Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is often known for affecting periods and fertility, but if you’re a Cyster, you know it impacts so much more — from mood swings and acne to fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, and beyond.
When it comes to fertility, PCOS can make getting pregnant feel like an uphill battle. But here’s the good news: having PCOS doesn’t mean you’re infertile. Far from it! By addressing the root causes of your symptoms — like insulin resistance, inflammation, and hormonal imbalances — you can naturally support your fertility and improve your chances of conceiving and carrying a healthy pregnancy.
Today, I’m walking you through some simple, effective ways to boost your fertility with PCOS. Small steps can create big changes — and your journey to motherhood is absolutely worth it. We’re here to help!
8 Tips For Getting Pregnant With PCOS
In this post, I’ll help you understand what’s going on inside your body that’s causing infertility or miscarriage. Then, we’ll discuss what you can do to fix it and finally grow your family!
Here’s what you need to know:
Can You Get Pregnant With PCOS?
Absolutely. While it’s true that PCOS can create extra hurdles on the journey to pregnancy, it’s important to remember: having PCOS doesn’t mean you’re infertile. You are not broken, and there is so much hope.
Through intentional lifestyle changes — like balancing blood sugar, lowering inflammation, and supporting healthy ovulation — many women with PCOS improve their chances of conceiving naturally. And if you need extra support, options like Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) or In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) are also available and can be part of a beautiful journey to building your family.
No matter your path, know that you’re not alone — and with the right tools, pregnancy with PCOS is possible.
Why Is It Hard To Get Pregnant With PCOS?
There are three primary issues caused by PCOS that trigger your long list of symptoms chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalance. These three things make conceiving a baby and carrying out a successful pregnancy difficult.
If left unaddressed throughout pregnancy, the core problems of PCOS can lead to gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, large birth weight, premature birth, low Apgar score, or stillbirth. Here are some of the main symptoms of PCOS that make getting pregnant difficult.
- Irregular Periods: When your menstrual cycles are unpredictable, it can cause several issues with getting pregnant! It can prevent you from knowing when you’re ovulating and impact egg quality. Menstrual cycles are irregular with PCOS because of high androgens, high Luteinizing Hormone (LH), low Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and insulin resistance.
- Anovulation: Disrupted hormonal sequencing prevents eggs from maturing and releasing. These eggs can turn into cysts or prompt multiple low-quality eggs to develop at once. Of course, if eggs aren’t released, there’s no way to conceive.
- Poor Egg Quality: You may have heard that Cysters actually have a larger ovarian reserve than women without PCOS. You’d think more eggs = more chances of getting pregnant, but these follicles are a result of anovulation. Insulin resistance and chronic inflammation can also reduce the quality of the eggs.
- Endometrial Issues: Ovulation triggers the production of progesterone for the next phase of the menstrual cycle. Progesterone helps stabilize the uterine lining for optimal implantation, but without the right levels of progesterone, the lining becomes too thick and can prevent implantation.
- Cervical Mucus Quality: Ovulation also triggers estrogen to rise. Low estrogen can lessen to stop the production of cervical mucus essential for the sperm to get to the egg.
As you can see, there are a lot of ways PCOS can impact pregnancy!
How To Get Pregnant With PCOS
Below, I’m going to list all the things we need to get back in order to create a body ready for conception and carrying out a healthy pregnancy! This list can be super overwhelming, but don’t get discouraged. All of these things can be managed with the same collection of lifestyle changes. These shifts in your current habits can have a big effect on these root issues of PCOS, leading to infertility! Just focus on implementing one or two at a time as you work toward healing.
Here are the best steps you can take:
Get a full hormone and thyroid panel.
Before you get too far in your PCOS journey, it’s good to establish a base point and figure out exactly what you’re dealing with. Knowing what hormones are out-of-whack and be SO helpful, because it shows you exactly what needs to be fixed and you can retest over time to see how your numbers are improving. I recommend The Equi.Life lab test kit.
Address vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Talk to your doctor about getting micronutrient panels to determine what vitamins and minerals you’re deficient in! Things like vitamin D deficiency and magnesium deficiency are very common with PCOS. Your body needs essential daily nutrients to carry out all its functions properly, so the right supplements can reverse core PCOS and increase your chances of getting pregnant!
The most beneficial supplements for fertility with PCOS? A prenatal multivitamin like the Purely PreNatal to cover the basics, and then CoQ10 and Ovasitol! These can help improve egg quality, regulate ovulation, lower androgens, support egg maturation, and increase the success rate of fertility treatments like IVF and IUI. Tap here for Ovasitol!
Increase insulin sensitivity.
Insulin resistance is super common in women with PCOS. It’s where your body doesn’t process glucose correctly, and instead of converting sugar to energy, it’s absorbed into the bloodstream and stored as fat. This raises blood sugar levels, interferes with sex hormone signalling, and causes several PCOS symptoms. (Plus, it increases your risk of type 2 diabetes.)
High insulin levels can increase androgen (male hormones) in the body leading to anovulation, which causes other hormonal imbalances like we explained above! This can cause poor egg quality and that thick uterine lining. And, once you’re pregnant, high insulin levels can increase the risk of complications like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.
Luckily, so many of the habit changes above will help with insulin sensitivity! A gluten- and dairy-free anti-inflammatory diet, regular exercise, the right supplements (like omega-3 and ovasitol), quality sleep, and reduced stress can all make a big impact!
Balance androgens and other sex hormones.
Sex hormones are the foundation of our reproductive health. However, as I’ve already discussed, there are a lot of things working against a Cyster in terms of hormone balance! Androgens, anti-müllerian hormone (AMH), and luteinizing hormone (LH) tend to be too high, whereas follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and progesterone are too low. And, estrogen? Bouncing all over the place.
Balancing these sex hormones may seem like a big undertaking, but you don’t have to work on them one at a time. Usually, there’s a domino effect. As you work on balancing one or two hormones (like androgens and estrogen), the other will fall in line along with it as your body gets back in order.
What can be done? Drinking Testosterone Relief Tea, eating a balanced diet, prioritizing good sleep, and removing endocrine disruptors are just some of the lifestyle changes that can balance hormones and regulate your cycle!
Support your metabolism.
I know — talking about weight can feel triggering. But this isn’t about shrinking your body or chasing a number on the scale. With PCOS, uncontrollable weight gain is often a symptom of deeper root causes like hormonal imbalances, metabolic dysfunction, and inflammation, not a reflection of your effort or willpower.
When we focus on healing those root issues first (like balancing blood sugar, lowering stress hormones, and supporting our thyroid), our bodies naturally move toward a healthier place. It’s not about cutting calories or crushing yourself in high-intensity workouts (trust me, I used to do kickboxing multiple times a week — and still gained weight!). It’s about working with your body, not against it.
The approach to weight loss with PCOS has to be different, because our bodies are different! Start with an intentional, hormome-friendly diet for PCOS focused on what you should eat, not what you shouldn’t.
As you work toward healing, try not to stress over the number on the scale. Our real goal is to address the root causes driving your symptoms and fertility challenges. With PCOS, things like insulin resistance, hormone imbalances, and inflammation can all affect weight, period regularity, and even increase the risk of pregnancy complications. By focusing on supporting your metabolism, balancing your hormones, and lowering inflammation, you’re giving your body the tools it needs to thrive — no matter what the scale says.
Lower inflammation.
Inflammation is when your body’s immune system attacks healthy cells. Women with PCOS often have chronic, low-grade inflammation that actually helps drive insulin resistance and hormone balance. (It’s why many people think PCOS is an auto-immune disease!) Inflammation also directly interferes with egg quality, ovulation, and implantation.
Getting inflammation under control can be huge for healing and increases your odds of conceiving. Some of the lifestyle changes above that will have a direct impact on inflammation are taking supplements like ovasitol, omega-3, and curcumin; having an anti-inflammatory diet, reducing stress, and doing those slow-weighted exercises!
Reduce cortisol levels.
Cortisol is the stress hormone! It’s naturally elevated in women with PCOS, and it can worsen the balance of other hormones, increase inflammation, and increase insulin resistance. This is because stress puts our body into fight-or-flight mode. When our body thinks it’s under attack, the immune system becomes overactive, your body packs on pounds, and your hormone levels focus on survival . . . not fertility and healthy balance.
So, it’s essential to reassure your body that everything is okay when trying to reverse PCOS symptoms and improve fertility. PCOS supplements, reducing caffeine, exercise that doesn’t spike your stress hormones, self-care, and great sleep can all be super helpful for reducing cortisol and getting back on track.
Track ovulation.
As you start to address all these core issues of PCOS, you’ll hopefully find your cycle regulating, and ovulation will become more predictable. Track ovulation the best you can from the start, and log the information as you go to see your progress. Plus, this will tell you exactly when you should be trying to conceive!
Here’s how to track ovulation with PCOS.
Getting pregnant with PCOS is possible using strategic, natural lifestyle changes!
Whether you’re trying to get pregnant naturally or are pursuing fertility treatments, conceiving with PCOS is possible. There are so many things you can do that, when put together, make a big impact on your reproductive health, increasing your chances of getting pregnant and carrying out a successful pregnancy!
For support, meal plans, exercise routines, and even more resources, download The Cysterhood app! It’s got all the information you need to pursue this healing journey and achieve your goals of growing your family!
