I need to hear about experiences from you preggo chickies and experts (midwife, Aphil)

DH and I are juuuuuust about ready to start trying. I would say in the next 3 months.

Did anyone get checked by their ob/gyn before they proceeded? What kind of things did they look/check for? Since I have had "issues" before (symptomatic for pcos but have been symptom free since I lost weight), it just feels like unchartered territory because I have NO idea how my body will react to not being on birth control (currently on nuvaring) and neither does my Dr. She has, however, said that by keeping my weight in check and staying ON bc I am perserving my fertility.

Any advice from you "experts" before I embark on this frightening journey

Eeekk! I'm so excited for you!!

Okay, now that I've got that out of my system!!

I would recommend starting prenatal vitamins now. You want the folic acid in your system before you even know you are pregnant.

It sounds like it will be hard to tell what your cycle will do now that the pcos symptoms have waned. I'd say, give it a good year of trying after you discontinue the nuvaring. Since your symptoms are better, I would be optimistic about conception within a year.

If you are interested in any genetic testing before pregnancy (ie, cystic fibrosis carrier), ask your ob provider for a referral. Just keep in mind that genetic counselors do a great job telling you about the worst things that can happen, so explore this option with care and common sense and pursue what tests (if any) that make sense to you.

And have fun! I am so excited for you. What a great time in your life! You will be a fantastic mommy!

Thank you so much!!!

I will start prenatals pronto. I'm also reading "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" and am learning so much.

I feel so ready for this endeavor, but I want to make sure I'm in the best possible condition. The scary part for me is the unkown regarding my fertility. Only one way to find out

My mother had terrible problems with endo, but had no trouble concieving. She was able to get pregnant with me her first cycle after stopping bcp. I'm hoping that's a good sign.

If I were you, with the PCOS, knowing what I know now about insulin resistance and pregnancy, I would ask for tests to make sure that blood sugar and insulin resistance are completely under control before proceeding toward conception. And if there's any hint that they are not under control, I would ask for a prescription for Metformin to deal with the insulin resistance. PCOS / insulin resistance carries with it an increased risk of miscarriage; Metformin is safe for use during pregnancy and lowers miscarriage risk in women who need it. Obviously, do the research and come to your own conclusion, but being IR and having had 3 miscarriages myself (and, ultimately, 3 beautiful live children), my hope for you would be that you are able to avoid the heartbreak of miscarriage if at all possible.

My blood sugar was in the normal range at last check this past spring (I get it checked every spring) and has been since I've been maintaining.

But that is an excellent point re: met and miscarriage and it's definitely going on my list! Thanks !

Were they able to conclude that your insulin levels were related to your miscarriages?

There's almost never a way to make conclusions about miscarriages and determine 100% why they happened; there's just too many things that would need to be ruled in or out. But if I'm remembering correctly, IR increases miscarriage risk by about double. And I definitely had IR--my fasting insulin levels were something like 5 times higher than normal. One "fertility doctor" I went to would not even examine the issue with me, though; he told me to lose weight and suggested Clomid, IIRC. (Clomid, of course, does absolutely nothing to decrease the risk of miscarriage; it only increases the chance of conception.) To doctors, miscarriage is an "oh well, it happens commonly" occurrence and they're not going to bother to delve into it until a couple is suffering from repeated loss. (Repeated loss being at LEAST three miscarriages, usually.)

You can get IR checked as well as your blood sugar; assuming you're eating healthy and not doing a lot of processed carbs, you're probably fine. But blood sugar being in control is not in and of itself a sign that your insulin sensitivity is also fine.

If I had it to do over again, I would also make absolutely certain I was on a diet that had NO white carbs at all in it, prior to trying for pregnancy.

No "white stuff" is one of my rules that I haven't been sticking too as well as I should. It's making it's way into more otherwise healthy meals than it should. This is what I needed to hear. Thank you.

Thank you for asking this question junebug.

DH and I have been wondering if the initial visit is really all that necessary. Maybe the initial could be to discuss issues and to get prenatal vitamins? Just a thought.

I think for me it is. Not just because of my completely nutty cycle, but just as a general health check. I think if there is any concern about my weight, diet, activity level, blood pressure, blood sugar or anything else, I want to know about it. Plus, I've never been pregnant before and I have about a bazillion questions. I think I would like a doctor's support before I embark on such a journey. OTOH, women have been concieving since, well, forever w/out dr's advice and there may be nothing to it, but my health is super important to me so I may as well cover all my bases, you know?

But yeah, I think doctors just like to run down the "list"- weight, diet, exercise, vitamins, smoking, drinking... stuff like that. I didn't know if there were any additional tests or exams they did. I may just try to tie it all into my annual.

I swear just buying that book can make you pg, watch out!

Congrats and good luck!

Thanks! I mentioned in another thread that a friend of mine had just completed a course of chemo and radiation and got the go-ahead from her doctors when she got pg.... like that very next cycle. She said it's all because of the book!

The sugar check that you get, is it just a random finger stick glucose or a hemoglobin A1c?

The random will show you blood glucose at one given point in time, A1c will show how well controlled you blood sugar has been over time.

It's neither. The first step is generally a fasting CBG, followed by a 2 hr glucose tolerance test as needed.

Thank you for making me dig out my results! I forgot where I put them.

No A1c this last time. I had a blood panel and my fasting glucose was 73, so that's probably why they didn't recommend an A1c.