Maria V, on 12 November 2011 - 09:29 AM, said:
You would have gotten PCOS during puberty because that's when hormones start to secrete in your body. To me it doesn't sound like you have it, but I am not a doctor so I can't just tell you to rule it out. However, PCOS is generally characterized by excessive hair growth on the face and body. Women with pcos often have a male build so they generally look more stocky and can be quite heavy than most women when it comes to their body shape. I would recommend that you stop shaving off your facial hair, though. Shaving it makes it grow faster and will make it look like you have more facial hair than you actually do. Every women gets at least one hair on their face, it's not uncommon, just take a pair of tweezers and pluck them.
Don't rule out everything just because birth control isn't working for you, you could always switch to a different pill, I hear good things about Ortho Tri Cyclen. Have you talked to your doctor about accutane? If your acne is not severe enough for accutane you may want to see a dermatologist and try some topical treatments just to see if they could help your acne.
There's some inaccuracies in you post.
Not all women who have PCOS are overweight, though a lot are.
PCOS doesn't mean you'll have a ton of hair on your face. I only have 2 short black hairs and I have PCOS. Some people with it don't have excess hai. It depends on your tolerance for androgens.
It presents differently for some people. Some people have no acne, no excess hair, but have weight gain and POs and irregular periods, as an example. Most don't have all the symptoms listed but 3 or so.
You don't need POs to have PCOS.
Since it's a syndrome there's no cure. You only have symptoms. There's no disease. It's difficult to diagnose and you need someone very informed about it to get an accurate diagnosis, because many mds think it's just cysts on the ovaries when it's not. Like I said, you can have PCOS w/o cysts on the ovaries.
It's highly
underdiagnosed. And it's not a death sentence or anything. At least it's treatable.
Shaving doesn't make the hair grow in darker etc. That's a myth. Plucking can cause scarring by ruining the pore. I pluck my two hairs, but they're on my jawline, so it wouldn't be obvious if I did scar and it takes longer for a plucked hair to grow back, because you get the root. Shaving is fine, but you may need to do it more often.
PS -- I don't have elevated androgens either. What I do have: Acne, PO's, and a few hairs on my face and hair (a lot) on my arms. My periods are 28 days like clockwork too. I'm skinny. You only need 3 symptoms for a diagnosis. It can be any three. (I'm pretty sure it's three, but it could be four. You can google it.)
I think more women have it now because of all the xenoestrogens and pollutants which are impossible to avoid, but diagnosis has been better quantified too. My theory is the estrogens and pollutants do something to the hormones, since they aren't natural estrogens (made by your body) and it throws something out of whack, which causes a rise in adrogens or skews other hormone ratios. You can eat all the organic you want, but you can't change the environment.
Edited by Prettywords, 14 November 2011 - 12:11 AM.
Home
2
