Image from CJ photography

In case you missed it, last week I asked you, the reader, to send your fertility questions my way because perhaps you have a question that you can’t find answers to or maybe you’re a little shy to share. You can at any time send through your questions and I’ll reply from time to time on here and it goes without saying, you will remain anonymous – ok Beyonce? Kidding. That brings me to the first question – does PCOS mean you will never get pregnant?

This is a very common misconception that PCO/S makes pregnancy impossible. It is quite possibly, one of the most misunderstood hormonal conditions. I’ve written about PCOS here and here. You might like to take a read to find out more. There isn’t a single condition on earth that responds well to poor life style, no exercise, high stress and poor environmental factors. Your reproductive health isn’t any different. Of course genetics also play a role in our constitution, and something we can’t change, but we can always improve our living situation to greatly benefit our bodies. Here is modern medicine’s biggest downfall when it comes to hormonal disturbances. It blames the menstrual cycle for many issues a woman may experience and assumes if we simply ‘switch it off’ all our problems will dissipate. If you are using the pill for menstrual irregularities, PMS, terrible periods, PCOS or Endometriosis it’s important to realise that your problem hasn’t gone away, it’s under there somewhere. The only time I might say that the pill can be useful in this situation is to give you some space to think about what you are going to do to fix the problem – it can give you a few months to gather your thoughts and get on top to get a game plan in action.

PCOS responds really well to specific diet and lifestyle changes. The new e-book is a great go-to guide for that side of things. As far as more specific treatment goes, there is SO much each women with PCOS can do to improve her fertility. Each woman is individual, each case of PCOS varies in symptoms and so does the applied treatment – but know this. Women with PCOS can absolutely fall pregnant – they might just need a little assistance as well as understanding what their body is telling them.

Several key principles apply to these women.

• Promoting menstruation if it is absent.
• Establishing a regular menstrual cycle since many women with PCOS have long or non existent cycles – know this, it is possible to get it back.
• Help pin-point ovulation. THIS is the key. Women with PCOS will very often make several attempts to ovulate during a cycle.

So with the right advice, plan of attack and treatment, women with PCOS are very able to have happy health babies as well as learn a whole lot about their bodies during their fertility journey.