Menstral Cycles and the big O(vulation)

L2HS

Hello everyone!

I was wondering if anyone out there has been through a similar situation to mine. I was diagnosed with PCOS approximately 5 years ago. I started having heavy periods that lasted for like 6 months. By that time, I figured I either had PCOS or endometriosis. When I went to the doctor, they just wanted to put me on birth control and call it a day. I pushed for them to look further and was finally diagnosed. 2 DNC, a few changes in birth control, and Metformin, my PCOS was under control. In July, I went to my doctor for a family planning counseling. I totally expected to be placed on Clomid and was given quite a shock. She told me that I needed to lose 65 pounds before she would discuss fertility medications. She took me off the birth control because she felt that that would help with the weight loss. I was instructed to use alternative birth control methods because she did not recommend that I try to get pregnant at my weight. (Another huge, emotional blow). I have been tracking my cycles closely since I stopped the birth control in July. With some slight fluctuations, I find that my cycles are pretty regular. Average 28 days with periods lasting 3-5 days. Now I know that you can have your period but not ovulate.

What I don't know is that how often do women with PCOS have consistent, regular periods monthly and still do not ovulate. Does anyone have any experience with having a regular periods and do not ovulate?

I bought an ovulation predictor test kit and am going to try and see if I ovulate this month. I was a little disheartened to see that just because your have a spike in LH doesn't mean you are ovulating. Is there anything else I can to do check to see if I am ovulating?

Please help! I am trying to decide whether I should go ahead and go back to the doctor to see about fertility meds or if I should give it a go naturally first since my husband and I have not tried to conceive naturally yet. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks.
-L

ChelleSC

In short yes. You can track your basal body temperature, cervical mucous, and cervical positions. The book Taking Charge of your Fertility gives an in depth description of how to do this. If you're looking for something fast and free you can go to the website fertility friend. They have a free web course that explains it. They have online charting where you can keep track of your temperatures and other fertility signs. Their software will pinpoint your ovulation day. Basically the first part of your cycle is estrogen dominated causing slightly lower basal (total resting taken before getting out of bed at the same time each day) temperature. The second part of your cycle (after ovulation) is progesterone dominated and you should have a higher basal temp. If you chart every day what your basal temp is based on measurement with a basal thermometer (available at drug stores and places like Target) you can see after the fact if you ovulated. I highly recommend it! It's very promising that you have regular cycles. I don't know what your specific weight is. I was 236 for both pregnancies and while I had gestational diabetes the second time I had 2 full term boys. You might consider a second opinion. I've learned that some OB's are very biased against heavy women. Mine wasn't t all. With fertility issues it's pretty important that you feel comfortable with your doctor.

miranda_mom

I recommend Fertility Friend as well. I personally never found BBT to be very helpful but for me, cervical mucus was an excellent indicator so that's what I used. If you join Fertility Friend, you can learn more about how to check all these signs on their tutorial and find out what works for you.

amandabeth620

I will have to check out fertility friend. I just started on a site called Countdown to Pregnancy and you can chart your BBT there for free as well.

CharRicho

I'm also using Fertility Friend.

I was told that the only SURE ways to know that you ovulated are to get the lab tests done post-O by your doctor, or if you see a sustained temperature raise on your BBT that lasts until your period (or keeps lasting in the case that you are pregnant!)

For the other fertility signs, you will see cervical mucus changes, and cervical position changes, BUT these can occur (especially in PCOS) even if ovulation does not. That's because these changes are the result of estrogen, which your body still makes, but if you do not get an LH surge then you won't actually ovulate (or you'll get a cyst instead of ovulating) even if you were having all the symptoms that you were going to.

To use BBT, you have to be really consistent about taking you temp every day at the same time, after approximately the same amount of sleep. So if you're like me, and you go to bed and wake up at different times, this is pretty tricky. I use it to look for a general trend, that I'm just hoping I can get some interpretation from, but I know that because of my inconsistent sleep patterns it may never be able to completely properly confirm O for me.

I'm betting that if you go to see your doc, they will just tell you to try naturally for awhile. I would do that, and use something to try to track your cycles and fertility signs. If you think that from your cycles you are definitely NOT ovulating, then they might be willing to help you sooner, but generally most docs will not help with fertility issues until you've been trying on your own for a year (or 6 months if you are over 35). This of course will depend on your particular doctor (mine has agreed to help me, since I was able to show her the cycles I had tracked for 6 months, showing definitely no ovulation) but that is the usual "rule".

L2HS

Thank you all for your help. I will definitely check out Fertility Friend.