Falling pregnant with PCOS- Ayurvedic treatments

Hello Everyone, This is Dr. Vibhuti Rao, your Ayurvedic Vaidya. I  know you have been waiting for my next blog post. Sorry, it had been very busy days. But again here I am with my new success story. This patient is really special as she showed lot of understanding of pcos and dealt with it patiently. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a modern medical diagnosis. PCOS is very common and we see many women struggling with it.  In this article I will share my recent experience of treating a PCOS related infertility case. Ayurveda can effectively balance your hormones and help overcome PCOS related symptoms and help you fall pregnant. 

However, many women are still unaware of it and ignore to understand its pathology. If you have hormonal imbalance or imbalance in your metabolism this may cause PCOS. Moreover, your inactive lifestyle may cause or worsen PCOS. Most women who have PCOS either may have irregular cycle / ovulation or unwanted facial hairs or extreme weight gain. Due to which PCOS causes infertility.

​Infertility is a stigma in Indian society and many women suffer with it silently. They develop low self-esteem and low sense of wellbeing. As soon as a woman is married, people start asking about “the good news”. It’s just a very Indian thing that within one year of the marriage a couple should have a baby, otherwise their relatives or neighbors may raise their eyebrows. This constant pressure increases the difficulties of a couple, especially for women, where they undergo severe stress. Stress itself causes many health issues and one of them is hormonal imbalance which in turn affects their fertility. So if things were slightly bad, now they are worst due to stress.
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There are many controversies in modern medicines about treating PCOS related infertility. So what is so far agreed is on first correcting lifestyle, then ovulation induction for 6 cycles. And if this fails, then they go for IUI 6 cycles and then for IVF. But during this whole process of hormonal injections, women undergo severe stress and fears of failures haunt them.

Pregnancy is not guaranteed even if you ovulate
Women with PCOS are in hurry to fall pregnant. When they see an advertisement on newspaper or news about IVF centers, they rush to get an IVF done without even changing their lifestyle or without knowing that weather this type of treatment will work on them or not. They are separate and anything and everything is fine for them. I urge you not to be so desperate. Hold on and think again that you are trying to do.  Pre-conception planning is equally important as pregnancy care. If you neglect this part you may face the failure and meet a dead end where you will be totally disheartened. Please do not do this to yourself.

For example, if you are overweight and in desperation try for IVF, you may not be successful because you need to be healthy before you go for such treatments. Read how weight affects you in PCOS. So, Cut down on those extra kilos. Fighting with weight is tough in PCOS. .  And also you may suffer with OHSS- over stimulation of ovaries. There is a risk of hyper stimulation which should be avoided by all means.  So patience and improving your overall health is the key to achieve pregnancy in PCOS.  There are many factors due to which you are not able to conceive and PCOS could be just one of them. Due to stress and worries also you may not be able to conceive. PCOS itself have a wide range of symptoms. PCOS affects their quality of life. Read about Yoga in PCOS.

Ayurveda for Pregnancy in PCOS
Ayurveda has an important role to play in lifestyle disorders. Ayurveda is the only science which tells us about how to prevent diseases and how to lead a healthy life. What you know as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, is an imbalance in Agni (digestion & metabolism) and body bio-energies (doshas). The oldest science of the world- Ayurveda has documented many conditions which are now explained by the modern doctors contributing to PCOS. Majority of the female related problems are due to imbalance in Vata dosha which further vitiate Pitta and Kapha dosha. This imbalance can thoroughly diagnosed by a qualified Ayurvedic doctor. So pay a visit to one of the best.

Many people strongly believe in Ayurvedic principles and enjoy the healthy outcomes. Such one patient was Monica. She was 28 years old and was married for 2 years. She was diagnosed with PCOS 2 years back and had been to fertility centers who asked her to undergo fertility treatment to help her conceive. Her period was irregular- coming after 50-60 days and PCO in ultrasound and no ovulation. She also had borderline high sugar levels (HbA1C was 6.5) and high TSH (9.7). Her mother had diabetes type 2. So kind of a metabolic problem. I asked to keep a watch on her sugar intake. High sugar intake affects PCOS pathology. So say no to suagar to help your PCOS. 

According to Ayurveda, I was sure that she has Kapha and Vata imbalance and needs to do improve her Agni. So I started my treatment. Gave her PCOS dietry advices as per her imbalances. I also discussed how Ayurveda treatment will help her in PCOS. Of-course no fast fix in my treatment plan. 

Monica was thoughtful and wanted to understand what is wrong with her and how to correct it. She was not in desperation to have a kid. I guess I made her believe  that if she is healthy then pregnancy is not far away and she can easily lot of money. She use to say to me, doctor it’s not about money, I am scared of what the injections could do to my body and harm me and if that also fails I fear to go under depression’. She was good patients but had times of desperation, dissatisfaction with my so called slow working- Ayurvedic treatments and frustration of not able to conceive. Meanwhile she had two minor accidents where she was suggested bed rest (she broke her leg actually). And this mad my process of active lifestyle into- extreme inactive lifestyle. I was watching her helplessly for months. I asked to continue my medicines. Her husband was under the treatment with Dr. Samarth Rao.

After her recovery, we again stared to work on her lifestyle and stress levels. And this time, in December 2018, she gave me news of positive ovulation tests on day 14th and good vaginal mucous. They tried for two days.
Actually she hates going for ultrasound to heck follicular growth and ovulation. And this worked in my favor as I don’t want her to undergo this extra pressure and stress of follicular monitoring. We were working on natural way of checking ovulation and she was happy with those.

In that cycle she had 18 days of luteal phase which was unusual for her and then I suggested for a pregnancy test and then Bingo!, she was pregnant. We both were happy and then I suggested her initial care to avoid miscarriage. We get to see lot of miscarriages in PCOS and this generally happens if you are on hormonal therapy or to her drugs which does not support pregnancy.

Final words:
I would say if you have PCOS, you need to be patience and understanding to correct your lifestyle. You need to think again you want only a baby (with all side effects and less success rates) or you want to correct your problem, during which pregnancy can be achieved easily. Think and chose. Chose the remedy not the quick fix.
​Namaskara,
Vaidya Vibhuti Rao
 
Reference links
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18243179
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/19/10/2251/589039