[dimplesdarling]

Hi There,

Just starting posting here, and I'm sorry if I should post these questions in a different thread :-/

Pretty much I'm looking for beginner "just diagnosed" PCOS advice? The problem is that my gynecologist told me that all my symptoms point to PCOS, and that my hormone test showed a bit of an imbalance, but ultimately they wanted to do a vaginal ultrasound to which I said no to because I thought it was too invasive in order to figure out my diagnoses or not. So at this point, I kind of just assume I have PCOS.

Symptoms:
Hair loss
Excessive facial/body hair
Apparently a bit of a hormonal imbalance
Fatigue/sleepiness
Difficulty losing weight
Diabetic family background

At one point another doctor said I have a thyroid condition, but then the other more current doctor said that was a misdiagnose and that it was PCOS.

Sigh.

I just really don't know where to go from here besides the obvious: chill out on the carbs, eat less, and exercise.

Anyway, I guess I'm asking advice from you guys on what my plan of action should be? Should I try to get a 2nd opinion? Should I go ahead and do the invasive vaginal ultrasound (to which I still don't understand why they need to do that in order to figure out my hormonal imbalance?????) so I can have a definite answer? Get more tests done? Take certain medication/vitamins? Find a nutritionist and spend some $$$ on figuring out which foods trigger stuff? I just hate this whole doctor thing... most of the time I feel like I spend all this money to find out the same old answer... "eat less, and get off your lazy butt." It's like... hey... no kidding! Never would've thought! Lol.

Thanks everyone.

[Rana]

They want to do the vaginal ultrasound to see if you have cysts around your ovaries.

There are some great books and resources on this board.

These are some of the better books, in my opinion:

A Patient's Guide to PCOS

The Insulin Resistance Diet

The Savvy Woman's Guide to PCOS

I also recommend reading Good Calories, Bad Calories and it's mostly because I've found Paleo style of eating to be very easy to follow when you're looking for a way to treat PCOS.

Last but not least, you can seek out help from other doctors. The thing is, unfortunately, this is a situation you manage, rather than "cure". You do have to make a lifestyle change.

Of course, you need to understand what's going on in your body in the sense that you need to figure out how carbs are absorbed and managed and how they affect you and what are the best ways for you to be healthy.

You may never be scarecrow thin, but you can be healthier and I think that's really point of this at the end of the day, right? It's not about how much weight you're losing, but whether you're maintaining your blood sugar level steady so you don't develop diabetes, you're managing your hormone levels so they don't cause you infertility or other symptoms later and so on.

It's overwhelming at first, but also very liberating once you start figuring out what works and what doesn't work.

[fatmad]

Unfortunately, vaginal ultrasound is pretty standard for gyne issues. If you feel its too invasive, you can try the treatments for pcos without it.
Personally, I feel diet and exercise changes are a really cheap way to diagnose things. I am not saying easy, but cheap. If you borrow a diet book from the library, (like insulin resistance, atkins etc) and choose your at home fitness from dvds from the library too, you can try it all out quite cheaply. Doing it for a month, and losing a few pounds, you can see if you feel better. Then try more testing if there is no change. By itself, getting more fit can help fatigue.
There is virtually no risk to this approach, its been recommended by your docs.
This is a really hard time of year for some people to start changing a way of eating. But why wait for the new year and resolutions? If you can make some changes during the holidays that at least keep you from gaining and get you more fit, then the new year will be great for losing weight.
Good luck.