In November of 2006, my 16 year old daughter, Becca, began complaining of lower abdominal pain. She very rarely had a period, and never had cramps, and this occurred during a period, so we assumed that she was having cramps for the first time with her period. After a week of the pain not letting up, we went to our Pediatrician, who did a pelvic x-ray, which came back fine. He then scheduled us for a sonogram of her ovaries. The earliest appointment was weeks away, and the pain was continuing, so we went to the ER about the abdominal pain.They did a sonogram, and while her ovaries were enlarged, their real concern was that they had found a tumor in her bladder, that ended up being cancer. That's a whole other story that I won't get into here, but the tumor was removed and had not spread, and she is now doing well in that area.
However, after recovering from that surgery, she still had this lower abdominal pain, and had not had another period. We went from one doctor to another, trying to figure out the cause, till we finally saw a Urologist/Gynecologist at Magee Hospital in Pittsburgh.
When we described all of Becca's symptoms, she immediately told us that she believed Becca had PCOS. She had a vaginal ultrasound immediately and they ran lots of blood tests. She then referred us to an Endocrinologist, also at Magee, and wanted us to see him right away. We got in two days later, and after reviewing her blood work and the ultrasound, he diagnosed her with PCOS.
So this blog will be a bit of information about Becca and her experiences with PCOS, and an information site to help get the word about about this syndrome. There isn't enough information out there, and I want more doctors and women to understand this condition.
3 comments:
Sorry to hear about your daughters problems. As you've seen on my blog, I have PCOS and I felt it right to post about my experience to let people know and to highlight symptoms so that other women can maybe identify with them and seek help.
I applaud your idea to start a blog about it because there really can be a problem finding information about it. I'm going to link your blog on mine. Hopefully more people will see the link and take a look. It's good to get the message out there. I'm passing out wishes to your daughter during this time. I know how frustrating it can be
I'm 35 now and have had weird female pains starting as early as age 8 (though I didn't start my periods until around 13). I was diagnosed with "probably endometriosis" at age 16 and thown on birth control pills to regulate hormones. They did help some, but were a bandaid fix. When my husband and I began trying to concieve 4 years later, we faced infertility for the next 7 years and I was eventually diagnosed with confirmed endometriosis but also severe PCO. I applaude you for taking your daughter's health seriously and being proactive in her care even in her teens. I'm very sorry to read of her cancer and thankful that it seems to be under control.
Thank you for sharing. I too have PCOS, I'm only 22 (23 on Feb. 1st). I was diagnosed back in highschool, but I've always been fit and active...they never thought anything was wrong until I settled into a normal regime towards the end of High school. Nothing changed throughout college, either. Now I've been married for two years and we've been trying to conceive for that entire time...nothing yet. I've been on medication and off medication trying to start a family. We've decided to take a two YEAR long "medication" break from TTC. Its been the best thing for us! I'm so much happier...anyway, long story short, we'll be going into fertility treatments and/or adoption at the end of this break .... It constantly surprises me how common PCOS is. :/ It warms my heart to hear how supportive you are for your daughter! very proactive! Thank you for being out here blogging!
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