Most women with PCOS will have as many children as other women[6].
There are indeed many reasons to be optimistic about your chances of realising your dreams of motherhood, with or without the help of medical assistance.
Once we recognise that certain factors can affect our fertility, we can indeed take action to reverse the trend.
In general, lifestyle, environment and physical exercise are three major factors in a woman's ability to conceive with PCOS.
Here is an overview of the levers you can activate to maximise your fertility:
Build your medical team
Having the right people supporting you is essential, both for the success of your baby project and (above all) for your long-term health.
Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of people to consider including in your team:
GP (GENERAL PRACTITIONER): Having a "family doctor" on your team who will follow you throughout your journey and act as coordinator of your care pathway is essential.
ENDOCRINOLOGIST: A specialist doctor in hormones and the endocrine system. They will be particularly important in cases of diabetes or thyroid dysfunction.
GYNAECOLOGIST: A specialist doctor in the female reproductive system. Consulting one is important whether or not you are trying to conceive.
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE: Functional medicine takes a whole-person approach to the patient. It will consider your metabolic system, your adrenal glands and all the other drivers at work in your condition.
NATUROPATH: A naturopath will approach your PCOS from a holistic perspective. This takes the individual as a whole and their environment into consideration. They will seek to address the root cause of your symptoms.
ACUPUNCTURIST: Scientific studies suggest that acupuncture improves IVF success rates. Others show that acupuncture can improve the clinical symptoms of PCOS, sex hormone levels and the menstrual cycle in patients.
OSTEOPATH: An osteopath can help release tensions accumulated in different areas of the body that may be interfering with healthy hormonal function, or work more specifically on the hormonal glands.
DIETITIAN NUTRITIONIST: These healthcare professionals can help you implement the changes needed to regulate your hormones. They can also guide you in establishing new dietary habits.
Do not hesitate to foster a collaborative spirit among the different members of your team.
Learn to understand your cycle
PCOS is characterised by irregular or absent cycles.
It is therefore essential to be able to know and understand your cycles in order to maximise your chances of conceiving, and also to share this information with your doctor. Knowing how calculate your ovulation can be a good starting point.
Get a full hormonal assessment
In order to determine the changes to make to your lifestyle or diet, you will need to know your hormone levels at the different phases of your cycle.
Key hormones affecting our ovulatory cycle, our fertility, our thyroid and our weight:
Oestradiol
Progesterone
Luteinising hormone (LH)
FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone)
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone)
Testosterone
Cortisol
TSH
T3
T4
Anti-thyroglobulin antibodies
A diet tailored to your condition
The key takeaway is that improving diet and lifestyle makes a successful pregnancy significantly more likely when fertility treatments are subsequently undertaken[7].
Adopting a diet designed to help reverse the symptoms of PCOS involves avoiding pro-inflammatory foods such as sugar or processed foods, and optimising food intake to allow blood sugar levels to rise and then fall slowly.
Such adjustments to your diet may help improve your insulin response and activate mechanisms that can support the management of infertility related to polycystic ovary syndrome.
Furthermore, working on your diet can also increase your chances of a lower-risk pregnancy by helping to avoid miscarriage, gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia.
Women with PCOS often have a complicated relationship with food and their body. The aim is therefore to adjust your diet in a way that encourages the right responses from your body, with no restrictive logic whatsoever.
Taking food supplements
A dietary therapy approach may also include the use of a pcos supplement. Some have been shown to be particularly effective in addressing the symptoms of PCOS that contribute to infertility*.
As an example, the myo-inositol powder is a safe and affordable supplement that has already been widely proven, as it may increase egg quality and reduce the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation during IVF[8]. A supplement inositol pcos can therefore help. Our article inositol benefits explains in detail how it can help.
Taking prenatal vitamins can help meet your nutritional needs. Takingomega 3 pregnancy, such as DHA, would also be beneficial according to studies.
Look after your gut
If you regularly suffer from bloating, abdominal pain, gas or diarrhoea, or if you have been diagnosed with a condition such as irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease (such as Crohn's disease), your fertility is very likely to be affected.
Your digestive health can be supported by a diet rich in prebiotics, which help nourish the beneficial gut bacteria, and probiotics. You can find prebiotics in a wide range of foods such as garlic, onion, artichoke, parsnip, asparagus, cabbage, berries, certain legumes (lentils, chickpeas) and certain nuts and seeds (almonds, pistachios, walnuts). Probiotics, meanwhile, are found in fermented foods such as kefir, kombucha, or raw sauerkraut.
Avoiding foods known to be inflammatory, such as sugar, vegetable oils, gluten and dairy products, can also help support gut health.
Keep moving
Exercise can prove to be a valuable ally in supporting your fertility.
Physical exercise helps make muscle cells more sensitive to insulin. The more sensitive cells are to insulin, the better the hormonal balance.
For example, progressive strength training sessions may help reduce insulin resistance[9] as well as lower free androgen levels[10]. The effect of exercise on these mechanisms can in turn support ovarian function and, therefore, fertility.
Furthermore, exercise has a beneficial effect on inflammation[11], which is one of the other main causes of PCOS.
Long-endurance forms of physical activity such as running should be avoided, as they tend to increase cortisol (the stress hormone). Prolonged elevated cortisol levels can impair the immune system, worsen insulin resistance and increase the overproduction of androgenic hormones.
It is also worth combining more intense forms of physical activity with gentler exercises, such as yoga, dancing or walking.
Be mindful of your environmental health
The products and substances that surround us in daily life are just as important as the foods we consume.
Most conventional cleaning and personal care products contain endocrine disruptors and harmful chemicals capable of mimicking oestrogens in our bodies. These substances have a direct impact on our hormonal system and our fertility.
The aim here is to gradually reduce your toxic load, allowing your body to strengthen its detoxification functions, which will in turn support your fertility.
Learn to manage your stress
When faced with a stressful situation, women with PCOS show particularly high cortisol levels. The risk of infertility is twice as high in women with the highest biological markers of stress[12].
Women with PCOS often have to juggle numerous medical appointments. On top of that, they may also be embarking on a assisted reproduction pathway that she will need to fit in alongside an already busy professional and personal life.
It will be worth choosing the stress-reduction technique or techniques that suit you best and that are easiest to incorporate into your daily life.
Among the most common are meditation and relaxation, yoga, heart coherence exercises and walking.
Make yourself your priority
This recommendation may seem like the most obvious one, yet it is also the most important: take care of yourself.
None of the changes you make to your diet or lifestyle will be truly effective if you do not also learn to take care of yourself.
Your fertility is directly linked to your emotional and physical wellbeing.
