Hi, I am new to the board and have been engulfing myself in this plethora of informaiton for the past few hours. I thought it was only appropriate that I share my story as well.
I am 21 years old (soon to be 22) and was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago. However, I am certian I have been dealing with this problem most of my life. As a child I was a nationally ranked swimmer and so my over-the-top exercise compensated for any extra weight I could possibly carry. When I got my first period at 12, I began to gain some extra weight (about 20 lbs) and my swimming suffered. Soon enough I joined forces with my college sophmore sister on our first of many diets. Ironically, this was at the time of the Atkins Boom and so we were low carbing. Little did I know, this was the best thing I could do for my insulin resistance which I was unaware that I even had! Unfortunately, for both of us this diet plummeted into raging anorexia and I was hospitalized at a bony 103 lbs. standing 5'6. The hospital loaded me with sugar and starches, in an urgent attempt to make me gain weight ignoring the fact that I was retaining water like it was my job as well as going into what I like to call "food coma" after meals containing ample amounts of carbohydrates. Released from the hospital, I was told to eat and continue to gain or else I would not swim (in my senior year of high school) and so I did....I ate and ate and ate. And by the end of my freshman year of college I was 185 lbs., depressed and no longer swimming. Once again I began low carbing and got back down to 140 pounds and started running marathons. About two weeks before a huge race, I got a flu and went to a doctor to get a decongestant. After running numerous unneccesary blood tests on my they found my potassium to be HIGH and told me my kidneys were failing. So, no race and the doctors began. I changed my diet again because I thought this could be fueling some of the potassium problem... And so I started gaining weight. At 160, I turned myself over to a dietician... She gave me a low fat, high carb diet which I follwed to a T and I was training for a marathon. Still, I gained. More doctors. People telling me I just needed to watch what I ate and it was all because I had an eating disorder 7 years ago. FINALLY after a year and a half, I have been diagnosed. I am starting birth control (the patch) this Sunday and am on Glycet right now bc my doc is hesitant to put me on glucophage. I am starting the South Beach Diet today...even though my doctor told me i should try a low fat diet. In the back of my mind, I am concerned about having kids and what this will ultimately do to my body but the 21 year old in the forefront of my mind is concerned with my weight. I am an athlete and I am too heavy to run. It hurts my knees and my ankles. I dont want to get into a bathing suit. So I do not swim. Not being able to do these things is breaking my heart. I am still an avid exerciser but its not the same. On top of this, I am about to graduate from college with a degree in exercise science as well as I am a personal trainer. I'm pretty sure my clients are wondering why I dont get my own weight under control. It looks like it is going to be a long journey but I am ready. Anyone with any advice or if you just want to chat, feel free to contact me!
Thanx for Listening!

Don't be afraid to get in a bathing suit. I do it every day, and I teach swimming lessons on top of that at the same gym I swim at. They hired me because I spent so much time there. As a personal trainer, maybe you should look for a gym or rehab situation: I know that I would appreciate having a personal trainer who understood what it was like to exercise constantly and never lose any weight.
I don't have PCOS (or if I do, its one of the most severe cases they've ever seen... the diagnosis is quite mixed: they know there is something not right, but I don't respond to the traditional PCOS treatment very well), but the endocrine disorder I have results in basically the same thing. I have no menstrual cycle, even with birth control pills, elevated testosterone, borderline insulin resistance, elevated (at times) cortisol, and my body also doesn't digest food normally. I can go hours without eating, and as soon as I eat, I get nauseated and throw up. It doesn't matter WHAT I eat, either: high carb, low carb, fruit, salad, pasta, high fat, low fat. There is no rhyme or reason to it.
I take spironolactone, Alesse, phenergan (for the nausea), and multi-vitamins. I drink slim-fast because I can keep it down. I exercise no fewer than 4 days a week for an hour or more each time. I typically go 5-7 days, except on weeks when I'm dispatching for the Red Cross, or this week, when I seem to have picked up the intestinal virus going around the school I teach at.
I can't take glucophage because it made me very, very sick. I couldn't keep any food down, and actually gained weight on it, somehow.

Thanx for the support. It's hard... especially because I have been at both ends....very overweight and very underweight as well as I have been such a highly ranked athlete and now I feel like a couch potato starting from nothing.
I have good days and bad....today was more on the bad end but it is turning out ok in the end..
thanx again....best of luck in figuring out your complications!
xoxo

I wasn't overweight by much when this all started. I can look at pictures of myself in college and see it. It started in 1998-1999. I never had a normal menstrual cycle, though, so I probably had something wrong all my life.
But now, I'm incredibly overweight, and not only that, I look very, very strange. All of my weight is in the front, and hangs down. I developed this thing called a panniculus, and it hangs down. Its really pretty nasty looking. I teach kids with emotional disturbance and get comments from them a lot.
The swimming has helped, because at least it has proven to more people (including myself, to some point) that I didn't do this to myself through eating.

Hi Princess
Its okay. I know what it feels like being overweight at the pool. If yoiu love swimming, why not just let people think what they want and enjoy the water. Don't let what other people "think" get in the way of your enjoyment of life. There's no need to go to a busy pool, pick a quiet time in the evening to go.
I have PCOS and have had it all along I realise now. I am 28 and my suffering escalated at 20. I too, was very slim in my late teens due to starvation dieting(not anorexic though). When the PCOS began to affect me greatly at 20 I felt uncomfortable in my belly and felt as if things weren't getting "through" in my belly. After a while all my bodily systems broke down due to a slow metabolism and I began to feel very lethargic, confused, have lots of pain, and nauseated after eating. After a year I really began to gain weight. The worst thing though was how powerless I felt. Even if I starved myself I didnt lose anything, and I didn't care about that. I just wanted the pain to go away. So, I continued on like this for another few years with my freinds gradually dropping off as I began to look quite sick and unattractive. My family called me a lazy hypochondriac, and targeted me in my most vulnerable time.I would call this **** on earth. At this time the doctors all thought it was constipation or IBS.
Finally I thought I was dying so I moved to the city to "sort this out". I was referred to a gyno after 7 long painful years. He suggested a laparoscopy to treat lesions as he suspected endometriosis. I agreed, and during the surgery they found endo metriosis whihc they lasered and my actual colon was attached to the wall of my abdomen ew. Afterwards it was the best I'd felt in years. That guy changed my life.
Before the surgery though, I felt nauseous when I ate so I didnt eat much. Still I hovered around 175 pounds. After the surgery, I am not sure what happened but I went upto 248 within the next two years and here I am now.
Honestly though, if I have to stay this weight for the rest of my life or be unwell, I'll take the weight thanks.
So, princess, my point is, check out endo, you could have it.

Hi,
I'm new to the forum as well. Although I'm just 21, I was diagnosed by a good gyno when I was a sophomore in high school. I was put on Glucophage, but eventually stopped taking it. Since then, living with it has become ignoring it and the symptoms. But the fact that everything I eat is sticking to me is making that a rather hard endeavor. So I've started going to a gym regularly and am hoping that muscle can, at some point, overtake the fat. It's really a struggle to diet, but I agree, low-carb is the best. It seems to have been the only thing that really is effective against the PCOS for my body. Saying it's hard to jump out there in a bathing suit is an understatement, but people really don't care as much as you might think. They're just as concerned with their own appearance, so try going at a time when there'll be less people and work your way into it. If you really love swimming, don't give it up. Life is far too short to waste a single day! I'm open for chat as well if anyone has any advice or needs support. Just starting and feeling overwhelmed...

Anonymouse, Thank you for introducing me to the word penniculus. I now know the medical term for my "apron."

Hi Everyone,

I was diagnosed with PCOS at the end of last year. I have always carried extra weight although never really ate very badly so could never really understand why i was so 'sturddy'! My periods have always been very irregular and for 5 years i kept trying to get different doctors to test me. They said that i should be grateful for not having periods and not worry about it! But being the worrier that i am i persisted! Eventually i was told i had PCOS, i was told not to worry because the likes of Posh Spice has it - so i thought great that makes it ok then!!! ; ) Im still trying to find out more about it. Ive started a strict healthy eating regime to try and lose the weight once and for all and increase my fitness. So far i haven`t noticed any other symptons so i don`t see any need for any medication.

Princess it sounds like you are a very gifted athlete and could go far - don`t let PCOS be the obstacle that stops you achieving that. The higher the obstacles in front of you, the taller you`ll become to get over them.

Visit my blog and leave me a message if you need to talk to someone. Im going to put an article about PCOS on their shortly.