PCOS sucks! (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome)

Member Name: nursie_nursie

Product:	Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Date:	02/07/08 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: NONE!

Disadvantages: Looking and feeling like crap and not being able to have kids .

I doubt that this will be of any real interest to most who read it but it is something which I feel I need to write to get things off of my chest in a relatively constructive way and well who knows if someone gets a diagnosis after reading it then it will have been a good thing. For any guys reading you may not want to carry on as the is about ladies parts and us girls know how squeamish you can get about that kind of thing!

I was a reasonably normal teenager or so I thought. I was a little larger than most others, a size 14 nothing too bad about that is there, not that I thought that way at 14! My periods started when I was thirteen and I hated it so much! Little did I know what was to come. At the age of fourteen my periods became extremely painful and I don't mean the normal take a couple of painkillers and you'll be fine stuff either! I would have pains, which would make me double over no matter where I was and what I was doing. They were that heavy that I didn't know how to cope with it.

In the end after two long years of having such bad periods I went to the doctor about it and was just put on the pill and told that it was just because when you are young it takes a while for your body to get into the swing of things as your hormones are all over the place.

So I took the pill for two years and was finding it so much better! I lost weight and my periods were no trouble at all. Light and almost completely pain free, heaven I thought!

I decided to come off of the pill as I am rather a hippy type, I hate putting any unnecessary chemicals into my system. I don't even take painkillers unless it is that bad I can't cope with it and my pain threshold is rather high anyway.

My painful and heavy periods were back! My weight slowly crept up as well even though I was doing the same amount of exercise and eating the same. So I went on a diet and kept going trying to get through it all the best I could. At times I would need the day off work where I was in so much pain.

At 20 I moved in with my then boyfriend and decided to go back on the pill. It had the same effect again with me losing some of the weight I had gained and my periods being a lot easier to deal with. My skin also cleared up as I had been suffering from rather too frequent bouts of spots, which I couldn't control with facial washes and spot treatments no matter how hard I had tried! I felt better in myself and loved the way I had changed, life was good!

Then after a year of living together my relationship went down the pan! He was a cheating, good for nothing and that was it, over! So I went back to not wanting to pump my body full of chemicals and came off the pill as what was the point of being on it anyway!

This time though coming off the pill was rather different, as I didn't just put on a little weight! I had put on a stone in less than a month and it wasn't because I was doing anything different! Well apart from no sex! So I went on a diet and still kept on gaining weight!

I had NO period! Oh no, what if I am pregnant, no I can't be I was on the pill! So I take a test. Phew negative. A week later I still haven't started my period, so I take another test. Nope negative so what is going on!

After five months of not having a period, putting on weight and being spotty I finally visit the doctor.

I had a lovely doctor at the time not that I can remember her name now! I went in and she asked how she could help so I explained that I hadn't had a period in five months and that I had gone up five dress sizes in that time. She asked that obvious question of was I pregnant and so I told her that I had done several tests during those months and had even done one that morning and they had all been negative so she told me I would need a blood test and that she had a good idea of what was wrong. That it was more than likely one of just three things. A thyroid problem, diabetes or PCOS.

The only one I hadn't any knowledge of was PCOS so she explained that it was Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome. A syndrome that is incurable with many symptoms and was the most likely of the three for me to be suffering.

The blood test was one of those where you have to starve for twelve hours before hand. It was nothing short of a nightmare as I was working nights at the time and so couldn't eat anything and could only sip at water. Having blood drawn is something I hate at the best of times but on this occasion my veins wouldn't play ball and kept hiding as soon as the needle came anywhere near my arm! After three failed attempts on each arm the nurse gave up and said I would have to make another appointment.

So two days later after another long night shift I am back at the doctors and have another three attempts on one arm with no luck and then on the other just one go and she takes three vials of rich red blood from me! At last I am another step closer to knowing what is wrong with me!

I visited the doctor again after a rather long and at times agonising wait. She confirmed that it was PCOS and that they would refer me for an ultra sound scan to see how badly I was affected. That there was not much she could do for me but that I could go on the pill again to try and help with my symptoms. She didn't really explain to me what PCOS meant to my life or body apart from telling me that it is very 'unlikely' that I will have children and that my chances were very 'slim' (unlike me!)
I left the office trying not to cry and got in my car and lost it. I sat there in floods of tears for about twenty minutes before driving to my friends for a cuppa and a well needed chat.

Until then I hadn't been all that bothered about having children and had just viewed it as a whatever happens in the future happens situation. I certainly didn't want to be a young mother though so hadn't thought that much about it. The years since though have been hard, as you always want what you can't have! It is hard to come to terms with.

I received through the post an appointment for the scan after just a couple of weeks.

The scan was a rather horrible experience! My friend came with me and waited outside to support me and without her I don't know if I would have even made it to that appointment as I felt like I was better off not knowing how bad it actually was!

The woman who did my scan was very nice and told me that she couldn't tell me how bad it was that she just had to give the doctor the result but after explaining that I just wanted to know and sugar coating it wasn't necessary she relented and showed me and explained it all to me. It was actually the worst case she had seen. My hopes were flushed down the toilet!

I went back to see the doctor and she put me on the pill like she said and I had the worst period of my life (at that point in it anyway, but I will get to that later) it went on for six weeks and I went back to see her and she told me to come off of it. I haven't been on the pill since!

She tried me on another drug, Metformin which is the same medication that diabetics take to control blood sugar levels. It has shown good results for most PCOS sufferers, reducing weight, skin and menstrual issues. I stayed on it for a while and found it really helped but it was causing me too many side effects which I wont go into, so I came off it.

PCOS is something I will have to live with all my life and I wish that I didn't it means that I am overweight, with bad skin and that I will probably never be a mother. I am just lucky to have found a man that loves me for me and doesn't see the PCOS as a problem.

These are some of the symptoms of PCOS:
· infrequent menstrual periods, no menstrual periods, and/or irregular bleeding
· infertility or inability to get pregnant because of not ovulating
· increased growth of hair on the face, chest, stomach, back, thumbs, or toes
· acne, oily skin, or dandruff
· pelvic pain
· weight gain or obesity, usually carrying extra weight around the waist
· type 2 diabetes
· high cholesterol
· high blood pressure
· male-pattern baldness or thinning hair
· patches of thickened and dark brown or black skin on the neck, arms, breasts, or thighs
· skin tags, or tiny excess flaps of skin in the armpits or neck area
· sleep apnea-excessive snoring and breathing stops at times while asleep
Luckily I don't suffer from all of them so I guess that makes me rather lucky! The main problem for me is not ovulating and that happens as even though my eggs mature in the follicles like they should they don't get released like they would when a 'normal' woman ovulates instead they turn into cysts and cause me pain.

I would like to think that in the future there will be more treatment available for this syndrome as rather a lot of women suffer from it. Victoria Beckham and Jules Oliver to name just two famous sufferers. It is now thought that as many as ten percent of women of child carrying age may have PCOS and most will never even know it!

Looking back I am pretty sure that had the doctor I first saw at 16 bothered to have run tests to find out why I was suffering so much with my periods that he would have found that I had it back then. That said it wouldn't really have changed my situation would it!



TWO YEARS AFTER WRITING THE ABOVE.

Now I am at a point in my life where I would dearly love to have children with my fiancée but that isn't likely to happen. I now have a fantastic doctor, who is really trying to help me with both my PCOS and the weight problem it has caused me to have.

I am back on Metformin and am now also on a weight loss medication which slowly seems to be helping. My periods are no longer non-existent, instead I now suffer horrendous periods which have been known to last as long as three months at a time.

I no longer consume any caffeine after another PCOS sufferer told me that it can cause the cysts or aggregate them, she wasn't sure which so I have no clue! You would have thought that a doctor could have told me that! Without caffeine the amount of pain I suffer is minimal with just the occasional twinge (apart from period pain which is a whole other story!) not even daily like it was before.

My PCOS is something which causes me to be upset an awful lot, because of the age I am at and the point in my relationship it is hurting more than ever before but I will learn to cope and with any luck in a few years time my weight will be less of a problem and we can look into getting some help to have a baby or into adopting a baby that will get all the love we have to give.


Sorry, I have gone on rather a lot!

Summary: The one thing I would change about my life.