"No periods? PCOS is the best condition ever!" and other myths

So I've had some fun comments about my PCOS during my six months since diagnosis. I'm sure anyone who has it has probably had the same, or similar comments made to them.

"You get your period every 80 days? That must be awesome! I wish I had PCOS!"
Okay, let me be the first to say FUCK YOU. I understand that perhaps you were dropped on your head as a child, but you're being an insensitive idiot with that comment.
Yes, my period is erratic, and sometimes I don't get it for almost three months. But then sometimes I get it for a whole month, tell me where the fun is in that. Especially try doing that when the month long bleeding is happening, I dare you.
I can also say that when you are trying to get pregnant, and irregular cycle sucks. Big time. 

"Just lose some weight and your symptoms will go away and getting pregnant will be easy!"
Thanks for that, Einstein. While what you have just told me is actually true, "just losing weight" isn't always that easy when your hormones are psychopathic. 
I eat very well. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, good healthy meals, very little takeout.
I exercise. I walk 90 minutes five times a week. I go to at least one aqua aerobics class a week. I do weights when time allows, which is usually two times a week. And I spend my days taking care of a house and an active one year old. My bloods are extremely healthy, my body just doesn't particularly mirror that.
In saying all that, since cutting processed carbs (bread, pasta, rice) out of my diet, I have actually noticed a change in myself for the first time in a year, which is exciting. There are ways, ladies, just finding it can be difficult. Especially when everyone else makes it look easy by comparison.

"Are you pregnant yet? You've been trying long enough!"
This one is usually asked weekly by well meaning friends.
While I understand the comment is a well meaning one, it doesn't make things very easy. To put things in perspective, during my last three month long cycle, I did seven pregnancy tests. Seven. And each one was a knife in the heart.
When I am pregnant. I'll tell you. I love you all for being concerned, I really do.

"I've never heard of this PCOS thing. Are you making things up?"
No. Don't be a dick. Do you really have hours set aside to sit down and listen to me explain a condition that is really just a bunch of symptoms and not a lot of explanation behind them? No? Yeah, I figured that. It's confusing enough to have, let alone to explain.

"You already have a baby. You should be grateful!"
Me wanting to get pregnant again is not me being ungrateful for my daughter. Ellie is absolutely the light of my husband and I's life and I am thankful for her every single day. The fact is that we would like more children. Now if that can't happen for us then we will face that when we come to it, but for now we are trying to extend our family. Honestly, if we could afford to have five babies and be able to give them everything they need then I'd absolutely do it. For now we'll just settle for one more though ;)


I'm sure this post will be added to from time to time.

Who I am and why I'm invading your internet

So most blogs start out having a point, a general reason as to why someone started using it. My story is this:

I'm Lauren, I'm a 29 year old Mama of one beautiful girl, happily married to a wonderful man and living in Melbourne Australia.

Us with our Ellie Jade on her 1st birthday

My aim in creating this blog is partly for my own outlet, and partly to try to make the readers more aware of PCOS and how it can affect lives, and also to hopefully meet some others in my position that need support and someone to chat to about their issues too. I also want to share my journey in trying to get pregnant with PCOS. While I realise that it's early days for us yet, being only six months in, it can also be very lonely. I get met with a lot of "You have to give it some time" and "Don't be so dramatic about this!", when sometimes I just need to hear a "That sucks! Fuck PCOS!". Ideally followed by offers of wine and Chocolate.
Selfishly, it's hard seeing other people fall pregnant at the drop of a hat, and seemingly not appreciating how lucky they are. While it isn't my place to judge some situations, or as horrible as it may be for me to be jealous, I just sometimes am. And sometimes I get bitter. Yup.
As far as other vents go; I have struggled with the symptoms of PCOS even before I knew I had it, most specifically with my weight and body image. It's hard to get your head around eating right, exercising and getting nowhere with weight loss. I can't actually remember a time I looked in the mirror and was happy with what I saw. But then again that seems to be another disease that most women have, so I guess I'm not alone on that one!

More about me:

Currently I'm a stay at home Mum. Before my daughter I worked as an Animal Attendant at a vet clinic. I love animals and I'm very passionate about animal welfare issues. I'm particularly fond of rabbits, and we share our house with three completely litter trained house rabbits, as well as two cats, a Newfoundland and some fish.

I am rather geeky. I love video games, science and math humor and reading, although I rarely get the time for any of the above these days. I'm also weirdly fond of all things zombie.

I come equipped with a pretty broad sense of humor and I'm very fluent in sarcasm. I'm grateful for my sense of humor, it gets me by a lot of the time. 

As much as I may complain here, I do have a wonderful support network in my awesome husband and a very loved group of friends and family, who I would do anything for. I'm not a gushy sort of person, but I do try to let them know how loved and appreciated they are as often as I feel comfortable doing so. I guess I can be a bit reserved in that way.

The rest of me is a pretty open book though, as I'm sure you will find out if you follow this blog. I swear entirely too much, I love to bake, I'm generally weird, I laugh a lot.

And I think that's about it.

I do hope you enjoy reading my ramblings.

What is PCOS

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. It's one of those fun multifaceted conditions with a whole bunch of symptoms, no explanation as to what REALLY causes them, and no real treatment. It's one of the most common hormonal disorders in women, and around 5-10% of women of reproductive age have symptoms.
Some of those fun symptoms include:

• Infertility (not able to get pregnant) because of not ovulating. In fact, PCOS is the most common cause of female infertility.

• Infrequent, absent, and/or irregular menstrual periods
• Hirsutism (HER-suh-tiz-um) — increased hair growth on the face, chest, stomach, back, thumbs, or toes
• Cysts on the ovaries
• Acne, oily skin, or dandruff
• Weight gain or obesity, usually with extra weight around the waist
• Male-pattern baldness or thinning hair
• Patches of skin on the neck, arms, breasts, or thighs that are thick and dark brown or black
• Skin tags — excess flaps of skin in the armpits or neck area
• Pelvic pain
• Anxiety or depression
• Sleep apnea — when breathing stops for short periods of time while asleep

Yep. Great stuff.

So what does PCOS mean for me personally? 

To be honest, I have had symptoms for a very long time, generally overweight, a little hairy, dry scalp, anxious. Probably going back to when I first hit puberty. My period was generally regular as far as I can remember, but I was on the pill from 17 onward. 
As many of you know I already have a wonderful daughter, Ellie, who has recently turned 1. While pregnant with her they discovered a large cyst on my right ovary, which was of no concern at the time, but they wanted me to come back and be checked after she was born. I did that in February, which is when they discovered that I had tiny cysts all over both my ovaries, around 30 in total. I was then sent back to my doctor to have blood tests and all other wonderful proddy, pokey examinations. My bloods came back fantastic in general, but yes, my androgen's were up. And I still had most of the other symptoms, the extra weight that is impossible to shift, especially considering I eat healthily and exercise regularly. Oh, and the fact that I was going around 80 days between periods. 

What am I doing to help me in my quest to give our daughter a sibling?

In my case, it seems pregnancy has made my PCOS worse and now I'm experiencing what is known as secondary infertility. We started actively trying for a baby in February when we got the results that pointed to PCOS, knowing that it could take us awhile. In May my doctor prescribed me with Metformin. Which is actually a drug that is used to treat people with diabetes and it's use is somewhat experimental in treating PCOS, but a lot of people have fantastic results with it. It helps to lower insulin levels in the blood, which can benefit all the aspects of the condition. I'm also currently taking Evening Primrose, a pre-natal and pregnancy multi-vitamin, CoQ10 and Milk Thistle, and very recently have cut carbs such as bread, pasta, rice (which is hard when you have a Chinese husband) and potatoes out of my diet. I'm actually feeling a lot better since starting the low carb diet, so I think I'm on the right track.


Some links, should you wish to learn more:
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Association of Australia
Soul Cysters