There are many factors which can cause anovulatory cycles in women of childbearing age
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Sponsored by Fertility Specialists of Texas
Written by Dr. Rebecca Chilvers
If so you may be one of the 10-15% ofbrreproductive aged women who have what are known medically as anovulatorybrcycles. Anovulation is a condition thatbrresults in a menstrual cycle where an egg is not released and thus there is nobrovulation. Understandably, this can makebrit difficult to conceive a child, and in fact, approximately 40% of women seenbrin infertility clinics have this diagnosis.
Anovulation or sporadic ovulation can bebrcaused by many factors:
· brHormonal imbalance of the thyroidbrgland
· brHormonal imbalance due tobrelevated prolactin (the hormone responsible for milk production, naturallybrelevated during breast feeding but not normally otherwise)
· brStress
· brSignificant weight loss or weightbrgain
· brDecline in the number of remainingbreggs in the ovaries
By far, the most common cause of anovulationbrseen in women of childbearing age is polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS. This syndrome is characterized by irregularbrmenstrual cycles and evidence of elevated androgen hormones, the hormonesbrclassically thought to be “male” hormones like testosterone and androstenedionebrbut which are also produced by women, just usually at lowerbrconcentrations. Though variations inbrsymptoms exist, the classic presentation of a woman with PCOS is someone whobrhas struggled with being overweight and who may have acne, facial hair, or hairbrloss. Oftentimes the patient has a familybrhistory of diabetes, since this disorder commonly has insulin resistance as abrkey element. Patients with PCOS accompaniedbrby insulin resistance are at increased risk for diabetes as well as for heartbrdisease and may have elevated cholesterol, so they often need to make longbrterm, preventative lifestyle changes. brHowever, in regards to their fertility, women with PCOS tend to have anbrabundance of eggs compared to women of the same age without the condition; theybrjust usually need assistance to ovulate. brFor those women with PCOS desiring conception that are overweight,brweight loss is also recommended as this can help to restore hormonal balancebrand more frequent ovulatory cycles and will make a subsequent pregnancy saferbrfor mother and child.
The good news for women with anovulation duebrto many different causes is that fertility medications are highly successful inbrhelping women achieve ovulation and conception. Treatments for such women involve fertilitybrpills such as Clomid or Femara, fertility injections such as gonadotropinsbr(recombinant FSH and LH hormones), or In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). Typicallybrthe lower tech options of pills or injections are tried first with successbrdepending on the patient's age and other factors, but sometimes IVF isbrconsidered more rapidly if a patient with PCOS, for instance, has a high riskbrof twins or triplets on the other therapies.
If you believe that you may have thebrcondition of PCOS or another form of anovulation and are trying to conceive, itbrmay be time to see a reproductive endocrinologist who can do a thoroughbrevaluation and recommend a treatment plan to achieve pregnancy. At Fertility Specialists of Texas, we arebrtrained specifically to help women with irregular or absent ovulation and arebravailable for consultation at three convenient locations, the newest of whichbris located in Grapevine, Texas. It isbrour goal to help women achieve a healthy pregnancy and to bring new babies intobrtheir lives.