PCOS and Clomid or letrozole often go hand-in-hand, and often that's exactly
what you need to get a successful pregnancy. Sometimes though
it doesn't work and that's not what you need. That's exactly what happened for this member of my
Hope Coaching Program, which you're about to hear from. She had multiple unsuccessful pregnancies,
miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies. And so, that path wasn't what she needed.
And that's exactly when she reached out to us to get more support,
to get more care, and a personalized plan for what she needed. Now when you hear from her,
she has her little four-month-old baby. That's why I'm sharing this story with all of you
today, because I want you to hear a different take on PCOS. I want you to understand that there are
multiple paths, hopefully, to get to that result, and often the medication that you're told to take
doesn't lead you to the result you're looking for. So let's listen to what we did to help her get
pregnant naturally despite the PCOS and the failed pregnancies. Keep watching to hear her story.
Hi, my name is Dr. Marc Sklar, also known as the fertility expert. I've been working
with couples for over 19 years through my online coaching programs and right here in
San Diego at my clinics. PCOS is a topic that we often address and support patients
with. It's so common, and that's exactly why I'm sharing this story today because I
want to inform you, I want to educate you, I want you to have more knowledge.
That's exactly why I created this YouTube channel, FertilityTV, to empower you with
knowledge and information to hopefully support you to get pregnant naturally. One of the ways
that you can help me on my mission is to like this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel,
and post a comment about what you thought about this video. That helps this video to be seen
by women and couples all over the world who need this information.
But now we're going to hear a story, an important story. We've been talking about
PCOS for a couple of weeks, and I thought this was a wonderful way to tie it all in together,
to hear her story, understand what she was going through, what she did, and how we were able to
support her. So let's get into it. I was going to a normal OBGYN.
We're hearing from Kimberly now. Had [inaudible 00:02:44] diagnosed me with PCOS.
Before, prior, I had already been diagnosed with various autoimmune diseases.
So they started me on Provera to actually get a period, a constant period each month. They gave
me a certain amount of time to get a period and if I didn't, then I would have to start the Provera.
So I want to take a moment here and remind you all. Last week, when we talked about PCOS,
we talked about other secondary conditions that come along with PCOS that we often
see. She mentioned that she was diagnosed with PCOS by her OBGYN and with autoimmune issues.
This is very common to see. And so, I want you all to recognize that often PCOS is
not the only thing we need to deal with and support. Hopefully it is, but often,
like Kimberly, there are other conditions that need to be supported simultaneously.
In her case, as she just mentioned, she was not having regular cycles, which is very common.
It's a classical presentation, a more classical presentation for PCOS. Her cycles were irregular.
She was not ovulating or menstruating. That's why they were trying to force, if you will, or mimic a
cycle with the Provera. So let's keep listening After a couple months of being on that
and not getting pregnant, they started me on fertility medication, which the first one was
Clomid. We started at 50 milligrams and I didn't get-
I have so much to say, so I might be stopping frequently, and I apologize for that. She was
saying after a couple months of that protocol of Provera. Often it takes longer than just a
couple of months to regulate a cycle, to allow a body, in her situation, where her
hormones were so imbalanced, to understand what it needs to do and retrain itself.
So I want you all to recognize that a couple of months might not be enough. Often in situations
like this, we need six to 12 months. Then she started Clomid. So we'll keep listening.
... pregnant. Then they upped me to 100 milligrams, and I ended up getting pregnant, which
caused me to have an ectopic pregnancy, which was my first ectopic. I went in and
wasn't sure why I was having so much pain. So they did pregnancy tests and everything.
They figured out it was an ectopic and gave me methotrexate and it resolved on its own.
Again, after one full cycle of Provera again and getting my period, they started me again
on Clomid after doing an ultrasound. It was 150 milligrams. I didn't get pregnant then.
You could see every time they give her Clomid, they're increasing the dose 50, 100, 150.
They're just trying to make a bigger response in the body, and the body is not responding the way
it did the first time with 50, or 50 wasn't enough so they went up to 100. Then it didn't do what it
needed to do, so they went up to 150. So they're looking for a different response every time. She's
about to tell you then they switched to letrozole. The first round of letrozole, I did get pregnant.
My levels started rising, and then my level started dropping right away. So they weren't
sure if it was another ectopic. They didn't have time to check, but I did have some pain
with that pregnancy as well. So they just ruled it as a miscarriage, possible ectopic.
After another cycle of being on Provera, because I didn't get a period on my own after that, they put
me on letrozole and Clomid combined. The highest dose of letrozole and the highest dose of Clomid.
I did have really high progesterone levels when they did my labs. So the doctor thought I was
pregnant and did a pregnancy test, and it did come back positive. They never found the embryo.
They couldn't see it anywhere. They did multiple ultrasounds. My levels were rising quite a bit.
So they ruled it as an unfound ectopic. They gave me an injection at the ER, because they
were going to take me in for surgery. My husband said, "No, you can treat her with injection. If
that doesn't work, then you can bring her in for surgery." But he wasn't going to let me go in and
just have them explore- Good for him.
... because that's what they wanted to do was explore and figure out what was going on.
Good for him. It's hard to say no to a doctor who wants to do something, because often we're
trained to know or to believe that they have our best interests at mind. And typically they do,
we hope that they do, but sometimes it's just not the best choice, or it's a good
thing to just wait. And so, I'm proud of him for making that decision and deciding to wait.
While I've paused here, I do want to add a couple of things. You can see that she's
just not responding every time they have to do more, they have to try to regulate her cycle
more. Do you know the reason why they have to do this? Is because they have never addressed
the root issue of her condition. Nowhere in here has she ever said
up until this point that they wanted to treat the autoimmune issue, that they wanted to treat
the PCOS. Nowhere. This is just trying to force a cycle, an ovulation, and hopefully a pregnancy.
That's what they're trying to do. Clomid does not treat PCOS. It bypasses and
forces an ovulation. Same thing with letrozole. Provera doesn't treat PCOS. It's trying to get
the hormones regulated to start a cycle. Nowhere has she been actually treated for her condition.
This is the thing that breaks my heart every time is that we are focusing on the wrong thing.
She needed to take a step back, which she does in just a moment when she starts working with us,
to address the root issues, to address the issues that she sees in the proper manner so she can get
the right support and, more importantly, the right change consistently. This is what I just don't see
regularly with standard fertility treatments. Okay, so I want you guys to listen to that and
take that to heart, because this is what I've been trying to instill in all of you. It's okay if we
have to do IUI or IVF. I don't have an issue with it. But I want to address the root issue first.
That's my focus. Then if that's not working, then we can go that route,
and you're going to respond better. So let's keep listening to Kimberly's story.
So that did work. So after all of this, I decided to contact you guys. I was over trying
the fertility medication, because their next step was to go in and unblock my left tube that
was blocked and try to perk up my right ovary, which they said was lazy and wasn't ovulating.
So I said, "Okay, I'm done with this. I can't deal with another loss, another ectopic." Something
bad's going to happen this next time, and I just didn't want to deal with it, because it was just
so hard on my body. Yeah, it is hard.
So after speaking with you and Marc Sklar, I decided even if it costs money, it's worth it
in the end to have a healthy pregnancy, because eventually I could have it ruptured and I could
even pass not knowing. If I wasn't so in tuned to my body, something bad could have happened.
Yeah. So I did the labs you guys wanted me to do-
Always starts with labs. ... and you put me on the supplements. I was
very grateful because it actually helped with a lot of other things, as well as with my migraines
that I was suffering from. It got me more into wanting to take care of my body even better.
So I was hiking, doing acupuncture, doing the vaginal steaming. So that really helped a lot.
So when we start to treat the root issues, when we start to pay attention and listen to our body
and take care of our body, the way it is versus just forcing something,
we see change. We see progress. We see results. That's what she's seeing, not just
in her fertility but in how she feels. She's feeling better. She's exercising. She's taking
care of herself. Her body is changing and she says it. She starts to feel better.
Number one, it's not just enough to see change in your lab work. We want you to feel different.
Hear that. We have to pay attention to ourselves and our body. When we treat the root issue, we
see results. You can see results. I want you all to take that to heart.
I'd say my last ectopic was in December and I was pregnant. My pregnancy test was March 3rd.
So it only took maybe one to two cycles of actually sticking to the program how it was.
In the beginning, I was overwhelmed and frustrated with seeing so much that I needed
to do. I was like, "Oh, I don't even know where to start." But once I spoke with you
and actually understood what I needed to do, then I was able to follow the program and ended up
pregnant. We have a healthy four-month-old. So it is. Making these changes,
making all of those adjustments in your life can be overwhelming. Just like Kimberly said,
it can be overwhelming. But with the guidance, with the coaching, with the right support,
she was able to lean on us so that we could filter through it and make it easier to understand,
make it easier to move forward with. That's when she was able to see results.
And, listen, did you hear what she said? She said it only took a couple of months,
that between her last ectopic and her next pregnancy. It was just, I think, two or three
months. So she just needed to be consistent with herself, give herself the space, the time, the
right process and plan to get the results that she needed. Now it doesn't always work this quickly,
but she was willing to stick with it even because she was already seeing change and feeling better,
Being on the supplements as well as doing the vaginal steaming, I've never had a 29-day cycle
ever, and got my period on my own. And she did.
That's what happened once I followed the program correctly and did the supplements.
My body started adapting to everything. [inaudible 00:13:03] post on Facebook groups or anywhere that
they've tried a lot of things on their own, even supplements that they just hear other women try.
Actually go and have the lab work done. Look into it even further. There's a lot of testing that
OBGYNs don't want to do and won't do like you guys have done for me.
Yeah. I want to say a couple of things about this. She understood that she needed help
beyond her OBGYN and fertility doctors. That's why she looked out for help.
She mentions at the end there just now that there's a lot of tests that others don't want
to do or won't do or can't do. It's really that they just don't know. So even if they were to do
some of these tests, they wouldn't even know what to do with some of that information, because their
model and understanding of medicine and how they work with the body is very different
for the majority of OBGYNs. So there is no blame there. But
we all need to take responsibility for our own health and stop giving it up to others
and putting it in their hands. We need to take control of it so that we can get the change
that we need just like she was able to do. So one of the other things that I want to
talk about here is she talked about lab work. You often hear me say test, don't guess. Well, I often
see so many of you guessing, guessing, and it's because you haven't run the right tests or you go
to your OB, they say, "No, we're not going to run those labs," and you just take that as the answer.
You can get the testing that you need if you take the time to find a resource to do it,
just like she did. She reached out to us to get those labs done, and that's how we were able to
find out what was going on and support her properly and, in her case, quickly.
Look into it even further. There's a lot of testing that OBGYNs don't want to do and won't do
like you guys have done for me. There's a lot of tests that I looked at and I didn't even know
what it was. That's where you can know if you have other health issues that are causing this. That's
where you're going to figure all this out. So I'd say if you can't do it with
actual medication or your OBGYN and they're just pushing you off to fertility medication, look into
it further with you guys. Have the labs done, take the time to actually invest in lifestyle change,
because there's something underneath and further down in your body that's causing this.
So when we get to this point, we have to understand that our body is talking to us.
It's telling us that something's wrong, it's telling us we need more support, and it's giving
us a signal. Often it's yelling at us to do more. A lot of those things are in your control.
You just don't know what to do with it. A lot of it comes back to these lifestyle changes,
these dietary changes, exercise, managing stress. I know we repeat these things, but they are
so important, which is why we repeat them. So we can't ignore those things, but we need
to know how to modify all of those aspects in our life for our unique body and situation.
That's often what I see is missing and often what I know can turn the key and open the door and get
you the results that you're looking for. Kimberly's story is so important on so
many levels. One, as I mentioned before, it tells us and reminds us that PCOS is not usually
a standalone condition that needs to be treated on its own, that usually there's other secondary
issues and concerns that are either impacting your PCOS or are being impacted by it. Like
in her case, she had autoimmune issues. She also went on to mention she had migraines
and other health issues that we also incorporated into her plan where we could, because our number
one focus was on regulating her hormones. Whatever was able to be incorporated with that, we did.
But it also taught us to recognize that often we have to take our own health,
our own fertility into our own hands to get the support that we need and get the results that we
deserve, which is exactly what Kimberly did. She tried one path, it didn't work. Then she moved on
to the other because she listened to her body. She knew she needed something different, she couldn't
continue to do that more, and she wanted real answers and real support for her unique situation.
All of these things, you all can do too, if you take that control into your hands and make change
and get the guidance and support that you need. One of the ways that you can actually do that
is by joining my Hope Fertility Coaching Program. So for those of you who want to get results like
Kimberly and, more importantly, want the support that I can offer you, then I want to invite you to
apply to join my Hope Fertility Coaching Program to see if we can support you, too. Use the link
in the description below to apply, and I would love to support you on your fertility journey.
Before we wrap up here, if you've been trying for longer than you've wanted,
if you just don't know what products, what supplements, where to go, what to look for,
what to trust, then I want to let you know that I've created a free fertility guide.
It's a wonderful resource. The feedback has been amazing, and it's free for all of you.
All you have to do is download it and check it out. So use the link in the description below
to download that free resource and hopefully start to get you the results that you deserve.
Now I want to hear from all of you. If you liked this video, give me a thumbs up. But
more importantly, I want you to comment below. Let me know what you liked about the video.
What impacted you about Kimberly's story and what questions do you have for me about PCOS,
fertility, or Kimberley's history and story? Comment below and let me know.
If you're not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, then hit that bell to subscribe
and get notified when I put out another video for all of you. Until the next video, stay fertile.