PCOS

What is PCOS?

PCOS has recently become a significant problem related to hormones in women. It has until now affected many women from 15 years to 44 years age, i.e., during the childbearing years. Many women even do not know or recognize the problem of PCOS during the later stage. 

Because of this, one should not only know Its meaning, symptoms, and causes but also its treatment. The problem leads to adverse effects on the ovaries of a woman. Here, ovaries refer to reproductive organs responsible for producing progesterone and estrogen hormones accountable for maintaining a proper menstrual cycle. 

It is the abbreviated form of polycystic ovary syndrome. It is a type of hormone-related disorder and usually occurs during the reproductive age of women. If a woman suffers from it, she may experience prolonged or infrequent menstrual periods or excessive androgen levels as one of the significant symptoms of PCOS. 

In some cases, ovaries affected due to PCOS develop many small fluid collections referred to as follicles. Because of the formation of follicles, PCOS suffered women cannot release eggs regularly. 

Symptoms of PCOS 

Early Signs and Symptoms

Women experience their early PCOS signs and symptoms while entering their puberty phase. Now, the question is, what is the first sign of PCOS? For this, we should say that the initial signs and symptoms are-

• Irregular or missed periods 
• Difficulty to conceive 
• Weight gain
• Oily skin or acne problems 

Late PCOS Signs and Symptoms 

A few women may even develop symptoms related to polycystic ovary syndrome while they reach early adulthood or during late adolescence. In this case, the symptoms of are-

• Irregular menstrual cycle 
• Less frequent periods, i.e., less than eight periods in one year 
• Missed periods 
• No menstrual periods 
• Prolonged or heavy periods 
• Unpredictable periods 
• Obesity, weight gain, or difficulty losing weight 
• A severe form of acne, which usually does not respond to regular treatments 
• Darkening of skin below the breasts and in the groin area
• Hair loss or thinning of hair
• Various tiny sacs filled with fluid in the ovarian areas
• Infertility problems
• Increase in risks related to heart attack and heart problems
• Anxiety and depression
• Sleep apnea with or without breathing shortness 
• Eating disorders combined with binge eating and bulimia issues 
• Poor sexual functions

How PCOS Affects Pregnancy

If you undergo a PCOS diagnosis, getting pregnant will be somewhat challenging for you. Moreover, if you get pregnant by luck, you remain at a high risk of experiencing various complications during your pregnancy, labor period, and delivery phase. 

Women with PCOS are at three time’s higher risk of suffering a miscarriage or infertility than other women. According to the experts’ opinion regarding PCOS and pregnancy, PCOS patients may experience gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and have a relatively large baby or premature delivery. 

How to Get Pregnant with PCOS Quickly

Many women diagnosed with PCOS that are planning to conceive often ask a standard question, i.e., how to get pregnant with PCOS quickly? For this, gynecologists and other experts recommend combining lifestyle changes and treatment procedures, which we have discussed here. 

Weight Loss Efforts to Start a Regular Menstruation Cycle and Ovulation

Many women suffering from PCOD often struggle with overweight problems. The presence of polycystic ovary syndrome causes negative processing of insulin in your body. This will result in significant weight gain and prevention of ovulation or irregular ovulation. 

Overweight women suffering from PCOS experience anti ovulation severely and get periods even after two or three months. Luckily, shedding extra body weight helps in bringing back a regular menstruation cycle followed by normal ovulation. 

According to relevant research studies, losing only 5percent to 10percent of the current body weight is enough to start menstruation cycles. Besides, a few other research studies consider weight loss an ideal treatment.  This is because; women who succeeded in losing their body weight have a high chance to achieve success in their fertility treatment. 

Healthy Diet to Handle PCOS

A healthy and balanced diet will help you regulate ovulation and maintain a healthy weight. You must keep in mind that there is a close relationship between nutritional deficits and hormonal aberrations. This leads to irregular periods and loss of menstrual function. Energy balance is challenging for ovulation in women suffering from PCOS as compared to maintaining body mass index. 

Scientists have observed that this condition leads to insulin resistance. The body of a PCOS patient over response to the bloodstream glucose excessively. This may cause excessive release of insulin—high levels of insulin cause many PCOS symptoms and an irregular menstrual cycle. Insulin is fundamental to manage the high levels of testosterone and androgens in the woman’s body. 

When you suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome, your ovaries become sensitive to insulin, which leads to the production of excessive testosterone. On the other side, you can manage your testosterone and insulin by following a proper and balanced diet. Accordingly, you have to improve your hormonal function and ovulation based on the right PCOS diet, which are-

• Insulin levels in your body spikes while having processed foods. Hence, it would be best if you avoided low fiber cereals, bagels, white bread, white rice, and other processed foods. 
• Refined carbohydrates may also cause a massive spike in your insulin level. Hence, you must consume whole wheat products. 
• Include non-starchy veggies, fiber, whole grains, and fruits in your daily diet. 
• Make a habit of including specific vegetable proteins in your diet, like lentils, beans, seeds, and nuts. 
• Make sure to have low-calorie based snacks between your meals. 

Supplementation 

If you are a PCOS patient and willing to make the most from your treatment, you must intake the right supplement and follow a balanced diet. In most cases, doctors recommend for Inofolic supplement, as it maintains the right balance of each of the essential micronutrients even in their activated forms. Treatment by using Inofolic has proved to be beneficial in increasing hormone levels and restoring or regularizing periods. Simultaneously, the supplement has maintained blood pressure levels in PCOS patients and increased your chance of getting pregnant very soon. 

Exercise 

Regular exercise is also helpful in dealing with PCOS symptoms. If you combine ordinary, brisk walking with a healthy diet and supplementation, you will expect to improve the regularity of your menstruation cycle by about 50 percent. Moreover, a healthy lifestyle will help better your existing fertility treatments and let you feel better. 

Medications to Treat PCOS Pregnancy

If you are still facing difficulty getting pregnant after following the lifestyle mentioned above, your doctor may recommend you to anyone from the following medicines. 

Metformin 

If you are resistant to insulin, your doctor may recommend you to intake a diabetic drug named metformin to treat your insulin resistance problem. The medicine not only helps you in losing weight but also helps you in conceiving quickly. Significant roles of the drug are-

• Jumpstart of regular menstruation cycles 
• Promotion of weight loss
• Improvement in the effectiveness of various fertility drugs 
• Reduction in the miscarriage rate 

However, metformin will only increase your odds related to ovulation, but it cannot increase your live birth rate or pregnancy. 

Clomid 

Clomid is also a commonly used fertility medication associated with PCOS treatment. Many women suffering from PCOS succeeded in conceiving with the regular intake of Clomid. However, a few other patients experience Clomid resistance when the medicine triggers ovulation according to the expectations. A few of the research studies have proved that a combination of Clomid and metformin beat the resistance to Clomid. 

Letrozole 

If Clomid and Metformin fail to give the desired result, your doctor will recommend another drug called Letrozole. Even though Letrozole is not any fertility drug, it is recommendable among women suffering from it. Research studies have proved that Letrozole is relatively more effective than Clomid to stimulate ovulation in women suffering from PCOS. 

PCOS Treatment

Gonadotropins 

If Letrozole or Clomid fails to give the desired result, you must go with gonadotropins categorized under one of the injection-based fertility drugs to deal with PCOS. Gonadotropins consist of two different hormones named LH and FSH. However, in some cases, the drug has a combination of FSH and LH. Your doctor may recommend a cycle consisting of only gonadotropins or a combination of injection-based and oral fertility drugs. 

Gonadotropins with IUI Procedure 

Depending on a woman suffering from PCOS, a doctor may recommend the combination of gonadotropins with an IUI procedure. Here, IUI is the abbreviated form of intrauterine insemination procedure, where doctors use a catheter to place specially washed semen collected in the uterus directly. Here the semen may be from any sperm donor or the patient’s partner.

IVF Fertility Treatment Procedure

Women still facing difficulty to conceive with medications and injection type drugs may undergo IVF treatment for PCOS. IVF is the short form of in vitro fertilization, which uses injection-based fertility drugs for stimulating the ovaries to produce a certain number of mature eggs. Later, doctors will conduct an egg retrieval procedure to retrieve the mature eggs from the women’s ovaries to place with sperm in Petri dishes. If everything goes well, the inserted sperm will fertilize a few of the eggs. Once the fertilized eggs get three to five days to split and grow, doctors one or two of them in the uterus perform embryo transfer. After two weeks, your doctor will recommend a pregnancy test to confirm the success of the IVF cycle. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PCOS, and how it affects our chance to get pregnant?

PCOS is the short form of polycystic ovary syndrome, and it may be an inherited or genetic condition. The reason is that many women suffer from PCOS only because their mother or sister has it as well. 

Who can suffer from PCOS?

PCOS affects women once they enter the puberty age or start having their regular menstrual cycles. 

What are the statistics related to PCOS in women?

According to global estimation, approximately 1 in 10 women are suffering from PCOS and its underlying symptoms. 

Does PCOS in women reduce the chance of getting pregnant?

PCOS may reduce your chance to get pregnant, or if you conceive, it may cause various complications during your entire gestation period. The reason is that PCOS is a type of hormonal imbalance. It thus hampers your regular ovulation and results in both female sub-fertility and infertility conditions. 

Do women with PCOS are prone to suffer from diabetes?

Many women with PCOS have defects in their insulin level or insulin secretion, which results in many other health issues. Hence, women suffering from PCOS are prone to suffer from diabetes as well. 

What are the adverse effects of PCOS other than the difficulty to conceive?

The various problems are – 

• High blood sugar, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, increased body fat and triglyceride levels.
• Endometrial hyperplasia
• Liver problems
• Premature birth or miscarriage 
• Gestational diabetes 
• Sleep apnea 
• Anxiety, depression, eating disorders

How to cure PCOS permanently?

You cannot cure PCOS permanently. Instead, you have to undergo proper treatment at any fertility clinic to manage your symptoms and conceive easily. Incredibly, doctors recommend you to focus on a PCOS diet, supplementation, and exercise for improvement. Moreover, treatments like IVF and IUI are recommended to help women conceive a pregnancy. 

 Reference Links:-

https://www.healthline.com/health

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions

https://www.emedicinehealth.com

https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/pcos

https://www.verywellfamily.com

https://www.fertilityfamily.co.uk

https://www.healthgrades.com/right-care/endocrinology-and-metabolism

https://www.rockymountainfertility.com

https://www.pcoschallenge.org