The Journey - PCOS (Part 2 of 3)

Pretty Costly Ovarian Syndrome, at least that's what it should be called. It actually stands for Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome. Here is a quick explanation of PCOS courtesy of WebMD:

Polycystic ovary syndrome (say "pah-lee-SIS-tik OH-vuh-ree SIN-drohm") is a problem in which a woman’s hormones are out of balance. It can cause problems with your periods and make it difficult to get pregnant. PCOS may also cause unwanted changes in the way you look. If it is not treated, over time it can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (or PCOS) is common, affecting as many as 1 in 15 women. Often the symptoms begin in the teen years. Treatment can help control the symptoms and prevent long-term problems.

1 in 15, that is 6% of the female population. I knew Emilee was a rare catch, but this was an unexpected development as far as the pregnancy was concerned. At least we were able to get it diagnosed and start treatment for it. Of course treatment consists of things that the Docs "think" will work. She started to take oral diabetic medicines and change her diet up a little bit. She started to take an aspirin day. But of course nothing seemed to work. She decided to get more aggressive.

She started to chart her temperatures every day, she started to chart all kinds of readings that required different sensors and probes, she even started to use about 67 ovulation predictor kits each month. Of course we had to get on a schedule for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. The alarm clock would go off everyday at 4:30 AM just so she could take her temperature. The best part of that whole deal was that she would just hit the snooze button until she got up at 5:30. So I got to wake up 6-7 different times every morning, and all we figured out was that she never ovulated the same time each month.

A quick word about ovulation predictor kits. Part of the issue with PCOS is that it throws the normal ebb and flow of female hormone off kilter. Because of this issue the predictor kits are about worthless. Emilee would take them for two weeks straight and they would be positive for two days, negative for three, positive for 4 more, then negative for a day, and then positive, so on and so forth. I think we kept the kit company in business, even the CVS people knew us by sight.

And then the real fun started. After eight months of trying it the "old fashioned way" we decided to take the next step. Emilee went to her OB/Gyn and started to take Clomid. Clomid helps regulate a woman's menstrual cycle. SO, the hope was that the medication would regulate her ovulation cycle and then we could time EVERYTHING more effectively. Well guess what? It did not work either! The best part of the Clomid experience was her moods. WOW! Not saying anything else because I know she reads this, just WOW!

We started testing for different fertility problems. I went first. Kind of a weird experience. You get locked into a room and you do what guys have been doing for ages. You watch Sport Center, right? Anyway, you give a sample and they analyze it. I was really hoping that I would have the problem. It is often much easier to treat for male infertility issues than it is for females. Good news, bad news ... I was OK.

So we started to set up tests for Emilee. She had blood taken, pee collected, I think they even took toe nail clippings. She had tests done that checked her ovaries. She had tests to check her uterus. She even had tests to check her thyroid levels, and they had already ripped it out. Guess what? Everything looked normal so we went back to dealing with the PCOS issue and the treatments they "thought" would work. After all the above, we still had to go the true specialists; The Atlanta Center For Reproductive Medicine (ACRM).

To be continued...


Stay Safe,

Rob



P.S. Just to give you an estimate we were about $3,500 out of pocket going into the ACRM
phase.