Newly diagnosed - need advice

Heatwave · 07-29-2009, 12:31 AM

Hi there

I am a 28 year old and I have recently been diagnosed with a mild form of PCOS. I have been on the pill for about 14 years and about 9 months ago I decided that I wanted to go au naturel and come off the pill and give my body a break for a few years before my husband and I started trying for a family. After being off the pill for about 4 months I felt the best that I had felt in so many years and I was losing a lot of flab around my hips, bum and thighs (which was a bonus as I had been trying to shed that weight via exercise for years!) But.... the downside was that 7 months into being off the pill I hadn't menstrated once. Also I was experiencing, while off the pill, very oily skin and hair and experienced quite bad facial acne. So I went to the Dr about it and she sent me to an Endochronologist and she ran a series of tests and scans etc.. (all while I was off the pill so got true natural readings) and they all came back pointing to PCOS. So two months ago I went back on the pill - onto a new one for me called Yasmin and then one month later (so one month ago) an anti-andregen pill called Spiralactone to help control the acne. Now my dilema is that I'm experienced rapid weight gain over the last two months, even though I am only a size 8-10 normally, I have got to the point now that I can't fit into any of my pants cos they're all way too small around the hips and thighs and bum. And apparently Yasmin was meant to be known as the 'weight loss' pill and yet I'm piling it on so fast it's scary! And I am a very fit and active person who works out with a personal trainer twice weekly and am very knowledgeable about diet and exercise so I know it's not my lifestyle and I'm thinking it might be this new pill. So now I want to go with the Dr's other option of going off the pill again and just getting a 'input' of hormones once every three or four months to bring on ovulation. Has anyone else had any similar experiences and/or gone off the pill and still managed the effects of PCOS? I'm worried that if I go off the pill again that my skin will become oily and troublesome again and I don't want that but I don't want the weight gain either (which really hadn't been a problem for me up until going on this new Yasmin pill). I would love to hear from some people who have had experiences with PCOS as I'm very new to this and I'm getting really confused about what I should do!

Many thanks
Gina

PaisleyVixen · 07-29-2009, 12:46 AM

hey heatwave are u and ur husband still trying for a family?
ur doctor can prescribe other drugs to bring on a period..u dont have to take Birthcontrol.
did u ask about other options?or did u just decied to stop trying?

Heatwave · 07-29-2009, 01:04 AM

Hiya, thanks for your response. We haven't actually started trying for a family to date. It was just thatI decided about 9 months ago that we would be going to start trying within the next couple of years and as I had been on the pill for 14 years I wanted to go off the pill and give my body a decent break before we even thought about starting to try. So it was with starting a family in a few years time in mind that I started this whole thing and came to realise that I have PCOS. It never showed up before as I had been on the pill for 14 years. So at this stage getting pregnant isn't on the agenda.

Thanks

pigskinprincess · 07-31-2009, 01:47 AM

Hi Gina - I had the same weight gain problems as you did on every type of hormonal birth control I've tried (and I've tried a lot!). Eventually, I gave up and started using the diaphragm. Kind of old school, but it keeps me from having to deal with the side effects of BCP. I even gained weight on Nuva Ring, which supposedly has a very low amount of hormones in it.

My OB/GYN recommended the Mirena IUD after my baby was born because she said the effects would be minimized since the hormones do not circulate through your entire body like oral BCP (or something like that). I tried to get one, but she could not get it in correctly because my uterus is tilted so far back. So I'm back to the diaphragm... My doctor prescribed Aygestin to make my period start every other month if I don't get one on my own.

We started TTC in 2007 even though I wasn't 100% ready yet. I just didn't know how long it would take. We went with no birth control for all of 2007, I tried Metformin in November 2007 (without success). I started Clomid in February 2008 and got pregnant right away. All PCOSers are different when it comes to getting pregnant so I definitely recommend starting sooner rather than later.