCOS but from my understanding it is the long irregular cycles that make it difficult to conceive with PCOS. Many women with PCOS don't ovulate on their own, and those that do may only have a couple chances each year to get pregnant. Compare that to someone with pretty regular 28 day cycles who could have 13 chances to get pregnant each year. Hormonal imbalances are also common in PCOS and could impact ability to conceive.

mrsdaddario · July 2016

I do have PCOS and have done a crap load of research. And everything @LadyMillil said lol.

However, if your blood work came back normal, and you can definitively say you're ovulating monthly, not sure if you have PCOS. You may just have longer than normal cycles.

mrsdee15 · July 2016

What prior posters said - I have longer cycles, and my MD suspected PCOS, but those tests were negative. From my understanding, it's pinpointing ovulation/ovulating at all. Pinpointing ovulation is hard for me without the PCOS diagnosis because of cycle length. I hope you get some answers from your MD! However, I will caution that Dr. Google can be scary for no reason. I basically convinced myself I'm in early menopause from it (I'm not anywhere near it). It's hard not to google, but try not to take anything on the interweb too hard before getting a medical diagnosis.

chocolatelemons · July 2016

Thanks for the input.

I really don't know if I have PCOS since I'm not a doctor and I haven't been diagnosed with it. That said, I know there is something going on. I recently read TCOYF which gave me a lot more insight, but also supported my thoughts about my irregular cycle. I have only temped for 2 cycles (February and April) and according to the shifts, I did ovulate. However, the cycles were not consecutive and one was 43 days, the other was around 32 days.

Anyway, I started temping again yesterday and I'm thinking that will help me understand my cycles a bit more.

delujm0 · July 2016

chocolatelemons said:

Thanks for the input.

I really don't know if I have PCOS since I'm not a doctor and I haven't been diagnosed with it. That said, I know there is something going on. I recently read TCOYF which gave me a lot more insight, but also supported my thoughts about my irregular cycle. I have only temped for 2 cycles (February and April) and according to the shifts, I did ovulate. However, the cycles were not consecutive and one was 43 days, the other was around 32 days.

Anyway, I started temping again yesterday and I'm thinking that will help me understand my cycles a bit more.

Did you come off of hormonal BC recently? If so, it can take up to a year for your cycles to regulate after going off of it. I was lucky that my cycles regulated right away - they were longer than average at 33-35 days, but reasonably regular; but one of my friends didn't regulate at all for almost a year. In the first 6 months off of BC she had her period twice. She also has longer cycles now, but is able to clearly pinpoint ovulation via temping, and her cycles are usually between 35-45 days long. It takes some people longer to regulate their natural hormones than others.

It's also useful to note that you can have a random longer (or shorter!) than normal cycle at any time, for any reason. The cycle that I got pregnant with DD I actually didn't ovulate until day 31, even though my "normal" for the preceding several months since going off of BC was ovulation on day 19 or 20. It happens! Definitely temp for 3-4 cycles and see if you start to notice a pattern - you likely will. Good luck!

eggplantface · July 2016

I don't have PCOS either and am not a doctor, but I can tell you having irregular cycles does not necessarily indicate a problem, and it sounds like your cycles are long but not outside the normal range. Fertility Friend has great information on cycle lengths based on all the charts in their system, and it turns out the 28-day cycle is only normal for 11 percent of women. 11! A normal range is anywhere from 21-40-something days (not sure of the exact number). My cycles range from 31-35 days, changing each time, and I've had a 42-day and 45-day cycle. Ovulation can be affected by any number of things so it's not necessarily something wrong with you that's causing the change. Others correct me if I'm wrong, but long cycles are only an issue if you've gone 60 days without a period. Otherwise, for some women 40+ day cycles are a norm and not indicative of PCOS.

Having said that, if you're trying to get pregnant with long cycles it will in theory take longer because you'll have fewer chances to conceive each year. Someone under 35 trying for a year will get 12 or 13 shots while you're at maybe 9 or 10, so statistically it could take up to 18 months for you to get pregnant (as opposed to a "normal" 12).

Temping will definitely help you learn what is normal for you and what is not, and what affects your ovulation. E.g., I noticed my ovulation was delayed a week when I was super stressed at work over something stupid, and thus vowed to never let work interfere with my ovulation again!

NamelessAria · July 2016

If it makes you feel any better I also have somewhat irregular cycles that have ranged from 27-48 days over the past 11 months that I've charted. And I don't have PCOS. I do have ovaries that tend to be a cystic but that's very different than PCOS.

So I mean, it's clearly possible to have somewhat wonky cycles and it not be due to PCOS.

chocolatelemons · July 2016

Thanks for all the comments. It's helpful to hear from others. To answer @delujm0, I did not come off BC recently. My only experience with BC (besides condoms) was YAZ about 10 years ago and I was only on it for maybe 6 months- 1 year.

I will continue to chart and hopefully won't be waiting too long for a BFP.

hunnybunny17 · July 2016

OP I read that your hormone levels came back normal, but I want to branch off of the hormonal balance part regardless to help answer the question. Doctors have suggested that a late O can indicate that cycle has a poor quality egg, due to your body having a hard time making the egg. Though there's debate about whether or not this is true. There are countless women who have conceived with late O so therein lies the debate of how much of an impact it makes if at all.

Also (though this doesn't deal with getting pregnant) hormonal balance issues can mean that even after conception, there is an increased risk for miscarriage. Your body needs a good hormonal environment to support a pregnancy, and an imbalance can make it harder for your body to sustain a pregnancy.

chocolatelemons · July 2016

So, I finally received access to my blood work that was done and I have no idea how to interpret it so it's a bit disappointing that it's really not giving me more information. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post something like that here, so I won't but all it is a list of what was tested (maybe 7 or 8 things) and three of those things have numbers/levels next to them. I don't know what the numbers mean. I just know that when the tests were initially done, my doctor called and told me that everything was "normal". I plan to make an appointment with her or set up a phone call, at the very least, to see if she can elaborate a bit about the kind of testing that was done. I also started acupuncture on Friday and I plan to bring the results to the acupuncturist next week.

lissylew · August 2016

Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself. Ask for a copy of those records and ask them to interpret what they indicate. They usually test FSH, Estrogen, Testosterone, DHEA and maybe other stuff. They would also do an ultrasound to look for cysts. They also look at HbA1c (your sugars over past 3 months) and Fasting glucose to give you an idea if you're diabetic or pre-diabetic. These are all the factors of PCOS. My ultrasound showed no cysts and I am not in pre-diabetes nor do I have insulin resistance. I'm still waiting back on my hormone panel and will find out this Friday (ruling out PCOS diagnosis). Also, keep in mind many things will affect your cycle. Stress can delay / inhibit ovulation. I was under a lot of stress these past two months and I think I ovulated CD 37 (according to my BBT charts only) and got my period CD 52. Even that anxiety or stress can throw off your cycles. Good luck!!

[Deleted User] · August 2016

chocolatelemons said:

So, I finally received access to my blood work that was done and I have no idea how to interpret it so it's a bit disappointing that it's really not giving me more information. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post something like that here, so I won't but all it is a list of what was tested (maybe 7 or 8 things) and three of those things have numbers/levels next to them. I don't know what the numbers mean. I just know that when the tests were initially done, my doctor called and told me that everything was "normal". I plan to make an appointment with her or set up a phone call, at the very least, to see if she can elaborate a bit about the kind of testing that was done. I also started acupuncture on Friday and I plan to bring the results to the acupuncturist next week.

Hey @chocolatelemons not sure if you're still around since you haven't been on for a few days, but here are my thoughts.

It's great that all your levels are normal! Feel free make an appointment to have a discussion about what the results mean if you want to - but I think it's unlikely they would tell you everything was normal if that wasn't the case. They typically only go over thorough results if something is wrong or questionable.

As for bringing the results to your acupuncturist... I really seriously doubt they will know how to interpret the numbers either. If you were told something was high (like if you had a high testosterone/androgen level) then they might do some cooling stuff. But if you just throw a number at them I don't think they will know what to do with that.

Right now from what I'm seeing is that you have cycles that are sometimes a bit longer than average... but not really that long. It doesn't look like you're having any other symptoms like abnormal bleeding or no temp shifts. Your bloodwork came back as normal. I think since you are just one month into TTC you might want to give it some time before you start trying to fix problems that may not exist at all. Best of luck!

Edited to add: Here is a website with some numbers you can reference... although take it with a grain of salt since every lab can have slightly different ideas of what is in the range of normal.
https://contemporaryobgyn.modernmedicine.com/contemporary-obgyn/news/hormone-levels-and-pcos

chocolatelemons · August 2016

I am still around and thank you for the replies! @antoto , I completely agree with you that I am probably jumping the gun way too early. I've always been a worrier about EVERYTHING and I always think that there's something wrong. I have decided that I'm going to just try and relax a bit and try for a few months before scheduling any other appointments with my OB. I am planning to continue with the acupuncture, because I do think it helps ease my anxiety. Hopefully, things will work out.

stillclever17 · August 2016

Amenorrhea and elevated testosterone are indicative of PCOS. If everything is "normal" then you probably don't have PCOS. I have PCOS and I only have maybe 3 cycles a year where I ovulate. That definitely decreases my chances of getting pregnant. Some people don't ovulate at all. Plus the hormone imbalances make me moody af! Hopefully you are consistently ovulating and just having long cycles.

Why is it difficult to get pregnant with PCOS?

Re: Why is it difficult to get pregnant with PCOS?

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