Possible PCOS diagnosis for 16 year old

[jenkel]

Have a phone consultation on Wednesday regarding my 16 year old daughter, she has only had a handful of periods and her last one was at Christmas, I’m wondering if she has PCOS, or if it will just be put down to very erratic periods, is it the same thing? She is normal weight, no other signs, does have quite a spotty face, no other know family members been diagnosed, just wondering what sort of treatment/tests the GP will recommend if any, just trying to be a bit forewarned. I’m worried they are going to want to do lots of invasive internal scans etc, she is very shy and that would traumatise her so much. And pretty sure she isn’t pregnant, a bit of a homebody, hardly been anywhere since we went into lockdown. Thank you

Any advice?

Hi I suffer with PCOS and I’m a pharmacist as well. My periods were just like this when I was 16. They did want me to have an internal scan and blood tests however because I wasn’t sexually active they did an external scan and could see everything fine. I’m on metformin which has helped with some of the symptoms and I’m on a contraceptive pill to help make my periods more regular, which one depends on many factors. Erratic periods is a symptom, where PCOS is the cause. Of course there maybe a different illness at play but PCOS is one of the main causes, the main other symptom is excess hair. PCOS does decrease fertility but at 16 that’s not too much of a worry at the minute but many women with PCOS go on to have children without much difficulty and there are medications to help.

Thank you, I realise I’m jumping to conclusions probably too much. She doesn’t seem to have a problem at all with excess body hair, certainly nothing noticeable. The only thing that I’m concerned about is lack of or very infrequent periods.

If she is a normal weight and no excess hair then if she does have it it’s probably really mild. A diagnosis of PCOS is really nothing to worry about. 🙂

I was diagnosed at this age. All I had was an external ultrasound.

Never had it properly looked into until now when I'm TTC