Girly Stuff

[Shakou]

Yes. And I am low-carb not no-carb so I have fruits and veggies and things with healthy carbs. Eating mostly natural and fresh foods and healthy fats.

I have taken biotin, multivitamins, and fish oil all to no avail that I can tell.

The one thing that stuck out to me though is PCOS. I have thought for a while that I have it. However I have no insurance so I have been trying to save money to go get a Pap smear and see if I actually have PCOS and get treatment. And I haven't been able to really save anything. So it'll be a while. Hopefully that will help me though. I know I have some hormonal imbalances and such. So maybe getting on some kind of medicine for PCOS will help me. I'm going to call my dr. and find out exactly how much it is to get tested. She said it was pricey but didn't give me a figure.

To be diagnosed for PCOS correctly, you'll need to have some blood work done. I don't have insurance either, so my lady doctor referred me to www.directlabs.com for blood work. And I could kiss her ass forever for doing so, because it saved me literally HUNDREDS on those blood tests!!

A bill that should have been well over $1,000 cost me only $350 through labcorp!

 

[Shakou]

You can get it OTC? I might have to look into that.

What was your reaction? Metformin initially made me pee out my butt for a couple days, which made me not want to eat anything at all, but my body adjusted really quickly.

Yup, I get mine at www.chiralbalance.com It's pricey, but it's done great things for me! I take it with myo-inositol to balance things out. I was never really that over weight to begin with (somehow...not sure show, but I've managed to keep my weight just under 200 pounds over the years) but it's helped me loose weight over the course of the past few months, and has reduced other PCOS crap!

Metformin...*cringes* The second day of taking it, I broke out into a rash on my face that got worse and worse as the week went on. By the end of the week, I was actually admitted to the hospital where I was ordered to stop taking it. As soon as I stopped, it began going away, but holy hell...that was awful :/ Apparently that reaction was rare though. My doctor said I was the only person who's reacted that way to Metformin that she's treated, and she's treated hundreds. Lucky me lol

 

[Laurelin]

I must be the only person on the face of the planet who's had a nasty reaction to Metformin -_- D-Chiro Inositol has helped immensely with the bad effects I've had with PCOS however. I highly recommend it to anyone who has PCOS or some other insulin resistant illness. It's a lot more expensive than Metformin, but you can get it over the counter without a prescription, it's all natural, and said to be just as effective.

I haven't heard of that one before. Any links about it?

I had my doctors appt yesterday and it was frustrating. First of all I felt like all my concerns were brushed off as 'yep that's common with Pcos' or 'that's common in overweight women'. And I explained my personal trainer/dietician and how I'd lost virtually nothing and that was 'yep that's common in Pcos'. So I need to lose weight but I can't and apparently there's no cute for that?

She didn't want to do bloodwork or an ultrasound thankfully since I've already done it. Last time they sent me through a pelvic only to tell me I had cysts 4 years after I knew I had cysts.

She mentioned a Pcos specialist and I perked up but she wouldn't send me there without me wanting to get pregnant. Which is a no. So... Now I am trying to decide what to do. I have a new prescription for yaz and metformin. I have an appt next month with my primary and she's talked about spiro as well. Should I keep that appointment? Follow up with the gyno in December and I may pry that specialist's name out from her anyways. There are more and more things I am getting self conscious about and it sucks...

I am sure it is much easier for a doctor to say 'that's just Pcos' than it is to actually deal with the side effects like gaining weight, being unable to lose, and growing crazy body hair than it is to actually live it...I would just like to not grow a beard thank you.

Side note omfg it was the most painful papsmear ever. I don't know why but it hurt so bad. And dr commented 'well at least everything is nice and tight'. No kidding? Owwww

 

[Beanie]

That makes me so irritated for you Laur. And they can't send you to a specialist unless you want to get pregnant?! What??

*flips table*

I hope the new prescriptions help at least. Argh. Have you asked your trainer at the gym about it? Do they have any input?

 

[Laurelin]

No I haven't since he's a dude and I thought that could get weird.

I guess my plan is to try the meds and keep my appt with my gen practitioner. My work has a new doctor downtown that is part of the university. I'm thinking maybe see if HE could get me a referral to the specialist. The obgyn said the specialist is through OU as well. I feel like all these doctor's appointments are going to be useless and they're going to wonder why I am coming at all. I just want to find a doctor that will take it more seriously.

Apparently Pcos only matters if you want to get pregnant and all the side effects you should just live with. :/

 

[Dogdragoness]

WARNING possible TMI

I am spotting (more like blood stained / tinge in my normal discharge) & cramping like I sometimes do a week or so before "aunt flow" is supposed to arrive ... The problem is next week will be 21 days not 28, I have noticed my cycles have been getting shorter & shorter. My last cycle was 23 days long & I just turned 31, I have also been taking Vita C since I have been home (about a month) could that be it?

Should I be worried? I really don't want to see a doc, I don't have the money for that :/

 

[Shakou]

I haven't heard of that one before. Any links about it?

I had my doctors appt yesterday and it was frustrating. First of all I felt like all my concerns were brushed off as 'yep that's common with Pcos' or 'that's common in overweight women'. And I explained my personal trainer/dietician and how I'd lost virtually nothing and that was 'yep that's common in Pcos'. So I need to lose weight but I can't and apparently there's no cute for that?

She didn't want to do bloodwork or an ultrasound thankfully since I've already done it. Last time they sent me through a pelvic only to tell me I had cysts 4 years after I knew I had cysts.

She mentioned a Pcos specialist and I perked up but she wouldn't send me there without me wanting to get pregnant. Which is a no. So... Now I am trying to decide what to do. I have a new prescription for yaz and metformin. I have an appt next month with my primary and she's talked about spiro as well. Should I keep that appointment? Follow up with the gyno in December and I may pry that specialist's name out from her anyways. There are more and more things I am getting self conscious about and it sucks...

I am sure it is much easier for a doctor to say 'that's just Pcos' than it is to actually deal with the side effects like gaining weight, being unable to lose, and growing crazy body hair than it is to actually live it...I would just like to not grow a beard thank you.

Side note omfg it was the most painful papsmear ever. I don't know why but it hurt so bad. And dr commented 'well at least everything is nice and tight'. No kidding? Owwww

:/ I'd be looking for a new doctor, that's for sure. Lots of women have over come PCOS. It's just a matter of finding the right combination of diet, exercise, and medication/supplements.

Here's some info about d-chiro inositol for pcos being talked about on a pcos forum (a pretty good forum to for pcos support!)

http://www.soulcysters.net/showthread.php/306396-DCI-D-Chiro-Inositol-WOW-Part-4

You can find more info on it to if you just do a Google search for it. It's not yet commercially known, but is slowly gaining popularity.

 

[katielou]

It's fall!

That means moar dark lipstick, cozy sweaters and boots!

Happy days!

 

[milos_mommy]

WARNING possible TMI

I am spotting (more like blood stained / tinge in my normal discharge) & cramping like I sometimes do a week or so before "aunt flow" is supposed to arrive ... The problem is next week will be 21 days not 28, I have noticed my cycles have been getting shorter & shorter. My last cycle was 23 days long & I just turned 31, I have also been taking Vita C since I have been home (about a month) could that be it?

Should I be worried? I really don't want to see a doc, I don't have the money for that :/

Is there a chance you could be pregnant?

 

[Shakou]

Also, I wanted to add PCOS DOES matter, weather you want to get pregnant or not, as it's a form of borderline diabetes and can lead to some serious health **** like a stroke as early as age 40! I'm real surprised your doctor isn't taking this more seriously :/ I am trying to get pregnant, but I'd be doing everything I am now even if I wasn't (minus the clomid and provera I'll be taking in January if I don't start dumping eggs on my own).

 

[Zoom]

Getting my hair cut on Sunday and I am excite!

 

[Laurelin]

Has anyone (particurlarly you PCOSers) been on Spironolactone? It's an antiandrogen. Supposed to help with hair growth.

I'm getting to the point where I can't wear many clothes because of hair growth and no hair removal works because I get ingrown hairs like crazy. To say that has affected my confidence would be a gross understatement.

 

[Shakou]

Has anyone (particurlarly you PCOSers) been on Spironolactone? It's an antiandrogen. Supposed to help with hair growth.

I'm getting to the point where I can't wear many clothes because of hair growth and no hair removal works because I get ingrown hairs like crazy. To say that has affected my confidence would be a gross understatement.

I don't. I (let's knock on wood...) have been lucky enough to remain on the lower end of PCOS, so the hair issue hasn't been quite as bad for me. I do have abnormal hair growth, but it's nothing tweezing every other day and waxing once a month doesn't take care of. The DCI has helped a lot with that though.

 

[Laurelin]

My problem is I can't remove the hair on certain areas. Well I can but I breakout so bad. I've tried waxing and shaving and NAIR and men's creams and nothing works. The day I remove the hair is fine but the next day I start getting painful red sores.

 

[skittledoo]

Has anyone (particurlarly you PCOSers) been on Spironolactone? It's an antiandrogen. Supposed to help with hair growth.

I'm getting to the point where I can't wear many clothes because of hair growth and no hair removal works because I get ingrown hairs like crazy. To say that has affected my confidence would be a gross understatement.

I haven't but I have noticed that I've started growing more hair on my face lately. NOT happy about that so I tweeze non stop and obsess over it all day which is not good when I have skin picking/hair pulling compulsions constantly.

 

[Shakou]

My problem is I can't remove the hair on certain areas. Well I can but I breakout so bad. I've tried waxing and shaving and NAIR and men's creams and nothing works. The day I remove the hair is fine but the next day I start getting painful red sores.

Have you tried lazer treatment? I've heard good things about it from others.

 

[Romy]

When I was looking for permanent hair removal I stalked transgender forums because, well, a lot of those folks naturally start out extremely hairy and want to get rid of all kinds of facial and body hair forever.

It turns out electrolysis is the most permanent. I tried it out with a home kit. It's very time consuming to do on yourself and my unit eventually burned out, but it totally worked and now I have a large permanent bare spot on my shin. It's been over a year without a single tiny little hair regrowing.

After my experience, I would say that it would be totally worth it to go to an experienced professional for treatment. Eventually I plan to have someone do my underarms, because that's pretty much impossible to reach yourself with the stylus and stuff and the idea of never shaving my pits again is extremely appealing. lol

 

[Fran101]

Nobody tell my boyfriend.

I went to the best wedding on Saturday (Small, fun, happy people,relaxed, simple, great fun bride, cute french bulldog) and her dress was so beautiful and everyone had such a great time
and now my wedding fever is like burning in my soul.

I have been watching say yes to the dress for like 5 hours straight.

For a while recently I thought eloping was something I might want to do (i've lost a bit faith in the extravagance/expense/drama of weddings as of late)
But now.. NO WAY!! I WANT A WEDDING AND A PRETTY DRESS AND CAKE AND I WANT IT ALL!

 

[Julee]

Fran, you always make me laugh.

 

[Fran101]

**** new birth control (Jolessa) and I've been spotting for like 3 weeks!

*TMI ALERT* and there is like..chunks of tissue.. dude, it's so gross.

The first month on it was FINE and then all hell broke lose this sucks no other side effects but I'd rather not keep this up.

If this doesn't end by november I'm going to be SO MAD