114: Unpacking the concerns with conceiving late with PCOS
When you first find out you have PCOS, one of the first things you usually hear is āyouāre likely going to struggle to conceiveā.
This is obviously extremely disconcerting ā especially given that most of us are or have been diagnosed in our teens or twenties, when children are not even on our radar.
The dynamic of our lifestyles now are so different from how theyāve been historically, the considerations we as women (and as couples) have to weigh up are really complex. The combination of this and the pressure to try to conceive from doctors because of our PCOS (even when some of us arenāt even wanting children) causes a lot of distress.
One of the biggest concerns I hear off the back of this theme is that many people with PCOS are worried about their ability to conceive later, further into their thirties and beyond ā which of course I resonate with as Iāve had my first at age 36. Itās funny, in maternal terms Iām actually considered a āgeriatric motherā š
Because weāre told weāll struggle to conceive, I think a lot of us who do want children feel like we ādonāt have the timeā and we need to get to it or we never will have a family.
Research actually is starting to suggest that the opposite might be true.
Because I so often get these questions from women and especially given Iāve been through this personally, in this podcast Iāll be unpacking conceiving with PCOS in relation to age and talking about the concerns of conceiving late.
This episode is for you if:
- Youāve been told that youāll have trouble conceiving due to your PCOS
- You have considered freezing your eggs
- You think you might do IVF or IUI
- Youāve been told that your AMH is low
- As someone in her thirties or forties, you want to know if thereās still a possibility of you being able to conceive
Some things we cover in this episode:
- The complexities and considerations of deciding to have children in our generation compared to those of the past
- Is fertility extended in PCOS?
- Egg freezing
- Testing and how accurate it is
- We may not actually be born with all the egg weāll ever have:
- Egg freezing in relation in IVF
Resources and References:
- My Book: Getting Pregnant with PCOS
- Fertility MoT tests ‘a waste of money’
- Association Between Biomarkers of Ovarian Reserve and Infertility Among Older Women of Reproductive Age
- Anti-MĆ¼llerian Hormone and Ovarian Reserve: Update on Assessing Ovarian Function
- Egg-freezing: What’s the success rate?
- Evidence suggests women’s ovaries can grow new eggs
