Puan Sabarina was 23 years old and weighed 92kg when she first came to me as a patient in January 2009.
She had a history of irregular menses for the past two years.
She shared with me that she had been also trying to conceive for the past two years as well.
When I scheduled some preliminary check-ups for her, we discovered that she was having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS, for short.
Mainly, PCOS refers to a hormonal imbalance. The ovaries make more androgens than normal. Androgens are male hormones that females also make. High levels of these hormones affect the development and release of eggs during ovulation.
I advised her that she needed to lose weight and look into her diet closely. She was clearly overweight and this did not work in her favour if she wanted to get pregnant.
However, even after 5 months of exercise and diet adjustment, she had only lost 4kg. We decided then and there that she needed to try another method so we put her on hormonal therapy.
Once she was put on hormonal therapy, her periods started to become regular. And I am proud to say that she took it upon herself to continue exercising and dieting and managed to lose another 3kg in the following 3 months.
Since she had been trying to conceive naturally without much results, I suggested she undergo SuperOvulation and Intrauterine Insemination.
On her second attempt using these methods, Sabarina conceived. Her pregnancy was good without any complications or health problems. She continued to see me regularly for her antenatal check-ups with her husband.
Sabarina finally delivered a healthy baby girl weighing 3.3kg via elective Caesarean section and both were healthy enough to go home on the fourth day after delivery.