h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remembered you mentioning it in Lil's Atelier, and wouldn't you know it, I've been diagnosed (after a long period of health) with PCOS. Any thoughts on what you've been going through and what I should look forward to? My appointment with my doctor to put together a plan of action isn't until next week. Until then I'm, as our English friends say, at sixes and sevens.

Hi FG!
Sad news, but good to hear you've been diagnosed! There's a lot of strange s out there!
As they say it's about 10 - 15% of all women that have PCOS in one degree or another, I'm sure we're not the only ones here on hootoo with this problem.
I asume you have read some about PC, if not, here's a good link:
http://www.pcos.net/whatis.html

Before I was diagnosed I struggled with weight-gain, unstable mood, unexplainable pains in the musculature, no energy, hairloss, and I felt more and more miserable. My doctor suggested that I had a depression, because I have also had a couple of those, but this time I refused and insisted that this is something else! Then my periods dissappeard for half a year and he finally started to test me for PCOS.

Re medication: That depends entirely on your individual needs. I had to try two different meds to get my periods going, before I found on that worked for me. Some use birth controll pills like for instance Diana. I've had bad experience with BC-pills, so I've refused to try them, so far. If you want to have kids, there's other stuff that'll help.
I'm sorry if this isn't very informative, but I'm fairly new to this myself.

One of the things I'm sure of, however, is that changing my diet have done wonders with my body - and mind!
Insulin-resistance is tightly connected to PCOS, so beware of sugar and starchy food (carbohydrates)! "Normal" food sends me on a blodd-sugar rollercoaster, so I stick to the low-carb diet and keep my calm.
I've got my energy back, not a hint of "winter-blues" and I've dropped 14 pounds so far.
I have found a great support group on Yahoo. It's on [email protected]
They help if you need information or support. A lot of great girls, in more than one meaning!

Thanks for the info! I've done some research at the library and online and have found an enormous amount of information. It seems as if we've got the "disease of the month"! I've got just about every symptom (I was interested to see that depression, high blood pressure and migraine headaches are possibly connected to PCOS). I still have my periods, but they're somewhat irregular and have changed over the years. I've also read a lot about low-carb diets and PCOS. That will be the most difficult part of this whole adventure. I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I do love breads, pasta and potatoes!

I have an appointment with my doctor later this week to start discussing what I need to do and where we're going from here with treatment plans. She's mentioned that she thinks birth control pills--in particular, Yasmin--are the best thing for me. I've never taken them, so I have no idea how they'll react with my body.

I'm just so happy to finally have a name for what has been happening to me over the years. I am worried though about what happens after menopause. Since this is something that will never be cured, what does a woman do once her body chemistry and cycle changes in later life?

I've heard about the Yasmin pills. I guess you just have to try them to see if they agree with you. I'm on something that's called Trisekvens, and I think it's the same stuff they give to menopausal women! But I'm not menopausal, I have PCOS! Perhaps I'll just have to stay on them until I'm 80!? I don't know. One problem at the time...

The worst thing on starting on the low-carb diet was lunch at w*rk. The normal Norwegian lunch consists of mainly openfaced sandwiches. We sit around one big table and everybody eats more or less the same things - lots of bread.
So I felt everyone stared at me when I came along with my salad and chicken and hardboiled eggs... But then I told them the why's and how's, and after that it went just ok.

At home I eat more or less the same food as hubby and brat, only I substitute potatos and pasta with low-carb vegs like cauliflower, succhini, broccoli and swede. And mushrooms! I love mushrooms.
And this is no low-fat diet, so I'm allowed butter and cream, real majonayse and creme fraische, and things like that. It's not the fat I eat that sticks to my bones, its the carbs.

My current motto is: My body, my science project!

You're right--it's the workday world that will be the problem. I'm used to snacking about 10 or 11am on some crackers and then having a lunch, usually pasta or rice, about 1 or 1:30pm. All items that will be verboten, or at least in small amounts. I hope that since my insulin levels are somewhat normal (they're only slightly raised, but not in the danger zone) already that I will simply have to reduce the amount of carbs eaten, rather than cutting them out entirely. Everything I've heard, read and believed is that one should have a balanced diet and not to remove anything that *does* provide necessary vitamins and minerals.

Okay, let's face it. I'm not ready to give up my beloved bread and pasta.

I'm going to have to find something different to snack on. I'm hesitant to eat a lot of eggs, cheese, or meats because of heart disease and cholesterol worries.

I have found that what is concidered a "balanced diet" isn't "balanced" at all for me. As PCOS'er and insulin-resistant, I have to turn the whole food-pyramid upside down.
So the base therefor must be proteins, like meat, poultry, eggs, fish and shrimps and such. Then comes olives, nuts, cheese and dairy products, then comes berries and the veggies low on carbs, and finally at the top - bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, white flour and sugar.
I found this article very interessting:
http://atkinscenter.com/Archive/2002/7/9-672214.html
(Yes I'm following the Atkins program, but there's a lot of other programs not so restrictive as this )

And all the diet products that's on the market! All they do is take out the fat, and put in carbohydrates instead. No wonder people get fatter and fatter!

Thinking about it, all this consumption of refined grains and sugar is completely unnatural for us. Man started out eating pure fish and meat, roots and berries and nuts. It's no wonder we get ill!

Oh well, enough of this. I have just "seen the light", so I tend to be a bit preachy...

I got into one of my old trousers today though..

One of my closest friends lives in Florida and was on the Atkins diet last summer. She traveled up to visit me in Montana at that time, and while she and her husband were here (he was on it as well) they drove me nuts pointing out how many pounds I would put on for each french fry, buttered toast piece or hamburger bun I would put in my mouth. She subsequently went off Atkins once she found out she was pregnant. Now I'm not saying everyone on Atkins is annoying (and of course not *you* dear Bumblebee) but diet fanatics have a way of taking the joy out of life. Then again, so does ill health and extra weight.

Can one have PCOS and *not* be insulin resistant? As you can tell, I am frantically trying to keep some of my old bad habits!

I don't know. I have posted the question in the yahoo group.
Of course, if you don't have a weight problem, most of the IR symptoms aren't noticeable. Those increase with the weight, like a bad spiral.

I was directed to http://www.inciid.org/faq/pcos4.html
It is said here that it is only believed that 30% of people with PCOS have Insulin resistance.
So, in answer to your question, yes.

Aw, poo. Saw the this morning. I'm borderline insulin resistant and have high blood pressure in addition to PCOS (or, as you know, they all go together). So she put me on a diuretic for the hypertention, Yasmin for the PCOS and gave me a glycemic index to watch what foods are high and low in carbs. At the top of the list was bran cereal--a big bowl of which I ate this morning for breakfast! Another big surprise was ripe mangoes. I adore mangoes and now I have to watch it. Drat, drat, drat. She said most of the symptoms should disappear within six months but I should start to feel better within weeks.

How is your health doing?

I am in great shape! At least compaired to how I was, three-four months ago.
My blood pressure is fine, the blood-sugar is under controll, the maddening hairloss has stopped, my skin looks and feels way better. I can breathe. I can walk uphill without wondering if I'm gonna die, and all the muscle pains and aches are gone, like . It's mid-winter and not a hint of the winter-blues(SAD).
I'm really so amazed by this dramatic change of life quality!
I didn't actually realize how bad it was, before I became better.

With this new possibility to be active, I have a chance to become fit again. I've planned to go skiing tomorrow, for the first time in decades!


What a strange feeling, I think I'm actually happy!

Yay! On a note, I don't normally pay attention to astrology, but one of my favorite little independent, liberal newspapers has a funky quasi-astrologist that adds a bit of Buddhist dash to his predictions. This week mine is "When your will to change is greater than your will to stay the same then and only then will you change." Kinda fits the diet and the doctors and the medication, doesn't it? I have to accept not eating pasta and bread, so I took this advice to heart.

Good luck with your trip. I cross-country/nordic ski myself and it!