Suspected pcos. What can I expect?

[Lottiebugz22]

I went due to excessive hair growth and painful periods and mood swings which are worse since I had my dd. Doctor thinks it's highly likely I have pcos. I don't know allot about this and would like to know others experiences with the condition.

Weight gain, insulin resistance, heavy periods, ovulation pain , skin hyperpigmentation, skin tags, frequent waxing facial hair - that's the new life. But the good part is the symptoms are usually worst after recent pregnancy and as the time passes symptoms becomes less aggressive. Also if you can give up sugar , most of the problems will subside to manageable levels.

Have a read about PCOS on Verity’s website, it’s an organisation set up to help women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. It’s an individualistic disorder that affects each woman with this quite differently but the commonality is the cystic follicles on the ovaries. Not all PCOS patients are insulin resistant for instance.

I was diagnosed with PCOS, my main symptoms were some degree of hirsuitism and irregular periods. I also had painful periods too but that was due to endometriosis and not PCOS.

The key question to me was do you want to get pregnant or not. If no, take contraceptive pill. If yes, more complicated and basically treating various aspects that are a problem for you, eg lack of periods. Thanks to provera and Clomid, I eventually had two kids and it got mostly better.

I've already got a daughter that I conceived straight away with no issues. The only symptoms I have is excess hair growth and painful periods. My periods are regular every month and I'm not overweight either.

PCOS is not normally associated with having painful periods. I would get this symptom further investigated, painful periods are not something you should have to put up with.

As said it's a syndrome so there isn't a cast iron list of symptoms everyone has - you may have some of them or very few.
Also I wouldn't say it's as simple as not wanting to get pregnant = pill as a treatment.

Metformin is used to treat insulin resistance which is often a feature of PCOS, and you might be prescribed this if your bloods suggest it even if you're not TTC. It can help regulate your cycle of without being on the pill.
Diet can also do this, there's a lot of literature on low carb and PCOS.

Other prescriptions related to PCOS include vaniqa (topical cream) and spironolactone (anti androgen) to help with hirsutism. Try to find a good GP who specialises in women's health. It can make all the difference in managing it.

Outcomes can be very variable I think.

I was one of the incredibly lucky ones. I had it pre menopause (I remember the consultabt getting very excited by one of my scans - apparently it was absolutely "textbook"), but I was lucky in that I was largely asymptomatic. I discovered it when my periods just stopped completely for a year in my twenties... they came back. Apart from being a bit hairy (chin/'tache/nipples/inside of thighs), I really didn't have any other problems.

As you can see upthread, though, for a lot of women the symptoms can be moderate to very severe. But I thought I'd post to reassure you that it's not automatically the worst case scenario.