Any of you ladies have PCOS?

I've never had acne. Well, once, when i tried Loestrin 24 (birth control) it was so painful on my chin that I only made it 3 days into the pills.

My biggest symptom is my period- or complete and total lack there-of. I'm 28 and have never had one without the assistance of birth control.

The symptom I hate the most though is the facial hair. I tweeze constantly day in and day out. I look like I have acne on my chin because of ingrown hairs, or my own compulsive picking at hairs. I just recently talked to my doc about this, and she said there's nothing really to do about it since it's because of elevated testosterone levels, not lack of other hormones. There are treatments, but they all have side effects.

Yup, me! I was never prescribed anything due to the results the bloodwork gave. Initially doctors just said it would be very difficult to lose weight - but silly them - challenges like that always produce results.
I was on birth control (to ensure I would have a period *for health reasons!) but that was all I ever took. I wasn't trying for a child, and that was the only time my specialist wanted to have me on anything extra.

Start weight - 205. Current weight - 110.

Throughout my entire journey though, the biggest thing I noticed was that weight seemed to "fly off" everywhere but my lower system.
The best advice I could give, based on my own experience would be to ensure to balance the cardio WITH some form of strenght training (even if its something like yoga, pushups&situps, etc) - I started with cardio initially, and neglected strenght training (as a result, I've had to double the work to undo the lose skin)
Yoga was really good for me when I started, and I felt it was the biggest help (just focusing on each movement seemed to give me a sense of control that I was able to apply to day to day movements).
Try to watch your sugar intake too (my biggest weakness- still to this day). I'm in the finishing stages of getting myself to where I want to be...but I embrace every extra mark on my body anyways - both as a reminder of where I came from, and all the work I've done.

Funny thing is - throughout this entire journey - I've almost taken away all symptoms of PCOS (I now ovulate on my own and have real periods...after 15 years of never having had a period!!)

Anyways I'll leave it at that for now, but feel free to ask any questions if you have any! I didn't know anyone who had PCOS, and even in the medical world I struggled to get the help I needed (once I finally saw a specialist, he confirmed everything but even the support locally was a litle tough).

Michelle

I do too

Hello, I was diagnosed at 16. I hear ya that is really tough to lose weight with it. However, instead of concentrating on only exercise to help with excess tummy I would look to your diet. Since PCOS is often associated with Insulin resistance, a lower carb and very low sugar diet would help flatten that out. Insulin resistance specifically causes weight gain in the middle region, so if you target the core issue it may help remove some of that. A lot of people big into fitness use the same tactic, diet usually is more responsible for a flat tummy than sit ups.