Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

To begin. My name is Hillary. I am 19 years old, unemployed, registered in college with no classes (cant afford them) and chronic pain from a car accident one year ago in October.

My symptoms BEFORE the ultrasound.

I have had an irregular period since the 9th or 10th grade, age 14/15. I have had terrible bouts of cramps and non existent menstrual cycles for a year and then things like recently where I bled for 8 weeks straight. I have skin tags, severe acne (boils) which still plagues me at 19 and have not been cured with ANY antibiotic. Believe me I have tried them all. At 15 years old i began experienced strange bout of pure rage and anger and lashing out at everyone. I also experienced SEVERE depression which put me in the hospital for a suicide attempt. Which went away around the time I started taking birth control and began taking Prozac. I became overweight, technically obese around this time as well. I had a random weight lost of 50 lbs in the 12th grade only to gain 70 lbs all within a year. Today I am still obese but have lost 15 lbs since my worst weight of 250 lbs at 5'5. I look very skinny for someone who is 235 lbs because I wear all my weight in my stomach which I can hide with high waisted jeans. I won't say I have excess hair but enough that is not normal on a girl; chest hair, upper lip hair and on my stomach. I also suffer from acanthosis nigricans on my inner thighs. Around the age of 15 I had blood tests done only to find out I had high cholesterol which went away with my weight loss in the 12th grade but who knows now. I was tested for hypothyroidism SEVERAL times by my incompetent family physician (at the time) which all came back negative. For only the past year or so I have had pain on my left side. During sex, in certain positions that hit my left side of my vaginal wall hurt extraordinarily and after sex and even during sex I will get EXTREME cramping which leads me to bleed vaginally afterwards whether or not I have my period.

Now to the present.

As I said about my periods, recently in May, I experienced 8 weeks constant of bleeding with cramping and big clots. I went to my new family doctor thinking I had had a miscarriage. My fiance of 3 years and I use birth control (injections) and condoms EVERYTIME. He sent me to get an ultrasound which I received in July. I only just, on Sept 15 asked for the results of this ultrasound. I found out i had an enlarged left ovary and around 20 follicles in my left ovary leading my doctor to believe I have PCOS. I have a second ultrasound on July 10th to confirm these results and then I will be referred to a gynecologist if they come back the same.

I feel overwhelmed. At first I was worried about conceiving. Then I was worried about all the other symptoms that could manifest. Then I began to cry when I started to connect the dots of everything that has happened that can be explained by PCOS and my symptoms over the years. I thought of how my life could have been so different if my old family physician hadn't been so incompetent to know hypothyroidism can be mistaken for PCOS. I am so angry and sad at how OBVIOUS this was and how my doctors never saw it. I went to the doctors enough times the past couple of years for different things always mentioning a symptom here, a symptom there. Enough that I'm friends with the woman who works reception and we go to the movies together who is probably 20 years older than me. I worry about how my weight will affect my health so much worse with PCOS and how I cant lose weight no matter what I do.

I don't even have the diagnosis yet and all I feel is scared if I don't have it, nothing will make sense anymore. PCOS connects my whole adolescence and adult life together and I feel relieved but scared I got excited for nothing. The worrying thing is NO ONE in my family has every had PCOS but I don't know for sure whether because there was a gap between 1910 (around) to 1991 where my family gave birth to NOTHING but males until my sister in 1991, my one female cousin in 1993 and two 2nd cousins 1994 and 1996 don't have them although they range between 4 years older and 1 year younger than me so who knows.

I need support in this. I have a very wonderful fiance who supports me even with the impending diagnosis of PCOS but my one friend, who doesn't want to have children doesn't understand my worries and concerns and stress over this. I told my parents, they don't seem worried but my sister did which makes me feel supported. My fiance doesn't seem convinced of my PCOS at least until my doctor diagnoses it but says he will love me either way and I believe him because we are very honest but I understand the possibility of him one day not being okay with it and the consequences but I cant change that can I?

I need to feel the love from my beautiful PC community who has supported me for years today.

I was just diagnosed with PCOS on Thursday. No one in my family has had it either, but I did have relatives a couple generations back who had ovarian tumors and such.

I have PCOS and I have had many of the symptoms that you mention. It can be managed. It does help to have a doctor willing to work with you whether or not you are trying to get pregnant.

Keep an eye out for signs of pre-diabetes. For me, the difficulty with insulin resistance goes hand in hand w/pcos ---the good news for me, if my blood sugars are normal than so are my cycles. It isn't the same for everyone but I have met others w/coexisting dx's. Many believe they are related.