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PCOS is a condition that causes hormonal imbalances and can interfere with ovulation. Pregnancy at any age has it’s own advantages and disadvantages. Often, women who have PCOS struggle with fertility, it’s entirely possible with these easy steps to become pregnant.
We very commonly see women nowadays conceiving after the age of 30, also in their 40s. This is probably due to 3 factors:
- Career oriented: There are women who are very career oriented and want to delay their child bearing. Therefore, they take an opportunity to perceive their careers.
- Second marriage: Due to second marriage, it let women delay their decision-making regarding family planning.
- Comfortable: Women who are interested in delaying their family planning when they feel comfortable with conceiving.
Becoming pregnant in PCOS for mothers is really challenging because normal menstrual cycle and ovulation is badly disturbed. Most women want and expect to have children, but women who have a chronic health condition such as PCOS, can become pregnant when you follow these simple steps.
While women who have PCOS often take longer to fall pregnant and are more likely to need fertility treatment then women without PCOS. While fertility problems are common among women with PCOS, it’s reassuring that overall, women without PCOS and women with PCOS have similar number of children and although PCOS is associated with fertility difficulties, women with PCOS should also be aware that conception is possible and effective conception is needed to avoid pregnancy when it’s not wanted.
HOW DOES AGE AFFECTS FERTILITY?
For healthy couples in their 20s and early 30s, around 1 in 4 women will get pregnant in any single menstrual cycle. By age 40 years, around 1 in 10 women will get pregnant per menstrual cycle. A man’s fertility also declines with age, but not as predictably as a woman’s fertility.
P.S: As a female age, the quality of her eggs is also affected resulting in many birth problems, this is usually studied in females over 30! There’s nothing wrong in getting pregnant in your 30’s as long as your reproductive (and hormonal) functions remain normal!
PRECAUTIONS/RISKS INVOLVED IN PREGNANCY:
- Miscarriage: Clearly, when you conceive very late there is higher risk of miscarriage.
- Genetic abnormalities: There is higher risk of baby having some kind of genetic abnormalities, so this kind of pregnancy require some supervision and more care.
- Tests: There are some additional tests that are recommended when a woman conceives after 30.
- Gestational diabetes: Women who get pregnant with the condition, should be aware that the risk for gestational diabetes is higher. This is because the condition is associated with high blood sugar and insulin resistance. Because of this risk, women usually get tested earlier than at the routine 24-28 weeks.
- Tissues: According to the age, tissues become hard, so normal delivery becomes rarity and also women may not really want to go for a normal delivery thinking that’s the only child, they might have considered so late in life.
- Multiple pregnancy: Multiple pregnancy occurs more often in older women than in younger women. As the ovaries age, they are more likely to release more than one egg each month.
HOW WOMEN WITH PCOS CAN HELP INCREASE FERTILITY AFTER 30?
When trying to get pregnant, it’s natural for a couple to want to do everything in their power to make conception happen quickly. After a month or so, if this doesn’t occur, people will often search for ways to boost their fertility in a manner that is safe, natural, and healthy.
While some turn to alternative therapies like acupuncture and fertility supplements, others may benefit from a few simple lifestyle tweaks. These are designed to improve your overall health while reducing the anxiety that can significantly impact your ability to conceive.
To optimize women’s fertility, taking better care of their bodies is a good first step. The most important advice for a woman is to get to know her body, specifically her menstrual cycle. “it’s important to know how far apart her cycles are so she can more accurately time intercourse to try to get pregnant,”. But what else can a woman do to improve their odds of having a baby?
HEALTHY PRAGNANCY IS POSSIBLE!
According to the international evidence- based guideline for the assessment and management of PCOS, adapting a healthy lifestyle is important.
So, here are few tips that may help increase a healthy women’s chances of becoming pregnant:
- Menstrual cycle frequency: A women who wants to have a baby should monitor whether the first days of her periods tend to come the same number of days apart every month, which is considered regular. Conversely, her periods may be irregular, meaning her cycle lengths vary from month to month. By tracking this information on a calendar, a woman can better predict when she might be ovulating, which is the time when her ovaries will release an egg every month.
- Monitor ovulation: It’s harder to predict ovulation in women with irregular cycles, but it usually occurs 12 to 16 days before the start of her next period. There are several methods women can use to help determine their most fertile days.
- Healthy body weight: Being too heavy can reduce a women’s odds of conceiving, but being too thin can make it even harder to have a baby. Having too much body fat produces excess estrogen, which can interfere with ovulation. Losing 5-10% of body weight before a woman starts trying to get pregnant could improve her fertility. So, its important to lose weight in a healthy manner. At the same time, you shouldn’t focus solely on the number of pounds you loose but rather the lifestyle changes that you can reasonably sustain to keep the weight off.
- Take a prenatal vitamin: Women who are attempting to conceive start taking a prenatal vitamin even before becoming pregnant. This way a woman can find one that’s more agreeable to her system and stay on it during pregnancy.
- Balanced diet: It has been established that energy balance is a more important factor in ovulation in woman with PCOS than BMI. Eating a variety of healthy foods can help prepare a woman’s body for pregnancy by giving her adequate stores of critical nutrients such as calcium, protein and iron. This means eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, dairy and healthy sources of fat. Besides taking a supplement containing folic acid, a woman can also obtain vitamin B from foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli, fortified breads and cereals, beans, citrus fruits and orange juice.
- Physical exercises: Maintaining a regular exercise routine throughout your pregnancy can help you stay healthy and feel your best. But getting too much exercise or doing frequent strenuous workouts could interfere with ovulation. As nowadays, doctors see a lot of menstrual disturbances in woman who exercise heavily.
- Kick the smoking and drinking habits: Smoking can lead to fertility problems in both woman and man. Smoking ages a woman’s ovaries and depletes her supply of eggs prematurely. Also, a woman should also stop consuming alcohol if she stops using birth control because she wants to get pregnant.
- Manage stress: Studies have long established the link between stress and infertility, what we know today is that high level of stress triggers the release of the stress hormone. Constitutional exposure to cortisol (stress hormone) increases the production of insulin which, in turn, alters the balance of female sex hormone. Some of the most effective ways to manage stress include meditation, exercise, yoga and counselling.
- Enough sleep: Sleep is essential to health. Lack of sleep is associated with many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression. Also, at the time of pregnancy, not getting an adequate amount of sleep can put you at risk for some serious conditions as it can complicate your delivery.
- Know when to seek help: Both woman and man should consider having an infertility evaluation if the woman is 30 or older.