I've never been pregnant, but I have read messages from some others who got worse after PG. I think there is alread a similar poll or thread around here somewhere... I don't remember where....geez do you expect me to remember everything. hehe.
Personally I just got way worse by stopping BCPs for a few years. I didn't know I had PCOS. I didn't notice symptoms before that, but looking back, I see I had a few. Hope you find the info you're after.
__________________ New Year's fitness Celebration: In 2006 I cycled approximately 1800miles, hiked up 4 mountains, took a walking tour of San Francisco, hiked in 4 california national parks, swam in a pool with palm trees on my birthday, hiked and biked along the Oregon Coast, climbed to numerous breathtaking waterfalls, explored a gold mine, a silver mine and a cinnabar mine, and walked a fantastic loop along frozen streams and icecicle waterfalls at Opal Creek in winter.
My s ymptoms became worse as well. I have more dark patches of skin now than I have ever had before. It seemed to get better while i was preggo, and after i had erik, it all went to hades again.
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I answered "My symptoms got better" because I began having my period again having Jamie. Everything else seems about the same. However, it was after my first pregnancy (it ended at 17 weeks) that my period disappeared in the first place. Once the bleeding ended, AF took a long vacation. I didn't see her again for years. Strange, huh? Perhaps the answer could be "MY syptoms got MUCH worse" after that pregnancy. It was slow and progressive, though. It was not immediately after the pregnancy that all the other fun little symptoms began rearing their ugly heads. Hair where you don't want it, thinning where you do. A happy trail that I'm not so happy about. I had already had acne, but thought I would grow out of it. Thank you PCOS for keeping me feeling like a teenage boy. Then the sex drive disappeared. This is especially fun for a happily married woman who wants a child. I can't pinpoint when each thing popped up. A strange stray on my chin became 2, then 3, and before I knew if I was shaving with my DH.
I think I had this my whole life but, I did notice that during pregancy everything seemed to be working better by that I mean I gained like 14 lbs with my last child. Now I could look at cheesecake & gain 14lbs. My Dh was 10lbs. 6 oz. So I actually walked away thinner than when Istarted after 1 year of nursing gained it all back then some. I had an IUD placed after w/low dose progesterone (but before this I was on & off different BCP for 12 years.) After a failed attempt of weight watchers while nursing I then waited one year till she as weined. That is when I had more problems bleeding periods every 2 weeks. Thought I was going to die. after 5 months of low carb dieting tings got worse 2 weeks of bleeding 5 days off & yes we started al over again. Meanwhile i stopped losing weight after about 25 lbs. I hit a plateau. I joined a gym.. even know ing all this was still going on i forced myself to go 5 days a week. I fet better no change in weight frustrated I went to dr. that is when I found out I had PCOS... So I guess I felt better PG cause my body seemed regulated all 4 times. But after I would lose the weight very quickly then after nursing gaining 30-45 lbs. never quit losing it all again before next pg & now here I am 230lbs. with dark hairs showing up on my belly (this happened during second pg w/DS they said it was testosterone)Made sense I had a boy. Went away until now about 9 years later now they are creepin up on my face.
As a teeneager i remember shaving everyday I was the oldest I thought this was normal i had no one to compare to but my father. My mother had diabetes & she had long since all but stopped growing hair on her legs plus you rarely grab a glimpse of your mom shaving but dad. Well always struggled with weight except for the summer i biked liked 12-15 miles a day & basically ate 1 meal a day & drank ice tea all summer I know very unhealthy but i was a 7/8 with a tummy that concaved and thighs & calves of steel. So think it was there always just wasn't effectign me as much as it is now.
I too think the BCP's didn't help either i am now artificial hormone free. i am taking the natural pogesterone cream there is a difference i was checking labels & the one i take is like wild yam etc.. But i found at walmart it is just pogesterone & lotion type fillers which is basically ground up bcps in lotion that are breathed in if you will through your skin. anyway sorry so long that is my story & I am sticking wih it.
oh also food for thought if it wasn't pregnancy that made it worse & simply time then if I hadn't had my kids when i did i might not have them at all & so I am dwelling on how it happened because as my OBGYN said "I shoud feel very blessed to have my children in light of this" I am I am I am so Blessed!
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Hopefully, I wish there were a "slightly better" category. Before I got pregnant, my symptoms had started to decrease through weight loss/exercise - I got my period every 45 days (used to go 6 months), and I was able to lose weight. The excess hair, acne, hair loss were still there, though. During pregnancy, everything got better, and after Rivi was born, almost all of my symptoms were SOMEWHAT better (period every 35 days, hair growth lessened, hair loss lessened)...but I couldn't lose weight no matter what I did. So I started Met, and I'm slowly moving in the right direction.
One thing I noticed is that when I was my most depressed after losing Rivi, and I wasn't taking care of myself, my symptoms were worse. Once I straightened up my act, things got better.
One thought I had - I'm not saying this is why this happened to you (or anyone else)...because this obviously could be totally hormonal. But if you're chasing a little one around nonstop, do you have as much time to follow a good diet/exercise routine? That makes all the difference to me, and I'm just wondering if that might be part of the problem for some of us who got worse after pregnancy.
__________________ Dominici was born May 2006!
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Miracle Baby Boy Rivelino, born too early to live on October 6, 2004 at 24 weeks and 6 days. Never to be forgotten, always to be remembered, forever my source of inspiration.
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But if you're chasing a little one around nonstop, do you have as much time to follow a good diet/exercise routine? That makes all the difference to me, and I'm just wondering if that might be part of the problem for some of us who got worse after pregnancy.
You are 100% right. Before I got PG, I worked out 2 hours a day 5-6 days a week. I worked out while I was PG until I was about 5 months. I gained 28lbs during my pregnancy and lost it all but 10 lbs with in the first 2 weeks. I held onto those 10lbs for a few months....then one day BAM...its like my body went crazy. Who knows...
After having my son I developed hypothyriodism, Type II diabetes, depression, my facial hair became MUCH, MUCH worse, and I gained 70 lbs in less then a year.
So I think its a combination of not getting the same amount of exercise, and the big hormonal shift of PG. I read that during a normal 40 week PG women experience more hormonal changes then we would if we lived to be 150 years old.
Nicole
Thanks for the responses.
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My baby boy
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After the last failed pregnancy I bled for 16 days and then was lucky to have several periods in four years! As that was when I was offically dx it's hard to know if thats when it got worse or the symtoms really started kicking in. I certainly have had more facial hair than ever (im quite lucky on being quite fair so just needs an eye kept on it and then got rid of as soon as spotted) I found it harder than ever to lose weight but after losing the baby so early I found mysefl comfort eating anyway.
Im still hoping for confirmation and a healthy pg this time and to be honest I put up with whatever it means me getting my miracle. Lets just hope its not alot worse though....
One thing that does worry me that I will mention to my dr next time is what happens when the baby gets big, will beanie put pressure on my dermoid cyst? Which is slightly bigger than a chickens egg already? Wouldnt like that to burst during pg
__________________ Miscarried my angel in Nov 2000 at 7wks
DX PCOS December 2000 ttc since
Scan on ovaries revealed a sac in my uterus 10/08/05, scan 1/9/5 revealed no progress or heart beat. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Large dermoid cyst on right ovary 6x5cm, waiting pelvic CT scan to dertermine surgery. Hoping not as I still want children and surgery could bring complications.
Suffer rare periods, pelvic pain and excess hair.
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My symptoms got a lot worse, although one thing improved dramatically. But overall, pregnancies and breastfeeding seem to have shot my body to pieces. My youngest (and last born!) is now 3, and it's only now I'm beginning to have the energy and focus to turn some things round.
All my life I was very skinny - despite bad PCOS - and was one of those sickening people who can eat entire packets of biscuits and not put on an ounce. In fact, I don't even know what I weighed most of my adult life, as we never had scales in the house. I was 32-22-34 or thereavouts right until I was 29 - when I had my first son! Then the body went haywire - not just the pregnancy but worse still, breastfeeding. That made me ravenous and eat like a horse - I know it's not what you're supposed to say, especially here in the UK where there's a lot of pressure on women from the National Health Service, government, etc to breastfeed so they push it by pretending it helps you lose weight. I weighed more after a year of breastfeeding than I weighed straight after I gave birth for every one of my 5 babies. So pregnancy definitely affects your weight and of course, with weight gain you get a worsening of every PCOS symptom.
The hirsuitism was an issue even when I was stick thin - but it definitely worsens when you gain weight.
I also experienced hair loss for the first time ever, after pregnancy. Although that can happen anyway with the fall in hormone levels straight after you give birth - or if you breastfeed, as soon as you stop. But I'm sure mine was worse because my hormones were all voer the place due to PCOS. I've been lucky and as time's gone on, that symptom seems to have gone.
One side effect of my first pregnancy was my subfertility. It took me 8 years of trying to conceive (without drugs) my oldest son. I had one round of Clomid to get my second baby. After that, I had 3 *unexpected* pregnancies, so I think sometimes that first pregnancy somehow makes it easier to conceive again, later. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, though!
The most positive effect of pregnancy on my body was that pre-pregnancy, my period pains were crippling to the point of me not being able to get out of bed for the first day, using the heaviest duty painkillers on the market and a hot water bottle and still being in agony. I haven't had a painful period since I had my first son. They used to be more regular as well - from one or two a year, my AF visited eavery 5 or 6 weeks. Although since my last pregnancy, that's out the window and they are back to being few and far between. But never painful.
To be honest, I think pregnancy messes with the PCOS body royally and had I known it, I might not have been so keen to have kids! The other side effects of babies like the 18 months of being up 6 times a night, etc, are also harder to bear when you have PCOS - as you need your sleep more than most people, I think.
P.S. I'm not anti breastfeeding - I had 5 babies in the end, and breastfed 4 of them for 1 year each - the oldest got 14 months, so I've spent over 5 years of my life breastfeeding. It wrecks your figure, though, don't believe what anyone says!
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I had always had iregular to no periods but that was the only symptom I had, I've never had a weight problem. I didn't even know I had PCOS until after the birth of my son. During pregnancy I watched in horror as my body developed PCOS symptoms. First I got all these rough patches between my thighs, then developes skin taggs in my groin area (some WAY to close to the "goods") My doc at the time didn't even know they were skinn tags, he decided that we need to burn them off! So I had him burn them with no Anestetic to numb the area (PAIN like nothing else). (If only I had resurched them first I would have left it and him!) Then everyday I descovered a new hair on my tummy, once they were established I got one on each breast then they started on my chin! Then my hair started falling out. Today it's 50% thinner than it ever was. I hope that one stops! I havent had a period since having my son. The only bleeding I've had was a m/c then I fell pregnant with this baby. I've also developed ALOT more cysts then I have ever had befor being pregnant. I'm now anemic, fain and shake al the time, and am so tired (not just because I run after a 18 month old) It's an unexplainable tired.
__________________ Kirsty
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I'm 22, and mother of the worlds cutest little boy We did it, we're having another baby,
I'm due on the 18 of March!!
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Before pregnancy, I went months at a time without my AF. Now after pregnancy, I'm having it monthly again. Aside from that though, all my other symptoms stayed about the same.
__________________ DX: PCOS - Oct. 21/02
Also have Hypothyroidism (on Synthroid)
Fertility treatments - Clomid (50mg, CD3-7)
- 1st attempt (11/20/02) - FAILED
- 2nd attempt (12/20/02) - BECAME PREGNANT! Amy was born on on Oct. 1, 2003!
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My symptoms became better in some ways. I got down to my lowest weight ever and felt good, besides the depression... but now the weight is coming back on and I'm finally going back to the doctor to see what they can do to help! I know I can lose the weight it's just finding what works now...oh and AF is back on track, haven't skipped in over 2 years!
__________________ Elizabeth
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Who had their PCOS Symptoms change AFTER PG? 
