Warning Signs

Let me start this post with a disclaimer!!  I am not a doctor, I am a wanna be doctor but have no degree :) I am a self proclaimed nurse by googling trade but am not licensed in any way, shape, or form! Ok, now that we got that little tidbit out of the way we can move forward with this post! I also don't know the rules of using Internet data so I am just going to tell you what I know about PCOS and the warning signs and symptoms that I have, and I pretty much have them all! If you suspect yourself or your daughter might have PCOS after reading this I strongly urge you to contact your doctor about it, an OB/GYN would probably be better than a family practice doctor, but I am sure your family doctor can recommend  someone if she feels the need to! The biggest thing about PCOS is that it is often times misdiagnosed or not caught at all. It took my mom reading a magazine article, dragging me to the doctor and showing it to him to get the right diagnosis. There are so many reasons why finding out early is imperative! First and foremost, a girl with the side effects of PCOS is going to get made fun of at school, it is just a fact. But boy would I have felt better about the teasing if I would have known that I wasn't doing something wrong to cause the things I was teased about ( such as always thinking the extra weight was due to overeating, the gray patches due to not "scrubbing" hard enough, the crazy hair growth from not shaving often enough). And I can't stress enough how important it is to know about PCOS so as to protect what little fertility you may have! It is only by the grace of God that I decided to try to have babies so young, and only because I had gotten a PCOS diagnosis my senior year in High School did my OB/GYN start me on fertility treatments after just 4 or 5 months of trying. I never went back on birth control after I had Carleigh at age 23 and we started active fertility treatments when she was around 15 months old, in just 15 months my fertility had decreased even more, the treatment regiment that worked with her did not work with getting pregnant with my other pregnancies, by the time I conceived Caylee I was on the strongest doses of meds that you can do for IUI for 14 days and still only grew one egg, we had two insemination's and this was the last cycle we were going to do before IVF. That was a huge change in just a couple of years! My Reproductive Endocrinologist told me I was her youngest patient to date and that she wished more of her patients would seek treatment out earlier because the success rates are much higher!

PCOS presents with some or all, and even only one or two of the following symptoms. There may be more that I am not listing but you can check google PCOS and get a few really good websites if you want more information!

weight gain/being overweight and having a hard time losing it
insulin resistance
gray patches of skin on the elbows, knees, neck, groin
excess facial hair (sides of face, chin, upper lip) side note: in junior high the facial hair was worse on the side of my face, now I am just hairy everywhere! Thank you old age! LOL!
Delayed starting of period ( I was fifteen)
irregular periods- (I was put on birth control for this)
Anxiety- (this can also present as panic attacks, I have had anxiety since I was a small child, this was one of the first signs/symptoms I probably presented with, following with the weight gain)
Infertility
Male Patterned Baldness ( I do not have this one yet, but let it be known when I get it I will be turning into Daniel instead of DeAnna, this is your warning! )
Acne
Dry/Oily Skin
Elevated Blood Pressure (I do not have this symptom yet or at least it hasn't been diagnosed)

If you had problems with any of these areas and were never diagnosed I would urge you to get checked out and I would urge you to watch your daughters as they grow up. I would say that I was full blown PCOS by age 13, that is when I peeked with all of my symptoms. Next week I will compile some websites that have good PCOS information on them. There are many ways to alter your diet and physical changes you can make to help control your PCOS. (It is very possible that I find the diets extermely miserable and awful but I will never admit that!) There is also good infromation out there to help you to increase your chances of pregnancy! Have a GREAT Tuesday!! And even though this post was heavy, I sure hope you have giggling good day!!!