Tammie (makeitgreen), PCOS bio
I am a 39 year old married mother of two children ages 5 and 6 and have had hormonal issues since childhood. I stumbled upon this site in search of information, support, and ideas on how I can improve my quality of life while I search for a good endo and get a proper diagnosis.
In elementary school, my poor parents didn't know what to do with me. I forgot everything and must've driven them crazy. I got lots of spankings for fogetting things. My hair grew slow, and I was short and tiny for my age. As I got older, I did not develop breasts or get my period until I was 17. The next one was 9 months later. Looking back, this was probably the first REAL clue that I was having hormonal issues. I've NEVER had regular cycles, even as an adult, unless I'm taking birth control meds. When I graduated high school, I weighed 103 lbs.
As a young adult, I did finally develop and my "pooch" ~ that little fat on the midsection ~ started growing. It was slow and gradual, nothing alarming, and I was still tiny. I took birth control pills throughout my 20's in order to have regular periods. During that time in my life, the hormonal imbalance was minimally disturbing, and an unofficial diagnosis of PCOS was all I needed to know. I did what the doc said, that is, I took my BC pills and everything else was pretty much normal.
Around 30 I married and wanted to have children so I went off the birth control meds and started seeing an Endo. I was officially diagnosed with PCOS after having an ultra sound that showed the tell-tale pearl-like string of cysts in both ovaries. He put me on glucophage, the newest, most exciting clinical treatment at the time. Glucophage made me nauseated and gave me diarrhea and did not help me with infertility. In fact, I think all it did was make me sick to my stomach and I gained weight while taking it. After a few months of this treatment, I got disgusted that the Endo was not helping me and that I was only one of his guinea pigs for his clinical study on the effects of glucophage, so I started looking for a new doc. His only requirement was that he agreed on the phone that he would prescribe clomid.
Clomid worked like a charm. By following a calendar, I planned the next months around my cycle and got pregnant the second month I was on clomid. We were thrilled! Of course, the pregnancy brought my hormonal imbalances to the surface and I developed insulin dependant gestational diabetes. I had two children and was insulin dependent with both.
After my second son was born, I began to have symptoms of depression and fatigue. I slept all the time and cried alot. The doctors put me on thyroid meds because it was low, and over time, welbutrin and provigil, which both helped, but were masking the real problems. When I moved, I had to see a new psychiatrist who decreased my provigil and tried to diagnose me with manic depression. He wanted to put me on yet another psychotrophic drug. That was the day I quit taking all my meds.
Over the next couple of months, my depression returned and I had absolutely no energy. I went to my GP and told him everything. I wrote it all down in bullet format and told him that I thought I had a hormonal imbalance since childhood. He's truly been great, but he's sooooo SLOOOOWWWW. He will only check my bloodwork every 6 weeks, and increases my thyroid by only 30 mg each time. The last time I had bloodwork done, my thyroid was low, but he had his nurse call me and tell me it was normal and would NOT increase my meds.
This made me extremely depressed! If my bloodwork was normal, then why the hell did I feel so rotten? And why was I getting more and more tired and dizzy every day? I made an acute care appointment with the next available doctor and she basically laughed me out of the office. I went home, cried alot, did some research and went out and bought: St. John's Wort, DHEA, a stress vitamin loaded with vitamin b's, iodine (kelp), and a multivitamin. I took all those along with my thyroid meds for two days, and got so sick and dizzy that I went in for another acute care appointment. This doc also basically laughed me out of her office (actually, she was clearly PISSED OFF that I came in again for the same thing) and told me to go to ER.
I did go to ER, that was two days ago, and they diagnosed me as having vertigo!
I will post updates as they are available, since I live only 2-3 hours from some of the doctors noted on this site, I will be going to see one of them soon. Honestly, at this point I don't even care if my insurance will pay or not. Somehow, I'm going to get help from someone who actually believes I have something wrong.
Email Tammie
In elementary school, my poor parents didn't know what to do with me. I forgot everything and must've driven them crazy. I got lots of spankings for fogetting things. My hair grew slow, and I was short and tiny for my age. As I got older, I did not develop breasts or get my period until I was 17. The next one was 9 months later. Looking back, this was probably the first REAL clue that I was having hormonal issues. I've NEVER had regular cycles, even as an adult, unless I'm taking birth control meds. When I graduated high school, I weighed 103 lbs.
As a young adult, I did finally develop and my "pooch" ~ that little fat on the midsection ~ started growing. It was slow and gradual, nothing alarming, and I was still tiny. I took birth control pills throughout my 20's in order to have regular periods. During that time in my life, the hormonal imbalance was minimally disturbing, and an unofficial diagnosis of PCOS was all I needed to know. I did what the doc said, that is, I took my BC pills and everything else was pretty much normal.
Around 30 I married and wanted to have children so I went off the birth control meds and started seeing an Endo. I was officially diagnosed with PCOS after having an ultra sound that showed the tell-tale pearl-like string of cysts in both ovaries. He put me on glucophage, the newest, most exciting clinical treatment at the time. Glucophage made me nauseated and gave me diarrhea and did not help me with infertility. In fact, I think all it did was make me sick to my stomach and I gained weight while taking it. After a few months of this treatment, I got disgusted that the Endo was not helping me and that I was only one of his guinea pigs for his clinical study on the effects of glucophage, so I started looking for a new doc. His only requirement was that he agreed on the phone that he would prescribe clomid.
Clomid worked like a charm. By following a calendar, I planned the next months around my cycle and got pregnant the second month I was on clomid. We were thrilled! Of course, the pregnancy brought my hormonal imbalances to the surface and I developed insulin dependant gestational diabetes. I had two children and was insulin dependent with both.
After my second son was born, I began to have symptoms of depression and fatigue. I slept all the time and cried alot. The doctors put me on thyroid meds because it was low, and over time, welbutrin and provigil, which both helped, but were masking the real problems. When I moved, I had to see a new psychiatrist who decreased my provigil and tried to diagnose me with manic depression. He wanted to put me on yet another psychotrophic drug. That was the day I quit taking all my meds.
Over the next couple of months, my depression returned and I had absolutely no energy. I went to my GP and told him everything. I wrote it all down in bullet format and told him that I thought I had a hormonal imbalance since childhood. He's truly been great, but he's sooooo SLOOOOWWWW. He will only check my bloodwork every 6 weeks, and increases my thyroid by only 30 mg each time. The last time I had bloodwork done, my thyroid was low, but he had his nurse call me and tell me it was normal and would NOT increase my meds.
This made me extremely depressed! If my bloodwork was normal, then why the hell did I feel so rotten? And why was I getting more and more tired and dizzy every day? I made an acute care appointment with the next available doctor and she basically laughed me out of the office. I went home, cried alot, did some research and went out and bought: St. John's Wort, DHEA, a stress vitamin loaded with vitamin b's, iodine (kelp), and a multivitamin. I took all those along with my thyroid meds for two days, and got so sick and dizzy that I went in for another acute care appointment. This doc also basically laughed me out of her office (actually, she was clearly PISSED OFF that I came in again for the same thing) and told me to go to ER.
I did go to ER, that was two days ago, and they diagnosed me as having vertigo!
I will post updates as they are available, since I live only 2-3 hours from some of the doctors noted on this site, I will be going to see one of them soon. Honestly, at this point I don't even care if my insurance will pay or not. Somehow, I'm going to get help from someone who actually believes I have something wrong.
Email Tammie
posted by MaryO at
8:16 PM
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