Overview of My Condition- PCOS (Poly cystic ovarian syndrome)

I wish I had written this earlier. I realize that a lot of you are very, very blessed to not have to deal with this condition I have called PCOS. Therefore, you may not know about it. I certainly did not until I was diagnosed. So i'm gonna give you a little re-cap, just incase you want to know what it is I'm talking about when I say I have PCOS.

PCOS stands for PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome. basically, it makes your hormones all out of whack. Because of this, You gain weight super easily, frequently miss periods, have acne, hair growth (like on your chin, belly, and body hair just generally grows a lot faster and is thicker) and hair loss (from your head). the periods/hair/skin side effects are all because when you have PCOS, your body produces more of an androgen hormone called testosterone than it should. testosterone is the male hormone that triggers acne, hairgrowth/loss, missed periods, ect.

Although I have done a TON of research over the last year myself on PCOS, no one really knows how or why it starts exactly. There is no cure, and it is hard to manage, but it is do-able. Doctors know that weight plays a significant part in PCOS. Fat cells can cause over production of testosterone and bind with estrogen (the female hormone), which can cause all of your symptoms.
**However, not everyone who is overweight has PCOS, infact there are plenty of overweight or obese women that don't have it. But almost everyone that has PCOS is overweight, or have delt with a weight problem in their life.

So the question is... does PCOS cause you to be overweight, or does being overweight cause PCOS? There are theories, but No one really knows. But it is true that when you have PCOS, it is harder to lose weight. The hormones have a direct effect on your body's ability to lose weight, for whatever reason.

This is what makes it hard. Every doctor you go to says, "lose weight, PCOS will get better". However, that is not the easiest way. Lots of women take birth control pills, metformin, spiractalone (sp?) or flutamide (sp?), or a combination of all.

Personally, I'm not sure if I will ever go on another birth control pill again for as long as I live. Once I got off of them when I was 17, I had been taking them for 2 years. I was overweight, but not obese, had mild but controllable acne and never had any facial hair or hair loss problems (although my hair has never, ever grown at a normal rate...it grows very slow. it's weird.) Once I got off my birth control pills, I didn't have a period for 7 months. I started to have hair growth. I lost weight, but only because I went vegan, and then once I stopped being vegan I gained weight.

There are theories that when women with PCOS take birth control pills, they have to stay on them for forever, and when they get off their hormones are going to go crazy out of whack. This is kind of what I feel what happened to me. But part of me thinks that maybe my birth control pills were just masking my PCOS problem , and I always had it. I think it's kind of a combination of the two, because i always had acne more than my friends, and i never ever had regular periods. But who knows?

Well, doctor's don't. that's the main frustration with having this condition.there are very few specialists in PCOS because there just simply isn't that much information on it to begin with.

Luckily, I found a doctor who actually knows a little bit about PCOS (seriously, most doctors don't know a damn thing about it). She perscribed me Metformin. This is the medicine I am taking now, which makes me super nauseous all the time.  It is typically given to people with type 2 diabetes, but since insulin resistance and PCOS go hand-in-hand (insulin is just another hormone that is out of whack because of PCOS), it is perscribed for PCOS too sometimes. Usually it is perscribed for PCOS patients because it can help them lose weight.

When I told my doctor I had been trying and trying to lose weight and I wasn't, she suggested Metformin. She said that the weight wasn't going to melt off, it wasn't a magic diet pill, but it would put me on the same level as a normal girl my age trying to lose weight. So basically, with this pill, supposedly my body will lose weight at a normal rate. Hallelujah.

When you lose weight, your symptoms and side effects of having PCOS decrease dramatically because since you have less fat, you have less testosterone production, which in turn balances out your other hormones. sadly, little are successful in losing weight just because it is so difficult with this disorder.

However, I am lucky. I caught this early, almost as early as you can detect it in a patient. Usually a doctor can't really diagnose PCOS until after puberty is completely & hormones have stablized (or in my case, haven't stablized haha). I can't say exactly how long i've had this because no one knows if it's something I was born with, or if i've just developed it over time. but I was officially dianosed about a year and a half ago. There are many many women out there who aren't diagnosed for 20 years and have had it there whole lives, and never know. I have been told my many women such as these that I am lucky that I am catching it early. These are the same women who literally can grow a full beard everyday and constantly shave their face, or the women who are losing clumps of hair and completely going bald, and ontop of that have acne & are obese. The hairgrowth I have is slowly getting worse, but supposedly like every other side effect of PCOS, will get better with weight loss. Weight loss = less testosterone = less hair growth, less acne, no hair failling out.

it's weird to deal with this being 19. but I am lucky I caught it early. They say only 5% of women have PCOS, but i'm super positive that's wrong. I bet you about 30% of women have it, but only 5% are diagnosed. My mom, for example, was never diagnosed with PCOS (and still hasn't been, now that she is past menopause) but talking to her about the acne/hair growth/ hair loss made me realize she had it when she was growing up too. But the weird thing about that? My mom was thin. She was never over a size 4 until she was 40 years old. She was runner up actually in a Miss America pageant (but I won't tell you which one).  It's just weird to think, that she had acne & hair growth (though not as bad as mine) but she was thin. But supposedly this is all from being fat?

Like I said...who really knows.

So yeah, I am taking Metformin, in hopes that it will give me a chance to get this weight off, and hopefully get my PCOS undercontrol. But right now, it's just making me want to throw up!!

I really hope this helped some of you who don't know what PCOS is. I think it's so important that peolple become more aware of it. And please note- you do not have to be overweight to have PCOS. if you have any of the symptoms i talked about, mainly if you have irregular periods, you should talk to your doctor. the sooner you know about what's going on, the sooner you can take care of it.

<3