I have not been to a doctor yet but I am almost certain I have PCOS, I have the facial hair and irregular/weak period. I went to the gyno 2 years ago and was simply told it's normal to have an irregular period, some women don't become regular until their mid 20's. Being queezy around doctors to begin with and wanting to believe I was fine, I chose to believe him.

I have always had a little lip fuzz but in the past 2 years it's gotten to the point that I need to shave..nair just doesn't do it anymore. Luckily I have light colored hair.

In 2 months I finish college...I've been insanely busy trying to get everything I need to get done to finish school. After I graduate (since I don't have the time to deal with this now) I am going to do some serious reading and find out more about the illness and the proper questions to ask the doctor, and then go to the doctor. I don't think I can handle the stress of personal medical issues (I've passed out in doctors offices before) and school at the same time.

To be honest it's kind of a relief to find out what is wrong with me. This has DEFINATELY motivated me to loose weight, when before it was more about wanting to look good in a pair of jeans, now I want to make sure my PCOS gets better.

The facial hair has gotten signifigantly worse in the past 2 years, I'm afraid I may eventually devolop other symptoms. I just spent some time googling pictures of women with hair loss and excessive body hair and I felt like I may never eat again (I'm loosing weight slowly, don't worry). Also even the tought of having to go through a miscarrage (even though I don't plan to have kids anytime soon) is enough to get my butt to a gym.

Also the fact that this can lead to diabetes make health issues associated with being overweight very real...not some abstraction that happens to other people.

anyone else supermotivated by PCOS? want to share your story?

Hi Catherine,

This is the same story for me. You are so smart to research it on your own. I had to hound my doctors to refer me to an endocrynologist so I could get diagnosed. It's so terrible... I've heard that 10% of all women have it, and doctors usually ignore the symptoms.

I've struggled with weight until now (well actually I'm still struggling b/c I'm nowhere near my goal yet) but I feel like I'm done with my 'internal' and 'psychological' struggle. I've been a member of my gym for 3 years and never really lost any weight. I wouldn't go too often because I'd find other things to do. But then my endo said I NEED to spend at least 60 minutes in the gym EVERY DAY to keep my hormones in check. And that's when I took it seriously. We're not like normal people who can go to the gym like twice a week and lose some weight. We have to commit to it like we brush our teeth every day.

Just some motivating things I've heard over the last year: you know Jack Lalayne (sp?), the godfather of fitness? Well I read an interview by him and he said he HATES working out. The godfather of fitness as we know it today hates working out. But he does it anyway because he knows it's good for him. That really changed my mind about spending an hour on the treadmill. Sure, it's more fun spending it on the couch, but just because it's not the most fun thing ever doesn't mean we should blow it off.

Anyway, I love my gym time now and have cut out most of the grains and all sugar from my diet (that would be unheard for me a year ago!) but it's been easy because I have new motivation. Seriously, even though PCOS sucks and is very serious, I'm almost looking at it as a blessing. Without it I don't think I would have committed to diet and exercise!

So you will do great, I know it! Do a lot of research on your own and listen to the doctors but also do what you think is right. The doctors tried to push Metformin and other drugs on me when I was diagnosed but I didn't want to take that route. I want a cure. So then they told me without the meds I need to commit to diet and exercise. It's working! I almost have a normal period!!! (it's on a 45 day cycle now... that's friggin normal enough for me! I used to get it once a year, if that.)

Good luck <3

wow...without any drugs, just diet and exercise and 20 lb loss.

I'm loosing weight at the moment and doing some light exercise (I'll be at the library and will go up and down the stairs (5 cases) 3 times when I get ansy from doing school work, it's enough to get my heart going and pretty much all I can commit to now). I plan to loose 15 pounds by the time I deal with this.

I really decided that I'm not going to full out work on this problem until I finish school, (with the exception of loosing weight).

I've been having problems finding answers to questions I have about it. The big one I've been wondering is, is this just a matter of being overweight..ie if I get down to a normal weight will the problem take care of itself. I know the majority of the people who have it are overweight. I also have read about people on here who have lost weight and had the symptoms go away. I really don't know, I can't get too involved in this at the moment.

The whole thing has me almost more mad then frustrated...it's a problem that affects 10% of american women and it's this difficult to find information about it other than symptoms and that birth control is the most commonly recommended treatment.

Well, I've read that most women who have it are overweight (which seems to be the case) but my mom has a slight case of PCOS, and she's been a size 2 and 110lbs her whole life! She thought something was up in the past few years when her hair thinned and her periods got all weird, and the doctors said she might have had a slight case of it her whole life but not enough symptoms to show anything was wrong. She got pregnant with no problem and had 3 of us, and she's naturally thin as a rail.

So, she obviously doesn't need to lose weight and doesn't have problems with overeating/craving carbs like I do. But she's on the same plan I am and has been doing it longer than me and is getting awesome results. She's not eating grains either and is cutting out almost all sugar. I mean, my mom is so disciplined that she would have 6 M&M's per day as a treat. One small bag will last her a whole week! For me (and I'm sure alot of us here) that bag would be gone in about 2 minutes! But she can't even have those 6 M&M's anymore because they are sugar.

I have 2 squares of low-glycemic dark chocolate (about 66 calories) every day and feel great. It is sweetened with sugar alchohol and gives me my fix. Last night I treated myself to a 'carb' and had 1/2 yam with my dinner and it was so delicious and wonderful. It felt like I was feasting on a Thanksgiving dinner. I'm really feeling good on the whole 'yams and oats' thing. I gotta figure out how to make chocolate oatmeal cookies sweetened with Stevia or something!

So as for the weight thing even skinny women can have it and they still need to eat low sugar and grain and exercise even though it's not a weight issue. My mom is a perfect example of that (and to think my whole life I was frustrated I wasn't born with her metabolism!).

Thanks, that really helps.

I was diagnosed with PCOS 11 years ago and was 70lbs lighter then. I was treated with BCP and always gained weight, but my cycles were normal and that's all they seemed to care about at the time. It didn't matter if I was gaining a ton of weight. So now I have hypothyroid and PCOS. I was diagnosed PCOS first and could at the most lose 15 lbs to be within "normal" range. So my feeling is most of the time it takes years to get diagnosed with PCOS or thyroid and by the time you get daignosed you have gained so much weight that now they say the "cuase" for PCOS is your weight therefore your fault...go figure. It's like what comes first the chicken or the egg.

Now finally taking Metformin and do feel better and have a bit more engergy. The weight thing is not happening no melting over here...LOL!! I do still eat whole wheat bread but I think I may cut it out all together.

Michelle125...I have to say you are becoming my motivation...so thank you!! I'm slowing cutting all carbs out and trying to stick to veggies and protein. I really do need to exercise longer I guess 20-30 min isn't enough.

Catherine999...2 months more to be done with school that's great! If you can accomplish that you certainly can accomplish a new life with PCOS!!

Oh and my endo is very much against BCP for women that have PCOS. He explained that we PCOS'ers have already too much estrogen and BCP just add more. This only masks the symptoms and does not treat the problem. I wonder if I saw an endo when I was first treated I would have not gained all this weight. But what the heck it's time to get it off and not worry about the what if's..right!!

Yeah I mean I would go to the gym like once or twice a week, or maybe skip a week or so. I wasn't consistent. But my endo said with PCOS I serously need to be there for at least an hour. Maybe I would even need to go to the gym twice a day. I never took her advice until now. I was just so frustrated. The turning point was a few weeks ago I went to my favorite Italian restaurant where they serously put an entire pound of pasta on your plate. For the first time ever I finished the entire plate... because once I started eating the white pasta I couldn't stop. Even though I've been consistently losing weight for the last few months just the fact that my body reacts that way to cheat foods (pasta, bread, etc) has me yelling "ENOUGH!" I don't want it in my body. Maybe I'll have a plate of pasta a few months down the road but right now I want nothing to do with it. And watching my hair thin at 26 years old is putting an ugly face on all those grains, hah.

I started eating Ezekiel bread (very VERY good grains in that bread) but even that was leaving me hungry afterwards. So I just decided to cut it out. Oats seem to be great, and yams have that soothing effect on hormones. So I'm not missing the whole grains. I don't know why I thought I had to include them in my diet before. Ahh well

I had to do research on my own and request bloodwork in order to convince a doctor that I had PCOS and get a referral to a specialist. There isn't a lot of information out there, and I think a lot of doctors don't know much about it either.

I always had irregular periods, but once I got to around 240 lbs then they started becoming extremely infrequent - one every 4 to 6 months, if that. Once I got bloodwork done I found out that not only were my hormones completely out of balance, but I was insulin resistant as well. And it STILL took me another year or so to actually get serious about losing weight.

I think in my case that while PCOS may have been present before (there is a family history of it), my weight exacerbated it. The worst symptoms didn't really manifest themselves until after I reached my highest weight. Even after losing 20 lbs, I noticed a huge improvement in some of them (namely, my skin had been absolutely terrible and now I rarely ever get acne). My periods also regulated themselves, and when not on birth control my cycle is approximately 28 - 30 days.

It's funny - I didn't really care about the health impacts of weight loss when I first started losing, I just wanted to look cute. When I actually started noticing the symptoms lessening and in some cases disappearing altogether, my health came into sharp focus and I realized there are better reasons for losing weight than being cute.

Just cutting in here...

I was just somewhat diagnosed, still waiting on bloodwork results. Reading all ur posts make me realize how important it is to get into gear. Not only for fertility, but for the health reasons. I only get cycles once every nine months, ppl think its so nice, but they don't understand the reality of it all. My only thing is, no one in the family has it, but me. Thanks for the motivation ladies!!

Wow, I think I found the right place. I was diagnosed when I was 18 and was told numerous times that 'when it was time to get pregnant they could get me pregnant'. There are so many things wrong with that statement.

It took me years to educate myself about what PCOS really did to the body not just fertility. Some of the effects were evident through the changes in my body. Very frightening esp. considering most doctors just try to medicate. Nobody even begins to talk about the psychological effects of this syndrome.

I think exercise and nutrition are the way to go. My final straw was when I asked my current doctor (who says she treats PCOS) if loosing weight would alleviate my symptoms. She said no, she has fat and thin PCOS patients. This was after she asked me if I was getting pregnant anytime soon.

Michelle, your doctor should be commended for relying on something other than medications. I have realized I am on my own in this treatment - exercise and nutrition. You have all inspired me - wish me luck.

I am in the same boat as a lot of you. I was finally diagnosed 3 years ago. They thought I had Cushings Syndrome. It took almost 2 years for them finally to be convinced PCOS was what it was. I have been on and off metformin. My husband and I have been semi trying to get pregnant considering it could take years. I gained 65 LBS in one year. I have tryed everything to get it off. Finally I found the Metabolic Research Center. I have lost 50 of the LBS and still have about 20 more to go. WE are not like other people. We have to work twice as hard to take care of our bodies. One slip up thows my body out of whack for a month. I am eating right and excersicing for fertility, but most of all for health. It is important for us so we don't have to live a PCOS life.