How old were you when you got diagnosed?

[Macrina]

i kinda feel it would be counter productive to be repeating myself in two threads about the same thing... unless it was something specifically pcos related... cos ive decided to stop using my pcos as an excuse... and get on with it... cos we all have something we could grasp onto to stop us doing what we need to do...

i dont say this to insult anyone, that is not my intent... but this is just the only way i can do this... the more excuses i give myself not to do this the harder it will be... so im talking down any excuses and getting on with it...

Oh, it wasn't a pressure thing, just a "feel free to stop by/fyi" thing. It's there for anyone who wants to chime in, but it's no biggie if you don't. Like I said, I might stop by the plus-sized forum and check it out.

And I see what you mean about the danger of using PCOS as an excuse. In my case, the diagnosis explained some problems I'd been having, and gave me renewed energy to tackle the weight problem -- I finally found hope, knowing my problems were actually fixable. But it would be dangerous for me to take that as some sort of license to stay fat... regardless of how I got this way, I still need to put in some very hard work to get healthy.

So no worries! Blessings on your weight-loss journey!

 

[purplecloth]

And I see what you mean about the danger of using PCOS as an excuse. In my case, the diagnosis explained some problems I'd been having, and gave me renewed energy to tackle the weight problem -- I finally found hope, knowing my problems were actually fixable. But it would be dangerous for me to take that as some sort of license to stay fat... regardless of how I got this way, I still need to put in some very hard work to get healthy.

oh totally, for me it explained a lot as well! it explained why i was one of the last girls in my class to get my period even though i was the biggest (periods are brought on partly by your weight as a trigger to the body that you are maturing ie, if you drop below 6 stone generally your periods will stop)
it explained why, no matter what i did it was always so hard for me to lose weight, why it took me walking 5 miles a day, working out in the morning and the evening, running twice a week and eating minimal food to lose weight at a crazily slow speed while i was at uni... and why as soon as i stopped doing that it all came back on in double time...
it explained my crazy mood swings... even as a child my mum said there was a never happy medium with me... i was either as high as a kite or down in the dumps... why i cried easily... why emotional situations were hard for me to handle...

but for far too long its been a handle... something to crasp onto to say 'losing weight is too hard, i cant do it, i have PCOS i dont want to have to work out like crazy, be obsessive about my food just to lose weight slowly'

but it seems since i threw away that attitude its not coming off slowly... at least, i wouldnt call 13 pounds in 4 weeks slow...

yes its taking working out every every day and doing slimming world... but its time to throw away excuses for me and do this... i have too many reasons to do this, and not enough reasons not to... and ive never had this motivation before! even when i got married i never had motivation to lose weight...

ive made a list of why im doing this... and it is my hope and prayer than losing the weight will also lose the PCOS cos the docs do think it is weight related and we need an answer on that... and the only way to get that answer is to lose the weight... and as hard as thats going to be... im going to do it...

i refuse to get to 30 at more than 17 stone...

and for far too long ive been using pcos as an excuse... and i think its dangerous to me...

it is not my intention to insult or offend other people about this... this is merely my own attitude about this, cos its the only way i can be about this else i will fall back into my old habits, and if people are happy about their own attitude all credit to them... that was me for a long time, but for me, it seems like someone has flicked a switch in my head...

waffling over....

 

[RebeccaJO]

Alot has happened to me since I was on here last. My surgery for a hystrectomy was for September 24th. After doing an ultrasound, my GYN didn't like what he saw. So he moved up my surgery (hystrectomy) to September 10th. On September 7th, I had an appointment to see my doctor to dicuss my surgery and to do lab work and all that good stuff. He told me that doing the vaginal surgery is not an option because I have had 8 other surgeries to my abdomon in the past year and there is alot of scare tissue that it takes a long, long while to heal.

So he said he would have to cut my adbomon from side to side like a c-section. And he would have to take out everything. Yes my urterus, ovarys, leaving me with nothing. I am only 32, I don't want to go through menopause at a young age. I don't want to be on hormone pills just to help me along until after menopause. But so far things are good.

I was scared, like any normal person would be. My husband (God bless his heart) tried to be strong, but this was my 9th surgery, within a year, so scary, yeah alot. They gave me something to calm me down, I don't know what it was, but I didn't have a care in the world. Then I remember someone saying count backwards from 10. I said, "10". Then I woke up in the recovery room. I came out of the surgery just fine. but the bad news was, my husband was there, but had to leave early to go and get our kids off of the bus. We couldn't get anyone to get them for us. We asked family, and at first they said yeah they'll do it, but when it came down to it, they couldn't for some odd reason. Leaving us hanging.

I hate it when people say, anything you need, you just let me know. And when you really need them, they act like your asking for a kidney. My church family didn't even come to visit me in the hospital, or even call. It wasn't long distance. I was about 15 minutes from all of their homes. I came home Wednesday, no one from church called. My family didn't call. The fellow Police Officers that my husband works with, called all evening to check on me. that is what you call a close brotherhood.

It has been 10 days since my surgery, and I think I am doing good. I can't walk as fast as I would like, but I can walk. I still need healing, and it takes at least 4-6 weeks. Hopefully this will be my last surgery forever!!!

 

[Nobility]

purplecloth You might want to research about insulin resistance and whether you might benefit from being on metformin

 

[purplecloth]

purplecloth You might want to research about insulin resistance and whether you might benefit from being on metformin

my doctor wont prescribe metformin unless i want to get pregnant...

 

[Nobility]

Oh ok

 

[~RENEE~]

40

 

[ladyinwaiting16]

Hi, my doctor just diagnosed me with PCOS this year.

 

[Tsadde]

I was in my late 40's when I was finally diagnosed. By that time I had full-blown diabetes, was high risk for heart and vascular disease, and had hypothyroid and chronic depression and dozens of other health problems.

I had been told before that I probably had it, but it didn't matter since I wasn't trying to conceive. If anyone tells you it doesn't matter don't believe them! Untreated hyperinsulism damages your whole body. Please get it treated when you are young.

BTW part of what delayed my diagnosis was that testosterone levels were normal. It took a much more sensitive test to show that other male hormones were too high.

 

[St. Helens]

I was 37 when diagnosed. It was what was called acquired PCOS. I developed it as a result of depokote therapy for Bipolar Disorder. I had started to bald on top yet had heavy hair every place else. The depakote was withdrawn and I was switched to Gabapentin. That brought only a slight improvement. By then was was developing liver disease because of all the excess weight. Two years later was was switch to Topiramate, a medicine that did not have weight gain as a side effect. The weight literally fell off. My voice has never recovered. It is still a deep basso. My hair, though is ruined. My head is now covered with a dense down about a half inch long. Long hair only grows about the ears and around the back. Friends like to rub it because it is soft. I won't mention what it did to my face!

 

[Katryna]

my doctor wont prescribe metformin unless i want to get pregnant...

You need the metformin for other reasons... I'm 50 and have had a partial hysterectomy (uterus removed) --- I'm DEFINATELY not trying to get pregnant, and I'm on metformin.

Gals, if your family practitioner has no interest or knowledge in PCOS or "bah-humbugs" it, you need to see someone who specializes in disorders of the endocrine system --- that's what PCOS is. It's not just about the ovaries, it's a very ill-named disorder. You need to see an ENDOCRINOLOGIST who is up on the latest stuff, not just diabetes and thyroids... call and specifically ask if he/she treats PCOS, and if not, CALL ANOTHER *endocrinologist* until you find one who does.

 

[Katryna]

Here is another explanation of why PCOS women need to be treated, regardless of their child-bearing desires; I got this from the Sparkpeople website's PCOS section.

********WHERE IT BEGAN********
All PCOSers ARE IR - or you wouldn’t be PCOS. (Emphisizing, not yelling)

Insulin Resistance means that your body does not respond to insulin as it is supposed to (as in all PCOSers, prediabetics and diabetics, not picked up in a GTT) and it can mean that your body is producing too much insulin to compensate (not always true, picked up in a GTT). This is the core problem to PCOS, Prediabetes and Diabetes.

When we have a GTT many PCOSers have probably registered "within normal ranges" which according to numbers, you are not IR BUT, simply because you are PCOS, you are indeed IR (as will be explained below in the "teacher" scenario). Also, it DOES NOT mean that your numbers are "normal" for *your* body nor does it mean that your body is *listening* to the instructions of the insulin - hence IR.

PCOS bodies have a difficult time "listening" to the instruction of insulin, which is also called IR.

Take this scenario:
KEY
Head Teacher = Insulin
Student-teacher = other hormones
Principal = Endocrine system
Principals Office = Endocrine gland
Kids = Sugar
Rooms = Fat, liver and muscle cells
Hallway = bloodstream

Let’s say that there’s a room full of kids with the head teacher. Kids come into the hallway and is told by the head teacher to go into the next room. Not all do, just some. In some cases, more head teachers are needed to help open the doors to the next room so the kids can proceed.

Now, not all PCOSers suffer from this. This is what is picked up in a GTT [a test when you drink something and they take your blood - which should be absolutely no less then 4 hours, preferably 5 hours to catch this factor - most PCOSers don't register until the fourth hour].

Another form of IR that ALL PCOSers suffer:
The head teacher tells the kids to go into the next room. They do so but the door to the room is stubborn and isn't always opening to let each kid in. This is always true in PCOSers. This is not picked up in a GTT. Thus the kids and teacher stay in the hallways making lots of noise (stress).

When the head teacher cant control the students, the Principal eventually hears this noise in the hallway and goes crazy. The principal doesn’t know what to do or how to command all the student-teachers, thus, symptoms vary according to how all the other student-teachers are acting.

Metformin corrects the door problem, making the doors easier to open to allow the students to come into the room. Other drugs are Avandia, Avandamet (avandia/met combo), Actos, Gluberide, etc

 

[fadeaway872]

20

 

[learningtoenjoyhim]

16...
Though I'd had symptoms since I was 13. I never have had regular periods, and the summer between 7th and 9th grade I put on fifty pounds.
I've still never been able to sucessfully lose weight, only gain it. I'm a pretty active person, but I'm more than a 100 pounds overweight.
I didn't get the excess hair until I was about 18, but now I have to pluck all time.

 

[Supplanter]

I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was 23, just a little over a year ago. I never had regular periods. I was put on birth control pills at 16 for a quick fix, but eventually took myself off of them, because I wanted to rely on God to take care of me. I had a health crisis with my blood sugar in February 2007 and finally found a doctor that put two and two together and told me that my dysmetabolic issuses were related to PCOS. Before doctors had focused on my weight and made me feel like I just wasn't doing enough to help myself. I am now on a very good medication and diet and exercise regimen that has helped me miraculously. I am a newbii, and I am so ahppy to find this forum with other women who can understand my struggles.

 

[JesusFreak2008]

You need the metformin for other reasons... I'm 50 and have had a partial hysterectomy (uterus removed) --- I'm DEFINATELY not trying to get pregnant, and I'm on metformin.

Gals, if your family practitioner has no interest or knowledge in PCOS or "bah-humbugs" it, you need to see someone who specializes in disorders of the endocrine system --- that's what PCOS is. It's not just about the ovaries, it's a very ill-named disorder. You need to see an ENDOCRINOLOGIST who is up on the latest stuff, not just diabetes and thyroids... call and specifically ask if he/she treats PCOS, and if not, CALL ANOTHER *endocrinologist* until you find one who does.

I echo this. I was eight when I was diagnosed with PCOS. I have PCOS, Diabetes Type 2, and Thyroid Disease. All Endocrine Disorders.

 

[kpetty16]

Like my depression and social phobia, I was self-diagnosed. I have had it for over 25 years. A few months ago I did a search on google about facial hair and found out about pcos. I have had EVERY SINGLE symptom I have found listed. My doc put me down as "possible pcos", but didn't run any test to find out for sure because my worst compaint right now is facial hair and weight loss.

I suppose 25 years ago, not much was known about pcos or if it even had a name, but it still makes me mad that I have suffered for so long with all of those symptoms when help might have been out there for me.

I am on metformin. Last winter I lost 14 lbs without any special diet and no excersize. I'm hoping the metformin was the cause of that and I will be able to eat more normally now that I am back on it. I have been on a pretty low calorie diet for a few month now and know I need to raise my caloric intake, but I simply can't eat anymore than I do now without gaining weight. *sigh*

I'm also on spironolactone for the facial hair. It is really bad. Doc started me at 25mg. I knew it wouldn't work because the problem is so severe. I have to shave twice a day. I have recently gone up to 50 mg and I don't know if it's my imagination, but the hair seems a little finer and not quite as black. I hope it's not wishful thinking, because I have suffered with the embarrassment for too long. Someone actually thought I had dirt on my chin, so I know people can see it. It's not an over active imagination. It's a real problem that distresses me terribly. If anyone feels like praying about it for me, I'd appreciate it.

Anyway, to answer the question (sorry I got sidetracked) I was diagnosed this year and I'm 42.

God bless,
Kim

 

[mistyavalon]

I was 15, but I had both ovaries removed then because I had a very severe case (i.e., one was enlarged and pre-cancerous and the other one was necrotic/"dead").

 

[Caitlin.ann]

Twenty..I was just diagnosed in March.

 

[Just Believe]

I was just diagnosed and I'm 21, but I've suspected PCOS after much online research at age 16. The doc I had kept blaming my weight gain, patchy skin, and hair growth on potential diabetes and now I realize she was only half right. I kept telling her my periods were irregular, but she always brushed it off or it on my blamed weight and said to start excercising.

I wish I had been dx'ed a long time ago so the proper steps could've been taken, but now I have no insurance and with a pre-exisiting condition who knows if I'll ever afford it again.