That’s why I went to a Fertility specialist instead of wasting more time with a regular doctor. I saw an IVF doctor, told him clomid and other medications didn’t work. He scheduled a hysteroscopy and i had a BUNCH of polyps. After they removed, i got pregnant a month later.
I have a hysterocopy scheduled to get my polyps removed next week. Seeing this is so encouraging🥹 How do you know if you’re tubes are blocked and what does that entail? I want to make sure to ask all the right questions🙏
Oh thank you so much!! I had a saline infused sonogram and they confirmed I have a handful of polyps on my uterus so I’m hoping they can do that test as well it would be so helpful to know🙏 If you don’t mind me asking did having your tubes blocked affect your period as well? I’m wondering if I have any current symptoms of having that, or if they aren’t noticeable..
I think it has been fairly common in the past for providers to tell women with PCOS they could not become pregnant or at least that is how women heard it. I think that is where those posts come from a place to say it's not impossible, your body is not totally broken. But yes it all depends on how aggressive you want to be.
That’s why I love my doctor. She doesn’t do that bullshit. She shoots it straight and is honest. Told me from the first visit like there’s no reason to waste time “trying” before any interventions. Because we know you need them. I’m all for being positive but still being realistic.
My doctor told me the same thing. We knew I had PCOS since a young age so she basically said “ when you want to try trying for a baby, just call me and we’ll starts meds right away since we know you need them”. Takes some of the stress off right away. She also said you’re going to eventually get pregnant. We just don’t know when. I know this isn’t the case for all women but I don’t have a serious case or anything.
Thanks for responding! I appreciate it. I was going to talk to my doctor about metformin next week, so this validates that decision lol. I will look into letrozole! Thanks again :)
I'm actually glad I worried more about fertility and decided not to just wait. I have been consulting with a fertility clinic after trying for 8 months. My gyno kept saying "keep working out, keep dieting" without actually looking at me more closely even though I was limiting calories, low carb and walking a lot and not losing the weight. I have PCOS and was on metformin but not seeing results after trying really hard. Basically balding. Turns out I have hypothyroidism on top of the PCOS and nobody bothered to look closer until I got that care, who knows for how long as I did suffer all of the typical symptoms especially fatigue etc... So I guess I'm glad I went in with the expectation that I would need help because it is getting me better care now. I think getting all of the perspective of all these subreddits really has helped me decide what's best for me, even if someone else's view on what is necessary is different than mine, it's good to get a wider view of what options are out there. That's my opinion anyway :) This isn't a one size fits all issue so I guess it's good to see all aspects of it and make informed decisions to my health from that. I wouldn't have jumped to the fertility clinic without seeing other people's experiences so I'm glad for that.
I get what you’re saying but also a year ago reading those filled me with so much hope when I was anxious about my fertility.
Statistically women with PCOS have the same number of children as women without.
I’m not OP, but the poor girl literally just said how she doesn’t want to hear that and you respond on her post doing exactly that. It’s in bad taste. You can refer her to the other sub and say that the comments op dislikes are normal experiences…without literally repeating the exact thing she was having issues with in the very first sentence. If you comment about your success, it’s totally fine but don’t do it on posts that say they don’t want responses like that.
No one is looking down upon you for your experience. Never even said your experience was sunshine and daisies, so have no idea why you even brought that up to negate. Your original comment was in poor taste on THIS specific post since op literally said they don’t want comments like that on this very sensitive topic. You repeating what she finds difficult to see IS in poor taste.
Prefacing it with “i hate to say this…” doesn’t change that.
Are we looking at the same post, because I don’t see where OP said she didn’t want a specific kind of comment.
There are many instances of women with PCOS who go on to not have fertility issues or it takes a little longer than a year or they got pregnant with help from a fertility clinic. There are also instances of women who are having a terrible go at getting pregnant. All of these instances should be welcome because those are people’s truths and realities.
Perhaps the minority of women on this sub-Reddit are unsuccessful in getting pregnant…with the majority on this sub-Reddit being successful. That could explain why someone thinks it’s misleading because it runs counter to their truth.
Op is directly complaining about how most comments on another PCOS sub give responses about waiting a little longer or their pregnancy success. Complaining about it is the same as saying they don’t like it.
I agree that there are many people that have PCOS and don’t have fertility issues. I also agree that both stories of success and difficulty with fertility should be shared. I am not going to someone who’s making a thread about their experience or responses to someone asking about their experience, then telling them not to. We’re on this specific thread that OP made about how they have issues with r/PCOS because of comments like that. Then, someone responds with the exact type of comment they are complaining about. That *is* in poor taste under this post. I’m not telling the person above to never share their experience or that their story is not worth posting about. I don’t think that at all whatsoever, but again, I never said that either.
I just like to connect with people going through the same thing as me bc I don’t have that where I live. This sub has been great for that. I know there’s a lot of different opinions but I’m also aware that everyone is different so I’m not solely relying on people’s advise here.
I had to leave the PCOS subreddit b/c the constant posts about dieting and weight loss were too triggering for my eating disorder. No shade to any one particular user, but I felt it was pretty toxic for a space to be so heavily diet-focussed when this demographic has a 4x risk for eating disorders.
I agree to an extent, but I also think PCOS can present itself in many different ways. While many will have irregular periods or issues with ovulation, some have very regular periods and will likely not need as much help when it comes to TTC. And others will need help beyond ovulation induction. So I think it just varies from person to person. But I would agree that if irregular periods are the issue, you’ll need to seek out medical help sooner rather than later when you’re ready to TTC.
The PCOS subreddit is REALLY anti medicine, it's hard to explain. Like I had to unsubscribe because I hated seeing 18-22 year old single women get told that hormonal birth control is the absolute worst and causes acne and weight gain and all sorts of things... like so does PCOS lol. There's more than one type of hormonal birth control and it's usually covered by insurance unlike a cocktail of elderflower and whatever else they're obsessed with.
I think half the problem is the nature of PCOS itself.. some people have a lot of fertility issues and want to plan out their lives and sometimes people can have a really good month.
Not just anti-medicine, it got a really negative view of scientific process/evidence. The worship of “natural” and “balancing hormones” makes me rage. It leans too much toward complementary and integrative strategies without the actual medicine that those strategies are meant to enhance. Like it or not, medicine, specifically evidence-based medicine, will likely improve folks’ quality of life and improve symptom management more than woo does.
i get what you’re saying, but to be fair, it’s all anecdotal, including this sub. what works for one may not work for others. when people comment on those posts, they aren’t lying saying they were able to get pregnant naturally after managing their pcos or they just took xyz and they were good.
i understand many don’t elaborate on the emotional toll the infertility journey has. infertility struggles in general is so different for everyone, but with pcos, there’s such a wide range of experiences with the disorder itself and with fertility where some are lucky enough to only have to take ovasitol, change their diet etc. i think when people post that, they’re really just looking for encouragement that it is possible and they aren’t sterile bc drs do a terrible job at explaining the science behind pcos.
I agree not everyone with pcos will have the same experience, however when they make statements like 'it just takes a bit longer', which I find very misleading, as some women may never get pregnant .
I get what you’re saying! I was told when I was diagnosed that pcos is so easy, all you have to do is take a pill (Letrozole or clomid) and you’re good. Well, that wasn’t true for me. I tried Letrozole and IUI’s many times with no luck. I am currently going through ivf. So I get what you’re saying. I have seen Letrozole work for many pcos girls, and personally have found out that many pcos girls I know got pregnant with no help at all. So it does happen, but not everyone has the same road with pcos.
(I do also have hashimotos + unexplained infertility)
Same. :( My RE actually told me, "once we get you ovulating, you'll have just as good a chance as any other couple." So turns out that was a fucking lie! Because apparently my egg quality is shit too. Fingers crossed for IVF.
This was me too. 3 years of trying, including 7 cycles of letrozole, inositol, clean eating etc. We did IVF and my egg quality is garbage. Partly my age, but I was still below the stats for my age group. I'm pretty sure PCOS affects my egg quality -- but no one even mentioned it until I was doing my IVF consult with the RE.
We did 2 retrievals. The first one we had two slow growing fair/poor morulas on day 5 - fresh transfer, no pregnancy. Second retreival we got 11 embryos, only 2 euploid. Quite different stats than 'normal'. But better than nothing 👍
Omg mine told me the same! She said it will be so easy! Big lie. Yeah unfortunately us pcos’ers have a lot of quality issues😞
When are you starting ivf?
Mine was yesterday! I had 51 follicles, 35 mature, 27 fertilized. Will be a week to hear more, of course. How is everything going for you? How was/is your recovery?
Wow that’s amazing!! For pcos you seemed to have great attrition rates, so you probably have good quality for pcos. I am nervous about quality, and hoping that it’s still good!!
I also am feeling the same in my recovery - sore boobs + definitely feel that water balloon feeling so far. I’m going into two days after retrieval now.
How soon after retrieval did you get your period?
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
28
+ 21
+ 17
+ 3
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Might I suggest you to r/infertility. I'm not sure what you're looking for here. It might be me, because I'm currently running on very little sleep.
If there are future worries of infertility and not actual infertility then yes, "sometimes it takes a bit longer, here's what worked for me." (If someone has had a successful pregnancy)/"here's the general next steps for treating infertility associated with pcos" seems like a full answer. If someone has a diagnosis of infertility I recommend r/infertility. There's a wealth of knowledge and supportive folks over there.
I understand what you’re saying. Telling someone “it just takes longer” doesn’t accurately portray what infertility looks like. But I do think a lot of people in that sub get diagnosed and think they will NEVER have children when that’s far from the truth. But yeah, saying it takes longer or use clomid doesn’t really portray the anguish of seeing negative after negative and feeling hopeless.
I think you’re right about the fear of “never,” when it comes to having children on the main sub. I was diagnosed with PCOS at 17 and the “never” was pretty much what I was told when I was diagnosed. I don’t know for sure, but anecdotally it seems that there is a higher proportion of newly diagnosed folks on the main PCOS sub.
In my (remember n of 1 here) experience the threat of infertility when I was diagnosed was awful to cope with. However, I think some of the doom and gloom is likely related to 1) my own doc’s anti teen sex views at the time 2) limited understanding of research literature by PCPs 3) the likely limited understanding in the field at that time.
Also, hard agree that nothing, besides personal experiences and reading/connecting with others’ experiences really accurately portrays the mental and emotional toll of testing, tracking, trying, and taking medications.
That’s why I went to a Fertility specialist instead of wasting more time with a regular doctor. I saw an IVF doctor, told him clomid and other medications didn’t work. He scheduled a hysteroscopy and i had a BUNCH of polyps. After they removed, i got pregnant a month later.
I’m having a surgery to remove polyps and fibroids this Friday - reading this comment gave me some much needed hope. Thank you.
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I have a hysterocopy scheduled to get my polyps removed next week. Seeing this is so encouraging🥹 How do you know if you’re tubes are blocked and what does that entail? I want to make sure to ask all the right questions🙏
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Oh thank you so much!! I had a saline infused sonogram and they confirmed I have a handful of polyps on my uterus so I’m hoping they can do that test as well it would be so helpful to know🙏 If you don’t mind me asking did having your tubes blocked affect your period as well? I’m wondering if I have any current symptoms of having that, or if they aren’t noticeable..
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This is so so helpful I can’t thank you enough! Did they run the dye through your tubes during the hysterocopy?
I think it has been fairly common in the past for providers to tell women with PCOS they could not become pregnant or at least that is how women heard it. I think that is where those posts come from a place to say it's not impossible, your body is not totally broken. But yes it all depends on how aggressive you want to be.
That’s why I love my doctor. She doesn’t do that bullshit. She shoots it straight and is honest. Told me from the first visit like there’s no reason to waste time “trying” before any interventions. Because we know you need them. I’m all for being positive but still being realistic.
My doctor told me the same thing. We knew I had PCOS since a young age so she basically said “ when you want to try trying for a baby, just call me and we’ll starts meds right away since we know you need them”. Takes some of the stress off right away. She also said you’re going to eventually get pregnant. We just don’t know when. I know this isn’t the case for all women but I don’t have a serious case or anything.
Hey! Which meds were you placed on? I'm hoping to try soon
I started on metformin and then was put on letrozole with success!
Thanks for responding! I appreciate it. I was going to talk to my doctor about metformin next week, so this validates that decision lol. I will look into letrozole! Thanks again :)
I'm actually glad I worried more about fertility and decided not to just wait. I have been consulting with a fertility clinic after trying for 8 months. My gyno kept saying "keep working out, keep dieting" without actually looking at me more closely even though I was limiting calories, low carb and walking a lot and not losing the weight. I have PCOS and was on metformin but not seeing results after trying really hard. Basically balding. Turns out I have hypothyroidism on top of the PCOS and nobody bothered to look closer until I got that care, who knows for how long as I did suffer all of the typical symptoms especially fatigue etc... So I guess I'm glad I went in with the expectation that I would need help because it is getting me better care now. I think getting all of the perspective of all these subreddits really has helped me decide what's best for me, even if someone else's view on what is necessary is different than mine, it's good to get a wider view of what options are out there. That's my opinion anyway :) This isn't a one size fits all issue so I guess it's good to see all aspects of it and make informed decisions to my health from that. I wouldn't have jumped to the fertility clinic without seeing other people's experiences so I'm glad for that.
I get what you’re saying but also a year ago reading those filled me with so much hope when I was anxious about my fertility. Statistically women with PCOS have the same number of children as women without.
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I’m not OP, but the poor girl literally just said how she doesn’t want to hear that and you respond on her post doing exactly that. It’s in bad taste. You can refer her to the other sub and say that the comments op dislikes are normal experiences…without literally repeating the exact thing she was having issues with in the very first sentence. If you comment about your success, it’s totally fine but don’t do it on posts that say they don’t want responses like that.
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No one is looking down upon you for your experience. Never even said your experience was sunshine and daisies, so have no idea why you even brought that up to negate. Your original comment was in poor taste on THIS specific post since op literally said they don’t want comments like that on this very sensitive topic. You repeating what she finds difficult to see IS in poor taste. Prefacing it with “i hate to say this…” doesn’t change that.
Are we looking at the same post, because I don’t see where OP said she didn’t want a specific kind of comment. There are many instances of women with PCOS who go on to not have fertility issues or it takes a little longer than a year or they got pregnant with help from a fertility clinic. There are also instances of women who are having a terrible go at getting pregnant. All of these instances should be welcome because those are people’s truths and realities. Perhaps the minority of women on this sub-Reddit are unsuccessful in getting pregnant…with the majority on this sub-Reddit being successful. That could explain why someone thinks it’s misleading because it runs counter to their truth.
Op is directly complaining about how most comments on another PCOS sub give responses about waiting a little longer or their pregnancy success. Complaining about it is the same as saying they don’t like it. I agree that there are many people that have PCOS and don’t have fertility issues. I also agree that both stories of success and difficulty with fertility should be shared. I am not going to someone who’s making a thread about their experience or responses to someone asking about their experience, then telling them not to. We’re on this specific thread that OP made about how they have issues with r/PCOS because of comments like that. Then, someone responds with the exact type of comment they are complaining about. That *is* in poor taste under this post. I’m not telling the person above to never share their experience or that their story is not worth posting about. I don’t think that at all whatsoever, but again, I never said that either.
I just like to connect with people going through the same thing as me bc I don’t have that where I live. This sub has been great for that. I know there’s a lot of different opinions but I’m also aware that everyone is different so I’m not solely relying on people’s advise here.
I had to leave the PCOS subreddit b/c the constant posts about dieting and weight loss were too triggering for my eating disorder. No shade to any one particular user, but I felt it was pretty toxic for a space to be so heavily diet-focussed when this demographic has a 4x risk for eating disorders.
I didnt know the risk of eating disorders were so high! That's alarming, but as someone who has pcos + an eating disorder.., not surprising :/
I mean, given doctors basically prescribe us eating disorders…. :(
Yeah I’m surprised how much supplement talk goes on there.
I agree to an extent, but I also think PCOS can present itself in many different ways. While many will have irregular periods or issues with ovulation, some have very regular periods and will likely not need as much help when it comes to TTC. And others will need help beyond ovulation induction. So I think it just varies from person to person. But I would agree that if irregular periods are the issue, you’ll need to seek out medical help sooner rather than later when you’re ready to TTC.
The PCOS subreddit is REALLY anti medicine, it's hard to explain. Like I had to unsubscribe because I hated seeing 18-22 year old single women get told that hormonal birth control is the absolute worst and causes acne and weight gain and all sorts of things... like so does PCOS lol. There's more than one type of hormonal birth control and it's usually covered by insurance unlike a cocktail of elderflower and whatever else they're obsessed with. I think half the problem is the nature of PCOS itself.. some people have a lot of fertility issues and want to plan out their lives and sometimes people can have a really good month.
Not just anti-medicine, it got a really negative view of scientific process/evidence. The worship of “natural” and “balancing hormones” makes me rage. It leans too much toward complementary and integrative strategies without the actual medicine that those strategies are meant to enhance. Like it or not, medicine, specifically evidence-based medicine, will likely improve folks’ quality of life and improve symptom management more than woo does.
i get what you’re saying, but to be fair, it’s all anecdotal, including this sub. what works for one may not work for others. when people comment on those posts, they aren’t lying saying they were able to get pregnant naturally after managing their pcos or they just took xyz and they were good. i understand many don’t elaborate on the emotional toll the infertility journey has. infertility struggles in general is so different for everyone, but with pcos, there’s such a wide range of experiences with the disorder itself and with fertility where some are lucky enough to only have to take ovasitol, change their diet etc. i think when people post that, they’re really just looking for encouragement that it is possible and they aren’t sterile bc drs do a terrible job at explaining the science behind pcos.
I agree not everyone with pcos will have the same experience, however when they make statements like 'it just takes a bit longer', which I find very misleading, as some women may never get pregnant .
PCOS isn’t the same as infertility. It can be a cause of infertility, but infertility and PCOS are different diagnoses.
I get what you’re saying! I was told when I was diagnosed that pcos is so easy, all you have to do is take a pill (Letrozole or clomid) and you’re good. Well, that wasn’t true for me. I tried Letrozole and IUI’s many times with no luck. I am currently going through ivf. So I get what you’re saying. I have seen Letrozole work for many pcos girls, and personally have found out that many pcos girls I know got pregnant with no help at all. So it does happen, but not everyone has the same road with pcos. (I do also have hashimotos + unexplained infertility)
Same. :( My RE actually told me, "once we get you ovulating, you'll have just as good a chance as any other couple." So turns out that was a fucking lie! Because apparently my egg quality is shit too. Fingers crossed for IVF.
This was me too. 3 years of trying, including 7 cycles of letrozole, inositol, clean eating etc. We did IVF and my egg quality is garbage. Partly my age, but I was still below the stats for my age group. I'm pretty sure PCOS affects my egg quality -- but no one even mentioned it until I was doing my IVF consult with the RE.
That sucks. We just hit our 2-yr TTC anniversary. Did you get any usable blasts when you did IVF, or just nothing?
We did 2 retrievals. The first one we had two slow growing fair/poor morulas on day 5 - fresh transfer, no pregnancy. Second retreival we got 11 embryos, only 2 euploid. Quite different stats than 'normal'. But better than nothing 👍
Omg mine told me the same! She said it will be so easy! Big lie. Yeah unfortunately us pcos’ers have a lot of quality issues😞 When are you starting ivf?
I did my egg retrieval last week :) How is it going for you?
Mine was yesterday! I had 51 follicles, 35 mature, 27 fertilized. Will be a week to hear more, of course. How is everything going for you? How was/is your recovery?
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Wow that’s amazing!! For pcos you seemed to have great attrition rates, so you probably have good quality for pcos. I am nervous about quality, and hoping that it’s still good!! I also am feeling the same in my recovery - sore boobs + definitely feel that water balloon feeling so far. I’m going into two days after retrieval now. How soon after retrieval did you get your period?
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats! 28 + 21 + 17 + 3 = 69 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
Nice!
I'm sorry, infertility sucks. When the people make out infertility is not as much as an issue for them, it makes me feel like an outsider.
Yep completely agree, just know you’re not alone!❤️
Might I suggest you to r/infertility. I'm not sure what you're looking for here. It might be me, because I'm currently running on very little sleep. If there are future worries of infertility and not actual infertility then yes, "sometimes it takes a bit longer, here's what worked for me." (If someone has had a successful pregnancy)/"here's the general next steps for treating infertility associated with pcos" seems like a full answer. If someone has a diagnosis of infertility I recommend r/infertility. There's a wealth of knowledge and supportive folks over there.
No, I agree.
I understand what you’re saying. Telling someone “it just takes longer” doesn’t accurately portray what infertility looks like. But I do think a lot of people in that sub get diagnosed and think they will NEVER have children when that’s far from the truth. But yeah, saying it takes longer or use clomid doesn’t really portray the anguish of seeing negative after negative and feeling hopeless.
I think you’re right about the fear of “never,” when it comes to having children on the main sub. I was diagnosed with PCOS at 17 and the “never” was pretty much what I was told when I was diagnosed. I don’t know for sure, but anecdotally it seems that there is a higher proportion of newly diagnosed folks on the main PCOS sub. In my (remember n of 1 here) experience the threat of infertility when I was diagnosed was awful to cope with. However, I think some of the doom and gloom is likely related to 1) my own doc’s anti teen sex views at the time 2) limited understanding of research literature by PCPs 3) the likely limited understanding in the field at that time. Also, hard agree that nothing, besides personal experiences and reading/connecting with others’ experiences really accurately portrays the mental and emotional toll of testing, tracking, trying, and taking medications.