Can a woman with PCOS conceive? The answer is a resounding yes. Most definitely women with PCOS can conceive as I’ve previously mentioned, the way in which PCOS affects women is that it manifests itself in preventing a woman from ovulating and everything else is normal in the woman: her uterus is normal, the area the baby would grow is normal, with the endometrial cavity as we call, her eggs are normal. It’s just that they’re not being released and in fact they’re very very many treatments for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome depending on the presentation but the most common is some tablets called columbifed and they fall into a group of of tablets known as SERMs which include clomiphene, tamoxifen… I’m trying to remember selective estradiol receptor modulators and they fool the body into thinking that the estrogen level is low and the body releases FSH which is follicle stimulating hormone and this helps the women start to release eggs and in fact, we find that 50% of women who don’t have periods when you put them on these SCRMs tablets (the most common being clomiphene, the second most common is tamoxifen and another one called letrozole – those are the typically the most common tablets used uh used at least in western Europe) 50% of women will become pregnant after six cycles of using these tablets as long as they start ovulating during those six cycles so, most women will do become pregnant with quite simple very non-invasive type of medication.
By just having a polycystic ovarian appearance or some symptoms related to that does not mean that the patient cannot achieve natural pregnancy. Significant number of these patients would achieve natural pregnancy provided there are no other hindering factors from their fertility point of view. Some of the patients, specifically who have got irregular cycles and are overweight, might struggle because they are not releasing a mature egg every month or majority of the months so, they need some help in the form of some tablets or injections to induce ovulation as we call (it it’s called ovulation induction therapy) and with that, they are able to release a mature egg and then possibly achieve pregnancy as well. They could need other assisted conception treatments but it is possible to achieve natural pregnancy in these cases.
PCOS per se does not mean that women cannot conceive. More often, women has a problem with ovulation, with follicle growing and in this case, the chance to conceive is decreased because if no oocyte – no pregnancy, but some women with PCOS may have ovulation time to time, probably not very regular but may have. So chance to conceive is normal in this case. If women with PCOS decrease body mass index even 3-5% of initial weight, sometimes ovulation function restoring and it is improved dramatically the chance to conceive. Generally, the probability to conceive depend how often a woman with PCOS has ovulation and this we can see by ultrasound or doing some tests hormonal, tests ovulation tests.
Yes, absolutely, a woman with PCOS can conceive. It may be a little harder to do and she may require some help from her doctor to help her ovulate . However, a majority of women with PCOS don’t require IVF, it can just take a little longer to conceive and you might need a little more help. But it certainly doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to conceive.
