Re: I've never been so scared in my life and I don't know what to do :(
From: Sonnet (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Fri, 23 May 2003 16:22:38 -0500 (CDT)
Wow, I think a lot of people have scared you unneccesarily! You're going
to be just FINE.... Yes PCOS kind of sucks to have but you can manage
it!
First of all, you should check out
http://www.pcolist.org/mailman/listinfo/ed the PCOSA support list for
women with PCOS who have or have had an eating disorder. You'd be
amazed at the number of women who have had both, I know at least one
study is going on right now to try and prove a connection. But they
might be a great source of support to you.
Now, about the low carbing - having PCOS doesn't mean that you have to
go strictly low carb or NO carb, a la Atkins. I think maybe not having
those well defined limits is actually HARDER if you've had an ED, but
you can do this! It just means that you keep in mind that sugary stuff /
highly processed carbs are going to spike up your blood sugar, and
that's going to spike up your insulin. So just start by cutting out
refined sugars, like candy and so on. Choose carbs that are complex and
less processed, more whole grains and etc. If you can do it, try adding
a moderate amount of good fats to your diet - avocado, flax seed oil,
nuts, olive oil - which helps me immensely with blood sugar control.
That's it! Become a fabulous chef and go ahead and taste things while
you're cooking! You don't need to be THAT careful about it, that you
couldn't taste a dish; just aware of it. And having PCOS means that
your excess insulin makes your body crave carbs. Strange I know, but
you DO, although the longer you eat low carb the less you will crave
them.
About weight: Only about 50% of women with PCOS have weight issues. Many
are of normal weight and some are underweight. Ditto with diabetes: 60%
of women with PCOS will develop diabetes by the time they are 50 years
old. PCOS is a *risk factor* for these things: You have to be more
cautious about your health than the average person but in no way is this
a sentence to obesity and diabetes! Especially with treatment, your
chances of avoiding both are really pretty good.
500mg is a very low dose of metformin but it's possible your doctor is
working you up to a therapuetic dose slowly. Most studies done on
metformin use with PCOS use 1500mg. Ask your doctor about it next time
you see him/her.
It IS unfair that you have PCOS, it's unfair that any of us does! And it
bites! But it's also unfair that some people get strokes or cancer and
hey, I'll take this over that any day. You can work with PCOS, you can
try a lot of things to manage it, and you can really make a difference
in how your symptoms are. It is something to keep in mind but it
doesn't have to make your life completely different. Think about it
like having something like thyroid disease (which many of us also have.)
OK, it's a pain, you now have to remember to take a pill eery day and
get your levels tested and so on. BUT it doesn't really change much in
your life otherwise. Ditto with PCOS. You've got to treat it, you've
got to manage it with some changes, and when you do you'll feel a heck
of a lot better. But you don't have to give up your life because of it!
Hope that helps.... you'll be OK!
At Fri, 23 May 2003, Anomaly wrote:
>
>Hi, everyone. I'm 16 and have recently been diagnosed with PCOS and I
>I'm just so scared and upset and can't stop crying and worrying. Just
>to give some background info, I became anorexic about 3 or so years ago,
>and had to be hospitalized twice because I was underweight. I lost my
>period and never got it back, and then several months ago (less than a
>year) I went to an endocrynologist and she put me on birth control pills
>to get my period back, because I was starting to lose hair and became
>very concerned. My doc did blood tests, and it turned out my estrogen
>was very low, and my testosterone was very high, as she suspected. Well,
>I started getting me period after taking the BC pills, but I also
>started gaining a lot of weight rapidly and feeling nauseous, getting
>headaches, feeling weak and tired, stomach problems, etc. My doc took
>me off that birth control, and we tried 2 other different ones, but I
>still had the same problems and didn't want to be on them. I started
>panicking every day because my weight just kept going up and up and up
>and I wasn't even eating more than usual, and I was so scared. With
>anorexia, it was like my weight was the only thing in my life I could
>control, and then all of a sudden it felt like I didn't have control
>over anything. After a long time of feelig horrible, my doc decided to
>take me off the birth control pills for the time being.
>I started to become severely depressed. Mostly about the weight gain,
>but also the other symptoms. I knew something was wrong with me, but
>everyone just thought I was upset and overreacting because of the weight
>gain. My doctors did tons of blood tests on me, trying to figure out
>what could be wrong, but everything came out normal besides the abnormal
>hormone levels. I gained a lot of weight (I don't know what my weight
>is now, because I'm already so depressed and I'm afraid that if I step
>on my scale now after a while of not weighing myself, I'll get so
>freaked out and have a panic attack and kill myself) and it's mostly on
>my stomach/abdominal region, although it's in other places as well.
>People tell me I look better now than I used to, but I just feel SOOO
>FAT and all I want is to be anorexic again, as sad as that sounds. I
>don't eat as much as I used to (I'm vegan, by the way, and have been for
>over 2 years--which means I don't consume any animal
>products/by-products) and I exercise a lot, regularly. No matter what,
>I don't seem to be losing weight. I've been taking glucophage for
>almost 2 weeks now (one 500mg pill a day) but I don't really notice any
>drastic changes. I always feel really hot, more difficulty breathing,
>and weaker than I used to. It's like one minute i'll have energy and be
>kind of jittery, and the next i'll be sooo tired and I just won't want
>to get out of bed. The worst part of it all is that...well, I love food
>more than anything. I've been cooking all the time for the past couple
>years, and I aspire to be a chef. Finding out you have PCOS and have to
>eat super low carb and low sugar and low fat and blablabla when you want
>to be a chef is like the WORST news EVER--especially when I cook a lot
>of carby things. And when you have an eating disorder, and then you get
>this syndrome where everyone else who has it is overweight, it just
>feels so scary and like there's no hope. I don't want to be fat, I
>don't want to have diabetes, I don't want to grow hair in weird places,
>and I don't want to be at high risk for heart disease....and I don't
>want to eat low carb!!! I'm sorry...It just feels like my life is over.
>And I feel so alone because it's so much harder to eat low-carb when
>you're vegan, but I just cannot ever ever ever go back to eating animal
>products (I'm not criticizing anyone here for doing that, I'm just
>saying I personally cannot do that--I don't mean to offend anyone). I
>mean, there are lots of high protein soy products, and there's nuts and
>beans and all, but all of those still have carbs (even if they don't
>have as much carbs as things like bread or pasta, they still do have
>some carbs in them so it's really difficult to eat as low carb as
>everyone seems to need to in order to lose weight). So I don't know
>what to do....My grandma has diabetes and I'm so afraid to get it too.
>And I used to eat SOOO healthy not long ago, but now it's like the only
>things that look appealing are carbs and sweet stuff (which sucks b/c
>those are the exact things I'm NOT supposed to eat! That's so
>frustrating...When you have PCOS, wouldn't you expect your body to crave
>protein more?? It's almost like your body WANTS you to get sicker!)
>Anyway, I lift weights (nothing too hard or heavy, or for too long)
>every other day, and I do crunches everyday, and yoga 3x a week, and I
>walk quickly on my treadmill usually everyday, for at least 90 minutes,
>and a maximum of 2 and a half hours (actually, my record is THREE
>HOURS--which was a day when I felt especially fat). I also got pilates
>videos a couple days ago which I just started doing. It just seems like
>I spend all my time exercising, and nothing happens. I'm going to try
>to start lowering the carbs, but it's just so hard...and I used to eat
>tons of veggies, but now they always just look really unappealing. I
>just feel really...unhopeful now. Like I'm destined to be an obese
>person who has to exercise constantly and watch her diet like a hawk,
>and have all these really unpleasant medical problems. It feels like
>there are so few success stories out there for people with PCOS...and
>It's so frustrating that I have to live with this for the rest of my
>life and I'm only 16. It's all just so unfair :( And how am I going to
>be a chef without being able to taste anything I make to make sure it
>tastes okay? And where can I go to find out how to eat low carb and
>still be vegan?
>Also, does anyone know when its normal to start increasing glucophage
>doses? I'm wondering if maybe I'm on too low a dose?
>Well thanks for listening everyone. I'm sorry to be such a downer, I
>just didn't know where to go or who to talk to, and I've never been so
>depressed in my life. :(
>-RLA
--
email always welcome: sonnet_fitz@hotmail.com
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