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I know a lot of you are aware I recently have been dealing with a lot of emotional and physical turmoil going on in my life - my body just wasn't reacting well to my attempts to eat healthier and exercise, my attempts to get more sleep went unnoticed (even the days I wasn't having insomnia, or I was specifically working hard to get extra hours of sleep where I could, I was so exhausted all the time), and among other things I had been getting annoying hair growth that, while it happens in women, it doesn't generally happen to this extent (my chin, arms etc...it was just...what?). To top it all off, my emotional state was always more fragile than it had ever been before, and for someone that already has had depression and anxiety for many, many years and been treating it and trying to live with it, this only was compounded into a complete tailspin of helplessness and hopelessness each and every day. Oh yeah, and ovultaion? Hadn't happened in over a year. I'm 30, I'm a virgin, and I'm not menopausal - at least, I shouldn't be.
I was finally able to talk to my OBGYN about things - my suspicion was, at the most, PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome), because many of the symptoms matched well for this. When I brought up my symptoms and concerns, I was sent for bloodwork (10 vials....sheesh), a blood glucose test, and a pelvic ultrasound. When the results came back, I gained a new level of overwhelmed for a day.
Turns out, I'm insulin resistant - my body overproduces it in my pancreas, and anything coming in (especially sugary things) wouldn't be used for energy, but instead instantly converted to fat tissue and cells. Talk about a bummer but also a huge explanation on so many things. To top it all off, I was headed down the road to diabetes and PCOS, but luckily had caught my symptoms in time to help prevent my body from continuing down this bumpy road. My ovaries are not yet enlarged or having cysts, which is GREAT, but they were on their way - they already had follicles that were not allowing my eggs to properly move through my body monthly, and thus I hadn't ovulated in over a year. In addition to this lack of ovulation, my lining and walls were not able to shed, and thus it's been building up to create a thick wall lining - while the thought of not having to shed that every month and the eughsagd;t that comes with it is great, in practice it's really crap. A thicker wall makes for a higher chance of developing cancer and cysts, as well as the PCOS I was convinced I had.
I'm on progesterone now (a hormone that is produced in your body after a cycle; get this, mine is currently/was so low that my body was producing androgen and testosterone to overcompensate for the lack of it in my body, and the level of low it was at was actually in line with post-menopausal women), and it's already started to help level out some of my hormones and emotions in turn. I can't wait to see results coming from this in a month or two when it's fully working with my body to do what it needs to do to help my body function normally.
I'm also on metformin, a prescription usually given to those with diabetes to help your body properly react to insulin that your body is currently making in your pancreas. It helps remove some of the excess I currently have (my sugar levels are so high that when it's been dropping to "normal" sugar levels in my body, I feel hypoglycemic and crash hard, but, it's actually a normal level I'm hitting) in my body and in my gastrointestinal tract and intestines, and it helps my body use what I have been producing naturally to convert it to energy instead of instantly storing for fat. In addition, it helps stop any glucose coming in through food and beverage consumption from also instantly storing as fat.
What does this mean?
My mood has already improved ten-fold. JESUS I never realized I could be so happy in only a few days of introducing medication to my already altered exercise and food changes. I literally haven't sat here and cried for no reason, nor felt the need to. That light at the end of the tunnel is a full-blown floodlight beckoning me home.
Food I've been eating and the exercise I've been doing to improve prior, is now paying off. Even in the few days time that I've been back and forth to DR visits and getting tests done and getting medication in my system, I've lost almost 3lbs and still going strong. I have hope. My body is happily doing what it's supposed to. I can expect my ovulation in the next week (and normally I'd hate this, but knowing what it means to have it being normally cycling is making me pleased as punch to welcome it this time around - really puts things into perspective tbh). I have so much more energy (save for the few times a day I start to crash from my sugar being lower than I'm used to) and I can actually get to sleep at a decent time too - my insomnia has practically disappeared.
I already feel like a new person, and I'm so excited for the future now. I'm already gaining more focus and feeling physically and emotionally healthier, and this morning I found myself smiling like a fool at my work and not being able to stop - literally for no reason.
Life is great.
I was finally able to talk to my OBGYN about things - my suspicion was, at the most, PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome), because many of the symptoms matched well for this. When I brought up my symptoms and concerns, I was sent for bloodwork (10 vials....sheesh), a blood glucose test, and a pelvic ultrasound. When the results came back, I gained a new level of overwhelmed for a day.
Turns out, I'm insulin resistant - my body overproduces it in my pancreas, and anything coming in (especially sugary things) wouldn't be used for energy, but instead instantly converted to fat tissue and cells. Talk about a bummer but also a huge explanation on so many things. To top it all off, I was headed down the road to diabetes and PCOS, but luckily had caught my symptoms in time to help prevent my body from continuing down this bumpy road. My ovaries are not yet enlarged or having cysts, which is GREAT, but they were on their way - they already had follicles that were not allowing my eggs to properly move through my body monthly, and thus I hadn't ovulated in over a year. In addition to this lack of ovulation, my lining and walls were not able to shed, and thus it's been building up to create a thick wall lining - while the thought of not having to shed that every month and the eughsagd;t that comes with it is great, in practice it's really crap. A thicker wall makes for a higher chance of developing cancer and cysts, as well as the PCOS I was convinced I had.
I'm on progesterone now (a hormone that is produced in your body after a cycle; get this, mine is currently/was so low that my body was producing androgen and testosterone to overcompensate for the lack of it in my body, and the level of low it was at was actually in line with post-menopausal women), and it's already started to help level out some of my hormones and emotions in turn. I can't wait to see results coming from this in a month or two when it's fully working with my body to do what it needs to do to help my body function normally.
I'm also on metformin, a prescription usually given to those with diabetes to help your body properly react to insulin that your body is currently making in your pancreas. It helps remove some of the excess I currently have (my sugar levels are so high that when it's been dropping to "normal" sugar levels in my body, I feel hypoglycemic and crash hard, but, it's actually a normal level I'm hitting) in my body and in my gastrointestinal tract and intestines, and it helps my body use what I have been producing naturally to convert it to energy instead of instantly storing for fat. In addition, it helps stop any glucose coming in through food and beverage consumption from also instantly storing as fat.
What does this mean?
My mood has already improved ten-fold. JESUS I never realized I could be so happy in only a few days of introducing medication to my already altered exercise and food changes. I literally haven't sat here and cried for no reason, nor felt the need to. That light at the end of the tunnel is a full-blown floodlight beckoning me home.
Food I've been eating and the exercise I've been doing to improve prior, is now paying off. Even in the few days time that I've been back and forth to DR visits and getting tests done and getting medication in my system, I've lost almost 3lbs and still going strong. I have hope. My body is happily doing what it's supposed to. I can expect my ovulation in the next week (and normally I'd hate this, but knowing what it means to have it being normally cycling is making me pleased as punch to welcome it this time around - really puts things into perspective tbh). I have so much more energy (save for the few times a day I start to crash from my sugar being lower than I'm used to) and I can actually get to sleep at a decent time too - my insomnia has practically disappeared.
I already feel like a new person, and I'm so excited for the future now. I'm already gaining more focus and feeling physically and emotionally healthier, and this morning I found myself smiling like a fool at my work and not being able to stop - literally for no reason.
Life is great.