The short answer is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
Okay, so now you may be thinking (Polycystic ovarian syndrome) what does that mean.
Well if you have just been told you have this disease, you may be wondering what now? Will this go away, can it be treated? What can you expect?
Well first the bad news, PCOS will not just go away. Now the good news, most of the time, PCOS can be treated with fairly good results.
There will always be some people who will not respond to treatments as well as others, but many will.
PCOS can make life very hard in some ways. For instance you may have acne just as bad or worse than a teenager. You may have a problem loosing weight, difficulties with your monthly cycle. (You may not even have a period for several months, or you could have on going spotting for months neither something anyone wants).
Then if that is not bad enough you may find that the hair on top of your head is thinning out, and you are growing hair on your face and neck. Like a man’s beard. You may start to feel like a freak, and not want to even be seen in public.
That is how it has been for me some time now. I know I need to be out walking and exercising but the hair on my face grows faster than the hair on my head. This makes me very uncomfortable to say the least. Then my weight which has ballooned a lot over the years makes things even worse.
Top that off with all the different diets and weight loss programs advertised. And clothing made for people of normal size. And I would just rather stay home.
By now you have figured out I was diagnosed with this. But what you do not know is how long it took for a doctor to take me seriously. I was a little over thirty years old before a doctor listened to me close enough to hear what I was saying. He then ran several blood tests.
These tests showed that I had excess male hormones. Then an ultrasound showed many tiny cysts inside my ovaries. This doctor also did a glucose test to see how well my body processed sugars.
He did the same test that is given to check for diabetes on pregnant women. When he decide to do this test some of the nurses were upset because they saw no reason for this test to be done on someone who was not pregnant.
But it was after he did this test that he found that I was not processing sugars correctly, he said my body was resistant to insulin. Which he said was different than diabetes. But it can lead to diabetes. Sort of like a pre-diabetic condition. That is how he explained this to me.
He started me on metformin which is a diabetes medication that has been shown to help in the treatment of PCOS.
For me this did help. My period became extremely regular like clock work practically. Plus my vision cleared up, and even my mind. (I had been having a lot of days that I just felt like I was in a fog) To me metformin has been like a miracle drug. When I was on this I started loosing weight, gaining energy that I had not had in years, and I was able to see and think better.
PCOS can be difficult to diagnose, because not everyone who has it has the same symptoms. For me at first my symptoms were just excess acne and wild hairs. (Such as hair growing where it did not belong).
Also unlike many who have PCOS I was able to get pregnant without fertility treatments. But now that I am older I have not been able to carry a baby full term in the last several years. My youngest is 8 now. I have not used any birth control at all in years.
I have learned a few things since I was diagnosed with PCOS. I have learned that I am at high risk for heart problems, thyroid problems, a variety of cancers, such as uterine cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, and possibly others. I am also at risk for strokes, weight problems, many aches and pains. Just a variety of things that is not pleasant. More so than someone who does not have PCOS.
But because I know this already I know that there are things I need to be doing to lower my risk for the problems I could have. Or will have if I do not take extra precautions.
The number one thing I need to be doing is exercising even if I just exercise at home Instead of going to a gym.
Something else I need to do is limit my intake of sugars, even more than someone who has not got PCOS because my body does not use sugars well.
Being diagnosed with PCOS can mean different things to different people. The sooner you are diagnosed the better. Because then you know that you can not afford to take chances with your health. (No one can really, but if you have PCOS your risk is higher for many illnesses and diseases). Having this diagnosis can help you not take your health so much for granted.
PCOS is an often misunderstood hormonal problem that many women have. Not everyone will have the infertility, but many will.
This disease is thought to be inherited, but so far that has not been proven. Also something else that many people do not realize is this, if you have this disease you are born with it. You do not develop it as you get older. You just don’t show signs of it until at least puberty.
Although it is rare for this disease to be diagnosed in teenagers, usually it is only after a woman has had problems trying to conceive is she made aware of this problem or when some other problem happens, such as going months between periods with no possibility of being pregnant.
This is one disorder that I wish doctors would test for routinely when someone starts gaining weight and has difficulty loosing weight.
To me this is a difficult and hard to explain diagnoses.
