Is it possible to have PCOS and be pregnant at the same time?

Question

I have been to the doctors and waiting for blood results to get back. My doctor said I could have PCOS because I am experienceing all the pregnancy symptoms and the hpt keeps coming up negative so until the blood results come back I will not know but is it possible to be pregnant and have PCOS?....My other questions is can a person be pregnant even though all test come back negative?...I have heard of some people doing the hpt and blood test and still came back negative and was told by their doctor that they were not pregnant but in turn 9 months later they had a baby so is it positive?

Answer 1

It is possible to have PCOS and be pregnant. The two things are unrelated in that way. PCOS is a syndrome that makes getting pregnant more difficult.

I have heard of women being pregnant and never getting positive hpt. I have never heard of a woman getting a negative blood test and still being pregnant. Also, if you really want, you can have the doctor do an internal exam. They can tell by looking at your cervix if you are pregnant.

Keep in mind that pregnancy symptoms can mean a whole bunch of other things (it is the way your body responds to hormonal changes in your body). If your blood test comes back negative, then you're probably not pregnant. If you want to look more into PCOS check out http://pcos.itgo.com/. It's very informative about PCOS. Good luck

Answer 2

While PCOS usually causes infertility, due to no egg being released by the ovary, I suppose it would be possible to become pregnant even with PCOS. But it would be extremely rare, since most women with PCOS need other medications and treatment to get pregnant in the first place. Unfortunately, even if you did manage to get pregnant, most of the pregnancies end in miscarriage.
Polycystic ovaries do not release the eggs which are produced, which leads to a hormonal imbalance, and the normal monthly period is not triggered. While the missing of a period is usually the first inicator of an early pregnancy, a missed period can occur for other reasons. The pregnancy tests check for HCG, human choronic growth hormone, which is produced only by a developing embryo/fetus. It is not present in the blood or urine unless the woman is pregnant. It is usually detectable within a days of implantation, so by the time of the missed period it has usually reached levels sufficient to be detected. Blood tests are more accurate for detecting small levels than urine tests, and a negative doesn't mean you aren't pregnant if it is still early days of the pregnancy. Repeated tests, especially those done around the 4th week or so, will detect the hormone though. It is a very dependable test, since there is only one way the hormone can be present, and that means a pregnancy. The old stories about women having negative tests and being pregnant go back to the days when lab tests were not as accurate and rabbits were used to detect pregnancy. False negatives were common then, but since changes in the way we test for pregnancy have all but eliminated that. Now days, as long as you are at least 4 weeks into a pregnancy, the testing is pretty reliable in determining if you are or aren't.
PCOS pretty much eliminates the possibility of being pregnant, because the ovaries are not releasing the eggs to begin with. The symptoms of weight gain, bloating, etc would be explainable by the hormonal imbalance that results from the failure to release the eggs. It's a bit complicated to explain it all here, but if you do a search on PCOS you will find sites that give a really good explaination of the disorder and sites that offer support groups as well. If you truly have polycystic ovaries, there is a lot of information you need to know, beyond that your ovaries are not working properly. There are other physical problems you need to know about, such as the risk of type 2 diabetes and insulin intolerance.
I'm sorry, but if you have PCOS, the chances of being pregnant are almost zero. The symptoms you have would all be explainable and expected from the disorder. But I do know that with treatment, pregnancy may be possible in future. Work with your doctor, and get informed as much as you can before your next visit. Then you will have much more ability and knowledge to make the decisions and know what to ask. Good luck.