Get Pregnant with PCOS Naturally | 3 Best Tips

Get Pregnant with PCOS Naturally | 3 Best Tips

Transcription :

Getting pregnant with PCOS is possible if you know how. So in this video, I’m going to give you three tips to help you get started on that path and help you get pregnant even if you have PCOS. But I know some of you are thinking, “Well, just three tips, that’s it.” Actually, it’s not that simple and I’m going to dive deeper into each one of those. So keep watching to learn more.

My name is Dr. Marc Sklar, also known as a fertility expert, and I’ve been working with couples from all over the world for over 19 years through my online coaching programs and right here in San Diego. And PCOS is a common condition that we see, which is why I’m diving deeper into it today to help support all of you who have been dealing with PCOS and probably for quite some time. But I created this channel, Fertility TV, to help educate and inform all of you so that you can start to make changes in your life now and not wait for the support that some of you haven’t been getting. But one of the ways that you can help me on my mission is to spread this channel, is to like and subscribe so that other women and couples who are also going through fertility challenges can get the information and knowledge that they deserve.

So like this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel. And if you’ve got questions about this video or anything having to do with fertility, just comment below and let me know, and I’ll get back to you.

Last week we started this conversation about PCOS with last week’s video. And today I’m diving deeper into it with the three tips that you need to look into now, to help you get more information, more understanding about why you’re going through the challenges you’re going through, and hopefully help you get the results that you deserve. Often, especially if you have a classic PCOS presentation, the diagnosis for PCOS is relatively straightforward with a simple blood test, possibly, or even more so with just a simple ultrasound, but that’s not always the case for many women with PCOS. You might have those who have an atypical presentation, or those who have a regular cycle or no real symptomology at all. So how do we start to deal with those situations and how do we get more answers? That’s exactly what I want to dive into today.

For those of you who don’t know, actually 50% of the women that I work with who have PCOS don’t fall into that classic presentation. That’s right. They’re not overweight, don’t have cystic acne, they have regular cycles or somewhat regular cycles. Maybe their blood work is mostly good. This is the sort of presentation that is more difficult and more challenging to diagnose. So sometimes diagnosing PCOS can be confusing because as I just mentioned, it’s not as straightforward. And sometimes some of the way that we actually do that is by ruling out other conditions.

So tip number one is to rule out anything else that might either be a contributing factor, or actually be the root cause of why you’re having the difficulties you’re having. Now, I do think that for those women who have irregular or no menstrual cycle whatsoever, this is where it can get a little bit more complicated, because there are other reasons why you may not be having a regular cycle or any cycle at all, right? So that is not always PCOS. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is not always the cause of those things. It can be often, but not always. And so we do need to take a step back and take a bigger perspective or bigger outlook on what might be causing those things.

One of the first conditions that we need to rule out is any thyroid disease. Often what I see and the difficulty in diagnosing this is that in most times you’re not getting enough lab testing done. So often what is typically just done is you just have your thyroid stimulating hormone check, your TSH, and maybe you might have T4 or free T3. It just depends on who you’re working with, but that might not be enough to really get a true understanding of what’s going on with your thyroid. So we do need to do a more comprehensive blood panel and what I typically call a complete thyroid panel, where you are looking at TSH, T4, T3, the free T4 free T3 as well, often reverse T3. And then the thyroid antibodies. That starts to really give you a complete picture of what might be going on with your thyroid, so that you can either rule that in or rule that out.

The more complicated cases is when it’s not black and white. If it’s black and white, we know either you do or you don’t, but sometimes there are subclinical cases when it comes to thyroid disease that take a little bit of a nuanced perspective, and you need a trained clinician who can understand what needs to happen there and how to support you properly, but an optimal range for fertility when we’re looking at TSH is between one and two. Sometimes we can go up to two and a half, but if we start to go beyond that, especially three and above, then we start to get concerned for what’s going on with your thyroid. But again, you do need to look at all the other thyroid hormones in relationship to THS and not just THS alone.

Thyroid disease can cause irregular cycles, can cause some amenorrhea, can also make it more difficult to conceive and hold a pregnancy depending on what is going on there. But it’s not the only reason. We also have to look at our hormones, what is going on with our hormones as well. So if you are diving deeper into more testing, then we definitely want to do additional testing around your hormones. What do those look like? And can those be causing irregular cycles or no ovulation or no menstruation? And the answer is often yes, as well. So again, it doesn’t have to be PCOS. There can be an irregularity or imbalance with your hormones that is contributing to some of that hormonal dysfunction, so to speak. And so we need to look at that and understand that better as well, in relationship to the bigger picture of do you or don’t you have polycystic ovarian syndrome?

If we’re doing testing, amenorrhea always has to be addressed. And so amenorrhea is when you do not have any menstrual cycle, you’re not ovulating at all. So this is not the case when you’re having irregular cycles, this is literally, you don’t have any. This can happen for several reasons. Hypothalamic amenorrhea does need to be looked at. As we get older, we can be perimenopausal and that could be showing up in our hormone levels as well and causing periods of time where you’re not having a cycle. So these are things that we do need to look at.

I do get this question all the time like, “I haven’t been menstruating for a year or two. Can I still get pregnant?” The answer to that is it all depends on what your hormones look like. What’s going on there. And that’s why this testing is so important. Looking deeper at what’s going on with your hormones, your thyroid, your body in general, give us a much better understanding for what’s contributing to these irregularities and how we can support them. Additionally, I do often like to do some advanced testing because if other systems are not functioning properly, then we’re not going to have a regular cycle often because that’s not so important. So looking at your digestive health, your gut health, and also looking at your hormone metabolites, which is a urine test, that dives deeper into how your body is using your hormones.

These are all advanced tests that really need to be ordered through a provider so that you can get clear answers. The benefit for all of you watching right now is you can actually order some of these tests on your own using the link in the description below, but you will probably need additional help and support, understanding those reports and creating a plan to address those issues and those findings. But if you do want to get started with some of those tests, you can just use the link in the description below.

Now, moving on to tip number two. I told you these tips weren’t going to be so straightforward that I was going to dive a little bit deeper into each one. And hopefully you can already see that by my discussion with tip number one. So diving into tip number two, let’s try naturally first. I’m a firm believer that most of you, if not 80 to 90% of you who have PCOS, can and should get pregnant naturally with the right understanding, the right plan, and the right support. And that’s really where this comes into play.

I often find so many of you have been given birth control to help regulate your hormones and manage your PCOS. That’s not really taking care of the issue. That’s putting a bandaid, ignoring the issue now so that you can deal with it in the future. We want to deal with this now. So my first tip on this tip number two piece of trying naturally is give yourself a chance. Give yourself a chance to regulate things naturally, to regulate your hormones and your cycles naturally. And the only real way to do that is to stop birth control and give yourself a chance through the proper support to do that. What are some of the things that you can do? Well, three key things, and I did mention these last week.

The first one is diet. Get a good control and handle on your diet. Make sure you’re eating clean, make sure you’re reducing your carbon sugar intake. Make sure you’re eating a lot of good, healthy fats and protein and vegetables, that you’re minimizing your carb intake. These are key issues with your diet that need to be supported and addressed to get the results that you need. So diet also is an important factor because so many of you are also trying to find and work with these fad diets. Now they may be okay, but they’re not the right thing for everybody. So you do need to find the right diet plan for all of you. Someone who has a classical presentation of PCOS versus someone who has an atypical regular cycle, thin bodied, you need different support and your diet regulations, your diet management is also going to be different for each one of you. So make sure that you are getting the support and guidance that you need, and that it’s not just general recommendations.

Lifestyle is also very important here, making sure you get a good quality sleep, regular consistent sleep. And then also that you’re managing your stress. This is such an important piece. Stress management or the lack thereof can absolutely throw off your hormones and your cycles. And I see this often. So make sure you are working hard to manage your stress, but that working hard to manage your stress is not causing more stress. So there has to be balance as well.

And then supplements are important. I did mention that last week. I’m not going to dive too deep into that right now, but there are supplements based on your findings and your hormone tests that can support you on your journey to get pregnant and get pregnant naturally. So just know that tip number two is I do believe that you can do this naturally, but you do need to give it some time and you need to work at it to get those results.

Okay. Number three, before I dive into number three, I just want to let you know, is I got several questions from last week’s video on YouTube, that I’m going to answer a couple of them right now after tip number three. So stay tuned for the answers to those questions in just a moment.

Now let’s dive deeper into step number or tip number three, which is get support. I know there’s a lot of information out there about PCOS because it’s such a common condition for women. But often what I see is that when someone comes to me, who’s been trying on their own is it’s this hodgepodge of stuff put together. It’s like, oh, this person said that this is good for PCOS. And then that person said, this is good. And someone said, oh, I have to take this for PCOS or do this for PCOS. And it’s a hodgepodge of stuff without proper guidance and support. And that all starts with not only getting the right testing done, but having the right interpretation of those labs. So I can’t stress enough how important it is to get the support, the proper support that you need. I know that it might seem straightforward, but often I find that’s just not enough because things aren’t put together quite in the right way. It’s a puzzle and the puzzle pieces fit in a certain way, and you need to have the right person putting the puzzle together for you.

Additionally, we all need support in coaching from time to time because that’s what helps us stay motivated, keep going, because things get hard. They can be difficult. And when they do, if you don’t have that support to lean on, then you’re going to give up or you’re going to stop doing some of those things that you really should continue to do. So getting support really can offer you so much additional guidance and hopefully in the end, get you the results that you’re looking for. And if you want me and my team to support you on your fertility journey, then I want to invite you to apply to join my Hope Coaching Program. All you have to do is use the link in the description below.

I got so many amazing questions from last week’s video. I want to highlight a couple of them, because I do think that they are important. And the first one I want to highlight, I’m paraphrasing the question, is that she asked a question about PCOS and reoccurring pregnancy loss. She said that she’s had four miscarriages and she does have PCOS. So really in her case, she’s able to get pregnant and hopefully… She didn’t put this information, but hopefully she’s also having regular ovulation and menstruation, but she is having a hard time staying pregnant. So there’s a couple things to point out here.

First and foremost, unfortunately, miscarriage is a common issue with women with PCOS. That is the first thing that we have to recognize, that it’s not unique to you, it is relatively common. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get support. That also doesn’t mean that all the answers as the cause of the miscarriage is PCOS. We do still have to look at those things in two separate situations. Isolate them, make sure you have the right plan to support your PCOS because that can also help you hold a pregnancy. And then as a secondary thing, is we need to look at the recurrent losses individually and then say to ourselves; is there any additional testing that we need to do around that to make sure that we’re not missing something?

And the answer is yes, I have many videos on reoccurring pregnancy loss and some of the tests that we need to do to dive deeper. We do need to look at your immune system, blood clotting variables. Again, thyroid is always a piece to this puzzle. So it has to be looked at, which I already talked about in this video. And that really will allow us to put all the pieces together and hopefully, hopefully get you the results that you deserve. So again, I can’t stress enough. We’re all individuals and unique and we need to get the support that we need individually and personally, and not just what everybody with PCOS is getting. All right.

The second question that get asked is, “I want more information with regards to having a regular cycle and PCOS.” Actually what she specifically said is, “I would want more information about someone with regular cycles with PCOS.

So I know that sounds like a really vague question, but I highlighted this one because I think this is also an important question for all of us to understand. This is the atypical form and there are several variations to this. This is where testing really comes into play. So if you have a regular cycle and you think or have been told you have PCOS, we do need to dive deeper into the testing piece of this, which I discussed earlier in this video, so that we can understand what you are going through, what you are dealing with as an individual. This is where coaching, getting the proper guidance and support really comes into play. Working with someone who understands PCOS and understands what to test for, what to look for, and how to support you with when we do get those answers is going to be key here.

So I will tell you that this is really common. I do think that you can absolutely get pregnant naturally if you have regular cycles with PCOS, but you still need support. What do we need to do to support you? And there, it lies the question. So I want to make sure that you understand you need more testing, you need more support, and with that, you will get the proper guidance, hopefully, to get you the results that you deserve.

Once again, I want to remind you all that if you want support from me and my team, we are here. To apply to join my Hope Coaching Program and join the hundreds of other women and couples in the program, getting the support that they need, all you have to do is use the link in the description below. This will allow us to support you, get answers and hopefully get you the results that you need and deserve.

All right, if you like this video, then make sure you give me a thumbs up. If you’re not already subscribed to my YouTube channel, make sure you hit that bell to subscribe. I try to put out a new video every week for all of you to inform you on what you can be doing to help you get pregnant. If you have questions about this video, about PCOS, or anything else having to do with fertility, please put them in the comment section and I will do my best to answer those questions. And until the next video, stay fertile.