Nobody reads this anway

I have PCOS. The next question I'm usually asked is "what is PCOS?" What is PCOS? It's more common than most people realize and it's still very unknown. PCOS stands for Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, it used to be known in the medical field as Poly Cystic Ovarian Disorder but for some reason the medical gods decided to change the name to Syndrome. Whether they call it Syndrome or Disorder it's the same suckiness from start to finish.  What I've found from talking with other women who have PCOS is that symptoms are different from one person to the next and the treatments vary as well as diagnoses. Yes no one doctor can agree on how to diagnose PCOS, this is a contributing factor to many women being mis-diagnosed or not diagnosed sooner. One common belief, even among medical professionals, is that PCOS causes infertitility. This CAN be true but is not ALWAYS true. It seems to depend on the severity of your PCOS whether or not it will cause infertility. For instance I know myself, and at least two other women who were able to conceive with PCOS. Another common belief is that all women suffer from the same secondary symptoms of the disorder. What are the secondary symptoms? They are myriad and vary in intensity here is a list of secondary symptoms:

• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Irregular periods also called Oligomenorrhea
• Weight gain, Overweight (difficulty losing weight)
• Difficulty losing weight
• Excess hair growth on face and body- calledHirsutism
• Darkened patches of skin
• Skin tags
• Infertility
• Thinning hair
• Insulin resistance
• Type 2 Diabetes
• High cholesterol and high triglycerides
• High blood pressure
• Cysts on the ovaries (multiple)
• Pelvic pain
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Sleep apnea (when breathing stops for a short period of time while asleep)
• Decreased sex drive
• Increase in stress levels

Did you just read that list and say to yourself "well gee I've had all of those at one point in time or another", yeah most women will experience all of those symptoms throughout their lifetime, what sets a PCOS person aside from everyday women is the severity and frequency of all of those symptoms together. Someone with PCOS will experience all or most of those symptoms on a regular basis. Now remember ladies and gentleman THERE IS NO SINGLE TEST TO DIAGNOSE PCOS! Only a doctor can diagnose PCOS and each one has a different way of doing it. I've heard of women whose doctors sent them to Endocrinologists for a hormone panel, doctors who have done blood testing right in their own office, doctors who use sonography on the ovaries to determine if a patient has PCOS, I've even heard of a Dermatologist diagnosing a patient with PCOS. What I'm trying to say is that this disease is just as varied as the women who have it. 

PCOS is very common it affect 1 out of 15 women and yet the many women can go for years being mis-diagnosed or un-diagnosed all together. PCOS usually begins to show up in the teen years and many doctors refer to it as "progressive" syndrome, meaning it starts out with milder symptoms in your late mid to late teens and gets progressively worse as the woman gets older.

PCOS can be treated with a combination of birth control and metformin (glucophase). This is the generally accepted form of medical treatment for most women with PCOS. The birth control helps control the hormone imbalance and the glucophase helps control the Insulin Resistance or IR for short. Medical Treatment can vary depending on the patients goals and outcomes they want to achieve, for example is the patient considering pregnancy, menopausal, or does not want to conceive. For more information on the different types of treatments depending on where you are in your life I highly recommend the website http://www.pcosfoundation.org/types-of-treatment. Since there is no cure for PCOS a woman diagnosed with it should consult with her doctor early and often to discuss different types of treatment for different phases of her life. Lifestyle Modification will also go a long way toward helping alleviate a lot of the symptoms associated with PCOS. Here is a short list of Lifestyle Modification that you can consider and discuss with your doctor:

Lifestyle Modifications:

• Getting educated with nutrition- finding someone that specializes in PCOS or Diabetes
• Learning about nutrition labels
• Glycemic Index (GI and Glycemic Load (GL)) – learning the GI and GL
• Modifying your diet
• Eating and learning about well balanced meals
• Exercise- both cardiovascular and weight training
• Meditation for Anxiety, Breathing, Depression and Stress
• Non Smoking

Weight Loss:

• Medically supervised weight loss programs- General medical studies indicate that lowering weight can lower disease risk factors.
• Bariatric surgery- In some cases this surgical procedure may help women suffering and considered Obese. Check with your health care professional to see if this is right for you.

 Alternative methods may include the following: 

• Laser Hair removal
• Hormonal Treatments
• Vitamins and Minerals (best if gotten from a natural food source)

As you can see from the very small amount of information that I've touched on here in this blog entry Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome is not an easy, or straightforward disease. Each woman may experience different symptoms at different times in her life and may require separate treatments. The most important bit of advice I could give to a fellow PCOS "survivor" is to seek medical help as soon as you suspect you may have this disease and work to be pro-active about your health. It's your body and you only get one.