Personal Post | Living with PCOS.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Anyone who has been part of my life for the past three years will know that when I was nineteen I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarain Syndrome.
PCOS starts at puberty, this is when the symptoms are most noticeable and stays with you till you hit the menopauses. A lot of girls who get PCOS when they hit puberty will gain a lot of weight all of sudden, this happened to me and I don't just mean a few pounds here and there, I piled on the weight to the point where at my biggest i weighed around 26 stone. For years I struggled with losing weight, holding a lot of water weight, acne on my chin area, hair loss and facial hair <----- not fun at all.
To get a diagnosis of PCOS you have one, some or all of the symptoms listed below. Some people have no symptoms at all. Also any size woman can have PCOS but it is normally associated with people who are carrying extra weight.
Symptoms include: Irregular periods, Finding it hard to loose weight, Overweight, Depression, Some facial hair (I suffer with darker around my mouth.), Thinning hair, Hair growing quickly (legs and underarms.), Infertility, Cysts on the ovaries, Elevated insulin levels, Insulin resistance, Oily skin, Dandruff, Skin discolourations(darker skin in upper inner thigh and armpits.), High cholesterol and High blood pressure.
A bit TMI but I started my periods when I was thirteen and they were quite irregular but every time I went to the doctors about this I was just told it was normal at first for them to be irregular and it would balance out in time. This went on and on for years until I went to my doctor who was new at my surgery as I was finding it incredible hard to loose weight. He looked back through my records and seen that I had been to the doctors countless times about my irregular periods and asked me if I had been referred to the hospital regarding PCOS. Once my doctor found out i hadn't he referred me to have a scan to see what was going on. My tests came back positive confirming PCOS. Unfortunately I was not diagnosed until I was 19 meaning I had been living around six not knowing I had PCOS.
In 2011 I decided it was time to start losing some weight. This was incredible hard for me. I managed to loose around a stone. From 2012-2013 I changed my eating habits, made some life style changes and put the hard work in and managed to loose eight stone. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen many posts where I felt like given up but with the support of everyone behind me I kept going. In 2014 I carried on with my weight loose and at the start of 2014 I am currently at a eleven and a half stone lose. I am determined to get back on it now Christmas is over and get to the twelve stone mark.
As a lot of people know infertility is a common symptom of PCOS. Also you can be at a high risk of miscarriage when you have PCOS. Unfortunately my partner and I have had two miscarriages. I had my first one in May 2014. I was only around three weeks pregnant but did not know I was pregnant at the time. On New Years Eve 2014 my partner and I had it confirmed that we were expecting a baby. Unfortunately at seven weeks pregnant on 7th January 2015 I had my second miscarriage. I won't dwell on this to much as I am still finding it extremely hard to deal with.
If you have any of the symptoms please go to your doctors and ask them to refer you for a scan to confirm it. You can get help with medication and operations. There is also so much information online. We all just have to remember we are not alone when coping with PCOS.
Lottiemxo.
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