Understanding Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

So you got a diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Now what?

Will I be able to get pregnant?

And why are my ovaries full of these cysts.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome can have different symptoms that will cause infertility. Some of the symptoms are:

• Missed periods (oligomennorhea)
• No periods (amenorrhea)
• Facial hair (hirustisn)
• Abnormal hormone levels (LH-FSH ration)
• Primary or secondary infertility
• Weight gain

• Oligomenorrhea/amneorrhea
• An abnormal LH/FSH ratio of 3:1
• Polycystic ovaries

The most important sign that you have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a blood test of your hormone levels. These hormones are LH which stands for lutienizing hormone and FSH which is follicular stimulating hormone.

There are other hormones that affect your fertility. Because the ovaries are part of the endocrine system, when you have PCOS other organs in your body can also have a problem.

A simple explanation

So let's look at what is really happening in your body that makes this syndrome cause you to be infertility.I do want to say that because of the differing symptoms of PCOS the degree of infertility can be different for different women. In fact, some women do not find out that they have PCOS until they are trying to achieve pregnancy for the second time.

PCOS was first described by Drs. Stein and Leventhal and was refereed as Stein-Leventhal syndrome for many years.

Since the hormone system was not very well understood at the time these two doctors described the process,it was thought that PCOS was a sole problem of the ovaries themselves. But with advancements in medicine Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome has become a complicated process that causes an array of problems for women who get this diagnosis.

Okay so let's get back to what is happening in your body that makes you have this complicated syndrome.

First you must understand that PCO (polycystic ovaries) is a syndrome and not a disease. There is a different.A syndrome a collection of signs and symptoms that are common in patients, whereas a disease is a dysfunction of an organ. Disease are usually found from syndromes when the specific organ is more defined. PCOS is more complicated because of many different organs that are involved in the syndrome.

The main part of PCOS are the cysts on the ovaries. In a normal cycle a women develops around 50 of these follicles in a very immature stage. Only one follicle will develop into what is called the dominant follicle.

All the rest will just shrink away! Now with PCO you develop multiple cysts that grow to around 8-10mm in diameter.They kind of crowd each other and no one of them will get enough of a signal to become the dominant one. This puts the system into a stand still. All these follicle are trying to get the signal but since they are so small, the message to your brain can't be heard.

So nothing happens! The domino effect is not started soyou will not ovulate. No ovulation no possible way to become pregnant.So let's talk about your brain. There are 2 parts of your brain that are important for hormones: the pituitary and the hypothalamus. These structure are in the center of your brain. In fact the pituitary lies right underneaththe hypothalamus since the hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland what to do.

Now the starting point for the process of menstruation starts in the brain. The hypothalamus says to the pituitary gland - release the FSH and the pituitary says okay let me get to work. The FSH is produced and sent down to the ovaries and follicular development starts. Now the ovaries are building away and the dominant follicle now takes over and the other follicles die off. The dominant follicle now is producing estrodiol which sends a signal back to the hypothalamus to tell the pituitary to stop making FSH and send it some LH. LH will changethe follicles so that it can be broken open just like the shell of an egg. When the shell is broken the egg or oocyte will be released.

But what happens with PCOS? The signally process never gets returned from the ovaries. Only multiple smallfollicles will develop and your estrodiol level will never get high enough to send the message to the hypothalamus.

Women with PCOS can get pregnant on their own if they ovulate but most don't consistently so timing is something that is a problem.