The PCOS Collection

Creator: DrAfter123 — Tackling the gap in women’s health data

In this post I want to talk about the array of symptoms that are linked to PCOS, hence the title “The PCOS Collection.” When I first started actually to research PCOS, like many of you, I came across the same information over and over again. Information like PCOS is hormonal, is the reason you can’t lose weight, causes infertility, yada, yada, yada. While all these things are true, this is really an oversimplification. The truth is that what causes PCOS is still unknown.

What Does Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) Actually Mean?

Let’s talk about the condition’s name for starters. As you all may know by now PCOS is short for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I find the name in itself mostly appropriate, as is it loaded with information. The prefix Poly means many. It is combined with the word Cystic means pertaining to Cyst. The medical term Polycystic means having many cysts. In our bodies, we can have many cysts in different areas, which is why the condition name is followed by a more defining location, Ovary/Ovarian. The key term in this condition is Syndrome. A syndrome is defined in the medical dictionary as “a combination of symptoms resulting from a single cause or so commonly occurring together as to constitute a distinct clinical picture.” If your diagnosis/condition includes the word syndrome, you have more than a singular problem.

After an endless amount of time Googling, joining groups, and starting groups, you start to understand how deep into problems you really are with this condition. As I have stated in a previous article, and as you may know, how PCOS affects you is going to be different from woman to woman. PCOS in itself is a conundrum. This is also why getting a PCOS diagnosis is difficult. It really isn’t until you are trying to have kids or have an extreme weight issue that pieces start coming together. For some of us, the diagnosis can almost come too late. For me, it is definitely too late on the kid part, but for my weight and other medical issues, I can work on that. The diagnosis for me came too late for both growing my family and most important health issues, which develop because of PCOS. The medical community is still up in the air as to which comes first, the chicken or the egg. Meaning does being obese causes PCOS or is it the other way around? In order to live a healthy life, an understanding of PCOS is paramount.

Since starting my journey to understanding this condition and the many layers of symptoms that are included, I now understand that the condition is systemic. By systemic I mean that this condition can affect every system in your body. About two years ago now, I found a post in which the medical community is also finally coming to this conclusion. This is so important. It is important because the symptoms, conditions, and effects of PCOS go way beyond weight, and infertility.

The Collection

The list below will identify symptoms as well as co-morbidities. Once you have gone through the list below, you will see that these conditions are not just endocrine disorders. The medical community often will only talk about these conditions as only endocrine-related. Understand that if you have been diagnosed with PCOS, then you would most likely also have 2nd and even a 3rd related diagnosis. Many of these conditions that are often linked to PCOS go beyond the weight and infertility issues that plague women with this diagnosis.

· Missed periods, irregular periods, or very light periods

· Ovaries that are large or have many cysts

· Excess body hair, including the chest, stomach, and back

· Obesity

· Acne or oily skin

· Male-pattern baldness or thinning hair

· Infertility

· Small pieces of excess skin on the neck or armpits (skin tags)

· Dark or thick skin patches on the back of the neck, in the armpits, and under the breasts

· Insulin resistance

· Diabetics

· High cholesterol

· High blood pressure

· Depression

· Anxiety

· Sleep apnea

· Pelvic pain

· Inflammation

· Low-grade inflammation

· Heredity

· Excess androgen

· Gestational diabetes

· Miscarriages or premature birth

· Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

· Endometrial Cancer

This LADIES…. is the PCOS collection. It is a long list, and yet somehow so many women go undiagnosed until there is something egregiously wrong. In some cases until the threshold needle has reached a point of no return. Even if we ask for help because we know there is something wrong, we are easily dismissed. We are told that we just need to eat better and work out, and they advise us as if we are not already doing these changes. It is the assumption, that I am somehow being callous with my own life, that really gets to me.

At the time of my diagnosis, I was dealing with a lot of the conditions mentioned on this list. The endless medical appointments, labs, and the frustration of being ill without an answer, I thought had come to an end. I did not yet understand that getting the PCOS diagnosis would only lead to more questions, more of the same. I have been fighting literally for my life for over 10 years. I have no words to express the frustration and the ineptness that fills places in my life at times. I am a fighter at heart, and therefore for over 10 years, I have continued to go to all my doctor appointments, my labs, and scans, to take an endless amount of prescriptions, to diet, change my eating habits, and to exercise. The information I needed wasn’t at the level that it is today. Access to information was not at the level that it is today. I am grateful for the diagnosis, for the growing information, for the medicine, for the social media groups, for all of it. Having a diagnosis, having access, and having some sort of treatment has helped me get here. I will continue to get better. I hope that posts like these can aid you in your journey.

Reference

1. John Hopkins Medicine — The article, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

2. Mayo Clinic — The article, Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)