My weight is not my fault. My weight is not my fault. My weight is not my fault.
It feels so good to say that and mean it, because I now know that MY WEIGHT IS NOT MY FAULT!
What was that? Why not? I’ll tell you why not. It’s because of the evil that is Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
Long story short, PCOS wreaks havoc on a gal’s body. The body “forgets” how to properly use hormones, process insulin, and even burn fat. Everything escalates to the point that systems start to short-circuit and even shut down. PCOS can lead to infertility, weight gain, heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes . . . and the list goes on.
PCOS is an endocrine system disorder to which there is no cure, but the symptoms can be treated. The key to living successfully with PCOS is finding a doctor who understands the relationship between the symptoms and is not afraid of putting you on the treatments that will help. After eight years and four doctors, I’ve finally found a doctor who understands this disease and is doing what it takes to finally get it and my body under control!!!!
Now to the long story, which may contain TMI for some of my readers:
My experience with PCOS has been hell, but that is changing. It started with irregularity in my monthly cycles while in my late teens. I didn’t think much of it and neither did my doctors. Their viewpoint was, “a lot of women are irregular until they have children. Here, have some birth control pills.” When the BC did not regulate me, I started questioning whether something else was going on, so then I began the quest for answers.
2003 - Doctor 1 recognized that I had issues with irregularity. He ran labs which showed several things as being out of the normal range, yet he told me my labs were fine (he didn’t know I’d gotten my hands on my own copy of the lab results). He had his nurse spend three days talking to me off and on about a treatment that would take care of the irregularity, but leave me unable to have children (which I already knew I did not want). When I went for my consultation regarding the procedure, he pulled the age card – “You might change your mind”. See ya, jerkwad. I’m moving on.
2005 - Doctor 2 realized that what I was dealing with was PCOS, but she gave me no answers as to WHY it was PCOS or what was going to happen in the future. I left her office with yet another BC prescription and zero answers. If she had stopped talking down to me through the entire visit, she might have found time to explain some more things. 
On to #3, after a few years of being ticked off at docs in general.
2009 - Doctor 3 was a little closer to hitting a homerun in the diagnosis department. I felt good (and still feel good) about going to see him. He took the time to explain the things that had been left unsaid by the first two doctors and made sure I understood why I had been diagnosed with PCOS. He still didn’t go so far as to explain what would happen in the future, but I felt he took more time with me and my condition than anyone else ever had.
Current – Doctor 4 is my lifesaver! She is my general physician and when I went for a physical (and my first visit with her) earlier this year, she immediately saw the connection between all of my issues. She explained how the PCOS has caused my body to stay in “famine” mode, which caused me to gain a lot of weight very quickly. She also explained how that famine mode prevents me from losing weight, no matter how little I eat and how it has now caused me to develop Type 2 Diabetes. Every medical issue I’ve had through the past few years, she was able to relate to the PCOS and snap another puzzle piece in place. By the end of the visit, I felt like I FINALLY had the answers I’d been seeking for so long. My first visit with her was on January 4th and my first medications to control the diabetes and help to reverse the effects of PCOS were prescribed on February 4th. It’s been almost a month and I have my first follow-up coming up soon. For the first time in a long time, I am looking forward to a doctor’s visit and especially to stepping on the scales. I know what my scales at home say, but that official weigh-in is going to be the motivator I need to keep my energy levels up and my chin in the air. I can do this because MY WEIGHT IS NOT MY FAULT!!!
