I Have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: The Ovary Episodes

Posted April 12, 2020 3 Comments by thepaincorner

My follow up appointment from my ultrasound and transvaginal scan was cancelled due to coronavirus. The UK is currently on lockdown and all non-urgent medical appointments are being cancelled, postponed, or rearranged to phone calls. I’d been waiting for my scan results since the middle of January and I really wanted to know the outcome.

I left several voicemails with my endocrinologist’s secretary over the last week, after finding out that my appointment had been postponed, asking for the results and a few days ago, I came home from work to a letter from him. I need to see him after the pandemic, but he has officially diagnosed me with polycystic ovary syndrome and I have follicles (underdeveloped sacs, which can’t release eggs) in both ovaries. I can’t ovulate.

I have suspected I have polycystic ovary syndrome for just under a year. I knew my periods were never normal, as a teenager. I had heavy periods, too often. When I stopped taking the pill, due to a suspected mini stroke, I thought my body was going to spring back to having a heavy period every fortnight, but instead I didn’t have a period in 228 days. I’ve always been really hairy – I feel like a gorilla when I don’t have my legs! When my period didn’t come back, I found myself in the depths of Google, investigating what polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) actually is.

Apparently, you can be diagnosed with PCOS without having cysts on your ovaries. You can be diagnosed with high levels of testosterone (confirmed by a blood test at my doctors) if you also have less than 6 periods a year.

Being on the pill for 10 years had masked some of the symptoms, because since I’ve been on no birth control, I have noticed how oily my skin is and the blackheads on my chin are uncontrollable!

I’m still not sure why I had so many periods as a teenager before I started the pill and only one since stopping the pill, but I’ll have plenty of questions to ask at my next appointment, whenever that will be.

I will be given medication to start ovulation, as I’m now at a higher risk of endometrial cancer, because my womb lining isn’t shedding. I’m currently infertile, because I’m not ovulating, but one of my ovaries may well surprise me with another odd period like they did in November. I guess for now, I just wait.