Scary Doctor

noahsmommie

I went to a new OBGYN yesterday and this was my experience: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/709654-the-doctor-made-me-cry

She also told me that PCOS (because of the infrequency of periods) puts me at a higher risk for cervical cancer. I've always been told that it's only to only have periods a few times a year. (Isn't there even a birth control that makes you have it four times per year?) Also, what does anyone know about how estrogen affects chances of cervical cancer? She said that she didn't want to put me on birth control pills because of the "risks" of estrogen, but didn't elaborate.

Lipstickcherry

High estrogen is linked to cancer from what I have read. I have had high estrogen too, plus high testosterone myself.
I'll wait for other ladies to comment but wanted to say you are not alone. I still have never gotten cancer but sadly lost a cousin to cancer when she was 18. And I am 44 now.

http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/prevent_breast_cancer.aspx <--good reading.

giftieetcetera

I posted on our other board, but she sounds like no doctor that I've heard of. As far as docs know, missing periods isn't a big deal. (That's not to say that the root cause of missing isn't. High estrogen or testosterone or other hormones can have real affects.) I haven't had a period since 2007, but my PCOS is mostly under control. (Pregnant, then breastfeeding, then got an IUD.) My doc says not to worry, because women used to have far fewer periods before due to breastfeeding and pregnancy, anyway!

I can't be on birth control pills, but it's because of high blood pressure and a heart condition. Birth control is actually a common solution to control PCOS. Did she offer you alternatives?

Yes, you are at increased risks for a lot of things. However, your doctor seems either communicate really poorly or be misinformed. It's hard to tell which. Maybe find another doctor?

IrishChik

This is from a pamplhet my OB gave me when I was diagnosed on Thursday.

"PCOS is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Also, in some women, the presence of estrogen without progesterone increases the risk that the lining of the uterus (endometrium) will grow too much. This is a condition known as endometrial hyperplasia. If not treated, it may turn into cancer."


My mother has PCOS, my aunts have had cancer , other problems, and some have had everything removed. My grandmother had uterine cancer and vulva cancer. She lost her battle with cancer as did my grandfather. Because of all the "girly" problems in my family it has put me in a higher risk category. The fact I have had 2 periods in 16 months isn't so good. My OB put me on BC pills (which I still have not filled) and I go back in 3 months for tests.

All of my doctors, primary care, chiropractor, therapist (physical and mental) and now the OB want me to lose weight. My weight is causing me a lot of problems, but the PCOS we have now figured is what is causing the weight problems.

My story is a little different than most. I was put on BC at the age of 15 because I was irregular and when I did have one they were extremely painful. I never went off BC until I was 26ish, with husband #1 , we TTC for about a year. Dr. assumed it was because I had been on BC so long.

Sadly, that relationship didn't last. I went back on BC.

Last year, at the age of 36, I went off it again. This time TTC with husband #2. It's been over a year, here I am at 37 and no kids and a huge increase in weight (which always seems to happen when I go off BC). I have been working with a dietitian for months now. No luck. I have degenerative disk disease in lower back and osteoarthritis in my hips. Hence, the reason for the weight.

All these problems started to add up. Primary care doc started to run all these tests. Internal ultrasound found fibroids. Sent me to OB, she did another set of ultrasounds, found the PCOS.

So, here I am.

I have decided since my body is in so much pain, I am focusing on the weight first. I also opted to not have fertility treatments. I have never been the girl who dreamed of having children. I always wanted to adopt. So, that is most likely what we will do when we get the weight under control and know for certain. And, he is done with his clinicals and I am done with my masters.

Either way, I refuse to be scared of cancer despite my family history or let this PCOS rule my life.

I hope you find the answers you are seeking because I too have a ton of them and hope to work through it all.

minkakross

first off my OBGYN does not control or treat my PCOS. Few doctors are trained specifically in PCOS but you can shop around for a PC or if you want to have the best an endocrynologist. While too much estrogen is an issue, there are a ton of different types of formulations of BC including low estrogen ones, BC was the only thing that regulated me until after my second child then something kick started. While cancer is a concern if it runs in your family there is reason to be more concerned, but heart disease is actually PCOSs number one killer, it's a nasty precursor to many conditions but most of them come with some warning signs that staying on top of your health care can help you avoid. Is it a sad reality? sure, but it's not like we all drop like flies the day we get diagnosed. We just have to take extra care to reduce risk factors as they develop so all that precursor crap doesn't turn into something serious and we can just die of old age.

Lipstickcherry

Minka = the endo I had helped me immensely when he put me on met & avandia for some years. My tsh adjusted and my blood sugar got normal (used to go from a high to 100 down to 40 easily). the blood sugar swings gave me bad nightmares. All those are gone. I think most PCOS gals will end up better off seeing an endo.

Irishc = I just wanted to say I think that it's lovely you want to adopt. I myself never had much a strong desire to have children, but I don't mind and prefer a mate to have them. My current beloved has a 15 year old I have sort of spiritually adopted. It used to be in biblical times, Jewish law was a person could disown his own children but was not permitted to disown adopted children. I am glad you won't put yourself through the torture of trying to conceive infertility treatments and will bless a child that is waiting for some parents to love him/her.

aatlchavens

I was diagnosed in January of 2010 after years of years of doctors telling me I wasn't trying hard enough to lose weight, if I just watched my calories and worked out the weight would drop off. Um, not so much. My husband is military, and after moving to a new city and setting up new drs, my general practitioner referred me to an ob/gyn who also specialized in Reproductive endocrinology. She asked me questions about my entire reproductive life, sat back, and said "I think it's pretty obvious you have PCOS". All the tests confirmed. It was scary for me as I read through pamphlets and books and online articles and I was convinced I was going to be fat and miserable for my entire very short life. At a follow up appointment for blood work results a few weeks later, however, she told me about "The Insulin Resistance Diet" and suggested a few others and I realized that as scary as all the "could be's" are with PCOS, I had been given the tools to wage war on my weight and knowing what I was battling made it easier for me to dig in my heels, and say "ENOUGH!!" I WILL hit my goal weight. I will NOT get diabetes. I will NOT die of heart disease. I am fighting. And I will win.

I've never been on metformin since she and I decided I should give weight loss a whirl med free first and see how it goes. It's slowly come off. Even though I had my tubes tied after my third child, I am on BC because my periods were all over the place. I didn't truly mind going months without one, but I did mind when they were two weeks apart. And I truly minded how heavy and painful they were no matter how long it'd been. I am truly blessed in that even with infrequent periods, we conceived on our own 4 times, twice completely unplanned, and though we lost one of those pregnancies, we are blessed with three beautiful little girls.

Chainie

She is right, and she deserves some kudos for recognising that the pill isnt a cure for pcos. When your endocrine system hormones are imbalanced, it doesn't just effect reproductive hormones (estrogen, progesterone, androgen, testosterone) but also your metabolic hormones (insulin, adrenalin, leptin, cortisol) because they are all part of the ENDOCRINE system. You have lucked upon a doctor who actually recognises that linkage and resulting weight loss difficulty. But there is hope. I am PCOS and IR and I lose a kg (2.2lbs) a week by naturally controlling the hormone-insulin-cortisol cycle, so it can be done. It's not hard once you know how.

But to answer your question...
Yes we often get told of 'links to' or 'increased risks of' various cancers, heart disease, kidney failure, liver disease, osteoporosis, and renal fatigue, thyroid problems, diabetes etc. without explaining how/why. I won't explain them all (unless you want hahaha) but since you mentioned cervical cancer, I'll pick on that one as an example. Estrogen is the hormone that builds cells rapidly in your body, which it is great at... And this is fanastic for quickly building a comfy environment for a potential baby... Unfortunately a lot of women with pcos/hormone imbalance don't produce enough progesterone to trigger a period to shed all those rapidly accumulated cells and so the lining keeps building without being shed. Normally, when the body builds tissue at an alarming rate like that, which we cant get rid of/shed, we tend to refer to that additional tissue as a 'tissue mass' or even 'tumor'. If a cell with damaged DNA (which can happen from exposure to chemicals, pesticide etc etc) is replicated repeatedly, this can become cancer and is also more likely to occur because IR Sufferers crave higher gi carbs (for reasons I could explain but won't here) and so we are more frequently in an acidic blood state in which cancer thrives. Instead of being granted the seriousness it deserves, for some reason, when this occurs in a woman's uteris, we just get a rather uninformative brochure and a prescription for the pill to provide the progesterone we dont produce ourselves. If your body can't tolerate the pill (eg. You get life threatening blood clots) then you're deemed 'untreatable' and get chucked into the too hard basket, like me. If this is you, then you can either be fat your whole life and finally succumb to related metabolic disease or cancer, OR address the CAUSE and rebalance your hormones naturally like I did.

The reason for her comments concerning the pill are because your body, being the incredible wonder that it is, produces estrogen that is perfect for you and distributes it only to places capable of shedding the rapidly built tissue I.e. your uterus. Whereas the pill on the other hand is synthesised, often from the urine of mares, and absorbed by your stomach, into your blood stream and sent pretty much anywhere including body tissue that is sensitive to estrogen and yet not designed for shedding extra cells eg. Breast tissue (hence the increased risk of breast cancer associated with pill). The problem with the pill is that it doesn't cure pcos, it doesn't address IR and as one medical journal observed, women are not horses.

Sorry this was so long, but then, that's why they don't bother going into it in the brochures. If you would like to produce your own estrogen and progesterone, and lower your androgen (which is the cause of the problem) and rebalance your ENDOCRINE system (I.e. your reproductive AND metabolic hormones) then take 2-4g of magnesium, calcium, vitamin d (in the right proportions) plus 2-4g vitamin c stirred into unsweetened oj plus a zinc capsule. Tada! Control your IR by managing (not eliminating) carbs and a coq10 enzyme. Control cortisol overproduction by restricting exercise to 35-45minutes. I also recommend keeping your body alkaline because this impedes cancer and it is easier to lose weight in an alkaline state than acidic state and why make it harder?

If I sound a bit cranky its because my heart really goes out to you - I get angry that so much metabolic/pcos suffering goes on when it doesn't have to, and that good people, nice people, reach a place of desperation and sadness. Best wishes to you and all those struggling with pcos ir. xx