Professor Adam Balen
Professor Adam Balen talked through the new PCOS guidelines, with regards to diet and also the issues around Clomid, explaining he prefers to use Letrozole. One of the most common misconceptions he says he still hears is women who have been told they won’t get pregnant because they have PCOS.
When it comes to being overweight it, most women can improve their fertility by a 5-10% reduction in body weight.
Adam talked about how a lot of women end up having IVF when they have PCOS and don’t need it. He spoke about Ovulation Induction kits as well as explaining more about a Laparoscopy and thankfully we’ve moved on from Ovarian drilling – which you will also hear him and Kate discuss.
Adam also talked about the downside of Metformin being used by women with PCOS and he explained how GPs don’t understand what PCOS is and mistakenly think you have to have severe symptoms however we recognize it is a spectrum. You don’t need all of them just 2 – such as menstrual disturbance and the Rotterdam Criteria
We also touched on the ethical issues – which we will aim to discuss more in a future episode.
Things to consider: PCOS runs in the family – 1st-degree relatives so there’s a 50% of your mother’s sister’s daughter having it. Talk to your sister. Get screened.
We need to understand normal! Adam mentioned the videos from Fertility Forum which you can view here
You can also watch some animations from the Fertility Education Initiative here
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