Q: My daughter is about to get married and is keen to start a family. Since the age of 17, she has suffered from Polycystic Ovaries, showing symptoms such as facial hair, hair loss and a weight problem. She has also been warned that conception may be more complicated for her. She used to have infrequent periods but now has them regularly every 5 to 6 weeks. The normal help for her condition, such as the contraceptive pill or metformin, she cannot be prescribed as the first gave her occasional blackouts and the second nausea. She keeps her weight under control by sensible eating but even so is probably a little more than she should be for her height. Is there any advice you would give her to increase her chances of conceiving?

A: In each menstrual cycle, follicles (which contain eggs) grow on the ovaries. One of these follicles will reach maturity faster than the others and be released at ovulation. The remaining follicles will degenerate. In the case of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the ovaries are much larger than normal, and there are a series of undeveloped follicles that appear in clumps, like a bunch of grapes. This can cause a hormonal imbalance, leading to a series of symptoms including being overweight, having no – or very few – periods, being prone to acne and excess body hair. And with this can come problems with fertility and recurrent miscarriages.

Over the last few years, research into the nutritional approach to PCOS has revolutionised the treatment of this problem. It is known that women with PCOS are more likely to have problems balancing blood sugar and can produce high levels of insulin. The more circulating insulin, the more the ovaries produce testosterone.

 

So the aim is to balance the blood sugar by eating little and often and going for foods that do not cause the blood sugar to rise quickly. There is not enough space to go into this in detail here but the best recommendation is to either read the PCOS chapter in my Nutritional Health Handbook for Women or, as your daughter’s main focus is to get pregnant, then read my book ‘Getting Pregnant Faster’. 

 

As her blood sugar stabilises your daughter will lose weight and it has been found that as women with PCOS lose weight, hormone levels start to return to normal. One study found that 11 out of 12 women who had been overweight and not ovulating conceived naturally after reducing their weight.

 

Certain vitamins and minerals can also be useful to make the dietary recommendations more effective. For fertility it is best to add in the Fertility Plus for Women and the Fertility Plus for Men (see the Resources Page).

 

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 12:20 am and is filed under Ask Marilyn - Star Questions, Fertility, PCOS, Periods and PMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.