PCOS Message Board - View Single Post - New to boards/Newly diagnosed/Runner/Confused :)

krissie · 05-12-2009, 05:27 PM

RunningInCircles,

Hello and welcome! I think you'll find a lot of us who have been where you are right now. I am also a marathon runner and thin (6 feet and 140lbs). I've run since high school and through college, and now I do marathons. I also was shocked to discover I had PCOS. My hormones were all normal, but they did find cysts on my ovaries and I do get some adult acne. My periods were somewhat regular (less so during my marathon training) and if I wasn't overdoingit with my running and wasn't overly stressed, I seemed to ovulate (though I too seemed to ovulate late in my cycle-- which is a problem because the egg may not still be good later in your cycle).

After being diagnosed, I started acupuncture (which helped some), but I still wasn't pregnant after a year of ttc. So, we proceeded to a reproductive endocrinologist who put me on clomid. I did four rounds of clomid with a trigger. It did make me ovulate, but I never got pregnant. We moved on to IUI and did three rounds of that- none of which worked. Again, I responded wonderfully to the meds, but things just never came together. Finally (almost two years after we began ttc) we moved on to IVF-- which, thank God, worked on the first try. I am now almost through my first trimester (still so nervous about it since it was so hard to get to this point). It was a long and difficult journey, but from the getgo my doctor said women with mild PCOS (like us) will get pregnant. It was just a matter of time.

I am sorry you're going through it. Wanting desperately to be a mom, and struggling to get pregnant is such a horrible thing to go through. Some steps I took that helped me (and everyone is different) included:

- giving up running (First I cut down drastically then I just gave it up completely-- which was so hard to do, but I replaced it was walking and yoga)

- going to acupuncture

- changing my diet (I needed more protein. I substituted sprouted grain bread for bread made with flour. I cut down drastically on pasta, even though it was whole wheat, and started eating brown rice and other whole grain/non-flour carbs instead. I cut back on sugar-- I'd been eating fat free ice-cream which actually can have way more sugar than regular ice-cream. Oh, and no caffiene)

- started taking a prenatal vitamin right way.

- tried to minimize stress as much as possible (I know, kinda hard to do when you're stressed about getting pregnant).

- paid close, close attention to how late in my cycle I was ovulating and how long my luteal phase was.

- read up on PCOS (books by Colette Harris) and the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. As I said, a lot of us have been in your shoes. Be gentle with yourself, and know that you are not alone.

xoxo