Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Hi Everyone!

I am Dr. Shweta Goswami, infertility and IVF specialist at Noida and Delhi/NCR. I want to speak on a very common issue called PCOS. PCOS is a sign of hormonal imbalance. It is not a disease per se actually a lifestyle issue. Like out sedentary lifestyle, high carbs and fat diet, genetics. PCOS as a disease on the rise. PCOS can have a different problem at different stages of our life. It can lead to menstrual irregularity, difficulty in conceiving can lead a later problem in life such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes etc. My focus is to tell you, what to do if you are having difficulty in conception and how to put you in diagnosis. It is a hormonal imbalance disease where egg development is not proper. As we understand the natural conception, we have to have an egg and the sperm to work together to create an embryo. PCOS can make it harder for us to conceive.

The 1st sign is an irregular cycle. A gap of 40-45 days in the cycle. It can be checked by an ultrasound whether the egg formation is there or not. The good news is a treatable condition which does not require any extensive treatment like IVF. In fact, IVF is required only in 5% of PCOS patients. 95% can get treated by lifestyle modification and medical treatment. So, the lifestyle modification plays an important role. In case you are obese or have hormonal imbalance or insulin resistance problem, you need to start losing weight and start exercising. And if we see that eggs are not developing then there are simple medications. If simple medications do not work then we move on to a combination of medicines and injections, to help you make good eggs and if you try on right time, there will be good results.

Of course, when we try naturally with medicines and injections, we need to understand that the chance of success is going to be 20-25%. So, we need to be very patient. We need to understand that it might work out in another cycle or it could take more. So, we have to continue it for at least 3-6 cycles. Healthy man and healthy woman may take up to 12 months to conceive naturally. We have to work upon for proper eggs development for at least 6 months.

We should not easily move on to something else as something else could be tubal testing, laparoscopy or IVF as a fine procedure. However, most PCOS patient if corrected rightly should be able to conceive with simple treatments until and unless it is very severe enough. 50% work again I repeat is about lifestyle modification, trying to lose weight even if the BMI is OK, exercise properly to get the PCOS in control. Working in right direction, PCOS can give excellent results as far as a journey of conceiving is concerned. Thank You for your patient listening. For further details, you can contact me through Lybrate.