The touchiest subject April 1, 2010

While commenting on a previous post, I had a thought. (It doesn’t happen often people, so hold on tight. lol)  Why is it such a terrible, disgusting thing for a woman to have excess hair? It’s treated like it is the most disgusting, unflattering, unfeminine thing out there, when in reality it is the most common thing we deal with!  I’m not just talking about us cysters having to deal with it either, I mean all women. Yes,  because of PCOS we have more of it, but it’s a “problem” that almost all women deal with.  I’ve never met a girl that didn’t have to shave/pluck/wax/bleach something.  So my question is, why is it such a bad thing?

I’m sure I am not alone in this, but I was treated horribly because of having a little facial hair.  I have been stared at, teased, call terrible names, and treated as a freak.  Most of this treatment happened to me in high school, but it wasn’t only by fellow students.  I was lucky to have the most supportive mom in the world, who assured me that I wasn’t a freak like people said, but that I was a beautiful young girl.

Even now it’s hard to talk about, but I won’t let the biases of our culture keep me from denying who I am.  I have PCOS, I’m a cyster, and I have excess hair.  Yes, I have to pluck and shave more often than normal, but I have accepted it.  I have a wonderful cysterhood of friends that I can talk to, and whom I know are dealing with the same things.  I am not unusual. I am not a freak.  I am a woman dealing with PCOS, and I do the best that I can.  If only all of us could learn to accept this.  Just imagine how much easier life would be.

Dealing with family March 27, 2010

This obviously doesn’t apply to all of the cysters, but I’d like to talk about the issues of dealing with PCOS and our families. Most of them don’t understand, at least in my life it’s true, and don’t try to understand.

Mainly my frustration at the moment is with family and the issue of infertility. Like I said, not all of us are facing this, but many are. It’s to the point of wanting to avoid family gatherings so I don’t have to face the questions of when we are having children. I’ll admit that I haven’t shared my PCOS with ALL my family, as I don’t feel it’s something they ALL need to know. But even worse than the family that is ignorant to your condition, is the family that knows about it and pretends they understand.

I mostly deal with this from my in-laws. I am the only adult, married person in that family that has not had a child, and for that I am viewed as an outcast. I am ignored when the talk turns to children, as it always does, and even worse is when they openly stop talking about it for fear of hurting or upsetting me. While I appreciate that they care, I think it makes the situation worse. Whether or not I am trying to have children is my and my husband’s business, and I don’t feel the need to share it.

I’m sure that I’m not alone in this frustration. I’ll admit that this blog post may seem like more of a rant, but some days we just need to rant.

Diagnosis Frustration March 24, 2010

While commenting on a previous post, I remembered back to when I had never heard about PCOS, and was just a confused teenager in high school whose friends had all gotten their period and I hadn’t.  On top of that, I had the joy of little hairs springing up where they shouldn’t be.  As if the teenage years aren’t awkward enough!

Eventually I had a talk with my Mom, and she took me to the doctor.  After running tests and discovering that my hormones were out of whack, I was sent to an endocrinologist.  This awful doctor told me to lose weight, like I had never heard that before as a chubby teenager, and prescribed birth control pills to me.  Well, the pills made me so sick, and most of my mornings were spent throwing up in a bucket on the way to school. (Sorry to gross anyone out.)  When my Mom called and spoke to the Dr., her response was that I needed to toughen up, and she refused to change my medicine, or even go another route, even though the BCP did nothing to start my period.  Thankfully my Mom never brought me back to that doctor. It was years later that I found my wonderful Dr. that diagnosed me with PCOS, and actually sent me to a specialist that truly understood.

A big part of this blog is for those that have PCOS, have recently been diagnosed, or think that they may have it.  My advice to you is that you don’t let anyone tell you to “toughen up” or tell you anything that you don’t like or agree with.  There is a lot of ignorance out there about PCOS, so please do your own research, ask questions of fellow cysters (like us, ahem…lol), and most importantly don’t give up.  The ladies of this blog know first hand the frustrations that come with PCOS.  Just know that you are not alone, and we are always here for advice, or questions, or just to listen.  We are not doctors and may not know all the answers, but we would love to help you find them.  That’s what we’re here for.

Hello! My intro… March 21, 2010

Hello all,

My name is Terri, and I was diagnosed with PCOS in early 2002. I was still somewhat a newlywed, married in October 2000, and was having my lovely yearly exam when my OB/GYN said that she was sure I had PCOS, and told me to search the internet for symptoms and it would make sense to me. Not much info was available then, not that a whole lot has changed, but once I did get a little info about it, and started hearing all the many symptoms or PCOS, I knew I had it before any test confirmed it. At this same visit was when my Dr. so cheerfully told me that it would be next to impossible to get pregnant, which is not something a newly married woman wishing to start a family wants to hear.

As many of you may know, that diagnosis comes with shock, fear, sadness, and many other emotions. Even now, 8 years later, I still have issues accepting it. I spent a lot of time researching this disease, and while doing that I stumbled across many other women, or “cysters” that were dealing with the same things I was. So for those that may have just been diagnosed, there is a wonderful cysterhood of support out there for us. I personally have only made it through at times through the support of my cysters. If there is one thing I can tell you about PCOS, you are not alone.

I hope we can be of help to some fellow cysters out there, or even help someone that may live with or know someone with PCOS. It is more and more common these days, and I hope we can shed a little light on that using this blog.

Terri