Making Sense of PCOS

Answers to Common Questions

By Shel Franco

Does PCOS Mean Infertility?
"Most women with PCOS are infertile," Dr. Glueck says. But it is not impossible to conceive. Once ovulation is re-established some women do become pregnant. With proper care, the pregnancy can go full term.

Kindra Hooton Guest, of Birmingham, Alab., found that after months of different fertility drugs and dosages, something finally clicked. "[My OB/GYN] started me on Provera to induce a period and had me chart my cycles and take my temperature every morning," she says. "After two months of no temperature changes, [the doctors] realized I was not ovulating and started me on Clomid. I still did not ovulate, so they increased the dosage."

Six months later, Hooton Guest was sent to a fertility specialist. He tried a higher dose of Clomid at a different time during her menstrual cycle. "I got pregnant that month," she says.

What Will an Ultrasound Find?
According to data from CARS, "The PCOS ovaries are typically 1.5 to three times normal size. In some cases the ovary is virtually filled with small cysts."

When Cindy Price, of Franklin, Ind., saw her ovaries on the ultrasound screen, she couldn't determine what she was seeing. "The follicles just looked like a bunch of white dots on the screen to me," she says. But her doctor knew. "She said that [the follicle build-up] was not shedding off like it should, which was classic PCOS," Franklin says.

HowWill the Blood Work Read?

Want to see more?

• Check out our Article Library.
• PCOS: A Woman's Guide to Dealing with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
• The Painful Truth: Living with Endometriosis
• Out of Place: Ectopic Pregnancy
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