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Right in the Hormones

My Journey with PCOS

By Lexi 🌻Published about a year ago • Updated about a year ago • 4 min read
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Y’all, I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have your body work against you. Not enough to be noticeable to others, but to you. For you, it’s all too obvious.

Unprecedented weight gain. Unpredictable menstrual cycles and when they do arrive, you feel like death walking. Acne. Excess body hair. Fatigue. Anxiety.

Separately, or to an untrained eye, all these symptoms look like a more-or-less typical entrance to adolescence. But when years pass with no change but an increase in stress, anxiety, frustration and decline in self-esteem, clearly it becomes more than an issue of puberty.

Endless doctors saying “It’s just anxiety.” “You just need to exercise more…eat more fruits and veggies…sleep more…exercise…cut sugar…more protein…lose weight…”

As if it was that easy. I was active. Growing up I was always playing sports. I ate well. I slept fairly well – as well as can be expected when staying up late for school, anxiety and insomnia warring with and feeding each other.

By the time I was 14, my mom knew there was something not quite right. We went to my doctor who thought that drugs, alcohol or being sexually active were the only possible culprits. Then he wanted to prescribe birth control, before testing for anything.

Now, I was always a good girl – never did anything I wasn’t supposed to and so there I was feeling scandalized and reeling from what felt was a presumptuous assumption that the only cause for my years of irregular periods – ones that left me anemic, weak and miserable – quick weight gain and feminine physical development were due to alcohol, drugs or sex. Then he wanted to give me medication I didn’t want or functionally need?

I was overwhelmed and my mom was furious with how the situation had been handled.

Add to the fact that my mom had estrogen-receptive breast cancer. Neither of us wanted to introduce more estrogen into my system when we weren’t sure if I had any of the genetic markers indicative of breast cancer.

We said “no” to the birth control.

Years passed. I made it through high school and the first years of college. My mom met a woman – a nurse who also had PCOS. This woman recognized the symptoms I’d been suffering from for half my life. She recognized the correlation. She recommended that I ask my doctor to test for a blood panel of my hormone levels.

Sure enough, a few months later when I had the panel done, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).

I was 2o.

I lucked out – I don’t have ovarian cysts. I won’t know about my chances of getting pregnant and carrying to term until I try to get pregnant, but infertility is a possibility with this diagnosis.

My PCOS presents primarily as a hormone imbalance. But my doctor immediately put me on birth control – after genetic testing to check for the “breast cancer genes.” Granted, taking the estrogen was the first time my hormones had ever been balanced. I started to lose weight. I had more energy. My skin cleared up.

I had an answer.

I knew what questions to ask. What to look for. It wasn’t all my fault.

It wasn’t all my fault.

Not long after I graduated from college, at which point I was the heaviest I had ever been, I discovered a global workout program that I have fallen in love with. My Peak Challenge.

One of my favorite parts about this program is the ambassador groups. One of them is a group called “Peaker Cysters” – a community of women of all ages, all over the world, who live with PCOS. I had never felt so seen.

After years of being on birth control, I decided I wanted to get off – eventually I want to have children and if the birth control was the only thing regulating my hormones, how will my body function if I’m relying on artificial hormones?

So, I reached out to the group to ask questions: What are some holistic ways to regulate hormones? What questions should I ask my doctor? What has helped you?

I sat down with my doctor for over an hour, asking questions and discussing possible supplements and lifestyle changes. I have been off birth control for 5 years. My hormones have stayed relatively stable, if a bit outside the range of “normal.” With regular exercise, good eating habits and taking my supplements, my PCOS symptoms have been manageable.

Sept. 2015 - 3 months before my diagnosis. July 2020 - 8 months after joining MPC.

My hope is that the more people who know about PCOS – the more we talk about it, the more it is researched and the more our healthcare providers listen to their patients and stop dismissing symptoms in favor of the “If you lose weight, you’ll be fine” dialogue – the more prepared women will be. The more understanding others will be, less judgement being passed.

The statistic for PCOS diagnoses is 1 in 10 women. I would be willing to bet that the number is much higher – so many women suffer from the “silent symptoms” that go unrecognized as symptoms of PCOS. So, if we are willing to listen, then maybe, just maybe, our sisters and daughters won’t have to suffer through the shame of low self-esteem and self-doubt many of us have struggled through.

bodyhealth
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About the Creator

Lexi 🌻

I am passionate about writing on topics that touch my heart, sharing my stories which may inspire yours đź’•

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