Wednesday, October 12, 2011

My PCOS story - Holly M.


Holly M.
Day 2 Challenge- My PCOS Story

My PCOS story is just beginning. When I was 18 years old I started noticing that my periods were becoming irregular. I would go for months without a period. Out of concern, I went to see my doctor at the time who ran a Pap Smear and explained it away as just a hormone imbalace. Over the years the cycles would become more erratic or sporatic with no real indication on when it would start or stop. I started developing severe menstral pains so bad they would bring me to my knees. Heeding my doctors advice I chalked it up to nothing more than a hormonal imbalance and stress. I tried to deal with it as best I could.
 
Then, in December 2010 after 20 days of menstration I decided it was time to revist my doctor. Thankfully for me, I had switched doctors since my initial misdiagnosis. After a barrage of testing to rule out cancer, several blood tests, and a sonogram I was given life altering news. I had PCOS. Suddenly all of my peculiar annomolies made sense. The unsightly excessive body hair (remarkably it's all baby blonde, but still noticable nonetheless), the extra weight around the middle, the night sweats, the irregular menstrual cycles, the ovary pain, the baby fat in the face that never really seems to go away. My .sonogram had revealed so many ovarian cysts that my doctor didn't think my ovaries had released any eggs in years. I was labeled "barren" with a slim-to-none chance that I would ever produce offspring. Since I never saw children in my future to begin with, that last discovery hasn't impacted my life.
 
So at 33 years old, my PCOS story is just beginning. It's been quite an adventure so far, but I am glad I have found there are others like me who struggle in weight loss, are baffled at those pesky little hairs that seem to pop up in the oddest of places, play the medication management game, and seek new ways each day to better improve the quality of their life and live with PCOS.

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