To start off, yes, I think it should be public as long as we don't share anything that would put us or anyone we mention's safety in jeopardy, which I know is a given, but is worth mentioning. I think the benefits of sharing our experiences could help more people than we imagine.
Suzy and Kristina's posts have brought up a major point that I think is worth mentioning. Our Heavenly Father's role in our struggle and the spiritual guidance and comfort we can use are left out of many PCOS discussion boards and need to be brought to light. I've heard that up to 10% of women in the world, struggle with PCOS. Pulling some quick stats off a google search (sorry girls, the <geek> in me is coming out here), there are about 3,291,805,000 women in the world. 33% of the world's population claims to be Christian (and for simplicity's sake I'm going to assume that there are probably equal amounts of men and women that claim Christianity). So, about 33%, or 1,086,295,650 of the women in the world are probably Christian. 10% of Christian women is 108,629,565.
So, up to 108 and a half MILLION Christian women have PCOS (end </geekiness>). This is a pretty big audience that needs to remember the critical advantage we have in our struggle. So thank you for reminding us of this Suz and Kristina. Let us all remember that we are not alone in our adversities and we are welcome to call on the Lord any moment we may need the smallest bit of help, comfort, encouragement or courage to be our best selves.
K, so my story starts back in high school too, but I didn't know what was going on at the time. My mom and I assumed I was just a hormonal teenage girl going through the struggles of puberty. Little did I know. After family scripture study and before breakfast chores, I would wolf down my oatmeal and then take a nap until the bus came (or Mom called us down for our homeschool schedule to start) or until the last possible second before I had to walk out the door for school. Constant tiredness was a struggle since I was about 13 and continues to this very day. I've learned now that going to bed at 10pm and waking up at 9am will still leave me a bit groggy, but at least I can function normally. Any less than 9 hours of sleep and I am in a daze or pining for a nap by 2pm. Thus, my early years in college really do seem like a blur and only the frozen wind of Rexburg could pull me out of said daze.
As you may or may not know, I was diagnosed with an eating disorder my junior year of high school. I later found out that this is not uncommon for girls with PCOS to develop because of the extra pounds that won't go away. Thankfully the anorexia is, as my mom put it, "a million dollar experience, you wouldn't pay 10 cents to have again." If you have any questions for me on that, feel free to ask but I'll continue with more PCOS-relevant stuff for now.
When I was about 14 or 15 started noticing side-burns that were darker than most girls and someone (out of good-intention) made a comment that I should look into nair for it or talk to my mom. As much as I wish I could forget it, those words scare me to this day. My hormones have cursed me with dark hair and there isn't much I can do about it. So ever since that day, I've shaved my face and chin. It took a lot of effort to keep it a secret and my now husband didn't know about it until we were almost engaged. Thankfully he helped me realize that I was beautiful no matter what and that it was not a deal-breaker (despite what I had thought for so many years).
Since middle school, I've always weighed more than 145. In my high school health class, my desk was very close to the teacher's desk and at one point during the term, he had everyone come up to his desk and get weighed. I unfortunately saw too many 110's, 120's and a few 130 or 135's from the girls and diagnosed myself completely overweight. That instance is partially what I believe led to the eating disorder. However, I look back at that and realize that I was several inches taller than most those girls, and was a bit more endowed in the upper area than most of them as well, which apparently is a good thing I didn't realize at that time :P
Since then I usually stayed under 155 until about a year ago. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Periods - One of the biggest signs a girl can be sure of, is her periods. And mine were not regular in the slightest. Since I got my first one at 12 and a half, they have never followed 'the norm.' When I'd read about 28-36 days, I'd think to myself that they were wrong because I felt fine and was only having a period every 2-4 months. As a 13 yr old, the last thing you want to do is talk to your mom or anyone for that matter, about getting you more tampons. So I counted it as a blessing and moved on with life always carrying tampons and pads in my purse since I never knew when it would come.
In 2010, I got engaged and married and started life as a newlywed. The summer prior, I had gone to the university clinic to see if anything could be done about becoming regular, and I was put on birth control to regulate my period and spironolactone for the extra hair growth (because it had taken me 7 years to muster the courage to mention it to anyone, including a doctor).
After getting married, I felt that I wasn't adjusting to my new life very well and was crying a lot, as in several times a week, over stupid things. My poor husband didn't realize what craziness he'd gotten himself into. We decided to stop using pill birth control to see if that was screwing with my emotions and start charting instead. I had found a book called
Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler and started using the methods. I was very impressed at what I could learn about myself and my reproductive system in such an easy to understand way. Oh, if only they'd given me this book back in 7th grade, the misunderstandings I could have avoided! Anyways, it's a pretty big book, but got the general idea and I started taking my temperature every morning. When your waking temperature jumps 6 or 7 tenths of a point then you have supposedly ovulated and adjust your amorous activities accordingly (whether TTC or for BC). After 2 months of temperature taking, I hadn't ovulated at all.
At work, I was talking to a friend about what was going on and how I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me and she mentioned that my symptoms sounded somewhat like hers and how she was waiting for proper insurance in order to be tested for PCOS. That evening, I went home and looked up PCOS in the book I mentioned earlier and sure enough, there was a couple paragraphs that summed up my adolescence. I found a local Nurse Practitioner named
Esme Anderson, in Orem who specialized in Women's Health and even PCOS specifically and made an appointment at the beginning of January this year. I highly recommend her and
her clinic and I don't know where I'd be today if it weren't for her.
Esme met with Michael and I and from the first phone call, we were fans. She is loving, kind, understanding, optimistic and blunt when she needs to be. And to top it off, who doesn't love a good Scottish Accent?! I honestly feel like she is one of my guardian angels.
She had me fill out a questionnaire and looked over it on the first visit. After we had talked details, I asked if she thought I had PCOS and her response was, "Without a doubt, Deary, without a doubt!" She ordered a bunch of blood tests and we met again a month later to go over the results.
In addition to being such a wonderful doctor (because I really don't think of her as just a nurse), she is willing to work around people's schedules and has evening appointments. So on a Tuesday evening in February around 7pm, Michael and I sat on the couch in her office and she went over exactly what every single test result meant, why it was important and what it meant in terms of my symptoms, and what I should do about it. I left 2 hours later that night with quite a few prescriptions, a new outlook on my diet and a complete understanding of my diagnosis plus how to get rid of it.
I was put on Metformin for insulin resistance, Spironolactone to keep the testosterone down, Progesterone because I didn't have enough of it, Birth Control pills, Thyroid Armour because my thyroid wasn't doing a good enough job and Vitamins D3 and B12 because those were lacking as well. I also decided to take a Prenatal multivitamin for good measure because I had recently read that women who take prenatal vitamins at least a year in advance of getting pregnant, could significantly reduce their chance of
preeclampsia.
Esme made it clear that night and appointments following that it was not an overnight cure. This would take a lot of effort on my part and quite a bit of patience in the months and possibly even years to come.
At that first appointment, I was 183 lbs and by june, I had lost 25 lbs.
So, here I am now, almost exactly a year later and although I am not 100 percent better, at our most recent appointment just before Christmas, Esme looked over my second set of blood work test results and said that whenever we were ready, I could go off my birth control and we could start TTC. It was not the diagnosis I was expecting to hear, but it made us very happy.
I had bunion surgery on my left foot right after Thanksgiving and you must be on birth control while taking several of the pain medications, so when I get my right foot done and am all healed up from that, hopefully we will be at a point where we can see what my body is doing on its own and see if we can start our family.
In the meantime, I need to keep my insulin resistance under control (which should be a lot easier after the holidays and our upcoming cruise ;) and I plan to do that with the help of a book Esme recommended and Michael got me for Christmas. It's called
The Insulin-Resistance Diet and has a lot of great recipes and tips. Yay for healthy eating!!!
Well, that's all for now friends, but I'll post more when I know more. Thanks Kristina and Suz for the tips and if you're interested, I also started
a pin board on Pinterest to help inspire me to get rid of PCOS for good.
