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Is there an overall treatment for PCOS?

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2 fertility expert(s) answered this question

Answer from: Kate Davies, RN, BSc (Hons), FP Cert

Nurse, Independent Fertility Nurse Consultant & Coach at Fertility Industry Consultancy & Podcast Co-Host
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I wish there was an overall treatment for PCOS. As I’ve mentioned, the most important things to do are to look at your lifestyle and to see how changing your lifestyle can have a positive impact on your PCOS. So perhaps losing some weight, perhaps eating more healthy to balance your hormones, to make yourself feel better, perhaps exercising, reducing alcohol, not smoking, all the general lifestyle things that are really important. But actually, for PCOS itself there is no one cure, but there are lots of things that you can do if you’re struggling to conceive, your doctors will be able to help you with certain medication to get you ovulating and help you conceive quicker.

Answer from: Moses Batwala

Gynaecologist, Clinical Director, Consultant Gynaecologist and Fertility Specialist
Sims IVF
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The thing which I think is very important is to remember that this is a metabolic illness. It’s a metabolic illness and it’s really set by your genes, it’s something one will be more prone to develop. There’s nothing you can… there are people who are more prone to developing a common cold. I’m someone who hardly ever gets cold in winter, but one of my sisters gets bad colds all the time. There are some people who are allergic to penicillin, there are different things that people are genetically more prone to. And Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome is one of those things, there is nothing fundamental… It’s just one of those things that you are more prone to, and there is no cure, it’s not like there’s something you can take that will stop you from having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Unfortunately not; you are born with it, you’re going to live through your reproductive life with it, and it’s until you go through the change, the menopause that you stop having it. So there’s no magic bullet out there that will stop it but we can manage it, it can be managed and can be managed very successfully. A) With either lifestyle changes when you’re watching your diet when you’re exercising and you’re eating healthily. It can be managed with medications; such as the pill, in order for us to regulate your period. And that is to protect the lining of your womb so that you don’t develop things like hyperplasia of the lining of the womb, which can lead to cancer of the endometrium. And lastly, there are many interventions, because very many women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome would be worried about their chances of fertility, and it is something that can be managed quite well in terms of our experience and expertise in treating women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, for them to get pregnant and have a baby. We’ve been doing it very well for very, very many years, decades in fact. And so, don’t get the stigma of thinking, Oh, I’ve got Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and all is lost. No, there’s actually a lot of interventions, a lot of simple and even for difficult cases; lots of interventions, which we are able to treat women very successfully with. The silver lining for women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome; you have lots of eggs. And if there’s one thing in the fertility world that a fertility doctor like myself finds easier is if you’re treating a woman and she has lots of eggs, it means more opportunity for her to get pregnant. Because the opposite is if you have no eggs, there is no opportunity to get pregnant unless you’re going to use donor eggs. So women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome should not be downhearted at all, there is a lot that can be done. If you suspect that you do have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, go and see your doctor. The doctor can diagnose you properly because there are many women who have polycystic ovaries, not Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, who have polycystic ovaries, who get misdiagnosed and told that they have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and they start getting worried when they actually do not have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, they just have polycystic ovaries. These women have regular periods, they are ovulating normally, they can conceive naturally without any issue, but they get labeled when they have an opportunity to scan that says Oh, I’ve noticed you have lots of polycystic ovaries. No! That’s more common as about 20% of the female population have polycystic ovaries. Only about 5% of women have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which is the appearance of polycystic ovaries and irregular periods, and signs have raised male hormone activity such as the male pattern hair growth on their faces, male pattern baldness. Those are the women we’re really talking about today; the Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome women but there is a lot of help out there, it’s not at all anywhere close to doom and gloom, there actually is a lot counting for you.

About this question:

What is the most effective treatment for PCOS?

​The symptoms of ​Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) cannot be cured​ completely but with proper diet and lifestyle changes that can be ​managed.

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