I've done countless research on PCOS because a lot of the symptoms apply to my daily life. I know no one on here knows me personally but I would like to share my story and see what everyone thinks.
I was born with a heart condition and it was always enforced that I had to be at a healthy weight because I would be at lower risk for heart disorders.
I started going through puberty at 10 years old and I am 21 and I have had irregular periods ever since. At puberty, I gained a lot of weight, as I was relatively thin and active my entire life before that. I was never overweight but definitely larger than the majority of girls my age for a while.
In the 9th grade, I became less active (I was going from dancing 15 hours a week, and having an hour of recess at school, to dancing 4 hours a week), and gained more weight, at which point my parents made the initiative to teach me to eat very healthy. At 5'3 and 125lbs, I couldn't seem to lose anymore weight.
This is when my eating disorder began. Fixated with fear of having a heart attack, I began to starve or purge. This has been going on, on and off since then. I've given up the purging and now I eat less than 800 calories a day to maintain my weight. I'm sure many of you can understand how hard this is. I have very little energy and I am always thinking about food.
Of course I was diagnosed with an eating disorder, anxiety and depression and saw a therapist for this, which never helped.
At no point, have I ever been underweight or overweight. I have starved myself for weeks and have gotten as low as 110 lbs, and have managed to eat normally for up to a month and a half and got up to 135.
All this time I have thought it was an eating disorder, but maybe my eating disorder may have been caused by underlying issues like PCOS?
Here is what I have been experiencing
-weight gain (I can go from 110 lbs to 135 lbs in a month and a half if I eat normally),
-very irregular periods with pain in my ovaries about 2 weeks before I get my period (my periods come anywhere between 5 weeks and 5 months)
-I started taking birth control for acne and had to go through 3 different birth controls, all of which gave me terrible side effects, and some didn't even clear my skin. I do not have oily skin so any product with salicylic acid or harsh chemicals would dry my face out. I also have always had acne on my chest and back
-I had dark hair on my chest line (admittedly not much), which I lasered off
-anxiety and depression
-I have never lifted a weight in my life, but I have been active with dance and yoga, and the muscles in my arms and legs are pretty large
-I have one skin tag under my arm
*just a note - when I say eat normally, I mean the recommended nutrition value and food groups for a woman my height and age
I received a blood test in December for pcos which came back with normal levels, but considering the low amount that I eat, wouldn't that affect insulin, and thus androgen levels in my blood?
