Hormones normal?

melloyello · 10-20-2006, 08:07 PM

Ok little history, i was diagnosed with PCOS a couple years ago by a PCOS specialist and had all the hormones tested and what not which confirmed i had it and was IR... fast forward to now i have had a baby and she is 18months old and one or 2 of my symptoms are better or gone but many of them are not irregular AF, excess hair etc etc.

My regular dr (a GP) recently told me that my LH levels didnt confirm i have PCOS, most of my hormones were normal except that my testosterone was 2 points high (high end of normal... or high for me she said) i have no doubts that i have PCOS and my sister who has it severely (much worse than me) just recently had her hormones tested and was told they are all normal too!
Yet she has long periods without AF and long periods with bleeding and allll kinds of pain and she has cysts all over her ovaries and all of this and that basically a really bad case....

So what do you guys think of that??? it seems weird! why are our hormones showing normal? and what does it mean!?

R0xyg4l · 10-20-2006, 08:12 PM

I am in a similar boat as you. All of my hormones are normal except my testosterone is 7 points too high. I read somewhere that even though our hormones may not be incredibly offset, some people can be more sensitive to testosterone than others causing the hirsutism and irregular cycles. I have NEVER had regular cycles from what I remember, and I've always had hair in odd places but never thought much of it. So I went to the doctor and she "presumptively" dx me with PCOS. I'm totally convinced I have it and a lot of people in my family do as well. But it's just so odd how 7 little points can cause such a big inconvenience!

Jashobeam · 10-20-2006, 08:55 PM

My doc did blood tests and still dxed me with PCOS from my symptoms and IR, not my testosterone levels. There is a thread about incorrect lab tests on the Newbie board I think. Here is a link that might help:

5 Types of PCOS

M&M's Mommy · 10-20-2006, 09:14 PM

There are two issues here. First of as others have said, your hormones can be in the normal range but you are more sensitive to them. Second, the ranges for some of the hormones, according to my endocrinologist (PCOS specialist too), are inaccurate. Therefore, if your doctor is going strictly by the range of the lab, he may be interpreting your results incorrectly. The reason for the inaccuracy in lab ranges is that patients with PCOS were included in the study sample of the general population, skewing the results. According to my doc, a total testosterone is normal around 20-30 and free testosterone around 2 or 3. Some labs report a testosterone of up to 86 as normal and free testosterone of up to 6.4 as normal. My guess is that your former specialist knew how to interpret your results more accurately and that you did and still do have PCOS.

melloyello · 10-21-2006, 05:11 PM

Thank you so much all for your answers!
M&M you make a lot of sense, i dont think my hormones were normal when i was seeing the specialist before i was pregnant, and i think they may be a bit better since i had my daughter, but the dr misinterpreting could definately be a factor in it.

Anyhow im glad to get some ideas and explainations from you ladies

R0xy i guess it just highlights again how little is known about PCOS and its causes, i mean i know theres theories and all of that but it doesnt at all seem like a consistant syndrome!