[Amba Dawn]

Last night I read a post on here and someone mentioned having PCOS. I had no idea what it was, so I googled it out of curiosity. Not to sound like a hypochondriac, but when I started reading the symptoms, I think that there's a very good chance I might have it. I have always had irregular periods--maybe 2 or 3 a year at the most. I always thought that it was normal for some people to be that irregular. I don't have problems with acne, but I do have problems with having a lot of hair...everywhere. And over the past 5-10 years I have started getting coarse, dark facial hairs on my chin and neck. I dismissed the hair problems as genetics (even though no one else in my family has this problem). Over the past several years my sex drive has plummeted to nothing, and then there's my weight issues. I have 2 children, so I know I'm not infertile...however, it did take a while for me to get pregnant with my first son. My 2nd son was a surprise--and I didn't find out I was pregnant with him until I was about 4 months along because it wasn't abnormal for me to go that long without having a period.

Everything I've mentioned has progressively gotten worse over time. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm self-diagnosing or being paranoid. It just makes a lot of sense. I don't understand why my doctor has never looked into the reasons for my irregular periods. I've told her about them several times, but she has never seemed concerned about it. She has never even asked any questions about it or asked if I had any other symptoms.

How did all of you end up being diagnosed? If I look into this further, should I go to my OB/GYN? Does treatment improve your symptoms?

[JigglyBits]

Hi Amba,

The symptoms above may or may not be related to PCOS. However, you do not have to have all the symptoms to actually get diagnosed with it.
How I did this was I mentioned it to my GP and he transferred me to an endocrinologist. Generally people see an endocrinologist if they're trying to treat the symptoms, lose weight etc others see an OBGYN if they're trying to conceive.
PCOS usually goes hand in hand with Insulin Resistance, so you're most likely going to get tested for that too. I've been birth control pills to manage my symptoms however I was not able to lose weight with that so I switched to insulin-lowering meds like Metformin and Actos and it helped a lot!

Good luck