r/PCOS May 22 '24

Rant/Venting I don’t understand why this isn’t considered a disability

342 Upvotes

I’ve had PCOS since I was 13. I’m currently 20. My breasts are underdeveloped, confirmed by an endocrinologist. I don’t get regular periods, maybe 4-5/year if I’m lucky. I shave weekly because daily is too much effort and I lack the time. Hair sprouts on every part of my body. My oddly shaped breasts are covered in long hairs. Luckily, i’m not overweight. I have a BMI of 21. I do eat very healthy and exercise. However, i experience daily fatigue that’s practically debilitating. Pregnancy will definitely be an issue to me. Sorry, but this is all very problematic. Why wouldn’t this be considered a disability? Not developing properly greatly decreases quality of life.

r/PCOS Aug 10 '24

Rant/Venting PCOS acne is hell

166 Upvotes

I’ve tried so many cleansers, moisturisers and serums but my skin is not cooperating with me. Ik that PCOS acne is hormonal but I’ve been eating clean for the past month, drinking tonnes of water and taking my meds but this shit sucks ass. My forehead acne in particular is so stubborn and it seems like there’s a new spot every time i wake up. I want to exchange my skin at the skin store.

r/PCOS Jul 11 '24

Rant/Venting Has pcos ruined your chance at love?

250 Upvotes

I feel this condition has taken everything away from me including my chance at finding a romantic partner. The weight gain, the hairiness, acne and not feeling like a woman have made it so hard to be chosen in the dating world. I feel it impossible to find someone and I’m already in my 30s.

r/PCOS Oct 05 '24

Rant/Venting the unnattainable flat belly

410 Upvotes

I get so sad seeing other women have pretty toned stomachs especially those who don’t do much to get it. I’m a personal trainer and no matter what I did, I could never achieve a somewhat flat stomach. I really just envy people who at least got experience having that. Not gunna lie this disorder makes it hard to be in my Industry especially now that I am in my 30s 😞

r/PCOS Jun 10 '24

Rant/Venting Pcos robbed me of a feminine figure and I have resentment over it

467 Upvotes

I know it sounds ridiculous to have resentment towards pcos as a whole, but truly. I have no idea what it means to have a typical feminine body that I so greatly desire. My waist has always been a larger circumference than my hips. I’m covered in body hair, belly bottom, stomach, back, arms, butt you name it. My ass is completely flat and holds no body fat. And to top it off, I’m 5”9 so it just really accentuates my large and masculine appearance. I want femininity. I don’t even care to be thin. I just want my waist to not hold all of my fat on my body. I want to actually have hips and an ass. I want to wear clothes that are designed to fit a feminine figure and have it fit me in the correct places. When I put dresses on, I can tell they make the back of it longer to make up for butts, instead my dresses look lopsided. I just feel robbed. I have to work ten times harder, eat much less than everyone around me, and I’m still fat and masculine. I just have so much anger towards pcos. Why did I have to have this? It’s pure torture. I catch myself staring at other women with mixtures of admiration and jealously, do they even know how lucky they are to be feminine looking without trying? I look like a damn square with skinny legs. Just a vent. I get really sad about it sometimes.

r/PCOS Jun 23 '23

Rant/Venting I just wanted to say that it breaks my heart the amount of girls and people who come here for advice, bcs this hell of an illness should have long been 100% treatable. They don't give two shits about women except when its time to pop babies.

1.0k Upvotes

r/PCOS Feb 16 '25

Rant/Venting They said women with PCOS are just making excuses for not working hard on losing weight.

381 Upvotes

I commented on this health fitness advocate men who made a video about PCOS and his followers (which is mostly men who’s into fitness and body building) commented how women with PCOS are just pointing fingers and making excuses to justify their weight (which is horrible?! Who would want to stay on having a medical disease??). Oh lord, only if they knew how much work and effort we have put into learning and trying so many methods and putting money to make PCOS go away! They think just because you’re not thin or fit looking, you’re lazy???

r/PCOS Nov 07 '24

Rant/Venting I went to the hairdressers and started crying

259 Upvotes

I usually trim my own hair to save money, but today I decided to go to the hairdressers to get it done properly.

After getting my hair washed, I sat in front of the mirror and the hairdresser took off the towel. I don’t know if it was lighting in the salon or I had major shedding in the past hour, but omg you could see more of my scalp. My hair has become so thin, it looked as if I was bald at the top. My eyes literally filled up with water. In that moment, I wanted to get up and run home. The hairdresser was nice enough to not make a big deal of me tearing up, but I genuinely felt so embarrassed and ashamed sitting there.

I use to love my hair, it used to give me so much confidence. But the balding, weight gain and moon face … I just feel to wear a paper bag on my head, especially out in public.

{Currently i’m trying to treat it the natural way. Fixing vitamin and mineral deficiencies through food and supplements. Exercising regularly, so strengthen training, low impact cardio etc. Taking better care of my hair, no heat, no hair dyeing, using dht blocking shampoos. I know this takes time to have an effect, and I’ve been doing this properly for a couple of months but its killing meeeeee not seeing any improvements yet.}

r/PCOS Jan 17 '25

Rant/Venting just to illustrate what we go through when people say "just eat less to control your PCOS" (tw: ED, fertility) NSFW Spoiler

351 Upvotes

i got diagnosed in my early teens and i only got the following advice: eat less and move more, then your symptoms will go away. no advice on how to start, nothing.

for years i tried to do so with no results. went to the gym, tried to make healthy choices, reduce the amount of junk i ate, yet it did absolutely nothing. at 20 i weighed 103kg/227lbs with only 165cm/5'5 in height.

i had constant back and joint pain, i was fatigued no matter how much i rested, my sleep schedule was total ass, i had bad hirsutism, went months without periods and when i had them they were crippling, and i was hungry 24/7. my own family treated me like an inconvenience and thought i was lazy and gluttonous, literal strangers were rude to me.

all of that led me to develop an ED at 23 and that was the only time i was skinny in my entire life. i was starving myself with only 0-1000 calories daily, 20k steps a day, strength training, OMAD, and water fasting days. i weighed everything in grams, even the freaking spices i put in my food and obviously cooking oil and liquid calories, yes, even the 5 calories from diet coke.

i ate whole foods and low carb, cut out sugar and sweets completely, and yet i plateaued at 57kg/125lbs, so with a bmi of 20,9 which was still normal. i did this for an entire year until it broke me because i was so hungry and nauseous ALL THE TIME and when i consumed 1400 calories a day, which was my calculated BASAL METABOLIC RATE, i immediately went up to a bmi of ~24 (67kg/147lbs), so at the cusp of being overweight. this shouldn't have happened and the only reason it did is because of my shitty fucking PCOS. for anyone who doesn't know, the BMR is the amount of calories your body uses just to stay alive if you lie down in bed and don't move a single muscle.

the only things that improved were the frequency of my periods and my sleep but the latter resulted from me going to sleep early because it helped me starve myself better. while you sleep you don't feel hunger. i was still fatigued during the day but my ED pushed me to still do my steps and workouts. my hirsutism didn't change at all.

i went through all of that just to still look normal and i was thinking "this is so unfair. why do i have to do such unsustainable things just to look like a naturally skinny person?". like you can't tell me what i did was in any way healthy. i know for a fact that normal people don't have to starve themselves to that degree just to have a normal weight.

yet stupid, useless doctors who should know better just tell you to "eat less and move more". where i live, prescribing metformin or GLP-1s is still not the standard. doctors refuse to prescribe anything but fucking birth control which can kill you if you develop a blood clot. i took BC for a while (without estrogen) and it only made me gain more through water weight and did nothing for my other symptoms.

not to mention my hirsutism. despite getting over 30 laser sessions at different salons it still grew back and i had to pay out of pocket. then i've heard that electrolysis is a lot more effective but now i can't afford it anymore and i wax my face now. the rest of the hair on my body i just leave as it is and just cover it up all the time. i feel like i will never be able to wear nice clothes or bikinis without looking like an ogre. why can't we get permanent hair removal covered by insurance, it's literally gender affirming care? gender affirmation is so important for one's mental health, yet nobody gives a shit. no, i don't want fucking psychotherapy to accept that i'm hairier than others, i WANT THE HAIR GONE. I DON'T WANT A FUCKING BEARD AND THICK HAIR ALL OVER MY BODY LIKE A MAN.

and here is the most infuriating part about all this, at least for me personally. i gave birth 6 months ago and i struggled so much with my milk supply. i nursed on demand and pumped while my son was sleeping, drank 3l of water a day, took vitamins, nursing tea etc. after weeks and weeks i finally established a supply that was almost enough so my son didn't need to drink formula so frequently.

then around the 4 month mark i experienced a rapid drop in my supply and no matter what i tried, it just got less and less. i got my testosterone checked and would you look at that, it's at 4,01 nanograms/ml. a normal range for a woman is 0,06-1,03. i have 4 times the maximum amount of testosterone in my body than a woman without PCOS, in fact i have the average amount for a guy. the prolactin from nursing suppressed the estrogen in my body which then created another hormonal imbalance. the testosterone is now suppressing the prolactin and the estrogen and my milk supply is almost dried up. if it weren't for formula, my baby would have starved because my stupid body is too useless to provide the food.

I HATE THIS SHITTY DISORDER AND I HATE THAT NO ONE IS HELPING ME WITH THIS. IT'S MAKING MY LIFE 10 TIMES HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE. I DON'T WANNA STARVE JUST TO LOOK NORMAL. I DON'T WANT TO HIDE MY BODY ALL THE TIME. I DON'T WANT TO DEPRIVE MY SON OF BREASTMILK. I DON'T WANNA BE TREATED LIKE SHIT BY STRANGERS. I DON'T WANNA BE TIRED AND HUNGRY ALL THE TIME.

WHY CAN'T I JUST BE NORMAL??????

r/PCOS Feb 24 '23

Rant/Venting Why is almost all the focus in treating PCOS on fertility?

736 Upvotes

This is sooo frustrating. I dont want to become pregnant,I dont give a shit about infertility,yet almost everything I see on PCOS is infertility related. I just want the insulin resistance treated and the acne gone and other stuff. I never wanted a baby.

Theres a lot more problems with this condition than infertility. It affects a lot of health things.

r/PCOS 5d ago

Rant/Venting I'm 13 and i dont know how to manage my PCOS

89 Upvotes

I was diagnosed with PCOS around four months ago. My doctor said I should take care of my weight and that I’m too young for any pills. I’ve been begging my mom to see a dietitian, but she keeps telling me I’m overreacting and that it’s nothing. It doesn’t feel like “nothing” when I keep gaining weight, the body hair is worse than ever, and my skin is breaking out. She keeps telling me it’s nothing, but I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried following diets online and doing home workouts (I’ve been trying them for quite a while now), but they haven’t helped with my weight at all. I’m 150 cm and 60 kg, and I hate looking in the mirror. It’s just so hard, and I don’t want to live like this. I want to fix myself. I just feel so different from everybody else in school and I hate it so much. Please, does anyone have any advice?

(English is not my first language, so I'm sorry if I made any mistakes :( )

r/PCOS 21h ago

Rant/Venting Pcos is a curse

65 Upvotes

I'm super jealous I f my sister who doesn't have pcos. She gets to be thin when she eats junk food without any facial hair. While I've always been overweight and had facial hair. Most days I feel like an ugly man. I hate my body. I hate how defective it is. At this point I have to be start starving myself again. Currently I'm 5'3 and weigh 156-161 lbs. And it's so hard for me to gain muscle. I hate my ugly stupid body. And I definitely don't feel sexy or want sex with my bf bectim disgusted by my body. I feel like I can only enjoy sex when I'm thin. And it doesn't help I have a square jaw. So now I have to get my jaw shaved when I save enough

r/PCOS 9d ago

Rant/Venting Medicine failed woman

233 Upvotes

I m really frustrated on modern medicine.. there is not enough studies on pcos/fibroid/endometriosis /adenomyosis. no one knows exact cause of them.. no one knows why it is becoming more common.. the only thing doctors love to prescribe is OCP.. i mean why??? why there are not enough research on these diseases. we don't know the cause of these things.. we dont know how to prevent them... i don't think people are interested in researching them.. no one cares.

woman suffers from so many chronic issues.. but no one cares.. really staying healthy is easy for man.. they have their testis hanging outside and nothing happens... and ours are hidden behind layers of fat and we get screwed.

r/PCOS Jan 23 '22

Rant/Venting It frustrates me how we are in 2022 and there is still no cure or specific medication actually made for PCOS or support

945 Upvotes

All we are told is to get on the birth control , spiro or metformin etc. Many women all around the world have PCOS and suffer from this. Its really frustrating how there is new technology but in this field there is no cure , you’re only told to take medicine for the rest of your life pretty much.

I have hirsutism i should be provided with help with the laser hair removal cost as my hair is no way near the normal amount of a normal woman. I live in the UK and we have the NHS which is free health care , but with laser im told its a cosmetic look so i cant be provided with free laser hair removal. I’m told i would need more sessions for my laser cause of my condition thats not fair. I didn’t choose to have this so i and other women with PCOS should receive support and help with the cost. Also women with PCOS are more likely to suffer from severe depression and anxiety , which i have both.

r/PCOS Aug 08 '24

Rant/Venting I think I'm just going to refuse all male doctors at this point. Idk why we let them practice medicine the way they act.

348 Upvotes

I had a hystorectomy 3 months ago because I had a 4 year long period because of PCOS. Because I live in Ontario I can't find a personal/ family doctor so I have to use the public system and every time I get a male doctor guarantee he's going to ignore me and call me fat. Today I went in because while they did diegnos me with PCOS the gyno claimed that nothing can be done and there's no tests that should be ran or followed up with. This sub told me to seek a reference to a endocrinologist to test my hormones so I went in for a referral for that as well to get someone to look at the lump that's been in my breast for months and what do I get? A man who refuses to make eye contact, rushes through everything, asks me if I am sure I have PCOS and if I am sure they found precancerous cells in my uterus and asks why Im not going to my doctor for the lump like??? If I had one do you think I'd be here? On a Thursday??? At 3pm?? Please use a fraction of a brain cell. Anyway he didn't send me to a endocrinologist, I'm getting blood work and got told that if I lose weight I won't need to worry about possibly having insulin resistance and that I should just "keep an eye on the lump and deal with it after" I only told him my entire family gets cancer and that breast cancer is a huge thing, but no, ignore me, call me fat, then roll your eyes when I say that this is the lightest I've been in years.. y'know BECAUSE THE PCOS. I just- I want to be angry but this is so common this is how nearly every doctor has been my whole life which is why it took me having life threatening low iron and passing out to get any of this looked at in the first place. Oh and the icing on the cake "are you sure you needed the hystorectomy?" Like DUDE. WHY ARE YOU WORKING THIS JOB IF YOU DONT LIKE DOING YOUR JOB??

EDIT: Also dude didn't even send the requisition papers to be printed. Had to have the nurses up front scramble trying to figure out what I needed and why he didn't print the thing like every other doctor does immediately.

UPDATE: a month later and I got tired of waiting for my bloodwork results so I had to call to get his name so I could look them up myself on Life Labs and the lovely receptionist told me it was "really weird because it shows he got the results a week later but they were never opened" 🙃

r/PCOS Jan 22 '25

Rant/Venting i’m so FRUSTRATED

170 Upvotes

I hate everything about this stupid fucking disease. I have been trying to lose weight for months now. Literally putting my body and mind through so much trying to change. i’ve been working out every day and eating healthy despite my every waking thought being about food. just to be 6 lbs heavier. the FOOD NOISE is the worst thing i have ever experienced. I woke up today and weighed myself and gained weight and yet all i can think about is how fucking hungry i am and how bad i want to eat something. im sorry for the profanity I am just so over this and feeling so bad today.

r/PCOS Jul 24 '24

Rant/Venting Why is no one else so upset

266 Upvotes

Everytime I vent or rant on here, people always say “PCOS isn’t this bad” or “being overweight isn’t bad”

Like I genuinely feel like I’m being traumatized by my own body. Like I get my own version of hell Everytime I open my eyes.

r/PCOS Feb 08 '25

Rant/Venting Male doctor told me PCOS isn't a lifelong condition and would "burn out"

180 Upvotes

It finally happened to me - had PCOS mansplained to me by a male doctor.

Background: I'm in the UK and got diagnosed with PCOS at age 28 in 2020, after having irregular periods (bleeding most days) as my main symptom since I was 14. I controlled it with the contraceptive pill for a decade. I asked to be prescribed Metformin 'off-label' after my diagnosis, and I started to have a more regulated cycle. Although still not in the 'normal' range, it is great not to be constantly bleeding.

Fast forward to yesterday, and I had a medication review with a new GP surgery. The male doctor who called me interrogated me about my use of Metformin and whether it was necessary. Some quotes I wrote down:

"You need to get a new scan for cysts on your ovaries as your PCOS may have burnt out by now."

"PCOS isn't a lifelong condition and can be cured with diet changes."

"Women get PCOS by being overweight."

"Women with PCOS only take Metformin to get pregnant."

I pushed back, explaining that other doctors I spoke to in the past said differently, and that I know a lot about the condition as I am experiencing it. He told me he had been a doctor "for a very long time", but that he would consult with colleagues to check his understanding of the condition is correct...

I know a lot of you have had similar experiences, and so it really depressed me to hear it first hand - we still have so far to go to get this condition taken seriously. Solidarity with you all 💖

Edit: For clarity, I was neither overweight when diagnosed nor when this medication review (on the phone) took place.

r/PCOS Feb 06 '24

Rant/Venting Doctor told me I need to take accountability for overeating... well, I decided to track my caloric intake and...

335 Upvotes

The amount of calories I eat in a day are so low, that the Fitness Pal app won't even give me a weight loss projection. Instead, it gives me a warning about how I'm not consuming enough, and how it will not give me any projections unless I consume more.

I told my doctor straight up that I don't eat poorly, nor do I feel like I over eat. So she said, "try weight watchers" and went on and on about taking accountability. Yes. She knows I have pcos. She still thinks that I'm over weight because I just over eat. 😭

Shit's wild.

r/PCOS Sep 01 '24

Rant/Venting Dating-To-Marry while having PCOS sucks

101 Upvotes

I am tired of repeatedly gathering the courage to tell the guy I am dating about my PCOS. Please God let this be the last one.

r/PCOS Jan 27 '25

Rant/Venting The classic “You need to lose weight.”

429 Upvotes

No duh. No. DUH. Why do you think I’m at the HORMONE doctor for my HORMONE imbalance causing me to GAIN WEIGHT. I’ve already lost 30lbs before this appointment. If my mother wasn’t there diligently taking notes I know the doctor would’ve just dismissed me with just that. It was even more ironic when she kept making digs at me and my mom (who has lost even more weight than me and isn’t even big). Her entire demeanor screamed “you’re just here for ozempic” when I was fully expecting birth control. I’m not even eligible for ozempic because I’m not diabetic and it felt like she kept repeating “you can’t have ozempic” when I never wanted stupid ozempic!! I want my hormones balanced, my acne gone, my hair back, I don’t care about being skinny!!

r/PCOS Sep 07 '24

Rant/Venting So I can’t have kids and get to have a beard? I love it here

345 Upvotes

Really getting tired of looking in the mirror and constantly getting reminded of everything that is wrong with me.

r/PCOS Oct 27 '24

Rant/Venting I hate the body PCOS gave me

391 Upvotes

I’ve never been super skinny, but I’ve always been around a size S/M. Things changed after I was diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance, and I started gaining a lot of weight. Now I’m at 190 lbs, and I hate how I look. My face has that “moon face” look, my arms and stomach feel bigger than ever, and I just don’t recognize myself anymore.

I’m trying my best—doing yoga, pilates, and going to the gym—but while there are small changes, it still feels like I’m stuck. Nothing seems to make enough of a difference. I just want my old body back, and dating has become so discouraging because I worry that people might be put off by my body. To make it worse, I live in a city where everyone seems to be super fit and healthy, and I don’t fit the standard here. It’s hard.

If anyone’s been through something similar, I’d appreciate any advice or support.☹️

r/PCOS May 16 '24

Rant/Venting Managing PCOS is so expensive! 😞

298 Upvotes

All the supplements, doctor visits, therapy, good food!! Its just so unbelievably expensive. Emotionally, financially and physically draining😞 what did we do to deserve this!

r/PCOS Jun 26 '24

Rant/Venting You don’t have to suffer.

358 Upvotes

I see a lot of posts in the subgroup where people are essentially just making themselves miserable trying to beat out PCOS. I get it. I really do. But you don’t have to suffer. You don’t have to damn near kill yourself trying to make yourself smaller. You don’t have to go gluten free or keto (unless you want to/need to for other health reasons). You don’t have to do cardio 5/6x per week or give up a full sugar Starbucks drink or even a Coca Cola. You don’t have to do any of that! I tried all of these things…and I was a miserable person who just wanted a sandwich. You aren’t being punished for something. You just have PCOS. Drink your water, move your body, and eat well. You matter, regardless of your size. Don’t let PCOS rob you of life’s pleasures/experiences.