My sister emailed me this link recently on a blog post that a woman wrote about her struggle with PCOS and all of it’s symptoms. First, let me start by saying that her post was candid, transparent, and I think a blessing to a lots of women out there. It definitely got me thinking about my own struggles with this issue.
One thing that I never really computed, though I knew, that this gal pointed was that PCOS was named not after it’s cause, as many people would think, but after one of it’s symptoms. Basically, when a woman is ovulating, as her ovaries tries to drop the egg into the ovarian tube, sometimes, it cannot release the egg. When this happens, the egg is still attached to the ovary and gets a lining around it, thus turning it into a cyst. More often than not the cysts are benign, as is my case. This can happen every time a woman ovulates, or sporadically. Thus the second symptom, possible infertility. If your eggs aren’t making their way down to the baby-maker, how can they become fertilized? So, there’s that.
The more immediately experienced symptoms would be weight gain or inability to lose weight and abnormal hair growth. Basically, my body wanted to hoard every bit of food that I ate, for some reason thinking that it had to prepare for famine. Also, I swear, if this was during the 1940’s or something, I would’ve made some crazy money as the bearded lady! I joke, but really this was a source of massive anxiety and insecurity when I was in Middle School and High School (an already incredibly painful time). It was really only once I started getting laser treatments (something purported to help reduce hair growth permanently) was I able to actually admit to other people that I had this issue.
I had my hormone levels checked repeatedly to see what was causing the hair growth (at this time I was at the top of my normal/healthy weight, so it wasn’t a concern yet). All labs came back with normal levels, oddly enough. So, we just kept trying different laser centers with different machines. Nothing really worked.
As far as the weight gain goes, that didn’t really come into play until I was 21. I ended up in the hospital with a different health issue, called Factor V Leiden Disorder. Long story short, I had hundreds of internal blood clots that the surgeons had to physically enter my body to remove. From the aftermath of the post-surgery trauma, I started to gain quite a bit of weight. Prior to this, I was at 150 (which was right around the middle of my healthy weight range) and was the lightest I had ever been since I reached my maximum height of 5’8″.
After surgery, the height of my weight gain was approximately 210lbs (I tried to avoid the scale a lot). I joined Weight Watchers and had some success in losing my weight. About 30lbs, to be honest. so, I was at 180lbs. Still not my norm, but way better than it was.
It wasn’t until I was about 22 that a doctor pulled me aside and asked me if I had ever been tested for PCOS, also at the height of this weight gain (notice I say, “this”). I told him I’d never heard of it. Here was where I started to hear and understand the symptoms of my life. Another thing that doctor had said, which I found interesting was, he mentioned that most women who have PCOS also have, what we all lovingly refer to as, the “Pear Shape”.
I don’t know if this is medical fact, but I do know that the doctor shared this with me.
Anyhow, the most common treatment of PCOS is hormone replacement therapy, often through birth control pills or patches. With my earlier mentioned medical issue of the Factor V, this treatment was and is unavailable to me, because it makes me intensely more prone to developing internal blood clots and suffering a stroke or pulmonary embolism. So, what were they to do? Luckily, they had an alternative treatment of Metformin, which is actually a medication for those with diabetes. The reason this treatment works is because PCOS is actually a precursor, more often than not, to individuals that will develop Type 2 Diabetes later in life.
I’m not going to lie… Metformin has many side affects, some of which you might not be willing to deal with. I, myself, struggled with some of them so much that when I missed my does a couple of days, I stopped taking it completely to not suffer those side affects again. This is when I became depressed, due to life circumstances, and ended up gaining all 30lbs I had lost prior, plus 10 of their close friends, bringing my top weight to 220lbs.
When I was finally ready to deal with something I COULD control in the chaos that was my life with many uncontrollable elements, I faced those side affects and got back on my medication. In addition, I took with me one of the best lessons I had ever learned at Weight Watchers (which I had not attended in probably 3-4 years at this point). Portion Control. I realized, that I didn’t have it in me to try to count calories or “eat healthy” in the mental and emotional state that I was at. But I needed to do SOMETHING. Anything. So, what I could do was portion control. If I was craving In ‘N Out (cheeseburger and fries, for those who don’t know), then I would allow myself to have In ‘N Out. If I craved it 3 days in a row, then I would have it 3 days in a row. What I wouldn’t do, was eat until I was full. I would stop as soon as I didn’t feel hungry anymore. When I felt comfortable, I would just put it down, throw it away, put it in a box, whatever would help me stop eating it. One of my theories had to do with, if I didn’t eat what I was craving (a piece of chocolate, for example), then I would probably end up eating more calories and grams of fat eating all this “healthy” stuff to eat around my craving. Whereas, had I just had the little thing I was craving and stopped at a reasonable time, I was okay. 🙂 I wasn’t frantic, I wasn’t starving, I wasn’t miserable. Who wants to be miserable? I mean, really.
The weight started melting off. The combination of my medication and eating only what my body NEEDED (not what I only WANTED), caused the weight to finally realize that I was not starving and allow my body to lose. Slowly, and safely, my stomach shrank down to the size it was meant to be (and I mean the actual stomach that digests all my food for me). In addition, my outside stomach that everyone sees, well… it shrank too! I lost a total of 80lbs!
Oh, I guess, I could give you comparison pictures of the before and after… I don’t know if that will add encouragement or what, but it could?
Body photo of me at 220lbs
Face photo at 220lbs
Body photo of me at 140lbs
Face photo of 140lbs
As far as the abnormal hair growth goes, I would not recommend getting laser treatments at all. I would say that electrolysis is the way to go. My sister went for about a year and has NO hair left on her face. Sometimes, one or two randoms will grow and she’ll go get them zapped. But she has never had so few thick, black hairs on her face since she had her children. I started going to get treatments about 4 or 5 months ago. Since then, I have seen a significant difference in the hair growth on my chin and lip (the main areas we are currently focusing on since there is so much to do). I can’t say I had ever had that with laser treatments. I always wanted to see a difference, so I would convince myself there was less hair. In this case, there is no wishy-washy, “I think it looks different” mentalities going on. There is a difference. Electrolysis is the only FDA approved technique for permanent hair removal.
I will tell you though, my sister said it was one of the most painful experiences of her life. For me, it’s more like the residual pain after burning your hand on a frying pain. It’s annoying and hurts a little, but it’s bearable and really not as bad as I thought it would. It is NOTHING compared to laser treatments for me. That was beyond painful.
I don’t know if this really will or could help anyone… but this has been my struggle with PCOS. There will still be more and I’ve probably left stuff out. But, I really truly hope that this can help someone.
Well, I guess that’s everything. Take care! And feel free to ask any questions if you have them.
Journey to Adulthood 