PCOS?

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So...... i'm sitting in the waiting room for some labwork... i ust had my annual exam... and they're saying i might have PCOS? i'm scared... i've arleady gone through rounds of testing bak in highschool and undergrad. endo runs in my family but i'm not DXed for it... though i do get really bad ovarian cysts, even on birth control. i just really dont like the idea of having to re-open this case.

anyone here have this or something similar?

What is PCOS?

-SpaceCase

Polycystic ovary syndrome, I think ?

When you said "even on birth control" does that mean birth control is supposed to help with them? Might they want to send you to an Endocrinologist if that's the case and get your hormones checked? If your hormones are not balanced it can cause all kinds of issues. I wouldn't think that would be something to be afraid of but something that can easily be fixed. See what they say first. It might not be that bad.

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome is actually a bit of a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with actual cysts on the ovaries. It is a hormonal disorder and is actually quite common. My best friend has it. Her case is so severe that she does not have natural periods without taking the Pill. She doesn't ovulate at all. Some women with PCOS can still ovulate and have periods.

PCOS can obviously cause difficulties with fertility, but can also be linked to insulin resistance - a pre-cursor to diabetes. because of this, women with PCOS tend to gain weight more easily, and have a harder time losing weight. One very popular and effective medication for this is Metformin. Some women even start ovulating normally on Metformin alone.

Because my firend's case is so severe, she was technically considered unfertile. Structurally, her reproductive organs were perfectly fine, her body just didn't produce the proper hormones to stimulate ovulation. She and her husband went through several years of fertility treatments, and last fall they gave birth to two healthy twins.

All of my sisters (older) have had hysterectomies for very bad endo.I was on BC for 20 years and had no problems other then skipping periods(not a problem)but had to go off them at 36 because I was still smoking.I started bleeding three weeks out of four and ended up having some kind of "scrape",was fine for a few months then began bleed ing again.Now my periods last about 10 days but are very heavy.I have low thyroid,and that has caused some problems but even on what they say is the correct dose....I bleed to much.

I just found out I have a uterine tumor,(after procrastinating having an ultra sound for the past 4 years).It's non cancerous and about the size of an egg...they think that is causing the bleeding increase.I researched on line and found,short of surgery,that Progesterone might help keep the tumor from growing and the DR agreed to put me on it because I am only smoking about 3 cigs a day now.I have only been on it for about a month(hormones take a while to get balanced),the cramping is much better and the bleeding is a little less,so I am hoping I can avoid surgery for awhile.They say the whole thing could clear up at menopause and I am 43.....so,hopefully soon.


I dont know about your particular issue but do recommend doing a lot of googling to get information.The DR did not recommend the Progesterone....I found it myself and told her the theory about why it may help and she said it sounded logical(she isnt like most DR,who act like they know everything....wow).It's easy to think the worse when you first hear of "health issue" but try and do your research before you talk to your DR about what you want to do.Sometimes the "fixs" have worse side-effects then the problem they treat.

On a side note....have you ever had your thyroid checked?Free T3,Free T4 test?I think all women should have this done as it is majorly under DXed and can cause many hormone related problems.

Good luck and let us know what you decide....information is power,so I want to know everything.

yeah... i'm just hearing about PCOS today... so you guys just told me a lot more than the doc... lol?

but i could have endo... i just havent had surgery to give a postitive ID

i have ovarian cycsts cause ive done ultrasounds to show em... birth control is supposed to help cause they're linked to ovulation and birthcontrol streamlines that. today, they told me to try these new birthcontrols where you don't have periods at all... that seems unnatural to me (plus i LIKE knowing im not prego every month), but i'll try anything to get rid of these daily random STABBING pains... it's really rediculous... they can seriously drop me to the ground.

i've always thought that i have both cause i know about my cysts, and i just have very bad cramps in general that are getting worse over time, which makes me think i have endo (plus that runs in my family in females)

but i'd never heard of this PCOS before. they took a bunch of blood from me today and are doin hormone analyses on me. i've never had issues with abnormal periods before i went on birthconrol... i have had abnormal periods, but that was while ON birthcontrol, so go figure. i've also never had issues with weight loss... infact, i've very lean. they weighed me at 122 today and i'm 5'5"... pretty muscular.

so i don't know... i'm tired of the pain, but i'd almost rather live with it than having to start ANOTHER crusade of shoving probes up my ass and other places..

i hate being female

If you do have PCOS as birth control isn't helping, has your dr considered metformin? It's for type II diabetes, but apparently it helps with some of the hormones that are responsible for pcos in lower doses... I've never personally tried it (don't have PCOS or diabetes) - I just know about it from working in healthcare.

BTW, I did have endo in the past and the surgery was pretty painless compared to the condition.

I have nonclassical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (NCAH). For many years I thought that it was PCOS because the symptoms are very similar but the causes are completely different. Check it out if you're not sure that you've got PCOS.

A lot of drs give Metformin for PCOS because many of those women have insulin insensitivity which isn't the same as diabetes but can be controlled by the same med. Also sometimes just the Metformin can lower the androgen levels which are the culprit in PCOS. If that doesn't work anti-androgenes are used. Simply put PCOS woman have too much testosterone. But if ultrasound doesn't reveal cysts then its time to demand other tests like a complete genotyping & adrenal testing to see if one is intersexed. A lot more people are intersexed than what you would imagine. The drs have told me throughout life I was intersexed, but they still argue among themselves as to which kind.

Someone mentioned thyroid testing. You should definitely have that done as hypothyroidism is common in women with PCOS. Hypothyroidism is extremely common, almost to the point of being normal, in American women past age 30.

Well, isn't that odd. I was dx with PCOS a few years ago, and even had a cyst rupture. I also have fibroids.

The intersex phenom never came up in the literature I read on it (my "not surprised" face), but it makes sense.

The possibility I had a benign pituitary tumor, which usually is not dangerous, came up as well.

And one can have pelvic inflam. disease and PCOS.

Metta.

my appointment yesterday was just kinda the first ive heard of all this... like reopening the xfiles or something. she wants to see me back in a week or so (finals week next week) to start real examinations and such. i just didnt' have time yesterday for the allotted appointment time.

so dunno yet... she might hav ementioned it... but i suck at remembering names of things

yeah they're testing my thyroid soon... they did blood work on me yesterday to check homrones.

my cousin, who's about 4 yrs older than me had thyroid cancer and had to have it removed when she was my age... could that be related?

one thing the doc didn't comment on too much is why my pelvic exams are always painful... they do the lil endo hand check on my uterus and overies to see if the tissue is hardening due to scar tissue and inflammation.... mine never seems to be, though i've read lots of places that pain does not equate severity of endometriosis... so i've never ruled out endo for me.

she hinted that she knows why my exams hurt.... i actually spent the day yesterday bleeding into my panties and had to buy one of those cheap pads from the ladies restrooms.. grrr

The pain from the exam is often related to the skills and roughness of the doctor. My ob/gyn I love to talk to because she is a great person however when it comes to exams she is about as delicate as a mechanic. That bottlebrush thing they use hurts like hell anyway.

Also if you can schedule exams when you are not close to menstruating you will sometimes have less pain or higher pain tolerance depending on how you look at it. Also eating something sweet right before the exam helps. Well they now give sugar water to babies before taking a blood sample because they found sugar has an effect on people's pain tolerance. I worked in NICU briefly and they had little sugar water packets to feed to babies before sticking them. That's also why kids are given lollipops in the drs office before a shot. Put a pack of Lifesavers or something similar in your pocket to eat in waiting room. Make sure it has real sugar or sucrose and not the artificial sweetners because those don't work.

Thyroid disease is considered autoimmune. So is diabetes, rhematoid arthritis along with the diseases most people associate with autoimmunity such as Lupus. If one person in family has an autoimmune illness then probably everyone else in family will have one too, but not always the same one. Some people will have multiple ones. Hypothyroidism runs in families so yes if one person had a problem everyone else, especially all females, should get tested. It does not mean everyone will get thyroid cancer though so don't worry.

I can tell you all of my aunts and uncles, all of my female cousins, my grandma and I are on thyroid meds. My mom won't go to the dr but its obvious she is hypo too. My dad is also hypothyroid.

One of my obsessions is the endocrine system so please forgive my rantings. But people need to know if you live in area with fluoridated water you are almost 100% guaranteed to have hypothyroidism by mid-30's if not sooner. Few people know that until the 1940's the treatment for people who had hyperthryoidism (too fast) was to give them fluoride because it slows down ie:kills the thyroid gland.

I moved to area with no fluoridation and do not use fluoride toothpaste. If you live in fluoridated area a reverse osmosis filter is only thing that removes the chemical. However you must avoid any prepackaged beverages bottled in your area such as Coca Cola as that will have fluoride. All Tea also has fluoride as the tea plant pulls naturally occuring fluoride from the soil. If you drink reverse osmosis water you will need to take a daily mineral supplement as the filter removes all minerals and some trace minerals you will only get from your water unless you supplement.

Soy will also kill the thyroid as it is an endocrine disruptor. It will also cause female reproductive problems. Actually its messes up males too. If you are diagnosed with hypothyroidism there is a lot you will need to learn such as avoiding eating a lot of certain vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower because they also interupt thyroid function.