I was 11 when I got my first period. It lasted only a few days like normal.
The next one I had was 6 months later and it lasted 9 days.
Years went by and my periods came every month, slowly adding days until I got up to two weeks straight of being on my period every time I had one. But I never said anything becuase I thought it was normal for this to happen and that I was one of the people who just had longer periods
Then my periods started becoming irregular. I never knew when my period would come because it could be either a month after I finished my period or it could be two days after I just consumed my period. All through middle and high school if I felt a pain in my stomach my anxiety would shoot through the roof and I would try to rush to the bathroom becuase I was afraid my period had just started
I started wearing pads at all times ‘just in case
It was my sophomore year of high school when I was on the bathroom and decided to check my period tracker on my phone (I used it to see how long my period lasted each time) and that’s when I realized I had been a full month straight of being on my period. That’s the second I knew something was wrong.
I texted my mom right then and there and she immediately made a doctor appontment with me. At age 15 I was finally diagnosed with PCOS. Luckily my doctor knew immediately what was wrong with me and put my on birth control to balance out my hormones and get my body to fix itself.
A couple years later at 18 my blood test shows I have a very high amount of insulin in my body, meaning my pancreas is working over time and producing insulin my body doenst need, and becuase it’s working so hard right now if we don’t find a way to fix it my pancreas will crap out on a few years and I will have diabetes. I now take Metformin. Diabetics take it to help their body create more insulin and get their pancreas to work. I take it to try to stop my pancreas from making insulin.
I am 5’4 and weigh 277 pounds. I work out almost everyday for at least 20 minutes if not more. Last year I walked two miles every single day. I even started trying to eat less than I did and I even eat a bit healthier now. But I never lose weight. I’ve been in the 270s for 3 years now, never going up to 280 but never going down to 260 either. My PCOS makes it hard for me to lose weight no matter what I do. The only time I’ve ever lost weight in my whole life is when I have the flu and can’t eat for a week straight. The diets the doctors recommend me are very expansive and as a broke college student, I can’t afford any of it.
My body gets made fun of by people I know everyday. Whether it’s about my weight or my acne that I can’t stop from forming, or if it’s becuase of the hair I have growing on my stomach and back where it’s not suppose to grow
And now my insurance had expired and they won’t let me get a new one. I can no longer afford my birth control or metformin to control my body and my hormones. By the end of this week I my period is supposed to start again and this time I have nothing to help control my body or my hormones. For the first time in years I have no idea what’s going to happen on my period and I’m terrified of it