pco fertility clinic referral

[Adegab93]

hello, I’m 29 and have been diagnosed with PCO / possible PCOS.

I do not have regular periods, 2/3 a year. I have a thin lining and low progesterone. I’ve done numerous bloods and looks like I am not ovulating on my own.

I’m currently taking metformin but starting at only 1/2 a tablet a day as I really struggle with the side effects (advice on this appreciated), but hoping to work my way up to 2 a day. I also take inositol as well, folic acid etc.

I’ve been referred to a fertility clinic in my local area, and I wonder what this might entail? Is it likely to be clomid, or what are the other options?

Any tips / success stories would be great 😀

[Eileen200800]

Hi Adegab I tried a few things along my way to get pregnant.

I was on 1500mg Metformin and Letrozole (which has higher success rates for pcos than Clomid). I ovulated regularly for 5 cycles but didn’t fall pregnant until my 6th cycle when I paired it with a low carb diet (Kym Campbells PCOS 30 day challenge). I have lean pcos but found the diet a game changer.

I was booked into start IVF… as it was my last cycle of Letrozole… and I never needed it.

I’m now 27 weeks tomorrow.

July 2021 I fell pregnant with a private fertility clinic. At this time I was Letrozole resistant so I had Gonal F injections. Similar to the injections you have under IVF but they monitor you with ultrasound, tell you when you will ovulate, and then have sex rather than all the embryos transfers etc. This is cheaper to do than IVF. Sadly I miscarried then at 6 weeks. I had been off the pill about 15 months but I think my hormones were still haywire. They weirdly settled down a bit a few months after my miscarriage and that’s when Letrozole started working.

I also recommend Ovusense for tracking ovulation. I found it good for telling me when I had ovulated but also I could tell the difference in my hormones by how steady my temps were (especially when I was on the Kym Campbell diet ) - basically steady temps, steady hormones.

Good luck! X

[Adegab93 in reply to Eileen200800]

thanks! I’m going to take a look at the diet plan

Did you do everything with a private clinic? My referral has just been sent to the NHS, so not too sure how long I’ll wait or what the experience will be like. I suppose if it’s too long I’ll start considering private too, but thought I may as well try with the NHS first. 😊

[Eileen200800 in reply to Adegab93]

Mine is a bit complicated… basically during covid-19 all my appointments (5 in the end) got cancelled with NHS. I got really upset and fed up with it so went private. This ended up being quite a good thing though because they wrote me a comprehensive letter on what I needed and listed the drugs I would be taking. At first I just got the Metformin from my GP so it was cheaper than a private prescription (with that letter). But later on (after my miscarriage) I asked my GP for an appointment to ask if I could be referred again for fertility help and they ended up just prescribing me Letrozole based on the letter I had from the private clinic.

The con of this was that I wasn’t maybe as monitored as no one did blood tests or ultrasounds on me during my cycle but I could tell with Ovulation sticks and ovusense when I was ovulating (and when I had ovulated) so I didn’t really need monitoring.

To do this you do need a helpful GP… but I have often wondered if other people could speed up the process by getting a private consultant to write up what you need and then just sending it to the NHS.

Even just having scans etc privately could speed up the NHS process for the treatment.

Last thing I will say but my consultant at the fertility clinic is the exact same consultant I would have seen in Gynae under NHS. I’ve heard this is quite common that often do both NHS and private work. So again, no wonder it sped up my treatment process.

[VEA88]

Hello, Just to ask are you on the slow release metformin tablets? They are much better for me in terms of side effects.

[Adegab93 in reply to VEA88]

hi! Yeah I’ve always been on the slow release ones, I just really suffer with side effects, mainly being sick! Not sure how to up my dose in a better way

[VEA88 in reply to Adegab93]

Oh no! That’s hard. I hope you get used to them. When I saw an endocrinology consultant I think she said that metformin and inositol do the same thing really but it was cheaper to get metformin. I didn’t discuss it at length though because I’m ok on metformin now that I’m on slow release. Might be worth discussing with your Dr.

Has the half a tablet helped at all? My period are much more regulated with just one pill a day, haven’t really needed to go up to 2 as planned.

[Elizabeth92]

Hello, just to ask was the metformin prescribed by your GP? I’ve visited mine several and they didn’t prescribe me with anything but referred me to NHS. Unfortunately I didn’t meet the criteria for free treatment with NHS so now I’m thinking of going private, but still unsure of a good private clinic.

PS: can anyone recommend a good private fertility clinic? Thanks

[Adegab93 in reply to Elizabeth92]

Hi I asked my GP to refer me to a gynaecologist due to very irregular periods, they first sent me for an ultrasound which showed I had a small amount of cysts on my ovaries, then I was sent to the gynaecologist. She gave me the metformin and also various other things to try to regulate my cycles, which did work whilst taking them, but as soon as I stopped my absent periods returned. I’ve had full bloods done and mine were all normal except low folate and very low progesterone, so this needed to be addressed for me. My gynaecologist in my trust isn’t able to offer ovulation inducing medicine anymore, so I got a letter from her ti my GP requesting I’m referred to a fertility clinic for further treatment. To which my GP did for me, but I had to complete more bloods, a further ultrasound and an STD test, partner also had to do a full sperm analysis. Do you have any kind of diagnosis? I’d suggest pushing your GP for a gynae referral if you suspect you have pcos/ pco or something else and they can look a bit more into detail. If they refuse, honestly I’d go to a new GP. It took me many years to find a GP that actually took me seriously. I went to my GP at the age of 18 concerned I never had periods and wouldn’t be able to get pregnant when I was older and he simply told me “maybe that’s the cards you were dealt” finding the right GP is key! Good luck

[Elizabeth92]

Hi, thank you for this. I did blood a number of blood tests, had an ultrasound which they only found that I had immature follicles, the blood test was okay except for progesterone and androgen which were abnormal. Partner also had sperm analysis done. But only a referral was done and no medication prescribed.