Conceiving with PMOS – 11 things that helped us

If you’re looking for support on your fertility journey while trying to conceive with PCOS – now increasingly referred to as PMOS (Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovary Syndrome) you’re in the right place. Read on to discover what helped PCOS dietitian and Pilates instructor Jodie Relf on her path to pregnancy.

Over to Jodie.

The diagnosis

When I was diagnosed with PCOS in my early twenties, I was told very little about what it actually meant.

Like so many others, I turned to Dr Google for answers. I searched ‘conceiving with PCOS’, and the results were devastating. The words ‘may have difficulty conceiving’ are the ones I remember most. I burst into tears, convinced that becoming a mum might not be possible for me.

Doing my own research

Armed with my degree in dietetics, I started digging into the research to find out what I could do to improve my symptoms without relying on medication or the pill. It was a real eye-opener.

I quickly realised there was an overwhelming amount of misinformation – or, as I like to call it, ‘nutribollocks’ – about what you should and shouldn’t do to manage PCOS.

It took plenty of time to separate the evidence from the myths, but eventually I found an approach that worked for me. My acne cleared, and I went from never having periods to having a regular monthly cycle. It felt like a huge milestone.

Around three years later, my partner and I decided we were ready to start trying for a baby. We knew it might take us a little longer because of my PCOS, so we wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible.

What helped us

1. Sleep

We often forget just how important sleep is. Research has shown that even a little sleep deprivation can lead us to make poorer food choices and become more susceptible to the effects of stress.

I’m an eight-hours-a-night kind of girl, so I tried my best to get my full eight hours. Of course, that’s not always possible, but when it is, take it!

Avoiding screens for an hour before bed and creating a calming night-time routine can help you fall asleep a little quicker. A bath filled with Epsom salts and lavender oil became a frequent indulgence for me.

2. Stress management

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that stress is one of the biggest contributors to my PCOS (now renamed PMOS). When I’m stressed, my symptoms flare up, including my cycles going wonky.

So, finding a way to manage my stress levels was incredibly important for me. I used the Calm app for daily meditation. I was by no means consistent – I skipped days now and then – but tried to do it as often as possible.

I also learnt to say ‘no’, which is so hard when you’re running your own business, but the benefits of creating boundaries quickly became clear.

3. Acupuncture

This is linked to stress management, but the benefits of acupuncture for fertility extend far beyond this. The evidence for fertility acupuncture in PCOS (now PMOS) is growing and shows that somehow (they’re still figuring out exactly how), it helps with ovulation and to regulate androgen levels.

I saw the lovely Hannah Pearn, who specialises in acupuncture for fertility, and I can’t recommend her highly enough.

4. Inositol

Inositol can improve ovarian function and metabolism in women with PCOS (PMOS). It does this by helping to decrease insulin resistance, reduce testosterone levels, regulate menstrual cycles and promote ovulation.

Inositol also supports normal lipid (blood fat) levels and egg quality in women trying to conceive.

5. Vitamin D

We started trying to conceive in the summer, so I originally wasn’t worried about Vitamin D.

However, as we moved into winter, I started taking a Vitamin D supplement, as I do every winter. The months then got warmer.

I continued taking Vitamin D anyway, as we were in the midst of Covid-19 and weren’t getting out and about as much as we usually would.

6. A conception cup

A friend had shared an article with me about using a moon cup to help with conception. I thought it was a really interesting concept, but I wasn’t quite ready to take that step.

Inserting a cup felt like a pretty big thing to do and something I just couldn’t quite get my head around. Then, as if by fate, I saw a competition on Instagram by TRB for a cup that was similar to a moon cup, but had been designed specifically to help women conceive.

I had nothing to lose, so entered the competition – and won! It arrived the week that I was allegedly ovulating. I say allegedly because, although I used the ovulation detector app CLUE to track my cycles, these things are never 100% accurate, especially for those of us conceiving with PMOS.

We started using the FERTI·LILY Conception Cup straight away, and that was the month we fell pregnant! Go figure.

7. It Starts with the Egg

A client of mine recommended that I read It Starts with the Egg by Rebecca Fett, and whilst some of the information and evidence in there is great, it’s important to remember that some of the studies referenced include very small groups of people and aren’t necessarily robust enough to make solid recommendations.

I took from the book what I wanted and what I felt I could change. The biggest change we probably made was to continue keeping our use of plastics low.

We bought some glass storage containers for food and tried to use these as much as possible instead of plastic.

8. I stopped tracking

Whilst I will always recommend using an app like Clue to keep track of your cycles and help you notice any patterns, ovulation detector kits aren’t always accurate when it comes to letting you know when you ovulate.

At the very beginning, I bought myself a thermometer and took my temperature every day, but this soon became an unhealthy obsession and one that added to my stress when I couldn’t see any patterns, dips or spikes in all the right places.

I kept an eye on cervical mucus but, to be honest with you, I never experienced that oh-so-fertile, stretchy, egg-white mucus – not even the month I fell pregnant.

It’s easier said than done, but try not to get caught up in all the science and what everyone else experiences. No one has your exact genetic make-up and body. What your body does and how it behaves is truly unique.

Because it takes two people to make a baby, my fiancé also took the following supplements:

9. Inositol (again)

I did some research that showed that inositol helped with improving sperm motility (their sense of direction) and morphology (their shape), as previous tests had shown these were slightly lower than average.

10. Wellman Conception

These contain vitamin B12, zinc, and selenium which are known to help improve the health of sperm.

11. Alcohol

This is not one he added to his list but removed. He wasn’t drinking a lot, but he decided to give up alcohol completely until we conceived. Luckily for him this only lasted around five weeks (three weeks in, we conceived) and it was lockdown so there was no social pressure to drink.

Conceiving with PCOS – my key takeaways

Now I’m not saying that the above list is the answer for everyone, and it’s hard to know which of the things listed did the trick, or perhaps it was a combination of everything we were doing that helped us on our journey. We’ll never truly know.

What I hope you’ll notice is there are no extremes in the list above. I did not eliminate certain foods from my diet or follow any crazy diet/exercise regime.

I was gentle with my body and put more focus on sleep and stress management than I did on food and exercise. It’s so easy to feel like you have to do everything to take control of the situation but often that can do more damage than good.

Be gentle with yourself and make small changes over time that you feel comfortable with and try and enjoy the process: babymaking is meant to be fun after all.

Want to hear more from Jodie? Book your free consultation and get expert support with simple, highly-effective steps to improve your PCOS symptoms, and regain your confidence.