PCOS caused by BCPs???

FSUSammy · 08-14-2008, 11:38 AM

Hey ladies. I don't post much on here but I'm in need of some input from other PCOSers. When I was 19 I went on BCPs, tried just about every pill out there but never really found the perfect match for me. Two years ago I went off the pill (can't remember which one it was) because I was tired of the migraines I was getting. I was going to start charting to avoid to learn my cycles so that by the time we were ready to start TTC I'd know when the best time would be to conceive. Well my cycles gradually got longer and longer and longer. I had suspected PCOS for months but it took begging for an ultrasound by my ob/gyn to get diagnosed. So a year after I went off the pill I was formally diagnosed and referred to an RE. He did all kinds of tests and confirmed the diagnosis and put me on metformin. I was on met for not even a month and I managed to get pregnant but had to go on progesterone so avoid a miscarriage.

Our son is almost 10 months old now and I wanted to go back to charting to avoid but I've been sooooo slack on doing it. My cycles remarkably have been drastically different ever since. I've ovulated every cycle and they average about 30 days too. What more can I ask for really? The thing is since I've been slacking on charting AND slacking on using protection when we should be using it I'm now considering going back on BCPs because we can't chance having another baby just yet. Maybe in a couple of months we'll see if we are ready but not right now. But my ultimate fear is that BCPs were the cause for me getting PCOS and if I were to go back on them my PCOS would come back again.

Is this a stupid thing to think? I know there are no proven studies to link the two but I've had several other people tell me they were concerned about this too. Thoughts?

CarmenSandiego · 08-14-2008, 11:47 AM

I am always interested in this type of connection!!!!

Personally, I was diagnosed with PCOS before ever starting BCPs so in my case it must be something else.

Do you have a hard time managing your weight? I know there are studies that suggest that BCPs can affect IR for which we know is often an underlying cause of PCOS. And then there's the philosophy that BCPs temporarily manage symptoms of PCOS so that once you stop they appear (especially with some of those menstrual irregularities)...

FSUSammy · 08-14-2008, 12:06 PM

I guess you can say I have a hard time managing my weight. But I'm not overweight, just at the higher end of what is considered normal for my age/height. What's weird is I wasn't IR when my RE did my glucose test. He only confirmed my PCOS because one of my ratios were not 1 to 1 along with my ovaries being polycystic. Want to say it was LH:FSH or something like that.

FSUSammy · 08-14-2008, 12:11 PM

I guess you can say I have a hard time managing my weight. I've always had problems but I'm not overweight just at the very high end of what's still considered normal for my age/height. When I was diagnosed it was because of my ovaries that showed up polycystic in my ultrasounds and my LH:FSH ratio wasn't 1:1 (I think that was the ratio). What's weird is my I wasn't considered IR based on my glucose test but my RE wanted to try me on metformin anyways and it worked.

Lagniappe · 11-10-2008, 04:04 AM

I was not diagnosed with PCOS until I was 39 years old. It runs in my family and I thought that I had just gotten lucky. However, as soon as I got off the BCP, I started having PCOS symptoms when I was 36. I had been on the BCP since I was 17 due to fibroid tumors in my breasts. My endocrinologist stated that being on BCPs for so long masked and hid my PCOS symptoms and helped prevent them.

Hope this helps.