Are you struggling with PCOS and infertility...

Hi All ladies out there!

Are you having any frustruations you are facing due to women's problems.

PCOS is an extremely complex and not fully understood gynae problem. It is probably the most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, and is a major cause of infertility due to failure of ovaries to ovulate. Causes are unknown but are associated with insulin resistance and obesity.

Classical Common symptoms of PCOS include:

• disturbance in menstrual cycle




• endometrial cancer




• High blood levels of male hormones causing excessive hair growth; male pattern hair-loss




• obesity centered around the lower half of the torso




• acne (please go for a gynae checkup if your acne does not seem to clear even if you have applied all the available topical applications available on the market. I found that I have PCOS after my dermatologist recommended me to see a gynae.




• Prolonged periods of PMS symptoms (signs that you experience before menstruation e.g. bloating and mood swings.




• most importantly it causes infertility as the ovaries enter a state of chronic anovulation (the ovaries stop ovulating)

Other diagnostic clues of PCOS are as follow:

• Ultrasound of the ovaries shows enlarged ovaries varying from 1.5 to 3 x the normal size of an ovary. The normal ovary should be as big as a walnut. As the ovaries are ovulating normally, there are multiple small follicles on the ovaries that crowd around the edge of the ovary forming what you call a string of pearls. Hence there is a thickened-smooth outer surface of the ovary that can be seen when your gynae performs a laproscopic examination.




• Ratio of Luteinizing hormone (LH) and Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) no longer follows the 1:1 ratio. Very often the level of LH is about 3 times or more than FSH level. (You will need to understand the functions of these 2 very important female hormones to know why ovulation then fails to occur. Basically FSH is there to stimulate your follicles to grow in order to ovulate. Somewhere around mid-cycle of the menstrual cycle, LH surge occurs and ovulation takes place. When LH is persistently higher than FSH, the body will start thinking that ovulation has already occured and FSH will be suppressed. It forms a vicious cycle)




• High blood levels of testosterone




• Low blood levels of sex-hormone binding globulin




• High blood levels of insulin (due to problems with insulin resistance)
  

Having said these, there are a lot of ladies out there who do not experience all the symptoms mentioned above or they only have some of them. They may not be obese and are in fact very slim. They belong to what we call atypical PCOS cases.

I personally struggled with PCOS for 3 years. Was trying to conceive for a year and more and finally succeeded. My menses was a horrible pattern and sometimes comes after more than 3 months of amenorrhea (ie no menses). Sometimes my girl friends tell me that they hate their menstruation because it is so messy. I would very much like to experience this inconvenience for them. Please ladies if your menses are normal and come approximately every month, you should be thankful. For me as my menses come either every 2-4 months, my ovulation cycle is totally wrecked and there is really a slim chance to get pregnant. There is no way that you can tell you are ovulating because a lady having PCOS does not have the normal fluctuation of female hormones and everything about detecting ovulation from finding thin, stretchy mucus or basal body temperature monitoring is extremely unreliable.

About 10% of women population suffer from this hidden syndrome so I believe there are more of you out there. My gynae once joked when he first diagnose me that if you throw a stone in Orchard, you will probably hit someone with PCOS. I think he is just trying to make me feel better as I was crying profusely when I heard I have this condition and the implications on my reproductive ability. Please share with everyone if you need any guidance or if you will like to encourage someone else about how to cope with this problem.

I have read up all the possible sources about PCOS during these couple of years and although that does not make me an expert, I can put myself in your shoes as I have been through this before.

It is possible for women with PCOS to have babies. This is probably a hereditary condition and that means our mothers might have the problem too. But they still managed to conceive (ie giving birth to yourselves!)

You can try some of the following resources here:

I really like this website which provided me a lot of information to allow me to try to understand more of this hidden condition
http://www.pcosupport.org/

The following forum also contains useful tips and real life experience from others who are suffering but overcoming POCS.
http://www.soulcysters.net/

I was happy to find the following site which lists down the possible supplements that are mostly natural therapies and a comprehensive one. It helped me quite a lot. It is not possible to take all of them so I highly recommend the ones with 4 or 5 stars with the exception of medicine that needs to be prescribed by a physician. You will need to consult a doctor to obtain these.
http://pcosfaq.com

Be Rid of PCOS forever - The Definitive Book On Pcos. End Your Suffering Now. Learn How To Treat The Pain, The Discomfort, The Feeling Unwell. Written For Women In Easily Understood Language From Both The Medical And Naturopathic Points Of View.
Click Here!


PCOS can be controlled. It is not your fault that you have this condition.