Apparently I'm a 60 yr old man

Yesterday I met with my PCP for a Pap (always a good time) and to get the results of my repeat b/w checking cholesterol/triglycerides.  The results were not good.

Last November I had my numbers checked for the first time and they came back really high. The doc wanted to put me on medication (Statins) but we are TTC and Statins are category X which means they would likely cause birth defects and/or loss and the risk would outweigh any positive benefits. So with the blessing (and cautions) from my doc, I opted to instead focus on diet and exercise over the next 6 months and then we'd recheck the numbers.  Also, since high cholesterol is linked to PCOS, I had hoped the daily 1500mg of Metformin for the last 3 months would have had a positive effect. It didn't. My numbers yesterday were almost identical to 6 months ago.

She deduced that since I have been doing everything right and I'm young and otherwise healthy, the high cholesterol is very likely hereditary. I know it definitely runs in the family; grandparents on both sides of my family died of heart attacks and strokes, and when I told my Dad about my results last November he casually slipped into the conversation that HE has dangerously high numbers too. How nice of him to not bother to tell any of his children this so we could get tested. Grrr.

So the dr. gave me three options moving forward:

1.) Stop TTC and take Statins for an indeterminate amount of time until my levels are in a healthy range. No idea how long it would be until we could start TTC again.

I would like a child with 1 head please.

2.) Keep TTC and go on a non-Statin med called Niacin which is category C, aka: there has not been enough testing done on humans to determine the effects on a developing fetus but there were negative effects seen with animals.
 
3.) Keep TTC, seriously overhaul my diet, hope that it works to naturally bring my levels down a bit, and hope that I get KU soon so that I can go on meds after the baby is born.

Ugh.
I do NOT want to stop TTC right now.  It's taken a full year just to determine what's going wrong. We've finished the testing and we're JUST starting treatments (I still haven't had even 1 chance in all this time to actually conceive!) so I decided that #1 is not an option right now.

Re: #2: My dr. said that I have "the cholesterol of a 60 year old man" (thanks Dad!) and since "levels like these are rarely seen in young women of child-bearing age so there have been very few studies done on the effects of Niacin on developing fetuses", I don't trust the Niacin. I'm not interested in being a guinea pig so #2 is out.

Therefore, I've decided to go with #3 and hope for the best. The doc said I should seriously consider a vegan diet (there is no way I would willingly do that unless I HAVE to) so I'll be meeting with a Nutritionist in about 2 weeks to create a specific food plan so I know that I am being as healthy as I can possibly be during this time.  I will also need to get more serious about an exercise regimen (right now I just exercise a couple times a week when I feel like it). And I went food shopping and stocked up on fruits, veggies, lean meat and whole grains.

Wow, this is going to be fun. {/sarcasm font}

Wish me luck.

That's me on the right, eating my heart-healthy Fiber One!