geminigirl | (no subject)

Dolphin needs a prosthetic tail. I think that's way cool, and might check out the donation information. The phone number is in the article.

In other news, I came home from today's doctor's appointment with a diagnosis of PCOS and a prescription for Metformin. Which is exactly what I wanted, sort of. It's good to have an answer, and it's been evident for years that PCOS was the probable cause, but there's the process of getting used to taking the medication, and the side effects, and learning how to deal with taking meds four times a day. (I know there are other ways to take it, but for now, this is what the doctor wants me to do.) The upside, however is that the doctor said "Go off the pill. It's not suppressing your cyst much if you've had two ruptures in the last couple of months. You'll probably drop weight faster if you're off the pill, and have better response to the Metformin. If you get pregnant before I see you again in January, that's fine...I'd like it if you would wait til March, but if it happens before then, it's okay. You can use any other contraceptive method you want..condoms, rhythm method. You need to keep good track of your cycles, you may want to use an OPK [ovulation predictor kit] and if you start trying in March, and you don't have success in a few cycles, or you're not ovulating, we'll talk about adding other things like Clomid."

So, what this means is that we're going to decide if and when we're ready to try again for a baby. And there's a lot of stuff to deal with there. And it also means I'm likely to create a PCOS filter, so as not to bore most of you who aren't interested in what's going on with my ovaries.

It also means that I've been told that I will probably feel very sick for at least a month as I go on the new medication, and ramp the dose up to the level that the doctor wants me at.

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Having a diagnosis and a plan helps so much. I'm glad you've got both.

I've had various doctors suggest a PCOS diagnosis to me over the last 7-8 years. It hasn't made much of a difference to me because I've not yet tried to get pregnant, nor do I know if I ever will.

The insulin bit, you've probably got under control, though I wonder (and have no idea) if it would affect your treatment if you did have PCOS, but there can be other complications that might make it worth investigating whether or not you decide to get pregnant. I know for me, they drew a bunch of blood at one appointment, sent it to the lab and discovered that the lab values look fine, but that I've got the symptoms of, and so, they diagnosed based on that.

Apparently I exhibit some symptoms, but not all (example: my periods are relatively regular). The last gyn I saw in NoVA told me that some blood work showed that I had elevated levels of something that was indicitive of PCOS. I don't remember what it was and it was about 2 years ago. I have an appointment with a gyn in October, and plan to discuss it with her.

Wait a minute - he doesn't want you to start trying until March, but he's going to start you on Clomid if you aren't pregnant by March?

Uh, yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Proof that I should proofread, I guess.

He'd like it if I waited til March. It's fine if it happens before then. If we "officially" start trying in March, and don't have success within a few months, and I've had detectable ovulation, then we'll add Clomid.

And I'll go fix that now.

I have PCOS as does my sister, if you filter, I'm fine with being on it. *sending positive energy to your ovaries*

I'm interesting in being on the filter. In part because I sometimes wonder, from what others say, if I don't have PCOS.

Sounds like pretty decent news from the doc. :) I hope you're lucky w/o the clomid, etc!

No problem. I'll include you in it when I build the filter.

i'm all about vaginas and their related parts.

i'm glad you have a dx, and a tx, and hope. good thoughts to you, your ovaries, and your adjustment to the metformin.

I know you're into the girlparts. I figured you'd want to read about it anyway.

a teacher friend of mine tried for two years to conceive and then she was diagnosed with pcos. she went on metformin (glucophage) and had twins nine months later. :) you may not need to get to the clomid point. good luck to you!

Obviously, I want to be on that filter. :)

some people said a month of yuck...for me it was about 2 weeks. And I've heard from some folks that they didn't have any yuck. So good luck with that part!

I'd like to be on the filter, please...I've suspected for years that I have it, myself (and once I have insurance again...). Have you checked out any of the PCOS communities?

If you create a filter stick me in there. They suspect PCOS for me too. I've not been given metaformin though. The doctor wanted me to try the nuva ring to keep my periods regular.

It's hard to try again I think. I could have killed my mother-in-law when I was pregnant for Tatiana because she told everyone and I didn't want to just in case. It's so hard to un-tell them. I had to do that after my first miscarriage and didn't want to go there again.

I've dropped about 20 pounds in the last year. I don't think it's made any difference with my period issues.

Best of Luck. *hugs*

Regarding our conversation last night, lactation consultants generally seem to think that taking metformin during pregnancy is helpful in making sure adequate breast development takes place during pregnancy. However, I haven't yet located any studies on the subject.

You might find it interesting/helpful to do a medline search on "metformin pregnancy"

There's a particularly applicable abstract from a pediatrics journal in May 2006, in which the babies of women who took metformin throughout pregnancy and lactation are studied. There were no ill effects. I think it would be interesting to read the whole article.

I will see what Medline has to say, and perhaps ask the appropriate sources who have better journal access than I do to things, and who might even be able to send me the article.

Thanks for the pointer. I know Yix would also be interested in it, since she called me after you and I got off the phone and we were talking about the same thing.

Wow, it must be a relief to finally have an answer as to what's been going on.

First please add me to your filter. And second I ran across this link that I thought might help
http://stirrup-queens.blogspot.com/2006/07/metformin-glucophage-for-pcos.html