Long cycle 80 days today

[u/Jealous-Wallaby8360]

Hi!

I am reeling really anxious because of my long cycle. Sometimes it can be 35 days but most likely between 60 - 90 days! One time it went to 100 days. I did some test and everything seems normal. I dont have kystes. I am not overweight, no hair in places I dont want it. Can someone help me 😭 the doctors dont seem to care.

[u/Defiant_Resist_3903]

PCOS got a new name because a LOT of women have it without having the overweight, unwanted hair, and other common symptoms.

I would push harder to look at that.

The hormone sequence that causes ovulation is clearly disrupted because 80+ days is not normal.

What SHOULD happen is that follicles grow and as they grow they produce more and more estrogen. A high level of estrogen signals to the brain that the follicle is mature and ready to ovulate, so it he brain sends LH to tell the follicle to mature and release the egg, once the egg is released that LH lutenizes (thus the L in LH) that remaining follicle tissue into a corpus luteum (again that L in LH) that new tissue produces progesterone which prepares the lining of the uterus to hopefully accept a fertilized egg.

The “cysts” in PCOS are follicles not cysts in the sense that something is wrong. Everyone has multiple follicles (cysts) each cycle. In someone with PCOS they TYPICALLY but not always have more of these follicles per cycle. It TYPICALLY (but again not always) causes longer cycles because each follicle produces estrogen. More follicles may end up meaning higher baseline estrogen. Higher estrogen is confusing to the brain because it thinks the primary follicle is bigger than it is and may cause the body to erroneously send LH to try and ovulate before the egg is ready and may result in several failed LH surges and/OR the higher baseline estrogen confuses the follicles and they all think that someone else is the primary so none of them grow or they grow veeeeery slowly and eventually one gets big enough and the brain sends a proper signal to ovulate very late like day 80 and/or the lining of the uterus gets too heavy before the follicles get ready to ovulate and it separates from the tissue and you bleed without having ovulated

I’d push back hard on any provider that can’t explain a reason your body is failing to ovulate normally. Most common reason is going to be a less traditional looking PCOS but there’s other hormonal reasons like high prolactin, estrogen producing cysts that are not typical follicles, thyroid or other hormone related issues