7 Top Questions About PCOS & Pregnancy

iStock

多囊卵巢综合征，better known as PCOS, is a chronic health condition related to hormone imbalance that affects one in 10 women of childbearing age. It disrupts ovulation, meaning your periods are irregular and your ovaries don’t grow and release eggs according to schedule. As you can imagine, PCOS is a common cause of infertility–but it doesn’t make it impossible for a woman to get pregnant.

“PCOS is a spectrum,” explains Anuja Dokras, M.D., director of the Penn Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Center at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia. “There will be patients who ovulate every month, some patients who ovulate erratically, and then there’s only a small subset that just don’t ovulate at all.”

如果你排卵，你有机会怀孕 - 但你可以在构想之前管理你的病情，你可以增加你的赔率。这是您需要了解的一切关于PCOS和怀孕，从三个OB / GYNS每天与PCOS合作。

1.和P自然有可能怀孕吗COS?

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that the more regular your periods are, the easier time you’ll have getting pregnant. “Oftentimes, women with PCOS may achieve pregnancy and not realize it because they don’t have regular periods,” says Genevieve Neal-Perry M.D., chair of the UNC School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chapel Hill, NC. “It’s hard to know, if your periods are irregular, whether it’s a missed period or a pregnancy.”

Ovulation, the window of your menstrual cycle during which you can get pregnant, typically occurs around day 14 of a typical 28-day cycle. For women with PCOS, that window can be more erratic, making it tougher to time sexual activity to the days when you’re most fertile.

Interestingly, the menstrual cycle for women with PCOS tends to regulate gradually with age. “The likelihood of pregnancy increases as women get older because their cycles become more regular as they approach the age of menopause,” Dr. Neal-Perry explains.

Andrea Dunaif, M.D. professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Bone Disease for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, tells her patients this is a sort of “silver lining” for women with PCOS–you may be fertile for longer than your non-PCOS friends. One 2018 study inFrontiers in Endocrinologyfound that women with PCOS may have a slight advantage in reproductive chances after age 40, specifically with IVF treatments. The authors also noted, however, that PCOS patients over 35 who want to get pregnant should be talking through a plan with their doctor ASAP.

2.如何管理我的PCOS症状，以帮助我更容易怀孕？

You’re planning ahead–and that’s a smart move! There are several concrete steps you can take to manage your PCOS prior to conception, making it easier to get pregnant and safer to carry a baby to term. Dr. Neal-Perry explains that one thing common in women with PCOS is weight gain due to high androgen levels. “When they lose weight, they start to see regular periods,” she notes. “So, with regular periods, it’s often associated with ovulation, and that increases your chance of a pregnancy.”

Women with PCOS also frequently live with diabetes or prediabetes–more than half will receive this diagnosis before the age of 40. If you’re diabetic, it’s critical to manage this with medication and lifestyle changes to avoid any pregnancy complications (such as gestational diabetes).

Dr. Dunaif notes that it’s helpful to talk with your doctor to make sure your medications won’t interfere with your chances of getting pregnant. “A lot of women come to me because they want to prepare themselves to have a healthy pregnancy,” she says. “If they have weight management issues or pre-diabetes, they want to deal with those so that the pregnancy is healthier … It’s very important to discuss with your physician.”

3. PCOS早期怀孕的迹象表达于任何其他怀孕吗？

Nope. Women with PCOS can expect to have the same symptoms associated with early pregnancy: morning sickness, breast tenderness, and fatigue, to name a few. The trick is knowing that you’re pregnant in the first place. “The most common sign of a pregnancy is a missed period, and that’s what makes it tricky with PCOS,” Dr. Neal-Perry notes. Because, “that’s also a common sign of PCOS.”

4. PCOS是否影响了对妊娠试验的阅读？

One thing you can do is take an at-home pregnancy test to find out if you’re expecting, and for the most part, you can expect to see an accurate result. But in rare instances, a woman with PCOS has naturally high LH levels (a reproductive hormone) that may interfere with a pregnancy test reading.

“如果[LH]is high enough, it can give you a false positive,” Dr. Neal-Perry says. “It can happen, but it’s not common.” For a second opinion, you can get a blood test to detect pregnancy, which won’t be influenced by your PCOS.

5. What are the pregnancy risks associated with PCOS?

PCOS does come with a variety of pregnancy risks and complications, including miscarriage, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia (a sudden blood pressure spike), and preterm birth. Women with PCOS are more likely to require C-sections, due in large part to these other risk factors. Dr. Dokras notes that women with PCOS are also at higher risk for perinatal depression, which shows up in the third trimester and postpartum.

“One of the big problems has been teasing out the effects of PCOS with the effects of being overweight,” Dr. Dunaif explains.
“超重对怀孕结果具有非常负面影响” - 但还有证据表明PCOS由于胰岛素抵抗而是一种独立的妊娠风险。你可以做的最好的事情是为了使这是积极主动的。

6. What can a woman with PCOS do during pregnancy to lower her risk of complications?

It’s all about condition management. Dr. Dunaif suggests paying “attention to not having excessive weight gain and following weight gain guidelines with her obstetrician.” This has a dual positive effect: it lowers your pregnancy risk and increases positive health outcomes for your baby. “There’s very good data now that the mother’s weight gain during pregnancy is a risk factor for the child later on for diabetes and obesity,” she explains.

与您的医生密切合作，特别是如果您超重或糖尿病，并且被认为具有更高的妊娠。Dokras博士在怀孕期间推荐葡萄糖测试，以注意前糖尿病，以及早期抑郁症，以评估围产期和产后抑郁症的风险。

Neal-Perry博士强调饮食的重要性a healthy, balanced diet and tracking your weight gain during pregnancy to make sure it’s progressing healthily (your doctor can help you with this). Take the appropriate prenatal vitamins and stay active in your day-to-day life. “Some people think that when you’re pregnant, that means you don’t exercise, and that’s not really accurate,” she says. A 2019 study inMedicine & Science在运动和运动中发现怀孕期间的锻炼可以提高婴儿的运动技能，从而可能降低儿童肥胖的风险。

As mentioned earlier, the best time to start making lifestyle changes is before you get pregnant in the first place. “It’s always best to do these things before you’re pregnant,” Dr. Neal-Perry says. “But certainly, if you’re pregnant you want to make sure that your care is optimized.”

7. Is it safe to breastfeed with PCOS?

现在我们涵盖怀孕，自然的后续问题涉及母乳喂养。这是与PCOS的聪明和安全的事情吗？这里的答案是一个响亮的是的！“母乳喂养对妈妈和宝宝有好处，”尼尔 - 佩里博士说。它可以帮助新的妈妈减肥更快，而且对婴儿的健康益处具有一系列的健康益处：增加免疫支持和免受肥胖，淋巴瘤，白血病和1种糖尿病的保护。更不用说，这是你宝宝的伟大结合时间。

That said, breastfeeding isn’t always easy at first.

“母乳喂养在一开始就是很难，它需要很多承诺，”尼尔 - 佩里博士说。她比较它来骑自行车：你不会完美地做到这一点，但你的工作就越多，它就越容易。“在开始时挂在那里，”她建议，你会在很长时间看到的回报。如果你真的在挣扎，哺乳顾问可以帮助你弄清楚的技术并感到更自信。

遇见我们的作家

莎拉埃利斯

Sarah Ellis是一种健康和文化作家，他们涵盖了从避孕机会到健身趋势的慢性健康状况。她最初来自纳什维尔，田纳西州，目前居住在纽约。她已经为Elite每日，伟大的学者，Mindbodygreen和其他人写了写作。当她没有写作时，莎拉喜欢跑步，素食食物，充分利用她的图书馆卡。

What to Read Next

Antidepressants During Pregnancy: What to Know

你对铁缺乏了解多少？

关于概念的常见问题，回答了

7种方法在怀孕期间管理银屑病关节炎