Went to the Gyno Today - Frustrated

melee18 · 06-06-2008, 05:17 PM

I went to the gyno this morning for my annual checkup. It was a new gyno - I graduated college last May and had been going to the gyno at school for a few years. I had gone to this office before college, but this was my first time with this particular gyno. I'm not sure I'll go back to her after this visit...

In October 2006 I stopped taking birth control pills after having been on them for 2 years. My periods were normal for about 4 months, and then the time in between periods kept getting longer and longer. In June 2007 I completely skipped a period. At first I thought it was just due to stress. I had just graduated, moved back home to a rather difficult family situation and was starting a new job in August.

I got a period in July, but skipped one again in August. Also around that time I put on 10 pounds (mostly around my belly) and started to get bad acne (mostly around my chin). I never fully skipped another period, but they have been very unreliable - some come every 32 days, others it's 50 days or 40 days.

I am a thin person - 5'7" and ~132 pounds currently. At my heaviest I was 137 pounds. I realized that loosing a few pounds couldn't hurt, and I've improved my diet. Currently eat eggs in the morning, salads for lunch and some sort of meat for dinner. Sugar seems to affect me much more now than it used to so I try to avoid it most days. Also have been taking Nature's Way Alive Multivitamins, chromium picolinate and an amino acid supplement all of which have helped.

It's been a year since my first skipped period, an my periods are still irregular though and the acne is still present. I currently have a cyst on my left ovary that is getting annoying. I was hoping the gyno would give me some suggestions but this is what I heard today:

"Well I don't think you have PCOS. You don't have the right body type for it. Women with PCOS missed their periods for 3 to 4 months straight and then when they do get them, it's like a flood gate opens. It sounds like you are just very hormonal. Since you are thin, you don't have a very large hormone reserve, and little changes with stress can affect you. I remember when I was in med school - if I didn't take care of myself, sometimes my body would get screwed up.

I can put you on the pill. I've been on the pill for 12 years now and there's nothing wrong with being on it for that long. You can either do that or just deal with you acne via other methods. As for your cyst - it'll go away on it's own."

I'm just so frustrated at this point. I don't care if I have PCOS or not - I wasn't really looking for a definite diagnosis. But there is obviously something wrong with me. My periods were regular before I went on the pill and my teenage acne had gone away. Telling me to go back on a drug that screwed me up in the first place was not something I wanted to hear. There was no offer to check my hormone levels or do any kind of testing. It was just "you're hormonal. You can take the pill or just deal."

Why are these doctors so eager to just push drugs and tell their patients to get our of their faces? Doesn't anyone have a heart??

At this point I don't think I want a second opinion. I think it'll just be more of the same. It seems like if i had weighed 50 more pounds she might have suggested some testing. I think I'm going to get back into liver cleansing which I've tried in the past few months and have had some success with. Also going to stick to my diet and exercise routine.

Just really frustrated right now....

refrain02 · 06-06-2008, 05:40 PM

demand more testing. I went through 4 years of "it's just stress" from an old gyno before I finally got sick of it and scouted out different gynos until I found one that actually cared enough to get me diagnosed properly. I would have a period two months in a row...and then skip 4 months, and then have one here and there...all over the place.
keep searching until you find a knowledgable gyno who will help...don't give up!

BeeBee · 06-06-2008, 10:57 PM

Melee18 -
I went to my gyno for 7 years and she never dx me! I went to a primary physican and asked for hormonal tests (required before going to the fertility dr) and she didn't catch it either. It was the fertility dr who said I had PCOS. I am also 5'7 and about 130, so I'm not overweight. I was on the pill for 10 years and when I got off my periods slowly disappeared. And when they did come, they were very light. I have all the other yucky symptoms though, acne and extra hair.

My testosterone levels were elevated and I was placed on Metformin to help lower them, which has signifcantly helped my acne!!! Regardless of what the gyno said, if you don't feel like you can trust her, you probably should find a new dr, after all, you are trusting them with your delicates!

I've learned that every dr. has their own opinion of what PCOS should be. The reality is that every case is signifant because since I've been seeing the fertility dr, I haven't had one cyst show up on a sonogram and my periods aren't all that painful. Good luck to ya and always trust your gut feeling!!!

Laura32 · 06-07-2008, 01:16 AM

I agree with the other girls. You should find a doctor who will test your hormone levels before just dismissing your hunches. Your symptoms sound pretty PCOS to me, and I think I've read everything on the internet ever written on the subject. You are lucky to be just out of college and addressing this issue now. I was on the pill for ten years, and it masked my symptoms, and now that I'm married and ready to try to start a family, I am starting from square one on getting my problems figured out. Which is not to minimize your feelings at all, just to say it could be worse, and you're getting an early start!

TrishainAZ · 06-07-2008, 02:51 PM

Also, read the stickies on the top of the thin thread... maybe even print them out to bring with you. I certainly don't have the "usual" stuff and even doubted my doctor (so almost the opposite of your situation!) but when I read this I finally kind of get it now!

Tummy · 06-07-2008, 03:34 PM

I agree that you should find a new dr. This one doesn't seem to know how to diagnose PCOS, since she doesn't even have the criteria straight. Obviously you don't need to be overweight, since most of us in this section of soulcysters are average size to underweight, so there is no "body type." Also, what she said about periods is not right, either. I have never had "floodgates open." When I do have one, it is super light. A lot of thin cysters have low estrogen and thus don't build up a thick uterine lining, so AF is not heavy at all.

Also, I think you SHOULD pursue a correct diagnosis, because of future implications. It's best to know now whether or not you have PCOS so you can make plans for having a family later on, since PCOS can make that challenging without treatment. Also, if you have PCOS you could try treatments like Metformin or spironolactone to see if they help your skin.

You may try the doctor recommendation threads on soulcysters to find someone in your area who is familiar with PCOS, either a gyno or an endocrinologist, so that you will be tested appropriately.

melee18 · 06-07-2008, 04:27 PM

Thank you all so much for the tips! You're right - I probably should get another opinion. I've never really been a big fan of doctors but I should investigate before this turns into something more serious. Or like how you said Laura - when I want to start having kids.

I've talked to my Mom about Metformin - she's a registered dietitian and a diabetes educator. She said it might help.

Another thought of mine is what happens when I want to go back on the pill again? I was on the pill for contraceptive purposes, but I'm not regularly sexually active at the moment.

Tummy · 06-07-2008, 04:29 PM

I never had any problems with the pill and plan to go back on it when I'm done TTC. Do you have a reason you don't want to be on it? The pill didn't cause you to have PCOS (if that is in fact what you have), it just masked your symptoms while you were on it. Which is actually a good thing.

CarmenSandiego · 06-07-2008, 05:34 PM

I would set up an appointment with an endocrinologist...since "technically" PCOS is an endocrine disorder...and I too am surprised at how little gynecologists know about this disease and how foolishly they believe that Pill will solve ALL of my problems!

faithlight · 06-08-2008, 03:05 PM

This tendency of doctors to just prescribe birth control pills or attribute everything to stress is definitely something I've experienced, too. It's weird because as I peruse this site, it's so obvious that there's many people out there with PCOS, and it doesn't always fit one form. I can't say I have PCOS because I've never been diagnosed with it, but it's a diagnosis of exclusion, right? And I certainly have enough symptoms of something being wrong with my hormones to get frustrated when doctors don't seem to feel there is anything worth looking into or trying to diagnose. I have obvious problems with blood sugar which started right at the same time as I started my periods (at 16)--I'd get shaky and tense before I ate and exhausted and lethargic right after...periods that have never followed a consistent cycle, mild acne that started at twenty and seems to get a little worse each year...some hair in the "wrong" places (face, nipples, upper thighs)...and a hairline that's receded quite noticeably in the last year.

Maybe I don't have PCOS--I'm certainly not overweight at 5'6" and 120 pounds--but I've discovered here that not everyone with PCOS is overweight. And when I put together all the symptoms, PCOS is a label that seems to fit me better than anything else I've read about. The thing is that I know there's something wrong with my hormones. But doctors don't seem to want to even try to figure it out...I just want them to acknowledge that something is wrong with me but they seem to think everything's always normal. The usual response to me is "You started your periods late and it takes a few years for the hormones to sort themselves out." But after 6 years of having periods things have just gotten weirder, I have mood swings and often don't feel "right"...but the only solution doctors ever offer is the pill!

Natalie'smom06 · 06-08-2008, 05:47 PM

There are good PCOS doctors out there. It took me a while to find one but I did, and it happens to be an OB!
It is good to be on BCP's with PCOS, but that said you need to be diagnosed, and not just put on them. When I was a teen, my periods just stopped, so the OB put me on BCP to get regular AF's. Which is fine, at that age I didn't realize that meant I didn't ovulate which meant I couldn't get pregnant naturally someday. Someone recommended to me when I was 16 to see an endocrinologist, I could have a hormone disorder, who dx'd me with PCOS. This Endo gave me spironolactone in additon to the BCP, and told me when I someday decide to TTC to come see him. When it was time to TTC this Endo wouldn't prescribe me met, let's just see what happens with your cycles. Anyways, I knew I needed Met from the research I had done, so I went to an OB who reviewed my charts and my symptoms and immediately gave me Met. She is the type of Dr who is no expert in PCOS but she will look into everything I ask her to do with PCOS.