Hnmn. I don't believe anything is 100% genetic. I mean, even with breast cancer, mental illness, or heart disease not both identical twins in a set both get it. Does PCOS have a genetic risk? Probably. But that doesn't mean everyone who has a gene WILL develop it. If drugs like depo don't cause cell mutation and permanent changes in sugar metabolism (IMO it does), it sure pushes PCOS on when it wasn't there before.
I just have a hard time believing PCOS comes on overnight at age 21 with absolutely no family history in 5 generations--the only change in life was depo.
__________________ Whoa! bfp 11/22/08. A YAZ "reset" baby!
allergy shots 2 yr
Soma sleep apnea pillow--yeah it works, but it wears out after a year
Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.
OK... here's where i come in... my doctor has studied pcos for a long time. he specializes in it. and he is just a regular endocrinologist. what he told me is that pcos is not entirely genetic. your mother or sister COULD have it, but they do not have to. and it usually comes from your mother, not your father.
onto the depo part... i was on depo from febuary of 2004 to june of 2006, that is when i actually had my last shot. i went on the shot because i had just had my son and i was getting married and did not want to get pregnant again right away... he was only 6 weeks old when i got married... anyways, it gave me the worst headaches, my mood swung like a pendulum on a grandfather clock, i gained a LOT of weight. i did not have any sort of bleeding during taking the shot, or even for a year after taking it. i started bleeding unexpectedly in june and it hasn't gone away yet, although it is tapering off... all i know is that stuff is bad. and it should be banned...
i was just diagnosed with pcos in april. i finally found a doctor who didn't herd the patients in like cattle and only stay in the room for 2.5 seconds. as i said above, he specializes in pcos. in my case though, the depo did not trigger the pcos, it only made it worse. i didn't have a period for a year before i got pregnant with my son. i didn't even start getting one until i was 16 and they never came regularly. according to my doctor, i have probably had it forever, i have been overweight my whole life with unwanted hair and the discoloration of my skin... my old doctors never thought to test me, they just kept saying it was the hypothyroidism. but then why couldn't they figure out where it was coming from, the thyroid problem was always only a guess because they couldn't figure out what else was wrong with me. my thyroid diagnosis came when i was only 18 months old, but it was only a guess... is it possible that i had pcos then? i am 26 years old... they didn't even know about pcos then. anyways, before i was diagnosed, i gained almost 100 pounds in under 6 months. and no matter what i couldn't get it to come off, my doc upped my synthroid, put me on yasmin and put me on glucophage. so far i have lost almost half of the weight i gained from the year. and it comes down to that my old endocrinologist didn't even have me on the right dose of synthroid and that is what was causing a lot of the weight gain and stuff... i wasn't on enough to maintain my weight and i didn't have any energy at all. anyways, in the 14 years that i saw that doctor, she never once tested me for pcos and insulin resistance, although my new doctor says that i have been exhibiting all the classic symptoms for years. he found that out by looking at my file. anyways, i'm done. i've gotta go get ready to go to the dermatologist... i'm part of a clinical study for an acne cream and it is my last visit and it hasn't done crap for me because of the fact that the acne is not normal acne, it is caused by my pcos. but i get paid today. and then i am going to get a wii! well, actually i'm putting it on layaway...
oh, did i mention that while i was pregnant with my son all my symptoms went away? yes, my face was clear, no zits at all, my hair straightened out (hair that turns curly post puberty is a sign of pcos, mine turned curly at 14... i know it was post puberty because i had already developed all i have today and i was sweating like crazy and i had to wear deoderant...i know... tmi...) anyways, i'll talk to ya'll later!
OK---here's my story. I got married when I was 19. Within three months I was pregnant. I had four kids in 5 1/2 years. My FIL used to call me Fertial Mertyl (sp???). Anyway, after #4, I had to get on something. I went on Depro when she was 12 months old. I was normal weight and everything.
After four shots, I told hubby he had to do something because I couldn't be on them anymore. I had gained 45 pounds and felt awful. I have not been the same ever since. I was finally Dx with PCOS in May of this year. No one in my family has any symptoms for this except for me.
I KNOW it was the Depro, BUT HOW CAN WE PROVE IT??????
It's hard to Dx, so how can anyone say for sure that we didn't have it before or that it was a coincidence???
I wish we could do a class action law suit. I don't have any insurance so right now am having problems with paying for my Bcs even though they are the cheapest ones. And this is something we will have to deal with for the rest of our lives. This sucks!!!!
Alethea
__________________ Married in 1993
Had DS #1 - 1994 Had DS #2 - 1995 Had DS #3 - 1996 Had DD - 1999
Had TMJ since I was a teen
Took Depro shots 2000-2001 Was irregular since Dx PCOS, fallen uterus, fibroid 3-2007 Dx "Golfer's Elbow" 4-2007
wow, snowyalley, you have had it right. i wish we could do a law suit as well, i was never informed of any of the side effects of depo by my ob/gyn's partner who put me on it. he told me i was to heavy for bcp's. anyways, i'm about to be in the same boat as you are soon. my husband's plant is closing down. he'll have been there 3 years on the 16th of this month and then 11 days later they're closing down for good.
you are one of the luckier ones though... i was on it for 2 1/2 years... i gained and lost the same 20 pounds every month, plus gained an extra 10 each month... so as i lost 20 pounds after the first month after injection, i gained that back plus some when i got the injection... so i gained like 80 pounds on it in 2 1/2 years. plus i gained 100 or maybe even more in the year after i went off of it even though i was doing spark people and exercising daily. and i was getting confused as to why i was gaining and not losing... and during the depo, i was exercising and doing weight watchers! go figure! and i stuck to it like white on rice. so here i am today at 318... i have lost fifty of the 100 pounds i gained in the past year. here's hoping i lose a lot more in the months to come.
hi im from colorado and just excepted pcos it was very hard for me because the doctor explanied it as i have too much male hormone and dident explaine it better so i thought alot of stupid things and ignored it till i had to go to the emergency room because i have bleeding very hard for 3 weeks and was getting very weak. I am so sure my pcos was triggured or caused by the depo prevara shot. because i have been with kisar my whole life and befor i was put on the shot i had my cycle every mounth on time and i developed very earlyier then my age group and dident have hair everywhere like i do now( i feel like a da*n chiea pet ) and i started haveing boils so let say life hasent been kind too me when i started the shot i saw changes after my 1st shot i dident have my cycles the whole time i was on the depo for 5 years and affter the last one my cycles it took 4 years for me to even have one a year tell yesterday when i had to go to the emergency room when i told my doctor i thought this all started with the depo she tryed to tell me there was absolutly no way that it could and really wouldent understand that this all started with the depo and my only option was birthcontrol pill but sorry if im wrong after the depo im a little scared of anything that messes with my hormons and for me to go on the southbeach diet ( have u seen that diet is fasting for 3 weeks good for you ??) i did want to have a kid my whole life just to here there may be no way inless i have help and i think that just b*ows. thank u atlessed i know im not the only one thinking it could have caused it
I only did the Depo shot once when I was 17. It made me very sick so I didn't want to take it anymore. I didn't to any other type of birth control because I didn't want to get sick again. Before the Depo my periods were great and very predictable, almost no pain, light-medium bleeding, it was a breeze! It took me a few months after Depo for my period to come back but it DEFINETLY was nothing like any period before. Ever since then I've never been even close to the same and I have recently been diagnosed with PCOS. The Depo is the only thing I can think of because I have no family history of PCOS and everything happened right after my first and only shot. I was healthy, only had the occasional pimple, I wasn't overweight but i wasn't skinny... I was healthy, and now I'm not. I'm 21 now and I've gained over 60 pounds, I'm always breaking out in my face, my hair has thinned and I have no energy (plus other problems that I'm sure everyone here knows about lol). I blame Depo entirely.
hmnm 
