Fertility Options Coach

The first question asked by many women just diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome is “Will I ever get pregnant?” One source said that women with PCOS have an 80-90 percent chance of having a baby, but I was unable to find any research studies to back this up. While some women with polycystic ovarian syndrome will not be able to get pregnant, I believe that the majority can and do eventually have healthy babies.

First, 5-10% of women of childbearing age have PCOS. If their symptoms are mild they are often undiagnosed. If they have even one child, many physicians will say they can not have PCOS. This is ridiculous if you look at the diagnostic criteria. The most common criteria for diagnosis include a failure to ovulate regularly. However, for many women this means they have long cycles (35 days or longer in many cases) but they DO ovulate.

Some women with PCOS have unhealthy eggs because their periods are too far apart, in many cases this is correctable with herbs, diet or drugs. Many women with PCOS also have a thyroid condition. Frequently, if this is treated they begin to ovulate. Many women with PCOS have frequent miscarriages, but they eventually have a healthy baby—often with the help of progesterone cream or suppositories. Some women find that losing weight, taking vitex or other herbs, or reducing stress cause them to begin ovulating (for me it was all three!). Some learn to detect ovulation through cervical mucus and basal body temperatures (BBT or temperature charting). Again, these women often have healthy babies without medical intervention.

It is hard to know how many women with PCOS become pregnant without help since many women are first diagnosed with PCOS because they are having trouble getting pregnant. Often metformin or other insulin-sensitizing drugs work wonders and they are able to get pregnant and carry a baby to term.

The fact is, only a small percentage of women with PCOS ever make it to the stage of trying fertility drugs. Clomid (clomiphene citrate) is often the first drug of choice since it is cheap and easy to take. I did find studies indicating that Clomid alone works for 70% of women with PCOS. Other women find that they need Clomid and metformin or stronger fertility drugs. The success rate tends to drop a bit as time passes and stronger methods are tried, but the bottom line is that most women who have PCOS and want children have them.

Even for those who are told they will never succeed at getting and staying pregnant, there is much reason to hope. Several close friends of mine have surprised themselves and their doctors by getting pregnant after years of infertility. “Lisa” adopted three children and then found herself pregnant in her late 30’s. It seems that for many women their PCOS symptoms mellow out as they get older. “Anne” went to the doctor to find out why she was infertile after several years of marriage—she was 3 already months pregnant and boy number two followed just 15 months later. “Susan” had three miscarriages and was told she would never carry a baby to term. Four months later she was pregnant with her daughter and her son is two years younger. “Barb” got pregnant when she was not even thinking of fertility and now counts herself extremely blessed to have two healthy boys.

I know many women who have done everything possible to get pregnant, even IVF, and have not succeeded. But the majority of women with PCOS DO get pregnant. There is even more reason to hope for the young women who are just now learning they have PCOS. First, they are more likely to be diagnosed at all. This means many women will be diagnosed who would have been overlooked ten or fifteen years ago when my generation was first beginning the march from doctor to doctor looking for answers. We know so much more than we did then. Treatments, both natural and medical, are much, much better than ever. In addition, being diagnosed now means they have the chance to prevent much of the physical and emotional trauma older women have experienced because our doctors just didn’t know how to help us.

My advice to any particular woman is to do all you can to increase your fertility (see my other articles and my books for more information about this). Then do your best to relax and let your body work. The odds are with you in the long run.

This post was originally written when I was pregnant with my daughter. I added it here since it gives so many women so much hope.

Every week I get emails from women who have recently been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Almost all of them say the same thing, “I’m terrified that I’ll never be able to have kids.” I understand that fear because I lived it for more than 15 years. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 19. Just 4 1/2 months ago I peed on what must have been the 100th pregnancy test strip. To my shock and surprise, I found myself staring at two purple lines. I had just remarried 5 months before, how could I have gotten pregnant so quickly without medical help when surgeries, drugs and other interventions had failed?

Within the next 4 hours I repeated that experience with 3 more test sticks. By test number two I was starting to believe I was actually pregnant, but then the fear set in…what if I could not carry this baby to term? Was it safe to get my hopes up? Would I really have this baby? What if this was some kind of weird hormonal thing making the tests come up with false positives?

A trip to my local hospital that evening for a blood test soon confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. Waiting for the test results was the longest two hours of my life. I was so afraid that this test would dash my growing hopes. When the lab technician finally answered the phone and told me that the test was positive I started crying. She asked, “Was this what you wanted to hear?” I managed to complete a sentence between my tears, “I’ve been waiting 15 years to hear those words.”

Pregnancy, for me, has not been easy but now that I am 20 weeks along I am feeling better and the little pokes and kicks I feel from time to time let me know that everything is going to be ok. At 10 weeks, I experienced sudden bleeding and I was again terrified that I was not going to see this baby come to term. The ultrasound brought fresh tears as I saw a perfect tiny baby bouncing around like a ping pong ball, not just “wiggling” like the pregnancy books said it would. The bleeding was not affecting the baby at all, though there was a large blood clot in my uterus.

I spent the next several weeks on bed rest as much as possible, a reality that was made easier to endure because I was so incredibly nauseated that I was throwing up several times a day. Even sitting up in bed or looking at a computer screen made me lose my lunch (or breakfast, or dinner, or anything else I dared to eat or drink). My businesses suffered as I went from working 18 hours a day to barely managing to get out of bed for most of 3 months.

Just as the nausea started to diminish (still sick to my stomach a lot, but way better than before), the pregnancy hormones made my carpal tunnel syndrome so severe that it wakens me several times throughout the night. Through it all, I just keep looking at that ultrasound photo of my baby and reminding myself that this little one is worth it. At 16 weeks an ultrasound showed that the blood clot was gone, and that our little girl (yes, it’s a girl!) is growing perfectly.

Why am I pregnant now instead of when I was trying so hard to get pregnant? I have thought a lot about this while I suppress the desire to punch the people who keep saying things like “All you needed to do was relax!” I was not particularly relaxed when I got pregnant. I was frustrated and angry that my body was not cooperating. My periods were like clockwork, yet that month I did not ovulate on day 14, or 15, or 16…I did not ovulate until day 24, based on my due date. While I am sure there is an element that is beyond my comprehension, I believe that my body was finally ready for a baby. I was taking my herbs, vitamins and Omega-3 EFA I was at a good weight for me. I was sleeping more than I used to. I was finally in a relationship without conflict. I believe that these and many other factors are what made my body ready for a baby.

Having experienced infertility for so long, I know that I’ll cherish this child. People say things like, “Wait until she is two!” I can’t wait until she is two, or even 13! I am so excited to meet this little one. I am under no illusions that parenting will be easy, but I do know that every day of her life I will thank God that I have gotten the chance to mother this child.