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PCOS

A Woman's Guide to Dealing With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

An Excerpt

By Colette Harris with Dr. Adam Carey

It is still a commonly held belief that women are supposed to sacrifice everything to help others, because women are supposed to have the 'mothering instinct'. This can leave women who worry about their own health feeling guilty. How many of us brush aside worries because we feel we don't want to cause a fuss?

PCOS can be hard to talk about because it deals with embarrassing and emotionally-charged topics such as excess body hair, adult acne, periods and fertility issues. And let's face it, talking to friends about these things can be hard enough, never mind a doctor, especially when you are feeling low. But talking about these sorts of problems is the first step to getting the right kind of help.

Feelings of bewilderment, and shame about the changes that can happen in a woman's body and emotional life if she has PCOS, can be very frightening.

These mood swings took over my life. I would be really snappy one minute, weepy the next and then laugh at things that weren't really funny at all. I felt out of control. Emma, 24

I was disgusted by how my body started to look. I sprouted hair around my nipples, navel and on my chin. I refused to look in the mirror unless I was shaving it off. I was too ashamed to see a beautician. I thought I was turning into a man because of the hair and because my waist disappeared under the extra pounds that piled on. I was a nervous wreck by the time I was desperate enough to see a doctor. Sheila, 36

If you feel as demoralized, upset and frightened as Emma and Sheila did by th time you get to the doctor, it can be easy to let them tell you there's nothing really wrong, that many women have body hair, that many women feel tired, moody and put on weight as they get older. This is partly because when you're feeling down and at a low ebb anyway it's very hard to stand up for yourself against a trained professional who feels there is little worth investigating. We are also taught from an early age to trust what doctors tell us – but bear in mind that PCOS is a condition still very much in the shadows, so it could be simply that your doctor doesn't know very much about it. (If you think this is the case, ask them directly if they think it could be PCOS.) It can also be easy to accept a pat answer because, despite knowing deep down that there is something wrong, you want to hear that there is not.

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