My story...

Through talking to a friend today I realized that telling my full story and talking about the long road it took for me and my doctors to come to the PCOS conclusion might help some of you. Because it shows I understand how frustrating and madding this whole process can be. It can be a very long road, for me personally my journey with this started, I believe, when I was 14, and no doctor said PCOS to me until a few months after my 21st birthday.

I will always have a vivid memory of the first time I felt a cyst pop. It was terrifying for my 14 year old self. And it was an incredibly frustrating experience, because when I went to the hospital, I was told I had cysts on my ovaries and to follow up with my OB/GYN. Then when I went to an OB/GYN, and got a very invasive exam for a young girl, and was then told that the ER report said there were no cysts or masses on my ovaries. So they put me on unnecessary birth control and sent me on my way.

I really wasn't symptomatic again until about 3 years ago, when I was 19, and my body went completely out of whack. When I graduated high school I weighted about 175 lbs, I was a normal happy teenager. Then, with out researching the side effects, I was con'd into getting the birth control Implanon. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BIRTH CONTROL. After I got it all I heard about it was horror stories, of it moving or bursting or other terrible things. For me personally, shortly after I got it my month cycle just stopped. Then 8 to 12 months after I got it the mood swings started, at first it was just crying during semi sad  movies, being a little extra crabby from time to time, then it went to something extreme, for little to no reason I would go from bawling to so angry I was seeing red. During this time I was misdiagnosed as Bipolar and went through a year of trying different medication combinations, none of which worked and most of which had terrible side effects. I was taken off my last combination of meds, due to having allergic type reactions, and I would not go back to the doctors to be put on more medications. I was sick of all the reactions and still feeling like crud.

Then I moved and met the most amazing doctor. She actually listened to me!! She listened to all of my symptoms, not just the ones that were part of her specialty. She took the time to research and get a complete diagnosis, even drawing me pictures to explain things. It was so amazing to finally have a name that I could research and that all my symptoms over the years fit.

It's been just about a year since I was diagnosed, and though every day is a battle, things are better. They would not be that way if it were not for the amazing support system I have in my fiance, friends, and family, and also if I did not do my own research. Though I am righting from personal experience, anything that I put in this blog is what works for me, and that may not work for everyone. PCOS is a different beast with everyone, so please, do your own research and talk to your doctors. I am not a doctor, nor am I claiming to be.

I am going to wrap it up there because this is a bit of a book! I love you all!

Sorry!

I am a terrible blogger. I want to post more I swear, but the past few weeks have been crazy! First I was helping a friend get ready to host a Doctor Who convention, then this past week my cousins have been here redoing my parents roof. Today is the first day of true rest in a long time.

With how busy life has been I have to admit that I have not been eating the best or exercising. And I have gone up a few pounds, but I'm am going to start getting back on track! I feel like crap because of all the bad foods that I have been eating and I hate it.

Me...

I am starting this blog because I need an outlet.  I have been diagnosed with something that no one around me really understands, and it'd frustrating. I have PCOS or the long version is Ploy-cystic Ovarian Syndrome, also known as Stein-Leventhal Syndrome, and is one of the most common hormonal endocrine disorders in women.. The cliff notes on what that is; basically instead of producing an egg when I ovulate, my body makes cysts. There are a ton of other things PCOS effects, some common signs according to pcosfoundation.org are:

Irregular menstrual cycles, 

Irregular periods also called Oligomenorrhea, 

Weight gain, 

Excess hair growth on face and body- called Hirsutism, 

Darkened patches of skin, 

Skin tags, 

Infertility, 

Thinning hair, 

Insulin resistance, 

Type 2 Diabetes, 

High cholesterol and high triglycerides, 

High blood pressure, 

Cysts on the ovaries (multiple), 

Pelvic pain, 

Depression, 

Anxiety, 

Sleep apnea (when breathing stops for a short period of time while asleep), 

Decreased sex drive, 

Increase in stress levels

Difficulty losing weight, 

Now I don't have all of these symptoms personally, but I have highlighted the ones I do have, just for reference because those are the ones I can and will be speaking about. Mood swings is another one that's not up there, but I have found from other stuff online that it is really common, and I also have those.  PCOS causes my hormones to be completely out of whack, which causes everything from migraines to little annoying chin hairs. 

On the plus side, I have meet a few really cool people, I have started to get healthier, and take control of my health. I want to put this out here for people who were like me when I was first diagnosed and even people like me now. When I was first told "You have PCOS" and once they told me that I wasn't producing eggs, it was a kick in the stomach. All I have ever wanted to do was me a mom, and, to me, that had been ripped away from me, oh and I was also being handed a lifetime of medical issues and medications. That was hard, and I really felt alone...

But your not alone, PCOS is more common than  most people think, and there are ways to deal with this with out taking all the meds. I am here for you any time.

Also, because it is now effecting everything in my life, I am working on losing weight and I am going to blog about it to keep myself accountable. I started working out today and I weight 226lbs. I want to weight 150lbs before I graduate college in December 2014.

Thank is going to be it for today, I love you all.