I have polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS. It's a terrible disease. In fact it's been referred to as the ugly bitch disease.
The cause of PCOS is due to increased levels of testosterone in women. Therefore menstral cycles are usually irregular. In some women they may even be absent. Many women have a bad case of acne, have facial hair, thin hair, are obese, insulin resistant, suffer from infertility and many have mental illnesses.
Sadly women with PCOS are made fun of because many are overweight and have acne. It's difficult to say if the PCOS itself increases the chance of mental illness due to hormonal imbalances, or if depression or other mental illnesses are brought on by lack of acceptance from others.
Either way the lack of love and acceptance creates more hormonal and chemical imbalances in the body. That certainly can explain the presence of mental illness in some cases.
Before girls reach puberty there is no way of knowing if they have PCOS. Even after they get their periods it is difficult to know. Girls can have irregular menstrual cycles for even 3 years after they start.
However as soon as I was 11, my weight ballooned even though my eating habits didn't change. My acne came on with a vengeance, and my hair was thinning. I started getting visits from Aunt Flo then and they were always irregular, for years.
I was the laughing stock from grade 7-9 and because I was always socially awkward and had undiagnosed ADHD then, it was just another thing to give bullies a reason to torment me on top of the fact that .. well, me being downright "ugly".
Little did I know back then, I wasn't "ugly" because I didn't take care of myself. I have PCOS. In fact it wasn't diagnosed until after I had kids. And I have it quite mild as thankfully I have no facial hair and only had mild infertility.
PCOS is a curse. It's a self esteem killer. But it's real. Someone who had no medical training at all had the gall to say that PCOS is a made up disease by fat women. Really? Maybe the one who said this has some real undiscovered asshole disease. Who knows.
Anyway September is PCOS awareness month. Show some compassion for once and refer to my blog post from yesterday as well. It is relevant to this one for today.
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