My story with PCOS and Pregnancy
*note- I’m not a doctor, personal trainer, nutritionist, anything like that. This is just my story and what worked for ME personally*
6 years ago I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) after having years of very irregular cycles and ovaries that basically looked like a spider web.
The doctor brushed me off just saying I likely would need medical interventions with getting pregnant and I should try to get pregnant sooner rather than later… She even said "well I guess it would be fine for you to just have unprotected sex because you won't get pregnant!" Safe to say, I felt no support from doctors.
Since that day I’ve prayed she was wrong. I’ve prayed, put in MASSIVE amounts of work to heal my body, & ultimately had the faith that infertility would simply not be a part of my journey. I did a TON of research and realized my PCOS was likely adrenal based PCOS which has everything to do with STRESS. I learned this through "The PCOS Bible" resource from Kayla Jade. I'll link her account in this post.
At first, I did go on hormonal birth control for a few years and got my “fake period” plus my acne went away. I felt super regulated emotionally as well, but I knew this was just a quick fix. I got off of the pill right before we moved to South Korea. (May 2021)
It took years but I finally got my cycle regulated NATURALLY, healed most of my hormonal acne, mood swings, & even my anxiety I’d had nearly my whole life. I contribute this healing to a handful of things. I added them all at once so I really can’t say if one was the key factor but a combo of all of them.
Here’s what I did:
I got off of birth control
Weight lifting 5-6x a week
Cardio consisted of walking 20-30 minutes, no more HIIT or anything high intensity that caused lots of stress on my body
Protecting my mental health; journaling regularly, prayer, working through my anxiety
Quit my job that was causing the biggest amount of stress (teaching) and changed career paths to something much less stressful and I feel skilled at (social media)
Learned how to fuel my body with more whole foods & balanced macros (I tracked my carbs, fats, and proteins + drank ½ gal water daily) I wasn’t insanely strict about it 100% of the time and still enjoyed foods I loved 1-2x a week but I was getting more balanced amounts of my macros (like eating my body weight in grams of protein daily)
Supplements: Probiotic, multivitamin, glutamine with meals, Ovasitol supplement, magnesium
I got in the best shape of my life & mentally was in the best place of my life as well even through being in Korea and wedding planning.
The decision to move to Korea for a year and delay our wedding until October of 2022 meant we were going to delay trying to conceive until after the wedding… This was a hard decision to make because I knew TTC could take time and in the military- you don’t always have that. But I trusted that God had a reason for this timing so in the meantime I would work to make myself the best version of myself possible.
I learned how common infertility was for women & even scarier, miscarriage. I was very anxious/excited to start TTC so we could get whatever help we would need. Doctors told me they wouldn’t even see me for infertility reasons until 1 year of trying or multiple miscarriages unless I wanted to see a different kind of doctor and pay out of pocket for treatment and testing.
BUT GOD…
We remained confident in our choice to wait and we prayed for this baby since before we moved to Korea. I prayed over our journey no matter what it would bring. I prayed for a miracle, that God would give us a baby the first time we tried (Tell God what you REALLY desire, He puts that desire there for a reason) but if that was not His will, to prepare me to handle it. This whole time… I had a sense of peace. The peace that only comes from Him.
Our wedding came and went, we tried immediately after (did someone say honeymoon baby, lol?!) and after only 1 day of a missed period, the test said positive.
God answers BIG prayers. He is sovereign. He has a plan for you. He has had this precious baby in our lives the entire time and He just needed me to trust that His timing was so much better than mine.
I will never stay quiet about the miracle of this baby and the way God answered our prayers in such an incredible way. Thank you God.