On my thirtieth birthday, I was diagnosed with a medical condition that threw a wrench into everything I thought I was doing right with my body. My diagnosis was late to the game, and looking back, it’s somewhat maddening that it wasn’t caught earlier. Pcos is a hormonal imbalance that causes havoc in many areas of a females body and is very hard to control. My periods were never regular and no matter how I exercised or ate, my weight was out of my control and continually increasing. After years of trying to get pregnant and lose weight, it all made sense.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with my weight and irregular periods. In my early teenage years, I was asked if I was pregnant despite never having a relationship of any sort simply because I hadn’t had a period in months. At every doctor visit, I was told that I needed to lose weight and fought to get my thyroid to get tested because I knew something wasn’t right. As a young adult in a serious relationship, my boyfriend (now husband) got a certification in fitness nutrition. I got serious about getting healthy; we counted macros and exercised almost daily, but my weight did not budge. I got frustrated and stopped trying. Soon after, we started trying to get pregnant despite my lack of cycles, but I didn’t know any better. Of course we had no luck and just assumed that children weren’t in our cards, and it crushed both of us.
Three years later, I tried again to get healthy and lose weight. We tried just about every diet and I still had no luck. My weight continued to increase, as well as a mental instability, feeling exhausted constantly, and an insatiable need, yes need, for sugar. I was constantly angry for no reason and started to mentally check out in every aspect. Combined with the fact that I had no energy to do anything while my husband was at work, it started to affect my relationship. It didn’t help that I had a constant craving for sugar that I couldn’t resist and only got worse the more I gave into it. I had no idea what was wrong with me, but I knew something wasn’t right.
At the time, we were living about an hour south of Miami, Florida, where we were the minority as english speakers. The area wasn’t the best and the healthcare was worse. On a visit back to Pennsylvania, I decided to visit the doctor and figure out what the issue was. I couldn’t remember anything for the life of me, so I walked into the appointment with a list of issues written down on a post-it. I don’t complain (to the doctor) or stand up for myself, but I knew my health and marriage were in jeopardy. After pleading my case. he suggested that it could be PCOS and ordered a list of labwork, as well as a transvaginal ultrasound. Neither one sounded enticing, but I was desperate for change.
Not long after, I got a call from the doctor saying that my labs and ultrasound confirmed that it was PCOS, happy 30th birthday to me! It was a whirlwind, but at least I had an answer for all of my issues and starting point. Little did I know just how complicated of an issue it is, but over the next couple months, I had even more appointments and was able to get my issues sorted out.
Over the next six months, I was put on a medication and lost almost 25 lbs with minimal effort and was feeling better than I ever have in my life. Then I got pregnant and lost all of my progress, but gained two twins.. The twins are 6 months, and I weigh more than before I started to lose weight and more than my pregnancy weight To be continued…
Follow along as I walk through my PCOS treatment, getting pregnant, and life with twins! Do you have PCOS and can relate to anything similar? Is there anything you want to know about it?
TheMamaBird 