One Inch At A Time

In a "normal" woman's cycle, which lasts an average of 28 days, ovulation occurs on day 14 and then you cross your fingers for 2 weeks while you wait to find out if you were successful that round. If it's positive, GREAT! If it's negative, oh well, you only have to wait two more weeks to try again.

Now I have yet to meet someone with a perfectly "normal" cycle, but I would say the majority of women fit into this basic pattern. I, sadly, am not one of them. Instead of ovulating every 28 days, my body gears up to ovulate several times, but never quite succeeds due to a lack in the proper hormones (estrogen and progesterone) and an overproduction of the wrong hormones (androgens). This is a two-fold whammy. First, it leads to delayed ovulation and incredibly long cycles. I don't mean a 35-40 day cycle. I mean more in the 90-120 day cycles - 3 to 4 months worth of waiting. The second problem is that each time an egg is not released, it decreases in quality. This means that when it is, in fact, released, it is less likely to result in pregnancy. And then women with PCOS have a higher chance of miscarriage, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and premature diabetes. Well isn't PCOS just filled with sunshine and butterflies and rainbows of good news?

My doctor recommend I decrease my BMI from 25 to 22, as losing weight and eating healthy are two of the best lifestyle changes to increase the chance of ovulation. I have been exercising more and eating very healthy, so now it's just going to take time to see the changes. As I said before, I am a "lean PCOS" because my BMI is in the normal range but I still may have too much insulin in my body, making it difficult to lose weight and causes even more problems. But my recent decrease in weight means...

... I was lucky enough to *finally* ovulate on my own on April 8. My temperatures increased and stayed increased for 13 days before AF arrived. This is great news for two reasons:

1) I am actually, in fact, ovulating (even if it is very very late)
2) My luteal phase (LP), the second part of the cycle, is long enough to sustain a pregnancy

For us PCOS girls, ovulating on your own is a cause for celebration in itself. Most women end up needing treatment to cause their cycles to end, but I was lucky enough to start a new cycle myself. Hurray! (popping a bottle of champagne now!)

So after celebrating my ovulation, I had that tortuous "two week wait" - the time between ovulating and testing. I even had a slew of symptoms, like most women do, which could by PMS or pregnancy. I threw up several times for no apparent reason, so I was very hopeful. Unfortunately, this cycle was not the one but for now I'm enjoying little victories. And the throwing up? Hubby and I both have some kind of stomach bug and neither of us have felt well for over a week, so that explains that.

The best news now is that I have had a pre-op appointment and have just been scheduled for my actual surgery on Tuesday. Yay! That's months before I expected to be fit in, moving things along nicely. The doctors will be doing an HSG, which is where dye is squirted through your tubes to check if they are open. If they aren't the doctors go in to remove any blockages. With my history of torsions, it is quite likely they are blocked, so even if I ovulate on my own, it couldn't get through to be fertilized. They are also going in laparoscopically to check out the condition and location of my ovaries. My left ovary is still riddled with cysts, but my right ovary is cyst-free and smaller than they think it should be. This could be from my previous surgery when they had to cut through my ovary to take out the cyst. Either way, I should come out of the surgery with more answers and at the very least information for my fertility clinic appointment - which is in just two weeks! 

Although I am disappointed with not falling pregnant after the last never-ending cycle, at least something is happening. We aren't just sitting around, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for my hormones to magically regulate themselves. I am so grateful for the NHS, my doctors, and the treatment I have been receiving. I appreciate being proactive and moving forward, one inch at a time.