Thursday, December 11, 2014

Hormones

Lately my hormones have been feeling all over the place. I've had 2 periods since the girls were born. I have no idea the length of my first cycle and my second one was 51 days long. I'm currently on day 60 with no period in sight. I feel so irritable and have little patience and I've am having issues with insomnia for the first time in my life. I am still breastfeeding and know that that can affect hormone levels. 

Recently I purchased ovulation tests to try to see what my body was doing. We're not trying to get pregnant, I just wanted to see if I was ovulating, and if so, on what day of my cycle. I never really used them consistently and always heard they aren't reliable with PCOS. I will have to agree. I didn't really take too many but I got 2 clear positives this current cycle. This tells me that my body is having LH surges but likely not ovulating= more ovarian cysts. 

I realized I needed to make an appointment to see some kind of dr, but just wasn't sure what kind. My ob? A regular endocrinologist? A reproductive endocrinologist since it's related to my reproductive health and hormones? I feel like a RE is the most appropriate person, yet most are just focused on fertility treatments and getting women pregnant. That's not my goal right now.

So, I have an appointment scheduled with my ob for next week. I emailed Dr. B last night just to get his input. He suggested taking progesterone every 3 months to get a period. I read more about progesterone to help manage PCOS and that seemed like a popular treatment. 

The thing is, I'm wondering if there are ways to restore regular cycles (ovulation) and minimize the PCOS symptoms without birth control pills. Due to blood clotting issues I was told I shouldn't ever use an estrogen based birth control because it will increase my chances of developing a blood clot. I'm currently taking 1500-2000 mg a day of Metformin, more often the 1500 since I have a hard time tolerating the full dose. I also don't want to go on birth control. We've both talked about it and we'd be fine with a spontaneous pregnancy. In fact, I'd love it if we got pregnant on our own. 

I know I have to do something. Having 50+ day cycles isn't healthy or normal and I feel like my mood and patience aren't in a great place. So, we'll see what my ob says next week and what he suggests. Has anyone else regulated their PCOS without birth control pills? Any suggestions or ideas?

4 comments:

  1. Myo-inositol was helpful for me (sort of similar to met without all the side effects). Maybe look into that? http://pcosdiva.com/2012/07/de-mystifying-myo-inositol/

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  2. Omg sounds like me. Ive been having really long cycles and I feel like I am in PMS hell the whole time!!! I had a more normal cycle this month but the one before...holy crap...it was like 50 something days and I was a raging hormonal monster haha

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  3. I cannot help with pcos, but it drew my attention that you wouldn't mind a spontaneous pregnancy having those hla matches would put you in a risk of mc. I know ladies who only had that issue and they had to plan a natural pregnancy because of timing of neupogen intake . Needless to say, each one got pregnant and got a baby.

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  4. Hey- I can't find your email on your blog, would you mind emailing me, I have a couple of speech related questions for you regarding one of my boys! Waitingnwishing@yahoo.com

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