My Journey With PCOS-A Healthy Lifestyle Change, Changed My Life…

I was diagnosed with PCOS-Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, and told that I would need hormonal treatment to be able to have children-below is my story of how I was diagnosed, and how after doing my own research I changed my lifestyle, got my body back, and conceived naturally after only trying for 6 weeks….

About 3.5 years ago, I stopped taking my contraception pill as it was causing me horrible migraines.
The migraines stopped, along with my period-but I just put it down to my body adjusting to the new change.
About 12 months passed, and I realized I had only had 2 periods in that whole time, so went to a local doctor to see if this was still normal.
She too did think it was a bit odd, and sent me for a blood test.
The results showed that I had extremely low levels of progesterone, and higher levels of androgen’s, meaning I wasn’t ovulating, therefore not getting a period.
I didn’t quite understand any of this at time, but I instantly thought, is this going to be an issue when I want to try for a baby?
‘Soo, can I have children?’ I asked my doctor
‘Well no, if you aren’t ovulating you wont be able to fall pregnant’ she responded.
I look back now, and think what a horrible response that was she gave me, especially without looking into it any further.
I instantly broke down into tears, all I ever wanted in life was to become a mother, and someones just told me that isn’t going to happen!?
The doctor was taken back by my tears, and said she’d refer me to a specialist who could help me more and look into it further-I’ve since changed doctors…
Anyway, I couldn’t get into the specialist for a while, so I went to another doctor someone had recommended to me.
I gave her my previous blood results, she took one look at them and said ‘Polycystic Ovary Syndrome’-she explained that with the levels in my hormones that was generally the outcome. Then proceeded to ask me if I had had any other symptoms, such as acne, unwanted hair growth, and weight gain.

I had all of these, but I never pieced them all together to be a disorder.
I had been on the pill since a very young age, as I had really bad acne and no topical creams where working-so when I come off of the pill I was expecting that was going to come back.
Same with the hair growth-I had had laser hair removal previously, and when it all grew back (plus some extra) I just put it down to coming off of the pill again and my body adjusting to the change.

And the weight gain, well I didn’t live a very healthy lifestyle, I ate a lot of junk food and didn’t exercise, but when I thought about it, I had gained almost 10kgs in a short amount of time…

I had never heard of this disorder before-The doctor sent me for an internal ultrasound and gave me some information and websites to visit to learn some more about it.
Below is one of the sites my doctor recommended I did some research from
https://jeanhailes.org.au/health-a-z/pcos

My ultrasound showed that I didn’t actually have any cysts on my ovaries, but I was just suffering from all of the other symptoms.
Once I got into the specialist he too looked at my levels, asked me a few questions and then diagnosed me with PCOS.
He said that it is managed via the contraception pill-hence my reason for not knowing about it until now-the pill had basically masked the disorder from me ever knowing about it.
He told me to go back on the pill to manage my symptoms and help regulate my periods, and when I was ready to have a baby to come back and discuss my options.
I tried to go back onto the pill, but the migraines come back instantly.
I couldn’t live like that, it would knock me down for days at a time-it had become normal for me to just walk out of the room at work and throw up multiple times a day.
The amount of pain killers I would take just to function and get through the days was so unhealthy-I needed to do something about this!

When I had first researched what PCOS was, I remember that it said it could be managed with a healthy lifestyle-so I began researching further into that, and looked into how I could use foods to boost my progesterone levels.

I still today use foods for all types of ‘medicines’ in my everyday life rather then medications-and currently studying Human Nutrition.
Below is a link to a great website that you can see what hormones could be out of balance with a simple quiz and how to treat them with foods for anyone interested.
https://www.hormonesbalance.com/

I changed my eating habits, and we had just got a puppy so I began to walk a few times a week.
Very slowly the weight began to drop off of me, I got more into eating healthy, signed up to the gym, and began to get more regularly periods.
I remember being at work one night, with this sharp pain in my lower left abdominal, and was like what is this!?
The girl I was working with said ‘you’re ovulating, and next month you’ll feel it on the other side‘
I didn’t even know this was something you could actually feel happening!?
And sure enough, it happened, and then it continued to happen every month, followed by a regular period on time each month.
I seriously knew so little about how the female body worked-so again, I started researching all about how ovulation and the female menstrual cycle works.

With creating a healthier lifestyle for myself, I had gotten my body back under control! I was having regular cycles, I lost 11kgs, and my skin had settled down.
When it come to the time we decided we wanted to try for a baby-we thought we would just ‘try without trying’ or just not be ‘safe’ and see what happened.
I still expected to have issues conceiving, and I thought if we just casually tried, rather then fully focusing on it, then it wouldn’t become so stressful and we wouldn’t be disheartened month after month.
My plan was too give it a go, and if 12 months went by and nothing had happened I would go back to my specialist and look further into it and at our options.

But…I was so lucky, after only 6 weeks we were pregnant!!

I was so nervous!
Reason One: I did not expect this to happen so quickly!
Reason Two: Because of the issues with PCOS, having a miscarriage can be a higher possibility.
I tried not to get too excited just in case something did happen-those first 12 weeks absolutely dragged!
But when I finally got there and seen that little baby on the screen and heard that heart beat at 12 weeks I felt an instant relief.

It was real, I was actually having a baby!
I was also very lucky to have an amazing pregnancy!
I only suffered from nausea in the first trimester, no actual vomiting, and was able to work right up until 38 weeks without any issues.
I didn’t even feel pregnant most of the time!

Now, this was a happy outcome for me, and I know there are so many women out there struggling with fertility issues.
So I just wanted to share my story in hopes that if I could possibly just help one person with their struggles with PCOS through my story, whether it be fertility, or just helping with the symptoms of the disease such as weight gain, or acne-then I’ve achieved something and made a difference in someones life.
Something as simple as making a healthier lifestyle change could make a world of difference in someones life-and really, what have you got to lose from trying?

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to share with anyone you think this could possibly help, or even just give some hope to xx