Names have been changed for confidentiality

Lesley was an old patient of mine from years ago. Back then I treated her for a gynecological problem.

Now age 30 years and married, she reconnected with my fertility clinic after seeing my website on getting pregnant with PCOS.

She’s been diagnosed with PCOS with the added insulin resistance issue and had been trying to lose weight to improve her fertility. She has been trying to get pregnant with PCOS for the past 12 months. Her body mass index was large at 35 but she was actively loosing the weight and so far had lost 12 kg.

Lesley recently had seen another fertility doctor who basically told her to “go away and lose weight” before he would help her. You can imagine how upset Lesley was to hear this because you see she was actively trying to do this and at the end of the day, after 12 months, she just wanted some help to conceive.

I organized further fertility tests for both her and her husband…. to also rule out other possible causes for infertility… and surprisingly her husbands sperm test showed low numbers and lazy sperm. This result would of course reduce their chances of pregnancy even further.

So there were now 2 problems reducing their chances of becoming pregnant; the PCOS and the low sperm numbers.

When there are male factor problems such as low sperm numbers and/or slow swimmers then IVF is the appropriate treatment to help couples conceive. An ideal weight is important as well for any fertility help and Lesley was slowly succeeding with her weight loss.

The good news is… Lesley and her husband had their IVF treatment (see Invitro Fertilisation (IVF) – Fertility Treatment) and conceived on the first cycle, with further embryos frozen for more pregnancies later.

I’ve discussed Lesley’s story because I wanted to highlight the issue to you of making sure you are getting all the appropriate fertility tests done. Although you may have PCOS, this may not be the only reason for your difficulty in getting pregnant. So go see your doctor and ask them to check both you and your husband for any other fertility problems.

I wish you all the best