I've been doing more research into PCOS recently, but unfortunately I've found that there is a severe lack of information out there about it. At least as far as literature goes. What I've found is that there's four or five books about PCOS in general and a ton of others that are entirely about dieting with PCOS. But all of the books about it in general say the same things. None of them really help me deal with things on a day to day basis. All they tell me is what doctors say about it.
I want to know more about what other women go through. Did they go through a lot of doctors to get diagnosed? Did they have trouble finding the right combination of medications or do they not take medications at all? Were the reasons they went to the doctor in the first place related to getting pregnant or did they go for different reasons? How have they dealt with the emotional issues they suffer if they don't suffer emotional lows often enough to be described as "depressed"?
These books on PCOS only help with telling me the medical issues that doctors can treat with pills or shots or treatments. What about those things they can't treat? I'm having a bit of an issue right now because my life is in a state of flux as far as people I consider friends go, and where I'll be in the next year or so. It's hard because I don't have anyone here to talk to on a day to day basis who has the same issues to deal with.
Oh God yes!
ReplyDeleteAll we hear is about losing weight and having babies. We hear a lot of frightening statistics and lectures about how we need to have "lifestyle changes". That even happens on the forums and groups.
But to get any information on the basic daily life of PCOS that isn't baby-centric, or focused on weight loss is nigh on impossible.
And yet, every time I blog up the subject, dozens and dozens of women come out of the woodwork saying "YES!! I feel the same way!"
Part of it is the fact that women are told their value is in their appearance (ie, we should lose weight and get thin) and their breeding ability (let's get you pregnant). So not only do those in the field value these elements more than things like quality of life, but women start to as well, as that's what we're taught is important.
I don't know the answer to the problem. Unless we write our own book!
I didn't have any problems getting diagnosed with PCOS, but the solutions put forth my the various doctors I've seen were unworkable for me. Weight loss, gee, like I haven't spent the majority of my life working on that, and birth control pills to balance out the hormones, which I refuse to take because when I took them when I was younger I felt like crap all the time and gained a bunch of weight.
ReplyDeleteOne doctor put me on glucophage, but I couldn't tolerate the side effects or the doctor. My current gyno has me on a combination of estrogen and progesterone, which yes, I know is basically a birth control pill, but the current combination does not make me feel like crap, but only started because I was having super long lasting and heavy periods.
Just in the last few months I've had cysts rupturing at regular intervals, though now that I know what they are, my husband and I have an action plan and the pain subsides pretty quickly.
I agree that the majority of information about PCOS is about how we can fulfill our roles as women (not that I think those are our roles as women), be pretty and make babies.