Do You Have One of These 5 Important PCOS Infertility Symptoms? What To Do About It Now
These 5 important PCOS infertility symptoms tell you a lot about what's going on in the body. Today you are going to learn what these 5 symptoms are.
And don't worry, I'm not just going to share the symptoms and then leave you hanging! I am also going to share important next steps you can take if you are experiencing one of these so you can improve your fertility.
5 PCOS Infertility Symptoms
Don't let these PCOS infertility symptoms go on for too long! They are telling you important information about your fertility needs.
In case you want more information about the ins and outs of PCOS fertility, head over to my Ultimate Guide to PCOS Fertility here.
Let’s dive into these five symptoms to watch out for and what to do about them.
PCOS Infertility Symptoms #1: Acne
Acne is only for teenagers going through puberty, right??!
Wrong!
Most acne comes from imbalanced hormones so it can happen at any time in life.
And you might be asking yourself, what does my skin have to do with fertility?
Let's talk through it.
The acne-causing hormones are testosterone and DHEA, also known as the androgen hormones. Have you heard of these before?
Elevated testosterone is one part of the PCOS diagnosis (read up more on the PCOS diagnosis in my Ultimate Guide to PCOS Fertility here) so you may be pretty familiar with the hormone.
Too many of these androgen hormones not only bring on acne, they also shut down ovulation.
Signs that acne is showing that there is a deeper issue with hormones:
New acne
Acne that started after stopping hormonal birth control like the pill or mirena IUD
Acne that comes on during ovulation or with PMS and then clears away during other times of the cycle
What to do about it now?
The first step to do now is to go ask your doctor about getting androgen hormones tested. These are simple blood tests.
Some doctors diagnose PCOS without running labs. This is why you may need to ask your doctor to run these tests for you.
To get a full comprehensive picture of what androgen hormones are doing, the following tests are recommended:
Testosterone, total
Testosterone, free
Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG)
DHEA-S
PCOS Infertility Symptoms #2: Hair on chin (and other unwanted places!)
Do you plan what days you work in the office around when you're most comfortable around your facial hair? Does the hair make you uncomfortable? Does it affect your self-esteem?
This is a good indication that you have what's called, hirsuitism.
Hirsuitism is the term for unwanted hair growth. That extra hair growth can be found on the chin, upper lip, back, around the belly button and on the upper thighs.
If you're struggling with it and feel embarrassed, you're not alone. It's estimated that between 70 and 80 percent of women with PCOS struggle with this.
Hirsuitism is not just a few stray hairs under your chin. There is a scale that your doctor will use to determine if your hair growth falls into the category of hirsuitism.
When using this scale, they will first ask about how much hair growth is happening in different areas of your body.
Then they will put together a score based on how much hair growth you have and in how many different areas of the body. Your ethnicity plays a part too. Certain ethnicities have more hair growth than others so that is taken into consideration with your score.
The information you get from your score is helpful in two ways. First it's helpful to determine if you fall under the actual hirsuitism diagnosis. And second, it's helpful to use as a marker during your treatment to see how the hair growth improves.
What causes hirsuitism?
It's those androgen hormones that we talked about above with the acne! When these androgen hormones like testosterone and DHEA are elevated, they can cause acne, or unwanted hair growth (or both!). They also shut down ovulation.
What to do about it now?
If pesky hair growth is one of your PCOS fertility symptoms, then the first thing is to talk with your doctor about the amount of hair growth you have. Ask them to use the Ferriman-Gallwey scale to rate your hair growth. Talk to them about your score and what this means for your hormones and fertility.
After that, ask them to run the blood tests to look at your androgen hormones as well.
PCOS Infertility Symptoms #3: Long cycles
Haven't had a period in the past 3 months? 6 months? In the last year? Those are long cycles. Long cycles are a pretty good sign that you aren't ovulating.
Over my years of working with people who have PCOS, long cycles tend to be one of the most frustrating parts about PCOS fertility. The women I work with often tell me that they just want their cycles to be back to normal.
Do you feel this way too?
Having a long cycle can mean a variety of things. One of the most common things I see is low progesterone. Too much testosterone can also contribute to long cycles, as well as too low of estrogen.
Issues with progesterone, estrogen and testosterone? All three of these hormones are important for ovulation so if even one of these hormones is off, that will affect cycle length and ovulation.
What to do about it now
The first thing is to go in and request getting all three of these hormones tested.
Estrogen: which is typically tested on day 3 of the cycle (day 1 is the first day of bleeding)
Progesterone: which is typically tested on day 19, 20 or 21 (or 7 days after a positive ovulation test) so you will need to plan ahead.
Testosterone: request both free and total testosterone levels. They can be run on any day of the cycle.
Another helpful test for figuring out what hormones are doing throughout the cycle is a Menstrual Cycle Mapping Test. This is a urine test. Once you complete all your samples and send it to the lab, you will get a graph showing what estrogen, progesterone and LH are doing throughout the cycle.
PCOS Infertility Symptoms #4: Spotting during cycle
Spotting is when a small amount of blood comes out and then stops and goes away. It's common around ovulation or just before the period stops. It can also happen at any point in the cycle.
Spotting can come from a couple of different hormone imbalances. It can come from not enough estrogen, not enough progesterone, or a mixture of the two.
What to do about it now
Go in and ask your doc to test your estrogen and progesterone levels. Knowing these levels will help you get a fertility plan that sets you up for success.
PCOS Infertility Symptoms #5: Increased thirst and more trips to the bathroom
Did you ever think your bathroom habits would show you something about fertility? They are more closely intertwined than you may think!
Increased thirst and excessive trips to the bathroom are one of the first signs of insulin resistance and pre-diabetes (full-blown diabetes as well for that matter!) which is one of the important PCOS fertility symptoms.
Insulin resistance doesn't affect everyone, but it is estimated that it affects upwards of 80% of people with PCOS.
If you are having trouble getting pregnant and all of a sudden you are incredibly thirsty and have to go to the bathroom way more than usual, that's an important sign that your blood sugar levels are off.
Elevated blood sugar levels affect fertility by:
Increasing testosterone which then shuts down ovulation
Reducing egg quality which leads to immature eggs that aren't able to ovulate or implant
Changes LH levels which shuts down ovulation
What to do about it now
If your PCOS infertility symptoms include the need to pee a lot, talk with your doctor right away. Tell them about what you've been experiencing and talk about your fertility struggles as well.
If they are an expert in PCOS fertility, they will know exactly how to move forward helping support your blood sugar levels and your fertility.
PCOS Infertility Symptoms Summary:
There are 5 important PCOS infertility symptoms that you don't want to miss. These five symptoms give clues about what is going on deeper in the body. This includes what hormones are out of balance that are contributing to your fertility struggles.
Being aware of these symptoms is the first step to improving fertility.
When you experience any one of these PCOS infertility symptoms, visit your doctor to either get lab work done or get a plan to correct them.
Are you sad, and mad and disgusted with your body?
Do you just want your body to be normal? Do you want to look better and feel better and see results when you put in all this effort?
Your first step is to book a free PCOS Fertility Breakthrough Session here to get the clarity and fertility answers you need.
Here's what you will discover during your free session:
How to turn around your PCOS frustrations to be closer to reaching your fertility goals.
Why what you’ve been doing is leading you away from optimal fertility and what actually works.
What’s been missing from your care that’s keeping you from seeing results.
Clear step-by-step guidance to have your best chance at becoming pregnant.
Next up! Here are the 3 most important fertility articles (after this one) that you read today:
Getting Pregnant With PCOS Quickly: 3 Truths You Need to Know
