Fuck this syndrome & fuck society for the carelessness to not invest research and solutions for the countless women who have to suffer!

I hate the rollercoaster of emotions, I hate how my breast and my body image has changed, I hate the hot flashes and painful cramping that makes me not want to exist. But I especially hate the mental turmoil of depression.

I am grateful to account that I have the resources to learn and ask questions but for those who weren’t awarded that, my heart breaks 💔 I wish to be a millionaire so women all over the world can be informed, healed and conquer this curse. We deserve to live comfortable and health lives!

(I am on my period, my frustration needed to be expressed lol)

Almost two years ago, I weighed around 240 lbs and was approved for Zepbound. I have PCOS and have struggled with my weight for as long as I can remember. While taking Zepbound, I got down to 180 lbs, which was the smallest I'd been since middle school.
For the first time in my life, I felt like I had a normal relationship with food. The constant food noise and intense sugar cravings were gone. I could still eat foods I enjoyed without constantly thinking about my next meal. I wasn't following some crazy restrictive diet either. I just ate smaller portions, added more protein (mostly through protein shakes), and actually felt satisfied. I also had so much more energy and motivation.
Unfortunately, I had to change jobs and lost my insurance coverage. I've since had two different insurance plans, and both have denied Zepbound. I currently have BCBS, and they've denied it every time. I've looked into Ro and other options, but they're just way too expensive for me.
I'm now back up to 250 lbs, and I feel awful. I'm constantly bloated, exhausted, and just really unhappy with how I look and feel.
I've tried metformin, berberine, and inositol, but they all made me nauseous and dizzy. I've also tried restrictive diets in the past, but they always end up leading to binge eating. I don't want to have to cut out everything I enjoy just to lose weight. It feels like I'm stuck choosing between being unhappy with my body or being unhappy with my diet and lifestyle.
I also struggle with depression(that I do take medicine for) which makes everything harder. I know exercise is important, but I genuinely hate working out, and sometimes it's difficult to find the motivation or energy to do much of anything. When I was on Zepbound, I actually wanted to be more active because I felt so much better physically and mentally.
I think what I miss most isn't even just the weight loss. It's the freedom of not constantly thinking about food and feeling like I finally had control over my appetite.
I'm just feeling really defeated right now. I know there's no magic solution, but I'm tired of feeling like I'm fighting my own body all the time.

Recently I (21) was told to under go hormonal therapy with hopes that my period will be more regular, and that is with contraceptive pills in particular Faz(?) or something like that for 3 months total.

I'm young and I (actually it's mostly my mum) am worried about the effects of this pill in the future like say fertility, weight gain, etc etc. On top of that I am still drinking medicine from my psychiatrist, namely aripiprazole and fluoxetine. I've tried asking different doctors about the medication thing and their answers vary between those two that I'm taking has something to do with my periods and that it's actually safe and doesn't matter at all with my periods.

So is it okay to take it now? What about my other medicine?

Take or no take?

I'll keep this kinda brief, but recently I have been questioning weather or not I have been misdiagnosed or just don't fully understand PCOS. I started puberty very early and I had extremely heavy periods with cramps that would leave me bedridden. I eventually went to a doctor and they told me that 1. I was pre-diabetic 2. I had PCOS. I was young didnt really understand what any of that meant, they ended up putting me or birth control and another medication that I took pretty until highschool ended.

Fast forward after high school I stopped the birth control because of cost and it gave me horrible side effects. I also stopped the other medication as well.

Now after college I have noticed that my periods aren't irregular like they used to be they come like there supposed to. I get cramps but I'm not bedridden like I used to be. I have facial hair, but nothing compared to what I have seen other people with PCOS have and I'm part Hispanic so having hair like mine isnt the most uncommon to see either.

The other thing is when I got older I change my OBGYN and they sent my records to the new doctor however PCOS was never mentioned when I went in for check up or anything really.

I'm just so confused because I feel like certain symptoms have subsided as I have aged while other are the same (insulin resistance and can't lose weight)

I moved to a new place and havent been able to find a new OBGYN yet, but is this common for women with PCOS? Is it worth trying to get diagnosised again?

I was diagnosed with pcos after my ob removed my right ovary due to a softball sized cyst and did blood tests . My husband was in bad car accident when he was 15 and cause a load of health issues. We’ve been under the assumption for years we won’t be able to have kids naturally. On Monday and Tuesday once both days, i had some light pink spotting. Since then ive been doing ovulation tests and started taking my temp last night. I’ve been experiencing acid reflux, really bad thirst, I’ve had to urinate a lot. My pee earlier after i got up from sleeping was cloudy. I’m exhausted. I take metformin but have never reacted like this . And i have had smelled random things. I’m trying not to get my hopes up for it to be nothing.

For context, I just turned 18 this year, and my issues started near the end of last year.

I gained 7-8kgs in less than a month last year without much of diet changes. I tried everything to get rid of it, nothing worked.

Then last month, I gained 4kgs in 3-4 days, and even after that, my weight went up, so a total of 16-17kgs weight gain. Before all this, I was a skinny girl who didn't gain weight easily.

(Although i was in a deficit for 2 months, I still gained)

I was diagnosed with pcos last week, and insulin resistance and reactive hypoglycemia 3 weeks ago.

I've been prescribed metformin and inositol as well.

My question is, am I going to be stuck like this forever? Has this permanently changed my body? I tried a lot but nothing seems to be working.

Any advice/suggestion is appreciated

Thank you!

I’m 5’1 and 135 lbs. 25f and diagnosed with PCOS.

I know how to lose weight. I did it successfully when I was like 15 (went from around 160-120) and have been tracking calories on and off since then.

However I’ve been diligently tracking, including weighing all of my food, for over a year nonstop now.

Even with tracking, I can’t eat in a deficit. I always overeat. The amount of willpower it takes me to not eat is like trying to tell someone with the stomach flu to not vomit. I can’t think of any other equal comparison.

I saw my doctor who told me that I don’t qualify for GLP1s but that I should try to lose about 15 lbs.

I just don’t know how. I really struggle with eating too much and I don’t feel full. I really think there must be something wrong with me but I don’t know what it could possibly be.

I eat more than enough fiber and protein. Much more than enough.

I don’t know what’s missing but I’m scared. I don’t want to keep gaining weight.

What should I do?

Hello!

What type of exercise do you guys focus on? Strength training? Yoga? Pilates?

If you do strength training, how often do you go a week?

I haven’t been to the gym in probably a year. I always hate how sore I get for so long after a session in the gym.

TIA!

Hello, I would like to ask if anti-androgens helped anyone reduce hair growth in areas where women shouldn’t have hair? Did you experience any side effects when you stopped taking it? Did you put on weight?

I've already been diagnosed with PCOS for years at this point. I recently went back to the doctor because I've not been having periods. For context I didn't have a period for about 4 years while not on birth control. So they put me on birth control to try and regulate my period. But lately it's been slowing down and the last two months I've just not had a period at all. So I went back to the doctor, I couldn't get in with my regular doctor so it was someone else. She basically said it would be easier to help me if I was trying to conceive, set up an appointment with a gynecologist (which won't be until late December, and that appointment was in early September) and sent me to get an ultrasound. I went to the ultrasound and it was fine, the lady was super nice. But I got the results back yesterday and now I'm just really annoyed. They said:

Hi Ancient_Ivy,
The ultrasound of your ovaries show follicles on both sides.  This can be seen with PCOS, but is not diagnotic on its own. 
Please review with gynecology as scheduled, or contact our office for follow-up.
Please do not hesitate to contact my office with any questions or concerns.
[Name], MD, covering for [person who sent me to get the ultrasound] PA-C

What do you mean, my PCOS was already diagnosed years ago. I mentioned it AT THE APPOINTMENT. We know that I have PCOS. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but now I'm just even more frustrated. I'm so tired of feeling like the medical community as a whole doesn't care about helping PCOS beyond treating us as broken baby incubators. To be clear, I do want a kid someday. But I'm not ready to start trying to have one right now, and just for that its like I don't deserve care? I tried to look up specialists in the nearest actual city and all the google results were for fertility clinics. I don't want to go back to the same doctor in December that I've already talked to about my PCOS. He's nice, his sister has PCOS. At least he will already know that I have PCOS, hopefully, because he helped diagnose me and we've talked about PCOS before. But he wasn't especially helpful. I'm exhausted. I'm frustrated. I don't even know what to do, or what to say to these people.

I messaged back saying "Yeah. I was diagnosed with PCOS years ago." and there's a note that says "Out of office until 10/28/2026"

If you have conceived with PCOS, what helped in your case? If you are still trying, what is hardest right now: the timing, the waiting, or not knowing whether you ovulated?

I am sharing this because, when I was trying, most PCOS fertility advice either frightened me or made promises it should not make.

I have PCOS myself, and I now have three children. Getting there did need help, but not the heaviest end of fertility treatment. Under my doctor, I used letrozole to help ovulation and Ferti-C injections to help the egg mature and make ovulation more predictable. I know that will not be the right path for everyone, and some women need more help. But my experience taught me the thing I most needed to hear: PCOS had made pregnancy badly timed, not impossible.

The main problem is irregular ovulation. The eggs and the womb are usually not the issue. The egg may come late, or not at all in a particular cycle, which makes the fertile window very easy to miss.

Before taking any medicine, these are the basics worth trying first:

Regular sex every 2 to 3 days is often more reliable than chasing one predicted day, because sperm survive for several days and the fertile window moves with PCOS.

Ovulation test sticks can mislead. They measure LH, which can already be raised in PCOS, so repeated positive-looking results do not always mean an egg is coming.

Folic acid is 400 micrograms a day while trying and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, unless a doctor prescribes a higher dose for a specific risk.

Missing periods, or periods usually more than about 6 weeks apart, are a reason to see your GP earlier. You should not always have to wait the full 12 months.

Unpredictable ovulation also means pregnancy can happen unexpectedly. If a baby is not the plan, contraception still matters.

I am also a pharmacist, so I have written the full explanation on my own blog. I wrote it to clear up the myths that frightened me and to help other women understand the medical side in plain English:

https://medexplaineddotcodotuk.wordpress.com/2026/10/23/pcos-and-fertility-getting-pregnant-with-pcos-explained/

It is for information only, not medical advice, and treatment decisions belong with your own doctor.

Has anyone who has PCOS, taken Letrizole to ovulate, gotten pregnant but had a miscarriage. Then very soon after, NOT having a period, NOT taking Letrizole, start having symptoms, so you take a test just for shits and gigs, only to find out it’s POSITIVE?!? I’m at a loss right now. I’m confused, I’m excited, I’m shocked. I don’t know if I should believe it? Can anyone else relate to this?? I remember taking a test over a month ago that was negative to make sure my hCG levels were zero before having sex again. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

Heyy I know everyone’s bodies are different !! But I started metformin a 6 months ago ish from 500mg to 1000mg and my body has always pretty much reacted with periods . My cycles are coming up super long now anyway as I missed them last year for so long , and I actually got my last cycle on time which I was super happy for !!

However I order my metformin privately and thought I had a lot more than I did, which led me to accidentally skipping I think around 3/4 days worth. Now at my next period I’m currently a week late which has super knocked my confidence as I thought everything was getting a lot better

I order my metformin privately so I don’t have a doctor I can speak to . Anyone else been in a similar boat or had a similar experience? I didn’t think a few days would throw me off ! Thank u :)

Low levels of SHBG (that most of us with pcos have) is linked to metabolic dysfunction, including insulin resistance. If we have low SHBG, it leaves more free (bioavailable) testosterone active in the bloodstream, which drives symptoms like excess facial/body hair (hirsutism), acne, and scalp hair thinning/loss.

Birth control with enthinylestradiol usually raises SHBG significantly but for some people its not the best option.

Did anyone have success in raising their SHBG and also reducing androgen symptoms?

For example , does over growth of bacteria like h pylori or too low of a certain gut bacteria facilitate pros

Hi ladies! ❤️
I was diagnosed with PCOD when I was 17. Since then, I’ve managed to reverse it a few times—successfully about 3 times—but unfortunately, it seems to keep coming back.
I’m 31 now, and recently my symptoms returned. I’ve been struggling with intense sugar cravings and have gained quite a bit of weight again, so I visited my family doctor. She recommended that I start taking metformin.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience with metformin for PCOD. Did it help with your symptoms, cravings, weight, or periods? How was your experience with it, especially when you first started?
Would really appreciate hearing your experiences and any tips you might have. 💕

Hi. I just turned 18 and I was on birth control for about 5 or 6 years. I took it because of acne, with no signs of pcos other than never really having puberty other than a kinda normal period and acne of course.

I've always been more hairy than the other girls since kindergarten, always have had hair on my shins and arms.

I got off birthcontrol maybe 8 months ago and got a nonhormonal iud, because in my opinion with all of the hormonal birth controls ive been on have made my periods so much more painful, as well as just pain on the daily in my pelvic area. I have over 40 cysts in each of my ovaries. With the nexaplanon I bled everyday for a year, I had the depo for maybe 9 months and it was terrible, and regular birth control I was just never good at the pill taking part.

Recently, ive noticed a singular black chest hair lol. um chin hairs, my inner thighs are very very hairy, ive never had dark hair on my thighs, and ass hair. (all starting within the last 6 months)

I want to prevent any more growth of any more hair, or possibly even get rid of all the new growth? Does anyone have any tips? my doctor has prescribed me androgen blockers but should I just get back on hormonal birthcontrol and force myself to take the pills? And does anyone have any success with androgen blockers? I have a bad heart and it says it can lower my blood pressure and im not too sure if thats good as well..

Also will androgen blockers perhaps give me bigger boobs?...

I was diagnosed 2 months ago with pcos but ive known about the cysts for over a year and have been struggling with other signs as well, but now I got the full package.

Hi everyone, I have had PCOS for around 10 years and irregular periods. Previously, my periods lasted around 7 days, with heavy bleeding on Day 1, but over time my flow had already reduced. Around 2–3 months ago, my ultrasound showed an endometrial thickness of 12.1 mm, which my doctor described as normal but thick. I was prescribed Duoluton-L for 3–4 months, taking it for 21 days followed by a break. Since starting it, my withdrawal bleeding has become extremely light, sometimes almost nonexistent, and lasts only around 3 days. I've also noticed that my weight management has become more difficult, although I don't want to share specific numbers. Last month, I experienced severe stabbing pain in my lower abdomen along with intense rectal pain that lasted about an hour. I also have burning while urinating. Has anyone experienced very light or absent bleeding while taking Duoluton-L? Did your doctor explain why it happened, and did you need a follow-up ultrasound? I'd appreciate hearing about your experiences, while I arrange appropriate medical follow-up.

 have been a fast fat burner a good body shape i never struggle lose weight until i was dealing with domestic violence i found myself needed to leave home to live in peace but it come with cost of struggling financially i was broke ,i have gone through malnutrition and food scarcity and extreme stress for thee months i have lost 7 kg with 4.5 kg of muscles and had insulin reisistance when i solved my financial troubles food is avaibles less stress due to my inslun resistance i jumped from 77 kg to 92 KG in two months and half and my face is very bloated i sometimes i have suufocation and after eating carb i feel sleepy anyways so far it has been the same scale ranging from 90.6 to 92.5 kg up and down fot ten months my body refuses to drop weight despite eating healthy doing defecit and doing cardio, btw despite the stable scale the last month i noticed my face is getting very less bloated also my waist is tighter and no longer i feel crash after carb food and no longer i feel suffocated at night are these a good signs that my insulin resistance is healing cause honestly it ruined my self esteem , also whats the averafe duration you may know the inslun reistance last for similar experience btw i started resisitance training today and cut again sugar completely i mean the added sugar and i will start doing cardio after meals i appreciate your feedbacks ladies and gentlemen thanks

I recently got diagnosed with PMOS at 18 years old. I’ve struggled with insulin resistance since a young age and it has affected me a lot throughout my teenage years. I got prescribed yaz by my gynaecologist who said that it’s very beneficial. I started taking inositol but i’m having a hard time with taking the yaz based on the stories i’ve heard. I know it affects everyone differently but i’m not sure if i should take it or not.
Any suggestions and stories would be appreciated:)🥲

Wanted to provide a small update i posted a couple times i believe but I struggled without a period for a while was concerning, so i went to doctor and got on progesterone was so scared that It wasnt going to work i tried exercise eating better,, and started taking magnesium/pre natels but nothing wa working .I took progesterone for 1 week. Stopped 2 days later my period started i was shocked well this is the 4th month. I had a period im ecstatic om starting to feel nornal again, now that my period is back I can focus on trying for a baby again, but my mental health took a toll, I should have went in sooner but I wad scared, I want others to know your not alone and things will work out