PCOS and what it means for Me

I think I’m going to have two blog posts today just because each thing I want to talk about are totally different from each other and I don’t want the post to be excessively long so the first post will be about my diagnosis of PCOS. I felt alone, I felt like less of a woman and I went into a depression that took awhile for me to get out of. This post is serious but I hope that if there are those of you out there feeling the same way you can get some good information from my experience.

As I stated previously I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). It has taken me quite some time to really understand and get through this diagnosis because some part of me always said I had it but I never wanted the doctor to tell me. PCOS is still a fairly new diagnosis as far as disorders go but it is a very common one. 1 in 8 women have PCOS. Basically what happens is that your ovaries produce too much testosterone therefore they don’t ovulate or let go of the egg. This leads to many different types of complications that can range from extreme cramps and irregular periods to insulin resistance. I have a very close friend who has PCOS and her periods are non existent where my periods are the exact opposite, they’re constant and neverending it seems. My periods can last up to 3 months and it’s a heavy flow, needless to say I become quite anemic when on my period. Most women are slightly because of the blood loss but most women don’t last for months. The more common of the irregular periods is the lack of a period, I’m one of the few that are blessed with the opposite. PCOS requires extensive testing before the diagnosis and even then a lot of doctors still don’t know about it, the term for this disorder has only been around for about 20 years and its still not a very well known disorder. Most people get misdiagnosed as something else because the symptoms could all be other various diseases or disorders so you need to have a good doctor and one that knows what the disorder is and does. I recommend going to a doctor who deals with infertility because they will know what to look for.

Some of the symptoms of PCOS include; extra body hair (facial), extra body weight around the belly that you just can’t seem to get rid of, cysts on your ovaries, irregular periods, adult acne and many more. As you can see there are a lot of symptoms to this disorder which is why you need to work with your doctor to determine that this is actually what you have. There is no cure, it seems to be something we’re born with it just manifests itself at a time when we’re not healthy, usually when you’re overweight. It’s controllable much like Type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise. There is also no origin, meaning there’s no way to find out why you have it many doctors speculate that its genetic. I haven’t gotten too much into that aspect of the disorder, I’ve focused mainly on how to get it under control. Along with PCOS I have Metabolic Syndrome which is an insulin resident disorder; I was diagnosed with this sometime in college not exactly sure when. The doctors didn’t go beyond that because they figured it was what my problem was but no they should have gone a little farther because they gave me medicine to help me and it didn’t really change much. In fact the medicine that they gave me is the same medicine I’m taking now which is Metformin. Metformin is what Ron takes for his Type 2 Diabetes. Metabolic Syndrome and PCOS act very similar to Diabetes as far as how your body handles food and insulin.

As you guys know last November we started the South Beach diet which is supposed to be one of the better diets for people with Diabetes, well at the time we didn’t know that my body acted like Ron’s when it came to food. We just happened to find a diet that helped us both with our respective disorders by accident. After being diagnosed I realized why I was feeling better, its because I was unknowingly eating the proper way a woman with PCOS should eat. Suffice it to say I have come to terms with this diagnosis and I’m embracing it. We have decided to stop trying for a child, at least for the next two years. We figured if God wanted us to have a child at this moment it would happen.

We recently sat down and discussed our future as parents. I realized I’m really not ready for a child. Don’t get me wrong I want one eventually but I really enjoy my life right now. I enjoy it just being me, Ron, and the dogs. I realized that I don’t want to be a mom 24/7 right now, I like being able to give the child back to his/her parents and going about my business and that’s ok. I felt like there was this timeline that I had to go by because that’s what you do in the south and America, you get married, buy a house, and have babies. Well, the house ain’t coming anytime soon and neither are the babies for us. We thought about fostering to adopt and some day I’d like to do that but we’re not there yet. Our apartment really isn’t in shape to have children here and honestly I don’t want to make it that way. We could easily handle at least 2 children in our apartment but I don’t want to, I want it to just be us. Yes there’s 18 years difference between us and yes Ron isn’t getting any younger but you know what? We don’t care anymore. We were trying to have a baby before Ron hits 50 because he didn’t want to be 80 at his child’s high school graduation but I had to be honest with myself and that means Ron may be 80 but at least our kid will have the coolest dad on the block because Ron is cool plus all of the kid’s history papers will be first hand accounts since his/her dad will be so old. LOL.

Anyway, it took me awhile to get to this point but I feel good now and know that when God wants us to have children we’ll have them. Right now that’s not what He wants for us.

If you have any questions or comments about PCOS I’ll be happy to respond to you just leave a comment or email me personally. I don’t want anyone to go through this life feeling alone because you’re not.