Being told you have PCOS is one of the hardest things you will hear as a woman trying to conceive and you will no doubt run to the internet and search “can you get pregnant with polycystic ovaries?”
If you’ve found my blog that way; welcome. And let me reassure you, yes you can get pregnant with PCOS … but it may take some time.
Firstly, the cyst in the name ”polycystic ovaries” is not like a cyst elsewhere in your body. It simply means an unruptured follicle. A follicle grows in your ovaries each month and releases an egg in a normal menstrual cycle, however in PCOS they get stuck, and no egg is released leaving the unruptured follicle in the ovary with a “cyst” like appearance.
PCOS is an endocrine disorder which means that it messes up your hormonal systems. Your hormones all work like a symphony within your body, each carrying special messages around to tell your body to do something. The success of your ovary maturing and releasing an egg to be fertilised if you are trying to conceive is dependent on these hormonal messengers working perfectly.
One woman’s set of hormonal imbalances may be very different to another’s, so it is not a one size fits all treatment programme.
PCOS generally causes irregular or no periods and this can be down to having too much of a particular hormone or not enough of another. Sometimes your body weight affects this, sometimes the stress you are under and sometimes it is related to how much sugar you have in your diet.
The key to getting pregnant with PCOS is working with a natural fertility specialist to learn what your unique hormonal imbalance is and what you can do to correct it so that you can ovulate again. This will also help you know when is the best conceive time to maximise the chances of a sperm meeting your egg and getting pregnant.
Natural treatment is available to increase your chances of getting pregnant with PCOS in the form of herbs, supplements, lifestyle and dietary changes. But please be warned, all too often I meet women who have self-medicated with expensive PCOS supplements without any knowledge of her hormonal pattern or what the supplements actually do. This can add years of unnecessary turmoil onto your fertility journey and may mean you end up taking fertility drugs or doing IVF when you may not have had to.
If you are worried if you can get pregnant with polycystic ovaries, let’s chat. As a fellow “cyster” it’s very dear to my heart. I was told at 23 years of age I would never conceive naturally – but I did. And you can too. Let me help you.