DD’s periods are very far apart

[Impeachtheplum]

DD 18 and her cycles are anything from 35 days to 50 days apart. She suffers with acne on her face, chest and back, shes overweight, gains weight very, very easily and finds if difficult to lose weight.

I went along to the GP with her around 3 years ago and bloods were taken to check hormone levels - I expressed concern about possible PCOS but everything came back normal and we were told that those were her cycles and that would be normal for her.

I really don’t think it’s right and now she should go back for further checks but DD dismisses it and says that it would be a waste of time as we were told before that everything was fine and nothing has changed.

Should she go back or should we just accept that it’s her ‘normal’ to be like this?

I’m sure someone more knowledgeable will be along soon, but afaik hormone tests are accurate only in the moment they’re taken and so cannot rule out PCOS.

I’m pretty sure that the irregularity of the cycle at 18 years old would be of more concern than the long length. Mine started at 42 days, but regular, slowly decreasing to 37 days by my mid 20s. Apparently this was no cause for concern.

She should go back. She needs an ultra sound to look at her ovaries. Unfortunately it's a trans vaginal scan but it's the only way to see if there are cysts there. They can't rule it out from a blood test alone.

Where bloods taken on specific days (7 and 21 of the cycle I think ) I remember having to wait for ages to do my bloods as they needed to be on specific days and my periods were all over the place.

Also a scan would be needed - I had a normal one first time which showed some scaring then an internal one which showed the mess that my ovaries are.

Though if she isn't bothered maybe don't push it for now - I didn't look into it until I was wanting to have a baby.

She should not accept her "normal". My cycles were irregular at her age and remained so. In my case PCOS was the underlying cause and GPs did not detect it.

Periods are often caused by hormonal imbalances and in this respect PCOS is a common culprit. Sadly she were fobbed off three years ago and many GPs even now are not up to speed at all when it comes to gynae issues, let alone PCOS. Indeed it cannot be ruled out by a blood test alone and besides which bloodwork taken on the wrong days can give a misleading result.

As her periods are irregular blood tests can actually be done according to calendar days so she would need a blood test done on the 2nd of the month to compare her LH level against that of FSH. There is often a clear imbalance of LH to FSH sometimes by a ratio of 2:1. An internal ultrasound scan would also show what her ovaries look like; the polycystic ovary can appear larger than normal (walnut) size and have a string of pearls appearance to them. The cystic follicles associated with PCOS do disappear only to be replaced by further cystic follicles.

Verity's website may be useful to both she and you:-
www.verity-pcos.org.uk/

Gosh it's hard to know isn't it. My periods have always been irregular and very long cycles (up to 50 odd days like your DD) and after coming off hormonal contraception in my 20s I didn't have a period for a year but no one was concerned. I was told at one point that I may have "mild" PCOS but as they only treat the symptoms rather than cure it and I didn't have any symptoms other than the irregular periods they felt it wasn't worth trying to diagnose! But I went on to conceive two babies naturally so it has worked out okay in the end. I guess you can only go with your gut feeling on this one