pcos

[swish]

Pcos



Hi!
The doc thought I might have this (I'm waiting for a scan), I didn't ov last month and my cycles have been crazy. I thought this was just because of supps and losing weight but now I'm not so sure.
Can anyone tell me what some of the symptoms are?
Is gearing up but failing to ovulate a sign of pcos?
Are back/ bottom pains before ov/af a sign of pcos?
Many thanks!

[lindi]

PCOS is a cluster of symptoms, but not all women who "have" PCOS have all symptoms. The main signs are polycystic appearing ovaries, high androgens and failure to ovulate. From what I understand, women with PCOS have a sensitivity to insulin that makes their ovaries more sensitive to it, as well as a propensity towards insulin resistance. What this does is create a disturbance in the pituitary-ovarian-axis, causing the loop of normal feedback to work in a sort of accelerated way, so sometimes many eggs actually start to develop but none enough to actually be ovulated (hence the string of pearls appearance in your ovaries). Some women are overweight due to the insulin issues, some have excess body hair, or thinning hair on their head or greasy skin (acne) due to high testosterone (androgens).
Not all women have all symptoms and its a mysterious thing.

[swish]

Thank you so much, lindi, how would you know if you had a sensitivity to insulin. Could diet aggrevate this? I didn't have any problems conceiving my first 2 but this time I have drastically changed my eating habits as I am swaying, thanks!

[fresas]

I have PCOS. It can be diagnosed with symptoms and a blood test. Sometimes a scan is not necessary.

I am a "lean cyster" meaning I'm not overweight. I'm thin average.

Typical symptoms of PCOS are:

- weight gain
- difficulty losing weight
- irregular periods
- heavy periods
- mid cycle bleeding
- increased facial and body hair
- hair loss (from the scalp)/male pattern baldness
- acne
- depression or moodiness

I don't know if there are symptoms of insulin resistance, but you may ask your MD for glucose testing if necessary.

I have found a combination of things that seems to help keep the majority of symptoms away, although I still have random instances of rapid weight gain, hirsutism, and some hair loss. I still have a lot of difficult losing weight, too. My periods are regular now and not heavy anymore.

I take metformin 1000mg/ day and saw palmetto 320mg/day. I also stay away from white flour carbs, sugary food (which is bad because I crave sugar like no other), and anything else that can encourage diabetes even though I was never declared insulin resistant. PCOS friendly diets tend to be boy friendly, though.

I used to take Vitex and that helped restore my periods to normal, but did not help with the weight issues or hair loss. It helped with the acne, though.

[swish]

Thank you, fresas, that is really useful, x

[fresas]

I hope you can get a diagnosis of something. It is hard to know something is wrong with your body, but not know what.

Even better, hopefully you have nothing!