Positive PCOS story (uk)

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my positive story with you all, to show you there may be a light at the end of the tunnel!

I was diagnosed with mild PCOS 8 years ago when I came off the combined pill and my periods came back very intermittently with no pattern. I was slightly overweight but didn’t have any other typical PCOS symptoms except the irregular periods.

My husband and I knew it could be difficult to conceive but we started trying in our own time 5 years later. I hadn’t tried anything to help the PCOS as it was classed as relatively mild, but I was only getting around 3-4 periods a year.

After around 12 months of trying, I realised the main problem was going to be actually ovulating- especially as we all know that it’s only a small chance each time anyway. So my aim was to make my periods more regular. After herbal-this and vitamin-that, my real research began. I found out that sugar was the problem! I have such a sweet tooth and it was hard, but I gave up sugar to see what effect it would have on my periods. Within 8 weeks I noticed it was working- reducing my sugar intake to only “low sugar foods” (less than 5g sugar per 100g) had helped me get a period very soon after my last period. So I continued this low sugar and was getting periods every 6 weeks!

Not only did this help me lose that little extra weight, but it helped my usual “hanger” (getting angry when I’m hungry) and in the end I didn’t even crave it.

Once I’d cracked the regularity of my periods, I started taking my basal temperature every morning to help me predict my fertile time. Also I was checking my cervical position and mucus (sorry TMI). Unfortunately, still nothing was happening, but I noticed the cervical stuff wasn’t coinciding with my temperature change. (And I never got a positive ovulation test either!)

As a last-ditch attempt, I bought some fertility gel (lube) and used it as it says on the instructions each time we tried (at this point, every 2-3 days).

After the first cycle of using the gel, we were successful! We are over the moon and I am now nearly at due date after a straight forward pregnancy.

I wanted to share my story, as so many times I went searching for other success stories and how they managed it. I know everyone is different (and it’s not what you want to hear), but the high sugar diet creates too much insulin in the body. Insulin interferes with the cycle hormones and pretty much prevent your body knowing when to release an egg for ovulation. Freeing your body from sugar rushes and insulin surges allows the other hormones to send messages as they should. Perhaps there are other combinations needed (not just fertility gel) maybe other medications too, but here’s another way to try.

Good luck to everyone going through their tough journey. I hope I can pass on some positivity and help by passing on how I did it. Please feel free to ask questions - I’ll try and answer if I can!

xx