My PCOS journey

I blogged a little bit a week or so ago about my PCOS effecting my weight. I thought I'd delve in a little deeper to how PCOS has affected my life, and what I'm doing about it.

I never had really regular periods. I would sometimes go months in between periods. I started being visited by good ole' Aunt Flo when I was around 12-13 years old. By 15, they still hadn't straightened themselves out, so we headed to a gyno. Not uncommon they said, and put me on the pill. Ugh. The pill. Never again. I think I went through about 5 brands and never DID find one that didn't make me A) a horrible, horrible dirty word of a person. B) Have migraines so bad ON THE SAME DAY of my cycle that I couldn't go to school or even move very far out of the bed. or C) Screw up my hormones so badly that I was a basket case. Ultimately I stopped all of them because of the migraines.

Around that same time, I began getting cysts that would "explode". I had confirmed "multiple bilateral cysts" by ultrasound. I had several pelvic ultrasounds by the time I was in college! No luck. The Pill didn't help the cysts very much (not that I could tell, the migraines were too bad) and I was beginning to get miserable.

So. I took it in my own hands. I started watching what I ate more carefully. I desperately wanted to be a mom someday, so I fought for my body. I fought for my ovaries. I watched the carbs. I watched the glycemic index foods. I stayed far, far away from anything that had high fructose corn syrup in it (a contributing factor to PCOS in my humble opinion). I began using an all natural progesterone cream. And I got healthy. My periods evened out.

But I was still having cyst pain. I went in to a new OB/GYN on the suggestion of my family doctor (can I just pause to say how freaking HAPPY I am now that my family doctor got me into this office? One of the best in our area, and because I was an existing patient, I was able to go there when I did get pregnant. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to. SO HAPPY.). I LOVED this woman! She LISTENED to me. After we had tried a few things, she said "Well, what would you like to do?" and I suggested Metformin (glucophage) (which is a diabetes drug). She agreed we'd try it.

Magic. No pain! No cysts!

I'd say I stayed on it for about 6 months to a year? It was great. PCOS is caused by insulin resistancy and the glucophage makes your body recognize and use the insulin it already makes more efficiently.

When I got married, I went off the medicine, because it could have side-effects if I became pregnant. And I did (a few months later). And I miscarried. I became pregnant again two cycles later. It wasn't hard for me, but I hadn't had symptoms in months.

Now I'm 16 months post partum. I didn't start periods back until my daughter was 9 months old, but I was breastfeeding constantly. I'm still breastfeeding now, but we're down to about twice a day. And my periods are all over the place. I've only had about 4 in the past 7 months. The last cycle was 54 days long. And I KNOW I had a cyst. I felt it "form" on January 4th and I felt it burst on February 2nd. I started my period on February 7th.

So that's where I am. My symptoms are back. I cannot seem to lose weight (although it would help if I exercised, I'm sure). I'm at my heaviest ever. I'm trying to eat low-glycemic. I'm going on the cream again, and looking into D-Chiro-Inositol.

I'm currently taking 10,000 mgs of Vitamin D, 400 mg of Magnesium, a whole food Prenatal vitamin, 1000 mg of Fish Oil and 500mg of Green Tea extract. I plan on adding that D-Chiro-Inositol and Chromium to the mix soon. I do not plan on going on any medications to ovulate... we don't have the money, and I would rather do it as naturally as possible. I'm also not looking to get pregnant until I get this somewhat under control. I don't want to risk another miscarriage if at all possible.

So. That's where I am right now. I did it once, I can do it again.