anyone else feel this way?

boozeler · 08-20-2007, 12:24 AM

Hello there. I'm a 33 stay-at-home Mom to a beautiful and smart little 13 month old. Just a bit of background - I have never had regular periods, since I started my period when I was 13. I would have one, skip months and months and then have another and they always were light. At 18 I went on birth-control to regulate them and to prevent pregnancy. I was on bc for over ten years, and had no problems with it. Once I got married I decided that I wanted to have a baby and just stopped taking the pill and nothing! I tried for over three years to get pregnant with no results. I ended up having to go to a fertility clinic in San Diego and that's when I was told that I had PCOS. I had no knowledge of this and proceeded to try to educate myself. I went through a few treatments of Clomid - but with no success. After about a year of treatments with this clinic, I decided to take a break from all of the stress of trying to get pregnant...a few months off. And, guess what?! I got pregnant. How this happened, I don't know (well, I guess I do know ) but I never had a period, and therefore never knew when I was ovulating. I was shocked but extremely happy, as you can imagine. Now, a year later- I'm having some crazy, new symptoms that I believe are related to the PCOS...I'm having some hair-loss, an inability to focus and short-term memory issues, a terrible achy-bloating feeling around my lower abdomen, I'm gaining weight around my tummy area big-time, and I still haven't had a period in at least two years...Oh, and I was having some tingling in my feet too! Anyway, I was taking each of these symptoms as just this or just that - but the lightbulb went off and I think they are all related. I went in this past Thursday to have bloodwork done and I'm hoping that my GyNo will help me figure this all out. This weekend has been a bear. I've been exhausted and wiped out with crampy pains and just don't feel normal myself. I've been scheduled for a ultrasound so they can take a look at my overies but that's a week away and I don't know if I can wait that long. I just feel awful. Anyone out there relate to this? Oh, and I want desperately to have another baby - just one more and then I'm done. I fear getting on the pill again because it took so long to get pregnant the first time....Maybe metaformin is for me? I'm learning alot in this forum and just love this site.

Navi · 08-20-2007, 12:39 AM

I can definitely relate...I'm supposed to have my first ultrasound in five years this Thursday, and I've been impatient as all get-out since it was scheduled weeks ago! It's like the longer I wait, the worse I feel and start noticing lots of strange, painful symptoms.

Good luck with the bloodwork...Met is helpful to so many women with PCOS, but beware that if you turn up not IR, your doctor might be hesitant giving it to you. If you feel like the BCPs had anything to do with your nasty PCOS symptoms, I would advise you not to worry - they usually aren't related and sometimes BCPs do help a lot to alleviate symptoms. You might find one that's just as successful with regulating your system as something like Met.

VeganMom · 08-20-2007, 01:59 PM

I relate to it all, except the 3 years of TTC. I charted (http://www.tcoyf.com) and was on Met, so I think that helped us manage it sooner. But beielve me, we were prepared for it to take the PCOS average of 3 years.

Everything else from always being irregular, taking the pill in my late teens/early 20's, the tingly feet, hair, etc.... yup. Been there.

I'm glad you are getting bloodwork to check on ALL your hormone levels. You have to know where you are before you can try to correct it so you are in better balance.

GL!
V.

kboo · 08-20-2007, 02:11 PM

I can relate too. Like you I always had light irregular periods and started on BC at 17. When I came off BC at 27 I had no periods and in the following months started to gain weight fast (15lbs in 2 months - whilst working out daily and no change diet), my skin got really oily and I became moody and fatigued. It tooks months to finally figure out what was wrong with me because my doctor couldn't work it out and eventually sent me to the gyno, who said I was fine and just start taking BC again (this was all in the space of 6 months). I did that and felt slightly better but nothing changed....until I took myself off to the endocrinologist. I didn't even have a referral but through this site heard of a reproductive endo (even though I'm not trying for kids right now) who was knowledgable about PCOS and made an appointment with him. With my current medical records he diagnosed me on the spot without further testing and prescribed met. My regular doctor had previously mentioned that I have many symptoms of PCOS but the lab results didn't support it. I asked the endo about that and he said he has seen women with full beards who do not show high testosterone levels in their blood count.

With all your symptoms you should definatley see someone. My experience with the gyno was not good because she said that there was nothing wrong with me even though I had not had a period in 9 months and just go back on BC. She also said when I come off BC to start a family I might need help getting pregnant. None of this seemed to add up to me, particularly because I come from an extremely fertile family. I highly recommend finding a reproductive endocrinologist if you do not get the help you need from the gyno. Good luck to you and don't give up until you feel better and get some anwers.

Leah97229 · 08-20-2007, 02:20 PM

I can relate to a lot of what you said. I had irregular periods almost from the beginning at around 13 and they were usually light. The difference is that I was diagnosed at age 14 or 15, but I don't know if it helped much since they didn't do anything besides put me on BCP to regulate by period.

I got pregnant on a 1-year break after doing some Clomid and being on metformin for over 2 years. I had also lost about 20 pounds, so I'm not sure which one worked, maybe both. I would definitely look into metformin. I don't think I tested IR. My sugar was borderline once, but they checked again, and it was fine. I've always had normal fasting sugars. My doctors just give metformin to anyone who has PCOS whether they test IR or not. Metformin really seems to work miracles for a lot of women. A lot of times, I hear it only takes a couple of months before regulating. It took me a lot longer. After 2 years, I finally started getting 45-day cycles and that is when I got pregnant.

Good luck to you and to all who have PCOS!