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My name is Robyn. I was diagnosed with PCOS in February 2000. Over the years there had been times where I had been to my gp for symptoms of PCOS such as acne and my irregular cycle. I was overweight at these times. It amazes me that I was not routinely tested for PCOS when I went to the gp. One time I went to my gp because I had not had a period in over 5 months, and all I was told was to go on the pill. I have wanted children as long as I can remember and I am oh sooo clucky! :-) I see a baby and I melt, I see children and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, I see a pregnant woman and I am insanely jealous. DH and I started TTC (trying to conceive) in November of 1999. Prior to then I had started joining TTC email lists, because I wanted to get as healthy and as ready as I could for pregnancy. I started taking Folic Acid and prenatal vitamins. I gave up coffee and went to decaf. I started charting my cycle after coming off the pill in July 1999 because I wanted to know when the right time was so that we would be able to conceive ASAP. I had been charting my cycles and the first one post pill was reasonably normal, only 31 days. The next one however was 60 days and the one after that 45. I thought, good they must be starting to get back to normal, however that was not the case. The next cycle got to about 70 days when I went to see a female gp. I thought she might be more understanding and with it than a male gp. She simply told me it was probably just my body getting back to normal after being on the pill. She said it was not the best she had seen, but not the worst either. As by that stage I had be charting for nearly 6 months, she said wait another 6 months and if things don't go back to normal by then, come back. I was somewhat disheartened after hearing this, but took her word for it, and began the wait. I continued to be involved in my TTC mailing lists and every now and again, heard about PCOS. I got curious and started thinking to myself, my cycles are getting worse, not better, if it was simply my hormones getting back to normal after coming off the pill, my cycles would be getting shorter. Mainly out of curiosity, I decided to do some research on PCOS and underactive thyroid. As I did this research I was only scratching the surface but was amazed at how much the symptoms of both of these problems sounded so much like me. I decided to go to my regular gp and ask to be tested for both of these. I showed him my charts and he agreed to have the relevant tests done. He tried to reasure me by saying that the cure for PCOS was pregnancy! How wrong was he! This comment now illustrates to me how little gp's seem to know about PCOS. I believe that this is a serious problem, as gp's are the first people someone will go to when confronted with symptoms such as excess weight, irregular cycle, acne etc. I got my test results back and they showed my serum free testosterone levels as being abnormaly high as well as my leutenising hormone being much higher than my Follicle Stimulating Hormone. (both indications of PCOS) My gp referred me to an ob/gyn but I could not get an appointment for over 4 weeks. I decided to see another ob/gyn, whom I found in the phone book. The ob/gyn confirmed that I did in fact have PCOS, which I strongly suspected having done more research on it. He gave me a script for clomid and told me to come back in 4 weeks. I had done a lot of research on Metformin as a treatment for PCOS, and when I asked about it he told me that Metformin was only for PCOS women at high risk of Diabetes. This struck a chord as being untrue with me, because I had read otherwise. From what I had read all women with PCOS were at higher risk of contracting Diabetes, due to excess insulin levels. This ob/gyn was close to retirement age and I also figured, not really up on the latest medical news. Luckily I had kept my appointment with the other ob/gyn and decided to take the first round of clomid and then go and see the new ob/gyn. I did not ovulate on the 50mg of clomid and the new ob/gyn raised my dosage to 100mg. This ob/gyn had heard about the use of Metformin for PCOS and agreed to put me on it, if I tested for Insulin Resistance and my results showed that I was. I was fairly confident that I would be Insulin Resistant as I believed that from my research, excess insulin levels were the cause of PCOS. After I had the test done, I rang the ob/gyn's office for the results. The receptionist told me that the results were normal! I didn't really believe it and so rang my gp's office who also had received a copy. They also told me it was normal. I was very dissappointed as I thought the Metformin would most certainly help me. Several weeks later I made an appointment with my ob/gyn to see about the possibility of getting a HCG shot to help induce ovulation as I was nearing day 14 of my second cycle with clomid. The ob/gyn thought I was coming in for a follow up visit and proceeded to tell me that my test results showed that I was in fact Insulin Resistant! My one hour level was 91! My sugar levels, while relatively normal, were on the high side of normal and the ob/gyn said that I would probably get gestational diabetes if I were pregnant. He did an ultrasound to check my follicles, but there were no developing ones, so a HCG shot was not on the cards for me. I went on to do a third cycle of Clomid, this time being on the metformin, but still no response. I have just started my first round of injectibles. Dh is doing wonderfully at administering the FSH injections. Fingers Crossed! xxxxx |
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