My personal story began in October 2009, but I wasn’t diagnosed until January 2010. Actually it started long before, but that is when I found out I had PCOS. In August 2010 (the end of August), I took my last birth control pill and I did not get my period…I did not get a period for 40 days. I knew after being on birth control for a long time that my period could be delayed. I waited one more week (October) and took a pregnancy test at work, it was positive, so I took a second and it was also positive, but I knew something was not right because I was in a lot of pain. The same night I took the test, I went to the ER. I informed them of what was going on and they looked at me like an idiot, especially after their test was negative. I asked them for a blood test and they said they don’t do blood tests unless the urine test was positive and proceeded to tell me I may have a cyst or tumor and to see my PCM (primary care manager). Now before I go any further, I had already known what PCOS is because I found out someone I knew had it and had talked to them about it and did some research. This started to come into my mind more often, but I still just blamed it on getting of birth control. I made an appointment with my PCM (Dr Merced, I will start calling my doctors by name) and got in, in November.
My appointment in November of 2009 came and Dr Merced brought up PCOS, but also the fact that I had been on birth control for a long time. John and I were not trying, but weren’t really taking any precautions to not get pregnant at this time. (For those of you who don’t know, John is my wonderful husband. I know some people I don’t know will be reading this, so I will explain people as they come up.) Dr Merced wanted to see me again in a couple weeks and if I had not gotten a period by then, she wanted to schedule an ultrasound, at this time she also did a hcg blood test, which was negative. I went to Dr Merced in December 2009 again and I had not gotten a period yet, she asked me a serious of questions and scheduled an ultrasound for Monday, December 28, 2009. It’s funny I still remember the exact date, maybe it’s because it was my first ultrasound and it was miserable. I didn’t realize how hard it was to drink so much water and hold it for so long. I had to wait an hour in the imaging center because they are were so far behind, I was so antsy and had to pee so bad. I finally got called back and had the ultrasound and the ultrasound tech told me I really needed to have a period, but the good thing was my uterus and ovaries were looking good in average size and my follicles looked normal. She told me Dr Merced would tell me more when I saw her next and I was surprised she had told me that much already. I had already had a feeling I was going to get the news that I had PCOS.
January 12, 2010 was the exact day I found out I had PCOS. I was so alone and I was devastated because I knew my life had changed and I knew how difficult it was going it would be to be a "normal woman". John was at JRTC at Ft Polk, LA (a type of military training) and he had no phone for me to call him on. All I wanted to do was talk to him. On that day, I spoke to Tracy (my stepmom), my grandma, my mom, and some of my close friends. I found a little birdie that was able to get John in contact with me eventually and I was relieved. Anyways, at this point in time I was given Provera for 10 days to induce a period and Metformin, to control insulin issues. Usually Provera works in 5 days, but sometimes needs to be taken for 10 days. It worked at day 14, so we are not positive that it actually did anything, but probably. That was the single most worst period of my entire life. It was very painful, heavy, and clumpy. REMEMBER, I told you this may be too much information for some. I was given Metformin because in most cases of PCOS there are insulin issues. I started at 500mg daily and was increased 500mg the next time I saw Dr Merced. Metformin is also known to sometimes help women with PCOS ovulate and also regulate periods. It has some nasty side effects though, especially on the stomach, but most will go away after time. The symptoms I had at that time were the following: weight gain and belly fat (I gained 80 pound since between 2005 and 2010, and gained 5 more between that January and March and it didn’t matter how much I worked out and how well I ate, I kept packing on pounds), extreme bloating, lack of periods, depression (depression set in, in 2005), oily skin, and hirsutism (which if any of you have known me since we were younger, you will remember probably making fun of my hairy arms all the way back in middle school). After taking Metformin for a few months, it was decided I also had insulin problems.
I am going to take you back a while from when I was younger. I have always been a hairy person. It’s embarrassing, but I think I can link that from back then to now. Also, I started my period at 10 years old, in fifth grade. Not all, but many women who have PCOS started their periods earlier than average. There is no link to prove that, but after speaking to many women is PCOS support groups and doing some of my own research, I believe there may be some sort of a link. Fast forward 15 years, it is not as uncommon to find girls starting their period that young. I blame that on all the hormones they shove in food, I really think that is part of the issue. There has been some research linking that to PCOS, but nothing in stone.
There just really is not much research done on this awful disease anyways. This is why I like to call it the invisible heartbreaker, on the outside I look fine, all of my blood work looks fabulous (except my Progesterone levels, we will get to that later), I do not have the cysts that PCOS can cause and nobody knows how much hurt it can cause you to have. After I gained all the weight and probably as I was gaining, I’m sure people saw me as lazy and that all I did was eat and eat. I will say I can be lazy, but can’t everyone else and I don’t always eat right, but 98% of the time I do. I’m sure people were wondering what was going on with me, but I didn’t even know.
Now back to my story. I was sent to an OB/GYN on April 21, 2010. By April, my periods were finally starting to come regularly and I had lost 5 pounds. I spoke to the OB/GYN (Dr Sawyer) about everything and she too believed I definitely had PCOS. She then scheduled more blood work, mainly hormonal and told me that Dr Merced was doing a wonderful job, especially since most PCM’s do not touch PCOS. My period was set to come the day I went to that appointment. It didn’t come until May 2nd, the morning after John left to Afghanistan. Let me back up a bit again, the weekend after that appointment I took a pregnancy test and it was positive again, I went back a couple days before John left and had a blood test and it was negative. It’s been said on May 2, 2010 I may have miscarried, but we will never know. I had an appointment with Dr Sawyer again in mid May, she wanted to do more blood work again. I went back in June, all of my hormones were in average limits, but one thing was wrong, I was not producing any Progesterone, which is crucial to ovulation and pregnancy. This was a huge problem. By this time I was taking about 1500mg of Metformin daily. I was afraid I was never going to be able to have children, I was scared. Also by this time, I had dropped about 15 pounds. I went to Michigan for a couple weeks and started working out intensely in June, even twice a day. By August I had lost nearly 25 pounds, I had never seen weight drop that fast and my doctors were for sure then, that my weight problems had to do with insulin and the Metformin was taking care of it and allowing me to finally lose weight!
Fast forward to September 2010. My period came as scheduled, so I thought that maybe things were starting to look up, but I started to have a period every other week! Nobody could ever figure out why, but I was put on Lo Ovral, a monophasic birth control, in October 2010. I was on this until May 4, 2011. By May 4, 2011, I had dropped 45 pounds. Total weight loss to the current date of August 10, 2011, I have lost 50 pounds. Anyways, backing up a little, in June of this year, my period was late and I was having a lot of pain and weird things going on . I was in Florida and I called both of my Drs and made appointments for when I got back. I saw Dr Sawyer first, and the day I can in I started my period. It was about a week late and almost as bad as the period I had after the Provera. The pain I had as so intense, Dr Sawyer said maybe I had a cyst that had ruptured or a possible miscarriage, but more than likely a cyst because the test was negative. By this time, John and I had decided we wanted to start trying. We haven’t really told anyone because of all the things that I have to go through and it’s not really anyone’s business anyway, which brings us to the past 2 months. Also, I started working with a Holistic Health Practitioner. Her name is Carina Freeman and she runs Hold Your Hand Fertility Coach. She is so positive. All of our meetings are over the internet, as she is another military wife, stationed in Japan. She has had fertility struggles of her own and wanted to help people. She has some different meditation programs, I did the Chakra cleansing one. It really helped me start to clear things out of my life and think differently. I will post her information in a blog below, along with a facebook group called, Military Wives with PCOS.
June 15, 2011, is the day I went to Dr Sawyer last. She gave me a prescription for Clomid, which is supposed to induce ovulation, she also set up a Progesterone test. Progesterone is crucial for ovulation and maintaining pregnancy. If you do not produce this, you will not ovulate and if you produce too little, you are not ovulating and cannot get pregnant or sustain a pregnancy. I was to start the Clomid on June 20th, the 5th day of my cycle. You start off on 50mg of Clomid a day and take it usually from day 5-9 of your cycle. Some people will be told to take it days 3-7 or 4-8 or even 6-10. You take it for 5 days and then wait. I wasn’t ready for this yet, so I saved it until July. I decided I may as well give it a try, so on July 18, I took my first pill. If it didn’t help us conceive, I at least hoped it would get me to ovulate. I was nervous, but excited to see what it would do. The side effects were awful. I felt sick every day I took it, I would sweat profusely when not doing anything, I slept terribly, and I got anxious. After day 9 of my cycle, we were sure it was going to work. I could have swore I felt it working. Now we all know it just isn’t going to work on its own, but I don’t think we need to get into that. I got crampy in areas I had never had cramps before and we just thought it was going to work. Last Thursday, August 4, 2011, I went to have my Progesterone test done, and I was nervous. I called Dr Sawyers office this morning to see if the results were in and at about 12:45pm, I got a call back. It wasn’t the best call I’ve ever received, I did not ovulate. Wow, heartbreaking! My heart fell into my stomach, I was in shock. Now the one good thing is, last year my Progesterone was 1.4ng/mL and with the Clomid it was 6.7ng/mL, so the Clomid did raise my Progesterone, but according to Dr Sawyer’s nurse, I did not ovulate. Now of course, I went online to read some and I’ve read that sometimes a reading at that level can indicate early ovulation and a short Luteal Phase, so some Drs will say that you did ovulate. Most will say you don’t ovulate unless it’s 10ng/mL or higher. Anyways, I asked what was going to be next and the nurse said maybe try the Clomid again. I had asked about adding Progesterone cream and she said that Dr Sawer doesn’t do that and will only deal with Clomid.
No comments:
Post a Comment