Hairy!!!

[Tweezerqueen]

Does anybody else feel like the hairiest person in the world? Can't quite shake the feeling that I may be the hairiest woman I know. V depressed about it.

I'm hairy too ... there are a lot of MNers in the same boat, actually.

I have a hairy top lip and chin, it makes me feel quite self-conscious so I have it waxed (although at the moment I could make a nice plait from the hair under my chin). I also have a lot of hair on the lower part of my tummy, but at least I can cover that up!

A friend of mine has a full beard which she shaves every day, and gets very depressed by her 5 o'clock shadow. You're definitely not alone.

Wigwam - thanks for the info, I just seem to find hair in new places every month, can't figure out what to do. Hate people looking at my face and seem to spend my whole life holding a pair of tweezers or booking waxing appointments. DH says it isn't a problem but can't understand why not??

It's not a problem unless you make it one. It's hair; nothing wrong with it really! I put mine down to hormones, it's been much worse since I had my dd and like you I've found that it's got steadily worse. My way of thinking is that it doesn't change the person I am, it doesn't make me any less likeable, it's just a bit of hair that I can either chose to remove or to leave.

I can't use depilatory creams so I have it waxed, but I have to admit I do that because of the reaction of other people rather than because I don't want the hair there. The hair itself doesn't bother me at all, but some of the comments that people make do, which is why I remove it.

I feel the same about the removal of hair, it's for other people really but I'm pale with dark hair and have some demon hairs that really are noticeable, seem to spend my whole life wishing for blond hair. I have considered laser hair removal but not sure....

Oh yes, the demon hairs ...

The white ones that are so tough and wiry they could almost break the tweezers.

The dark ones that come back thicker and darker every time and that resist almost every form of hair removal known to man.

The long ones that are quite fine and innocuous ... but that suddenly end up six inchs long overnight.

I looked at lazer treatment but just can't afford it, so it's ripping out by the roots for the forseeable future. Maybe I should give it all up and get a job in a circus!

Do you have PCOS WWB? Just being nosy - I have it too (hence fertility problems). Causes the hair growth (as I'm sure you know).

Took them a while to diagnose me as I donlt have excess hair but as it turned out research has susequently shown that certain races have very few androgen receptors in their skin, so even if you have more androgens your skin doesn't absorb them - hurrah for being a celt,not so good if you have scandinavian, mediterannean or indian heritage.

Sorry - completely off point.

You can treat some excess hair with dianette if it bothers you, it works for some people. Personally I love my epilator (though not sure if you can do it on your face! Ouch!)

I haven't been diagnosed with PCOS, sue, but I've just googled and am open-mouthed as I have so many of the symptoms!

I can't take oral contraceptives anymore so Dianette is out for me. And I'm wincing at the very thought of using an epilator ...

Trust me you have PCOS - I can spot it a mile away I did masses of research on it 15 years ago when it was just being studied properly. Not that much point you knowing if you don't have problems conceiving, as thats the only bit of it they can treat. You shouldn't go on most contraceptve pills anyway if you have PCOS and have any intention of having a family (or a bigger one, in your case) as it suppresses ovulation.

Losing wieght will help all the symptoms and you should be aware that you are 98% likely to be insulin resistant as well so start thinking about glycaemic loads of foods.

PCOS women are 7 times more likely than non-pcos women of the same weight to have a heart attack - so theres an added incentive for us to lose weight!

PS epilators are excrutiating the first time and really can hardly feel it at all provided you do it every 2 weeks after that. I do my legs and underarms. Underarms are a bit

I suspect you're right. Plus I have suspected for a while that I'm insulin resistant - saw something about it a while back and the person they were describing was me. I guess I really need to be looking at low GI diets.

I have no clue how dd got here; a gynaecologist I once saw told me that I would need help to conceive as I wasn't ovulating and was only having periods once or twice a year ... yet she got here!

Am wincing at the thought of an epilator on my underarms ... ouchouchouchouchouch ...

You are me WWB!

Well she got here becasue you hit one of your two ovulations year!

The link between insulin resistance and PCOS is proven even in the "lean" PCOS'ers and anyway the majority of women who are very overweight are IR becasue being overweight makes you IR - double whammy if you have PCOS.

The best route to fllow if your are IR is the glycaemic load rather than glycaemic index but no-one written a book on it yet so more difficult to fin, but Google it. Based on research done in Aus, which takes GI to the next level and also explains why some things in GI are patently obviously barking mad - like tomatoes and carrots have a high glycaemins index so avoid them. Mad, mad, mad.

It is tru they have a high GI but the amount of available carbohydrate in a tomato is negligable so it can't possibly have a big effect on your insulin levels. GL multiplies the glycaemic index by the amount of free carbohydrate in a food.

Am I boring you to death yet. Also exercise is massively helpful in improving your insulin efficiency so get down the bloody gym!

I think docs seriously don't understand pcos - it is an umbrella term which I guess makes it harder for Gp's to pick up on all the symptoms

"Am wincing at the thought of an epilator on my underarms ... ouchouchouchouchouch " FFS woman you gave birth didn't you! Big girly wuss, go buy one tomorrow.

Is there any link with weight gain and hairiness? I am about 1 stone over weight, can't quite seem to lose it, have dreadful PMT, always knackered, bloated stomach, must look up PCOS.

my GP suspected immediately also lack of hair threw her a bit and I wasn't so massively overweight at the time. Sensible woman sent me to an endocrinologist who knew more about it.

Yes losing weight does help, particularly cutting out refined sugares and getting more exercise.

What do you mean thatPCOS is an umbrella term? It is a recognised condition - although it does have any number of symptoms, many conditions do.

i stone overweight wouldn't necessarily indicate PCOS. Most women with severe PCOS gain about 7lb per year and gain weight very slowly.

about 20% of women has polycysitic ovaries but a much smaller number than that have the syndrome PCOS. The two are often confused.

I have my top lip waxed and a few hairs on my chin done with electrolysis.

I am now looking into having mine done with laser but as my hairs are fine and blondish I don't think I can have it done so may have to go to Harley Street to have it done!

On the positive side - my consultant told me that any condition which can result in infertility has a biological upside otherwise the condition would have naturally died after a few generations thousands of years ago. The upside to PCOS is that we start ovulating in famines! When other women become underweight they stop ovulating but PCOS women start ovulating when underweight.

And (another pointless fact) men can inherit the pcos gene with no symptoms except... premature hair loss. How mad, the women get hairy and the men lose it!

it is an umbrella term in that it encampasses maany different symptoms that can be suffered separteatly or together in a number of differnt ways in differnt women who all have PCOS dia

Sue - yes, I gave birth. Doesn't mean I'm not a wuss

You're not boring me ... this is all extremely interesting and makes a lot of sense to me. Because I have an underactive thyroid, my GP tends to blame everything on that - including the weight and the hairiness - and although I knew that PCOS could cause both I didn't know it could cause some of the other things. This has been a revelation.

I would check the pcos women ovyulate when underweight I hace PCOS adn had to gain weight to get prg but having said that being overweight wasn't one of my symptoms

Have just checked PCOS sites and have weight gain around my middle, my periods are becoming irregular and painful, hair growth on face, chest, fingers, stuff like that. I have tried Dianette in the past but completely went off anything physical. Does anyone know if laser treatment will completely resolve hair growth??

OK I see what you mean by umbrella term gothicmama, the PCOS women ovulating when underweight was told be by a consultant I think she was probably applying it to overweight PCOS'ers rather than you leanies as you're rarer so probably don't have as many studies on you.

I was given metformin (diabetic drug) to control the insulin resistance when I was TTC as it has a good success rate when combined with clomid (obviously I'm the 15% it didn;t work for!)