♥pcos sux♥

lights up: I enter the battlefield against my own goddamn hormonal disorder Start: 251 Current: 176 Goal: 150

[pcosbrawler]

Cranking along, folks! Feeling kind of bad, but my levels are going well and I’m losing weight quickly. Going to the doctor to get evaluated again in a few weeks since my meds seem off. This is the happiest I’ve been in a while!! GETTIN IT!!!!

[pcosbrawler]

I can do this! YOU can do this!

[pcosbrawler]

I just wish that the thing I had to change to become healthy wasn’t the same as the thing that deems me physically attractive

[pcosbrawler]

BACK to low carb because...being gluten free did nothing AND it just made me crave sugar more :,( At least I know how to cook now, unlike when I first started low carb.  Made an awesome buffalo chicken recipe, and made soup out of the leftovers! Yessss

BUT...considering doing some comics about PCOS pretty soon! SO there’s that!

[pcosbrawler]

i have a high fever so like idk but

i have this super weird relationship with progress pictures. I don’t like comparing myself to my...self, because i feel like it would seriously bum 2015 me out? but i...forget. I forget how different I used to look, right down to my face shape 

[traveldustedshoes]

Because abortions aren't the only way the patriarchy wants to control your junk

OBGYN: Yeah, you are exhibiting all the signs of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I’m so sorry.

Me: Huh? Oh, yeah. Insulin resistance, impossible weight loss, pre-disposition to type II diabetes, painful AF periods. Likelihood of bleed outs. Crap. That blows.

OBGYN: Yeah, well that too.

Me: *blinks* What?

OBGYN: Well, PCOS makes it very difficult for a woman to conceive and carry.

Me: BWHAHAHAHA. Yeah. No. No babies. Ever. Never wanted them. At all. Maternal instinct is not strong with this one. Only upside today.

OBGYN: Well then. Not exactly problem solved, but we’ll run with it.

Me: So about the MIND-SEARING PAIN and occasional HEAVY AF BLEEDING. When can we deal with that.

OBGYN: Not until you are 35.

Me: Dah fuq?

OBGYN: Not my rules. Hospitalization won’t even consider any treatment unless it’s life or death until you’re 35.

Me: Why?

OBGYN: Because you might want to have a baby.

Me: I’m 31. I didn’t want kids when I was 11, I didn’t want them at 21, and I sure as shit don’t want them now. Can’t I just sign a form that says “I don’t ever want a baby take it out, take it out now”?

OBGYN: Nope.

Me: Why?

OBGYN: Government rules. No removal of baby making parts before 35 unless your life is in immediate jeopardy.

TL;DR: The government knows better about your baby making parts than you do.

[eve-made-the-right-choice]

This is just evil. They are literally refusing to treat a potentially life-threatening condition, not just without the patient’s consent but despite the patient’s protest. Evil.

[uppityfemale]

If people don’t think women’s bodies are being controlled, they aren’t looking hard enough.

[saphire-dance]

In contrast my husband got a vasectomy and no one even once suggested I might have an opinion on that.

[asingularcanadian]

ok so lemme take a minute here to just be fucking mad as all hell.

I don’t like to butt in on people’s posts, lord knows I don’t like starting shit but lemme take a second to tell y'all about getting ur lady bits put out of comission.

I, at the age of 12 years, was diagnosed with PCOS. For you that don’t know what that is, PCOS, or Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, is a LIFELONG medical condition where groups of cysts grow on your ovaries causing the production of female hormones in your body to go batshit nuts and cause a whole sideshow of different symptoms such as but not limited to:

Irregular cardiac function (it’s a scary time)

severe weight gain and trouble losing weight (i may eat healthy and work out daily but until I was down to 1-2 meals a day of spinach i wasn’t losing weight)

severe adolescent acne, and adult acne

extra hair on the face, chest, arms, legs, thumbs, belly and back (I shave my face everyday before class and usually before I go to bed)

thinning hair on the scalp due to an excess of male hormones

irregular or no periods 

HEAVY periods

EXTREME PERIOD PAIN

depression and anxiety

pelvic pain

increased risk for type 2 diabetes

Increased for all female reproductive cancers due to infrequency of periods

Now, TMI, but I recently had my first period in 6 FUCKING YEARS. Due to the nature of PCOS generally when you have a period it’s because one of the cysts on your ovaries has burst releasing a flood of hormones into your system as well as built up toxins. Basically, when I had mine my body went into full on panic mode, nausea and vomiting, extreme fatigue, mood swings like you wouldn’t believe, my body went from being relatively alright to the cliffs of fucking Gallipoli in an hour flat. The kicker was on top of all that I had cramping so bad I actually blacked out.  Given that I know this is likely to happen again before I reach menopause, I decided to book an appointment with my local Planned Parenthood (applaud those lovely people and what they do) to see what my options were to make sure it never happens again. After telling me about various hormonal treatments they could prescribe me (not pills but IUDs shots and various other things) I asked them if it was possible for me to get a partial hysterectomy. A partial hysterectomy removes the uterus but keeps the ovaries so that they still are able to produce estrogen. The lady I had the appointment with looked at me with a look of the utmost pity and told me that unfortunately due to my age there would be likely no chance for any doctor to do it. When I pressed her on the topic she said that the most common excuse doctors will give you for it is that you’re too young, you might change your mind and want to have children later in life.  Now I dunno if y’all reading this are currently seeing anything wrong with this scenario here but I was told that I, someone who can’t have kids, doesn’t want kids, has never wanted kids, and would be put at severe risk of life threatening complications, have to have had children before anyone would consider giving me a surgery that not only would undoubtedly improve the quality of my life but also remove

Well, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get a referral from her during the appointment, I went home and decided to research this bullshit. Turns out that there is something commonly evoked when women want to have any part of their reproductive system put out of commission called the three child rule. Basically if you are young, doctors usually wont let you get either a hysterectomy or a partial hysterectomy UNLESS you have already had three children. 

HOLD THE MOTHERFUCKING PHONE FOR A WHOLE SECOND AND THINK ABOUT THIS

By most doctors standards, YOU are REQUIRED as a woman to PHYSICALLY GIVE BIRTH to at least 3 CHILDREN before you are able to have any of your reproductive system removed or decommissioned. 

And that isn’t even the worst part of it all, these standards DO NOT change when the patient is at high risk for reproductive cancers!

How fucking miserable is it that to take control of your own fucking health in a first world country a woman has to have submitted to the gender roles of having children or actually have contracted cancer or some other immediately life threatening condition.

Meanwhile, the only requirements for men to receive a vasectomy (at least int he states) is that they’re over the age of 18 and are of sound mind and body.

[pcosbrawler]

I wish I was better at taking full body pics for comparison! 

Left is 2015/Early 2016- both at about 250lbs?

Right is Late 2016/Early 2017- At about 185lbs! 

[pcosbrawler]

65lbs down in a year!!!!!!! 

[pcosbrawler]

The weirdest thing about pcos is that while I'll readily talk about my dietary restrictions and sicknesses and symptoms, I feel so hesitant to call it what it is. I usually tell people I have an insulin resistance disorder, which is...true? But there's some weird shame I get saying the words 'polycystic ovary syndrome'. It's like I don't want people to know that deep: that my ovaries might have cysts, that I might be infertile, etc. etc. I'm not... proud? To have pcos but it's a part of who I am, so why is it so hard to say out loud???

[pcosbrawler]

gluten free eating is HARD and i’m such a cheater, since I don’t get sick if I eat things that are carbs/glutinous anymore but there are so many good alternatives!! dear gluten free bread: thanks for letting me eat pb&js again, i love u

[omgsexyfood]

Berry Tarts with Lemon Vanilla Cream

Dreamy tarts filled with luscious lemon cream and speckled with flecks of vanilla. A perfect summer dessert…that can also double as breakfast! Vegan, Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free.

Get the recipe here!

[pcosbrawler]

I've never met anyone else with pcos in person!! I just want to hug all of you??? We are so strong!!!

[pcosbrawler]

I'm down another ten lbs??? It's weird to be able to see the change in my appearance, and even like, my flexibility? Like wow when was the last time sitting like this was comfortable? A while ago, I bet

[pcosbrawler]

GLUTEN FREE FOODS ARE SUCH A BLESSING...so gentle on my sickly bod, bless

[pcosbrawler]

My insulin is down to 7!!! My testosterone is down to 2!!!! I am healthy!!!! I’m still losing weight but I’m down 50+lbs in six months!!!! ᕦ(ò_ó)ᕤ 

AND!!! I get to go back to carbs!...but now I’m gluten free. BUT I CAN EAT SPAGHETTI 

[catastrophic-cuttlefish]

Harnaam Kaur first started growing facial hair at the age of 11. She was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, a condition that causes a hormone imbalance in women. 

“I decided to keep my beard and step forward against society’s expectations of what a woman should look like,” Kaur said. “Today I am happy living as a young beautiful bearded woman. I have realized that this body is mine, I own it, I do not have any other body to live in so I may as well love it unconditionally"