I’ve never been one of those people to censor myself or not talk\/write about something that’s sensitive.\u00a0 But some things truly are very private.\u00a0 So this post is difficult to write, due to its private, sensitive nature.<\/p>\n
PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is typically caused by an imbalance of hormones.\u00a0 This usually means that the woman has elevated testosterone levels and low estrogen levels (which is a dream to some men, as it can increase the sex drive intensely).\u00a0 This disrupts the menstrual cycle and forces small cysts to form on the ovaries, preventing ovulation.\u00a0 Symptoms may include: irregular or absent menses; numerous cysts on the ovaries in many, but not all, cases; high blood pressure; acne; elevated insulin levels, insulin resistance, or diabetes; infertility; excess hair on the face and body (hirsutism); thinning of the scalp hair (alopecia); weight problems or obesity that is centered around your mid section.<\/p>\n
As a teenager I had some of the symptoms, but they were easily explained away by varying amounts of exercise, stress, and the teenage body getting used to adult hormones.\u00a0 At age 16, though, I started taking birth control pills to regulate my cycle.\u00a0 Thanks to the birth control pills, all the symptoms I was having went away because my hormones went back to levels much closer to normal.\u00a0 I stayed on hormones (birth control pills) until March of 2007, when my husband and I decided we might want to try to start a family.\u00a0 We never really even started trying because, very quickly, I began having symptoms.\u00a0 We couldn’t figure out what was going on.\u00a0 First, I was gaining weight, despite eating well and exercising.\u00a0 Then I was sweating profusely, much more than ever before.\u00a0 My cycle was completely irregular.\u00a0 Sometimes I would go two months without menstruating, other times it would last up to two weeks.\u00a0 My skin broke out in all sorts of acne – the kind I haven’t had since I was about 13.\u00a0 I was depressed, because nothing I tried (and believe me, I tried everything I could do) helped with my weight, my cycle, or my acne.\u00a0 When I got the first black hair on my neck, my world crumbled.\u00a0 I was in such a dark place.\u00a0 It was so embarrassing.\u00a0 I pulled it and hoped it wouldn’t come back.\u00a0 When it did, I began to think that maybe everything that was going on with my body was related.\u00a0 I researched my symptoms on the Internet and decided it was time to go to the doctor, even though we didn’t have insurance.<\/p>\n
I went to the doctor and she examined me.\u00a0 The ultrasound revealed a whole bunch of cysts on my ovaries.\u00a0 The blood test came back and my level of testosterone was at the level where my estrogen was supposed to be.\u00a0 And I had as much estrogen as I was supposed to have of testosterone.\u00a0 Both these things combined indicated PCOS.\u00a0 So I began my new regimen of birth control – Yaz, for its unique properties.\u00a0 It’s now four months later and my acne has cleared up, my little black hair is gone, and my cycle is regulated.\u00a0 It seems like I am still having trouble losing weight, but that will come with time.\u00a0 And I have to learn to manage the other things going on in my life.<\/p>\n
PCOS affects between 6-10% of women in their childbearing years and awareness of this condition is minimal.\u00a0 The lack of awareness contributes to many women’s confusion when they are experiencing these symptoms.\u00a0 It may also be difficult to diagnose, because not all doctors are familiar with PCOS.\u00a0 For more information, please visit http:\/\/www.pcosupport.org\/<\/a> or http:\/\/healthlink.mcw.edu\/article\/964648419.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve never been one of those people to censor myself or not talk\/write about something that’s sensitive.\u00a0 But some things truly are very private.\u00a0 So this post is difficult to write, due to its private, sensitive nature. PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is typically caused by an imbalance of hormones.\u00a0 This usually means that the woman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3aAvV-1t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}