PCOS

It has taken me a while to pluck up the courage to write about something so personal to me!

PCOS – Polycystic Ovary Syndrome affects 1 out of 5 women. It is cause by cysts forming on the ovaries which in some cases can cause infertility and other symptoms such as being over weight, acne, abnormal hair growth, abnormal periods or non at all.

It has only just been recognised in recent years and there is no cure at all, just medication that can help.

My Story

It all started when I was 18 years old, I was getting married and my family did not want me to fall pregnant at such an early age, so I was advised to go on the pill, within 3 months I had gained 1 stone, not happy I went back to the docs and he gave me another one to try by six months I had gained yet another stone in weight.

I stopped the pill as I was getting really bad headaches as well, but my weight gain spiralled out of control and so did my non existent periods and talk about mood swings, I could have killed someone and not even known about it.

I was referred from one Doctor to another had countless tests which all came back with nothing, due to the lack of information on the condition, no one knew what they were looking for!

After years of suffering I changed my Doctors and when I went to see him, he looked at his medical book and referred me to the gynie clinic. They started various tests on me including a tummy scan and also an ovary scan. Well would you know, 10 years later one doctor finally found out what was wrong with me?

At the age of 28, I was finally getting help, first came the different pills, non of which worked, my depression got worse and they ended up giving me Prozac. At this stage I did not really care as I was off me head, I would go missing for hours and when asked “where were you?” I could not answer as I had not got a bloody clue.

I stopped the Prozac myself and returned back to the hospital.

This was the final stage, I had tried all the treatment, I had constant pain in my tummy and still did not have periods, I sat in the doctors office and we agreed that the next step was a hysterectomy, I was booked in for March 2001, hopefully this would be the end to all the pains etc.

After the op, I changed my life completely got divorced and started seeing Paul, He is the light of my life, and understood about PCOS and the side effects it had.

September 2001 I moved in with Paul and changed doctors again as things were still not right. After several visits to the hospital over here, I finally feel like we’re getting somewhere with the latest visit last week resulting in a new diet and some new pills to start taking. We will wait and see what happens this time.

Debbie