Insulin resistant - worried mum

[SARAH365]

Hi, my 29 year old daughter is at the moment in Australia but coming home in 3 months. She is having problems conceiving - lots of follicles on her ovaries - BUT a blood test has revealed she IS ovulating. This same blood test however has revealed she's insulin resistant yet she is a perfectly normal weight, normal cholesterol, and exercises well daily. Unfortunately she has a really unhelpful doctor over there who has amazingly told this very worried daughter of mine she doesn't really understand "these sorts of blood tests to do with fertility". She saw another doctor who told her not to worry as he ignores a lot of blood test results and prefers to just"look at the person"!!?? But she told me something about elevated LH levels and FH ratio shold be 1:1 but hers are 4 and 10. --- (or something like that). Also something about mU/L less than 10 being "normal", 14 is mild but hers is 27 - which is IR.

My daughter is addicted to "googling" and is a born worrier. In fact she is making herself ill worrying about this condition now as she can't get a doctor to sit down with and tell her woman to woman what exactly is going on. She is obliged to work there until July and then she and her partner are coming home.

This condition does not run in the family. The only things I myself can put a question mark against are 1). many ovarian follicles and 2) extreme anxiety 24/7. :thumbdown:

Her periods are (surprisingly) every 28 days, her fallopian tubes are clear and blood tests have revealed she is ovulating.

Is there anyone on here who can shed any light on what could be causing this? She is a really lovely girl inside and out - but she's making herself ill worrying about all this with no help at all over there.

Thank you for any advice given, Sarah

 

[viviennem]

Re: INSULIN RESISTANT -- WORRIED MUM

Hi Sarah

I'm just responding to say I'm afraid I can't help much - and I guess the reason you've not had any other replies yet means that no-one else can either!

There are lots of reasons for not conceiving even when ovulating - and stress can be one of them. I know it's easy to say and difficult to do, but IMHO she must try not to worry about it just now. If she's coming home in 3 months, that's the time to start looking into her fertility more deeply, calmly and with specialist help. Just don't mention the Internet to a GP! :lol: at least not until you know him/her quite well. She should keep a note of her results so far, show them to a GP over here, and ask to see a specialist.

Aren't the follicles the bits of the ovary where the eggs mature? Perfectly normal?

As far as I know insulin resistance doesn't cause problems re conceiving, but it's not a problem that has ever occured to me as I'm though the menopause! Controlling carbohydrate intake has been found to improve insulin resistance by many people on here. I'm not suggesting she goes very low carb, as you say she is "normal" weight, but if she sticks to about 100g/150g of carbohydrate daily, her insulin resistance should reduce over time. She needs to get herself a carb counter book, check how much she's eating now, and work out a healthy, lower carb diet, preferably sticking to Low GI carbs.

If you get her interested in a lower carb, low GI diet it might divert her mind from worrying too much over conceiving. I'm sure we all know people who've been desperate to conceive, who have eventually reconciled themselve to never becoming pregnant - and a few months later, when they've relaxed - along comes that baby :shock:

On the 'diabetes' side of this - insulin resistance is often a forewarning of Type 2 diabetes to come. I wish I'd had that forewarning - I could have altered my diet, and lifestyle generally, and maybe never would have become diabetic. A positive aspect to all this!

Finally - I assume she is in a permanent relationship? Has her partner's fertility been checked?

Viv 8)

 

[elainechi]

Re: INSULIN RESISTANT -- WORRIED MUM

looking at it from another angle. i wondered if she has polycystic ovarys. this can cause problems with conceiving and insulin resistance. however other signs are can be weight gain and increase in body hair. just a thought. best sorted out when she gets back to england x

 

[Artichoke]

Re: INSULIN RESISTANT -- WORRIED MUM

agree with elainechi, what I'd suggest too. The drug often used to treat PCOS is Metformin, which is also used to treat metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. In a recent study it was shown to kill breast cancer stem cells in the lab too.