Well, this explains why you haven’t had your period in seven months. You have PCOS.
A tall, thin
middle-aged lady with curly blonde hair, my midwife, Linda, continued to keep
her eyes—which were masked by reading glasses—on the laptop screen in front of
her. I immediately broke down in tears as I lay on that cold, hard table with
my legs spread in the stirrups. My mother was in the room with me, too,
teary-eyed and saddened by my reaction to the news. I had read about polycystic
ovarian syndrome and all that it does to women. I read stories of women who
never had babies and would never become mothers. Hearing Linda tell me that
PCOS is super common and that many women have it didn’t make me feel any
better. In a sort of dazed stupor, I sent Brian a text:
I have PCOS.
It all
started to make sense. In 2013, when I was 22, I started to grow little and few
hairs on the bottom part of my chin, close to my neck. Having refused to shave
it, someone had pointed it out at a Memorial Day barbeque, laughing, telling me
that I needed to pluck the few hairs. I was humiliated, so I went ahead and shaved
the hairs. Now, I’ve got to shave my chin almost every day. Since 2014, I’ve
gained about 50 pounds. I won’t blame my weight-gain solely on the PCOS, but
I’d say it played a huge part in the process. I was also feeling comfortable—I’d
moved in with hubby, and I was happy and in love. In January 2014, my periods had
started to come later and later, and in August, they stopped coming all
together. I knew something was wrong, but I refused to think it was anything
that would have such an effect on me. There was NO WAY it could be PCOS.
So, that all
being said, I was prescribed some birth control and sent on my way. I wasn’t
happy to be going on it, but I knew that it had to be done. Linda also said
that taking birth control will regulate me and make it easier to conceive when
I am actually ready. When I got home, Brian could immediately tell that I
didn’t take the news so well. He hugged me and told me not to worry; that we’d
get through it together.
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