Infertility and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome often co-exist. How does PCOS cause infertility? How to treat infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome? Which life events can unmask latent PCOS? Leading fertility expert explains the link between polycystic ovary syndrome and infertility.

Infertility and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. Polycystic ovary syndrome is a frequent cause of infertility. Video interview with leading fertility expert. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Polycystic ovary syndrome getting pregnant is more difficult due to problems with ovulation. (Clomiphene citrate) Clomid getting pregnant is an effective medication in treating infertility due to PCOS. Insulin resistance is a problem to getting pregnant. Insulin resistance increases with rising body mass index. Obesity also unmasks subclinical PCOS. Polycystic ovarian syndrome - getting pregnant is possible with oral medications like Clomid and Femara, but infertility rates still remain high in women with PCOS. Sometimes women require intravenous medications. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. Video interview with leading expert in fertility treatment and reproductive medicine. Infertility and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome are closely linked together. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Medical second opinion confirms that polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis is correct and complete. Medical second opinion also confirms that PCOS infertility treatment is required. Medical second opinion helps to choose the best treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome infertility. Get medical second opinion on PCOS infertility and be confident that your treatment is the best. Infertility and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome can be treated successfully. Causes polycystic ovary syndrome treatment. Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common disorder. What is it? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. What impact does PCOS have on fertility and reproductive potential of a woman? what are common treatments for the fertility problems in women with polycystic ovary syndrome? Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 (Fertility specialist, UCSF). Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, impacts about 5% to 10% percent of all women. It's the most common endocrine disorder in women. It is associated with irregular menstrual cycles and increased androgens. Women with PCOS have higher levels of testosterone, they have of acne or hair growth. There is also a characteristic finding of polycystic ovaries on ultrasound. That is sort of a classic triad that we often see in Polycystic ovary syndrome. The biggest issue from a fertility standpoint for these women is this. They are not ovulating very regularly. Or they may not be ovulating at all. They are not releasing an egg. We know this because they are having very irregular periods or no periods at all. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. What is the underlying etiology? What's causing polycystic ovary syndrome? This is still probably somewhat debatable. There are probably multiple causes of PCOS. But we do you think insulin resistance may be causing some of the disorder in the ovary. Insulin resistance means elevated insulin levels in the blood. We do find a high-level of insulin resistance in women with PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome). Regarding fertility treatment, the good news for women with PCOS is that it is highly treatable. We need to just help women release an egg on a more regular basis. Usually we are able to treat women with PCOS by using just oral medication. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. One medication to treat PCOS is clomiphene citrate (Clomid). Letrozole (Femara) is another medication that we are using. These medications, when taken for just five days, can trick the body into stimulating an egg (oocyte) to develop in the ovary. Ovulation will happen. We think that this will treat the fertility concerns of women with PCOS about 70% percent of the time. Fertility returns maybe even in 80% eighty percent of the time. It will allow for egg to be released and then generally the conception will follow pretty quickly. There is a small percentage of women who don't respond to these medications for a while. Then we would need to go for more aggressive treatment with injectable medications. These are medications that have to be taken as injections. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. But fortunately most women don't ever need to get to that stage. Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 It's interesting that you mentioned the insulin resistance playing a major role in polycystic ovary syndrome. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. I had a discussion with Dr. Robert Lustig about the effects of sugar consumption on insulin resistance. It was interesting to see that the levels of insulin over the last several decades increased about almost three times on average in people. Does it mean that the prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome has increased over the last several decades? Is there any correlation between sugar consumption and infertility? Because this is an interesting topic. Because obesity might correlate with increased amounts of insulin. Even the cancer rates correlate with increased amounts of insulin. There are certainly mutations in insulin like growth factors and insulin receptors. So this all seems like a part of metabolic syndrome. What is known about that? Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) may have increased in its prevalence. I don't know that we really know it. There have not been any high-quality clinical trials done to answer that question. We do know this. There are a subset of women who may not have symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome. They may not even really know they have PCOS. Unless they gain a certain amount of weight. So women who had a lower BMI might have regular menstrual cycles. They might not really notice anything different being about them. But then they happened to gain 10 to 20 pounds. They also have a very sedentary lifestyle. Then they will manifest PCOS. Because maybe the insulin levels go up and shift the body more into polycystic ovary syndrome phenotype. So PCOS is to some degree in some patients modifiable and impacted by lifestyle and obesity. Other women though are different. No matter what they do, whether they are lean or overweight, will have clinical PCOS. Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Dr. Anton Titov, MD. This is probably why it's called a syndrome and not a disease. Online medical second opinion on infertility. 1234 Yeah, exactly. Dr. Heather Huddleston, MD. PCOS is probably very heterogeneous. There is probably multiple underlying etiology. So it's very difficult sometimes to group all patients with polycystic ovary syndrome together. For sure, with the Western lifestyle PCOS rates are going to be pretty high. Whereas sometimes you were in a different environment. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Then it's possible that many cases of PCOS would either not really be obvious that they were even there. Or these PCOS cases would be less severe than there are now with Western lifestyle. Infertility and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Video interview with leading fertility expert. PCOS is most frequent infertility cause. Causes and treatment of PCOS.