The struggles of life with Polycystic ovaries symptoms

Everyone has struggles, after all this is the Daily Struggle, but for 1 in 10 women they experience struggles from polycystic ovaries. PCOS is highly underdiagnosed and the testing is so simple, all it requires is a blood test and an ultrasound.

However, unfortunately there is no cure, only possible treatments with exercise being one of them, could the struggle get any more real? With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome being the leading cause of infertility in women you would think that would be enough of a burden, but oh no it comes with a whole bundle of other symptoms.

For me, I guess you could say I was let off easily with my PCOS struggles. Due to having highly sporadic periods, sometimes just 3 a year, it meant that I wasn’t ovulating very often, however, I am currently pregnant with my little boy so there is definitely a light at the end of that tunnel. Now 3 periods a year may sound ideal to some people, but I would have taken regular periods over the agony that I experienced in the few months that I had a period. Periods for women with PCOS are notoriously heavy and painful, which is a huge understatement. They come with a range of symptoms on their own including extreme nausea resulting in fainting and vomiting, thank you mother nature.

Polycystic ovaries symptoms: Skin

Everyone’s goal is to have flawless skin, but for many with PCOS the hormonal imbalance causes acne and excess hair growth. The acne can be aggravated by gluten and dairy in some PCOS patients, so if you want the skin of a goddess it may be milkshakes and pizza standing in the way. My top advice for this though is to head straight for a luxury dermaplane if you’re at all concerned about any peach fuzz. Sadly that excessive hair growth isn’t restricted to luscious locks, fluffy brows and wispy lashes, on most days it looks like gorilla arms, a fluffy upper lip and wispy chin hairs, but again this isn’t always the case for everyone some get lucky and avoid the visible signs of PCOS.

Polycystic ovaries symptoms: Weight

When I found out I had PCOS I was happy to know that my struggle with my weight wasn’t entirely my fault and that I had a reason for my battle with my weight. This joy was short lived as it didn’t really help me lose weight until I fully understood what caused it. Some PCOS patients are insulin resistant meaning that the thing that we all love the most, carbs, were hindering any weight loss progress.

But one good bit of information I did find out is that all of those hours I spent on a treadmill or stairmaster would have to come to an end and a more stress free form of exercise would become the norm for me, so weight lifting was my go to. I started to eat better and began lifting weights and I did lose weight, it was slower than most people and that was disheartening but I was finally able to lose it and as a result I even began to get more regular periods, that weren’t as agonizing as they were before.

Polycystic ovaries symptoms: Mood

Quite possibly one of the most common symptoms of PCOS is depression. It can be such a relief for those who have been diagnosed with depression to find out that there is a physical reason for their mental suffering as it opens up other treatment avenues. Because PCOS affects our hormones it can cause us to feel all kinds of things and can cause significant dips in our mental health, one common way that is used to treat this is hormonal birth control. Using hormones to fix hormones, the downside of this is obviously if you are trying to get pregnant this is not helpful, but it can make the many years of PCOS suffering that bit more bearable.

PCOS comes with so many struggles, but with time it can be managed, and you can reduce some of the agonizing symptoms. Who knows once you start you may catch the gym bug like myself and find yourself a healthy hobby, or you may now just be craving pizza and milkshakes.