PCOS anyone? polycystic ovary syndrome

[mrspiatt]

Does anyone here have PCOS?
There are a couple more tests that will need to be done, but it sounds like DD1 probably has this.

Symptoms (I've placed an X next to symptoms DD1 has)
X Acne
X Weight gain and trouble losing weight
X Extra hair on the face and body. Often women get thicker and darker facial hair and more hair on the chest, belly, and back
X Thinning hair on the scalp.
X Irregular periods. Often women with PCOS have fewer than nine periods a year. Some women have no periods. Others have very heavy bleeding.
Fertility problems. Many women who have PCOS have trouble getting pregnant (infertility).
X Depression.
I don't know about fertility and she says she doesn't want kids, but she has all the other symptoms as well as pain in her abdomen on a daily basis which the doctor says is probably related.

Is there anything she can do to help with symptoms? Is that a stupid question?

[ampaints]

I believe hiimjamie has it. Also NariaDreaming. They might be able to tell you more.

[mrspiatt]

Jan 17, 2017 20:15:16 GMT -5 ampaints said:

I believe hiimjamie has it. Also NariaDreaming. They might be able to tell you more.

Thanks!

[NariaDreaming]

Honestly, the only thing that makes it suck less is birth control pills. The one thing to look out for is if she's going 6/8 months without a period, it can result in endometrial hyperplasia.

And if she fails a fasting A1C and/or a 1 and 3 hour GTT, metformin can help with the weight issues.

The nice thing about PCOS is that it's not always an infertility death sentence. I know quite a few women with PCOS who have gotten pregnant without assistance.

Also, hypothyroidism tends to walk hand in hand with PCOS, so have her doc run a TSH, free T3, free T4 and TPO antibody test. Most general docs and OBs won't treat a TSH under 5, but most endocrinologists and reproductive endocrinologist prefer to see TSH under 2.5. I can definitely tell the difference when my TSH is above two and under two. And hypothyroidism can also make it harder to lose weight.

Tag me or PM me anytime. I've been anovulatory since I was 15 or so, so I'm getting to the point where I've basically live half my life with this piece of shit disease.

That being said, in college I took up rowing and managed to drop my weight significantly. It's harder for those of us with PCOS, but not impossible.

[Deleted]

My cousin has it. Here's what she said:

"My symptoms are: infertility and excessive weight gain. My body was overproducing insulin and storing it as fat. I really stuck to a strict diet and hired a trainer for my wedding and barely lost 3 lbs. that was one of the first signs. I have thin hair but that may be from my moms side. I was severely depressed and anxious. Like couldn't get out of bed. Now I have every reason to be depressed and I'm so much better. Very irregular periods.

I think pregnancy and breastfeeding balanced my hormones

I was on the highest dose of metformin to help me get pregnant

The metformin will probably stabilize her hormones

Exercising helps."

[mrspiatt]

Jan 17, 2017 20:25:07 GMT -5 NariaDreaming said:

Honestly, the only thing that makes it suck less is birth control pills. The one thing to look out for is if she's going 6/8 months without a period, it can result in endometrial hyperplasia.

And if she fails a fasting A1C and/or a 1 and 3 hour GTT, metformin can help with the weight issues.

The nice thing about PCOS is that it's not always an infertility death sentence. I know quite a few women with PCOS who have gotten pregnant without assistance.

Also, hypothyroidism tends to walk hand in hand with PCOS, so have her doc run a TSH, free T3, free T4 and TPO antibody test. Most general docs and OBs won't treat a TSH under 5, but most endocrinologists and reproductive endocrinologist prefer to see TSH under 2.5. I can definitely tell the difference when my TSH is above two and under two. And hypothyroidism can also make it harder to lose weight.

Tag me or PM me anytime. I've been anovulatory since I was 15 or so, so I'm getting to the point where I've basically live half my life with this piece of shit disease.

That being said, in college I took up rowing and managed to drop my weight significantly. It's harder for those of us with PCOS, but not impossible.

Thank you! She is 20 and has always had abnormal periods. Her depression is pretty bad (she's diagnosed bipolar) and now we're wondering how much of that can be attributed to this.
Her doc just prescribed her a low hormone birth control pill, but she's not starting it until after her bleeding regulates. She had the implant put in her arm about 9 months ago and she's been bleeding ever since.
We've had ER visits due to pain. She's always been on the hairy side, but over the last year the hair on her head has been falling out and is noticeably thinner, her arm hair and the rest is as thick as ever.
As much as it sucks to say this, I kind of hope this is what it is because I feel like it will give us so many answers.

[ampaints]

I really hope you get some answers for your dd1 mrspiatt! She's such a sweet girl and has been through so much in the past 2 years.

[mrspiatt]

Jan 17, 2017 21:23:31 GMT -5 @betweenthelines said:

My cousin has it. Here's what she said:

"My symptoms are: infertility and excessive weight gain. My body was overproducing insulin and storing it as fat. I really stuck to a strict diet and hired a trainer for my wedding and barely lost 3 lbs. that was one of the first signs. I have thin hair but that may be from my moms side. I was severely depressed and anxious. Like couldn't get out of bed. Now I have every reason to be depressed and I'm so much better. Very irregular periods.

I think pregnancy and breastfeeding balanced my hormones

I was on the highest dose of metformin to help me get pregnant

The metformin will probably stabilize her hormones

Exercising helps."

Thank you!
She's always been on the heavier side except for twice in her life where she was starving herself (I'm not sure if it was intentional or just depression) those are the 2 times she attempted suicide. The depression and anxiety are terrifying to me and we still haven't found the right mix of medication for her.
I will urge her to be more active, she exercises some, but not daily.

[mrspiatt]

Jan 17, 2017 21:29:00 GMT -5 ampaints said:

I really hope you get some answers for your dd1 mrspiatt! She's such a sweet girl and has been through so much in the past 2 years.

Thanks mama, I hope so too.

[NariaDreaming]

So in 2012 I bled for a year straight. Like, anywhere from spotting to hemmoraghing on any given day. I'm fairly certain I wrecked an airline seat on southwest from bleeding heavily for a two hour flight

It ended up being hyperplasia from having not shed my lining in so long. The only thing that fixed it was a D&C followed by 3 months of heavy duty progestin therapy.

Since she already has mental health struggles, I would be very careful with high dose progestins such as provera if they ever go that route. I ended up mildly suicidal when they increased my provera to the higher dose. I did much better on megace with fewer mental health side effects.

[mrspiatt]

Jan 17, 2017 21:33:57 GMT -5 NariaDreaming said:

So in 2012 I bled for a year straight. Like, anywhere from spotting to hemmoraghing on any given day. I'm fairly certain I wrecked an airline seat on southwest from bleeding heavily for a two hour flight

It ended up being hyperplasia from having not shed my lining in so long. The only thing that fixed it was a D&C followed by 3 months of heavy duty progestin therapy.

Since she already has mental health struggles, I would be very careful with high dose progestins such as provera if they ever go that route. I ended up mildly suicidal when they increased my provera to the higher dose. I did much better on megace with fewer mental health side effects.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure she continues to remind them of her depression. I'm terrified of her going down that path again.

[hiimjamie]

I do have PCOS! I was actually in a study at Yale for it when we lived in CT. It was basically testing the effects of treating the weight loss/blood sugar issues component with Metformin. PCOS can also cause the lining if your uterus to be thicker then normal, the Metformin also helped w that. It did, however, make me feel like shit. Lots of upset stomachs while my body was getting used to it. As for weight loss, the study came with a nutritionist and she suggested a diet of 100g or less of carbs a day. It was right before my wedding so I decided to do 50g or less a day and it worked amazingly well. I lost a bunch of weight and the nutritionist was really happy with me. As for acne, I started struggling w really bad acne in my 20s the ONLY thing that helped it was 2 rounds of Accutaine a few years apart. It was a miracle for me, but a side affect of the drug can be depression.