PCOS Message Board - View Single Post - Thin Cysters TTC

TXan · 05-09-2008, 03:56 PM

I have to admit I'm a little envious you guys can chart at all. My current acupuncturist wants me to track, which I've only just started, but it's a waste of time since I don't ovulate. She wants me to track to see if there's improvement, but after my enlightening Dr. appt yesterday, I highly doubt Chinese Herbs will get me to where I need to go. However, the Dr. did say he did see a big improvement of a women's uterus/blood flow, since the herbs she was on contained a high amount of estrogen!

Speaking with the Dr. has really helped me put things into perspective. He used to do IVF, until he sold that part of the practice in the last year. He is not against IVF, but does not think it should be approached so quickly and lightly in many cases. When disucssing my history, he was in semi-lecture mode at his disappointment in the medical community by being "marketed" to by the pharma companies, and the failures he sees in Drs not doing the appropriate analysis/treatment that is all from "basic biology" as he put it to me. He said that everyone is in a rush to do IVF now, since it typically is quicker to results desired (baby), and of course more lucrative to the Drs. and pharma cos. For the regular protocols and manufactured gonadatrophins, that would work for most folks who fit the average profile, including weight, but for cases like me, with PCOS and a disfunctional hypothalamus, my treatment will be more complicated, so the one size fits all does not work! I would need more labor intensive treatment, which does not have the high margins! Very critical sounding, I know. Very interesting coming from a highly respected, experienced Dr.

Of course I just found out I am totally maxed out on my insurance coverage for infertility, and on top of that I will not even get the negotiated contract rate! I have to bring that up myslef to the Drs. to see if they will extend the contracted rate with me (yeah, right). Of course my new Dr. doesn't take insurance, so no negotiated rate with him, but for the surgical procedure I am really praying it is classified under gynecological, since I do have a physiological problem, where infertility is one side effect! Hopefully I'll get more direction next week.

I guess the good news is that if his treatment gets me on the right path, I may not need IVF. So the extra money I spend with him on higher visits and lab costs, may be made up by the fact I won't need the $5k retreival and transfer price from my other doc down the road. Will cross that bridge later, I guess. It is way too early to see how my treatment will go, but I did get a huge feeling of satisfaction talking to him yesterday, and confidence that someone is helping address the underlying problem in my case, BASIC BIOLOGY. Too bad I didn't really know better earlier, but best late than never I suppose.

One interesting tidbit from my consultation. He looked at my hand and saw that the top of my pinkie finger came below the top knuckle of my ring finger. Supposedly this is true of all women with PCOS. Do your fingers have the same configuration?