PCOS and Pregnancy


Polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS is a condition which is a common cause of unexplained infertility in women. Mainly it affects a woman’s hormone level and results in no ovulation, immature egg release etc. and main symptoms of this conditions are an irregular period or no period, painful mensuration, cysts in ovaries, facial hairs etc.

As I was diagnosed with this condition I started searching for it a lot. Before my miscarriage, I had a regular cycle of 28 days although I used to suffer mild pain from my periods and it reduced to no pain after I started using tampons instead of pads. And I never thought that cramp pain in periods is a sign of infertility! (Don’t worry it’s not but if you are having very painful periods it is good to discuss it with your doctor). So, Basically, I never had any symptom of PCOS! and it is true in many cases.

After doing tests like AMH and transvaginal sonography as I discussed in my earlier post my doctor prescribed two medicines for me Metformin and Letrozole/Femara.

Metformin is very famous for diabetes patients and I was really confused that why doctor gave me this medicine cause last time I checked my sugar levels were well within normal range. But as I read more about it I came to know that having PCOS can result in insulin resistance and it can lead to diabetes. It is also found that PCOS is very common in overweight ladies and I have to do serious lifestyle changes in order to make my body fit again. Metformin has lots of side effects like nausea, diarrhea, flatulence, bloating, anorexia, metallic taste, and abdominal pain. But according to study,

Several effects have been reported as related to metformin in PCOS patients including restoring ovulation, reducing weight, reducing circulating androgen levels, reducing the risk of miscarriage and reducing the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Other studies have reported that the addition of metformin to the ovarian stimulation regime in vitro fertilization (IVF) improves the pregnancy outcome.

hence the benefits of Metformin outweighs the side effects.

Letrozole/Femara is a drug which is more commonly used in breast cancer but it helps in inducing ovulation in women suffering from PCOS.

I took all my medicines on time and did significant changes in my diet to make the body healthier. First I increase my water intake, from 1 liter (yes, I know it was way below the normal drinking requirement) to 3 liters a day. Then I cut off all the junk/ fast food I used to eat like pizza, cheese nuggets etc. I also reduced the amount of cheese I used to eat. I started eating lots of fruits and vegetables. In the exercise, I started walking 2 km a day.

I am now almost 22 weeks pregnant and I still maintained all the changes I did in order to have a healthy baby. I know PCOS is a lifelong condition which makes me more suspectable to have diabetes and heart conditions in my life so I am planning to continue all these changes and restriction I have imposed in order to have a healthy lifestyle.
To have more insight on lifestyle before and during pregnancy click here.


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