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Originally Posted by annamarie  i have some hair on my chin, cheeks, and neck, but so far its such that shaving can completely take care of it. should i continue to shave or will that make it courser? how many people actually have stubble that you can see even right after you shave? |
You can continue to shave without worrying about making the growth coarser. Hair that gets coarser would have got coarser anyway, whether you'd shaved it or not.
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i'm 19, i've had facial hair for about a year, starting directly after i went off the pill (also acne). i dont know if i have PCOS or not since i only have a few of the symptoms. i'm hoping the pill will take care of the hair and the acne. i just got back on the pill almost a month ago and am waiting to see the result after 3 months.
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It's very common to have a rapid rise in the testosterone to estrogen balance when you come off the pill. The reason is that when you went on the pill your body would have shut down your natural estrogen production -- which wouldn't matter, because you were getting more than enough from the pill. However, when you come off the pill, very often the body is very slow to restart estrogen production, with the result that your hormonal balance is heavily loaded in favor of testosterone, so male-type beard growth and body hair develops. Acne is also very often a symptom of high testosterone levels.
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i have heard that 5-10% of women have PCOS, but i can only think of like twice in my life that i have seen women with visible stubble. i guess some women with PCOS do not suffer from excess hair growth at all. but still. it doesnt seem to be that common. all my anxiety comes from the fear that there will be visible stubble -- if it stays just the way it is now, i will never complain about anything again.
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You may not have PCOS at all -- there's a very obvious explanation for your beard growth which doesn't necessarily relate to PCOS. There can be many causes of a high testosterone to estrogen ratio. For many reasons, including PCOS, many women have male-type beard growth. In the 15-45 age group over half of all American women remove at least some moustache growth at least once a month (though for many it's only a little hair at the outer edges of the upper lip). And a significant proportion have heavy enough moustache and/or beard growth to shave every day.
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please help me, i am trying really hard to keep from getting too worked up about this, but it seems to be dominating my life! i've been having trouble sleeping ever since this happened. i know i need to talk to the doctor about it but i'm scared.
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The chances are that if you're back on BCP the hair growth will go back to female-pattern. But don't let worrying about it dominate your life. Many of us here have been shaving every day for decades. If my own experience is anything to go by, worrying about the problem was worse than the problem itself. I use a good men's-type rechargeable electric razor and shaving takes less time than brushing my teeth.