[Bella3]

Hey gals!

So I was official diagnosed with PCOS a few months ago but my doctors have been throwing around the term for a few years now. I don't have actual cyst on my ovaries but pretty much all the other symptoms apply to me.

This is so stressing because all I want in life is a child. I know I'm only 23 and that I have 'many years' ahead to have children but knowing that I may never had children scares the crap outta me.

I was wondering if any of you have noticed a 'change' in your PCOS after loosing some weight?

My periods started to become irregular about 5 years ago (when I started putting on weight) and since then they have become fewer and farther between. It went from being late every so often to missing one every couple of months and now my period has seemed to disappear for good. The last one I had was in December. I actually hope and pray for my period to come but it seems to be lost lol Doctors say that I can either try birth control to regulate my cycles or just wait until I am absolutely ready for children and they can start me on Clomid. I don't want to go the birth control route because I feel that will just complicate things further. I don't want to actually start the Clomid process until I loose some weight because I want to be in the healthiest shape I can before trying to carry a baby.

I guess I was just hoping to find some insight from other women who have actually experienced this condition. I hope that with weight loss things will start to become more normal again?

Thanks for listening and I hope to get to know you all.

Brittany

[Flamethrower]

The second I started eating healthier, taking evening primrose oil, exercising and losing weight, my PCOS became much less of a problem. Simple as. I have regular periods now, though I do still get absolutely horribly painful (like more than normal) cramps which means I might go on the pill, but really it's so much better than it was before.

[astrophe]

It helps to lose some weight. I know my PCOS symptoms are better when I'm lighter.

Don't discount the value of BCP though for TTC prep. Supposedly PCOS people coming off the pill do quite well right after coming off it. I didn't know that at the time so no personal experience. Had I known, I would have tried it.

I was put on Metformin to try to regulate periods. I never got to better than 60 day cycles but I conceived DD on cycle day 50 something. I had promised myself to give it a year to work before adding Clomid and it was on the year anniv exactly! I used TCOYF charting.

I would have tried to lose more weight before TTC though -- a plus size pregnancy was rough on me.

A.

[aspencreek]

Hi, I'm new here too. Is that your doggie in the picture? I love animals! What a precious cutie.

I'm hoping to experience good support from others who understand how life is with PCOS. I love this one website that I read awhile ago that mentioned something along the lines "Not having others understand precisely what you are going through, and perhaps they even doubt that you really know how to take care of yourself or are really trying."

Anyways, I'm about to turn 33 and I'm really worried about being able to have a child, too. My husband and I are in no position to even start trying yet, though sometimes I wonder if we should start now because it might take years.

I wanted to also mention that I battle an eating disorder and I went through therapy all last year to deal with that. Then I went back to my doctor in October to try metformin again, since PCOS does not help my eating disorder issues.

Long story short, I finally got my act together about taking the metformin regularly, and I had already bought a bunch of supplements prior to this so I decided to finish them up too. Not really believing they would help, I just didn't want to waste the money I had spent!

I had evening primrose oil, flaxseed oil, chia seed oil (I'm a vegetarian, so I don't want fish oil), multivitamin... and... I think that's about it. Along with two doses of 850 mg of metformin, I took everything twice a day.

I started to lose weight. Not a lot and not fast... but I noticed my PCOS seemed less aggressive.

I lost 10 pounds but then had some eating disorder issues arise again, and battled that problem for most of this year, since February. Then I got discouraged and stopped taking all my supplements in May, though I still took my metformin--although I skipped a few doses of that here and there.

I quickly gained back 2.5 pounds for two weeks, thus a total of 5 pounds regain. My PCOS was raging again.

I couldn't believe it, maybe the supplements really were helping my PCOS. So I went back on them full force last week and I already feel a little better. (I'm going to add black currant oil to my supplements too.)

Now I just have to work on the eating disorder issue so that I can continue my life in peace and working on losing weight without triggering problems with the eating disorder.

I'm glad to find this message board. I just ordered 9 PCOS books to be held for my from my local library and I want to take command of my PCOS, not the other way around like it's been for years. (I've also battled massive depression for the past 8 years or so.)

So that's my long winded way of saying hello to everyone as well. (Guess it was a little of an introduction actually.)

The only symptom of PCOS that I don't have is the hair growth on the face or chest. Other than that, I have every single symptom. I hate the hair loss on my head , I hate the extreme belly fat, the acne, the cysts on my ovaries, the high cholesterol, etc... and I could go for months without a period until I started metformin. Don't know if I'm ovulating but I am having monthly cycles now.

[JennyGirl27]

ASPENCREEK....I see you are really new here. You 'may' want to check out the discussions under the "Chicks in Control" Category. I've just been using this site about a month, and at first I mainly just focused on the insulin resistance areas but am starting to explore.

[Dab52776]

Bella, I'm going to second what Astrophe said. I am currently living proof that BCP actually helps with conceiving. PCOSers are said to have the best chance of getting pregnant in the first 3 months after stopping the pill. For me, it happened in the second month, and I'm currently 9.5 weeks along. Obviously each of us are different and respond differently, but it is something to consider. I also lost about 15 lbs before TTC, so that could have factored in as well.

Good luck to you!

[Michelle125]

Hi ladies,

I went to NAPRO for PCOS monitoring (basically they help chart your cycle by teaching you how to observe your own natural secretions). Lemme tell you, these people know their stuff. But the woman couseling me got WAY too preachy (I'm not married and was disclosing some sensitive info to her for medical reasons about me and my boyfriend, and she went off on a Christian tangeant), and that turned me off to them. But the science is VERY advanced. Here's what she told me that I found so fascinating:

~ PCOS is basically a progesterone problem, in that, women with PCOS have very low progesterone.
~ an indicator of low progesterone is more than 3 days of brown color at the start or end of your period. A normal woman without PCOS will have no more than 2 days of brown.
~ a natural way to boost progesterone is to take 1,000mg of vitamin C per day. OMG this works! I was getting regular periods while doing this, but then got lazy and stopped.
~ the reason why women with PCOS can have an easier time conceiving after coming off the pill is because progesterone from the pill is still left in your system for a few months, so your body functions normally until this extra hormone wears off.
~ ample progesterone is CRUCIAL to carrying a baby. When progesterone levels dip during pregnancy this causes great danger of a miscarriage.