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Old 01-24-2009, 06:47 PM   #6 (permalink)
eizzil
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ok student biomedical scientist to the rescue,

the normal testosterone levels in women range from 2 to about 86 and yes some doctors will count over 50 being elevated, others dont. pcos cant be diagnosed on high testosterone levels alone, as pcos is a syndrome in order to be successful diagnosed it is usual to show three or more symptoms, for a concrete diagnosis cysts on the ovaries, ellevated testosterone and abnormal periods are most common, followed by acne hirustism obesity insulin resistance.

the reason you have hyperandrogenism without having an abnormally large testosterone level is because the adrenal cortex is producing excess levels of androgens but the tissue cells are not converting all this into testosterone as they recognise you are female, your symptoms are caused by the androgens as these are mild forms of the male sex hormones and can create similar effects as testosterone just not as strongly.

Either way whether you have pcos or hyperandrogenism your doctor should be looking into why this occurs and if the symptoms are bothering you ways to help lessen them. My best advice would be to move doctors or go privately or ask to be refered to an endocrinologist, but i would probably move doctors first, it might just be that going on to bcps for a while will help to get rid of the excess androgens and its possible that you may not have pcos, if i recieved your test results and your background pcos would not be my first diagnosis.

Compared to my total testosterone levels yours were relatively normal

HTH and i would change doctors if i was u

Good luck lizzie xxx
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- The rest is still unwritten . . .

DX - PCOS April 2008, US March 2009, PCOS confirmed, Refered to endo next appointment 25/02/2010
TX - Metformin 1700 mgs but starting off on 500 mgs. Mefanamic Acid

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