My Diagnosis, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

So, I go into the appointment, not sure what to expect.  I had only ever had one pap smear.  What could they even tell me? Was I going to be one of those “I didn’t know I was pregnant?” stories?

The nurse practitioner was a very nice, older lady.  She does a preganacy test (negative) and after we talk, she suggests getting a full blood panel to see if my blood could tell us what was happening. 

Fast forward, and we get the results.  She informs me that my testosterone levels are higher than they should be and she recommends I go and see an endocrinologist.  So I set up an appointment with the endocrinologist (who was absolutely fabulous!) and she orders more tests.

So two pelvic ultrasounds later, and I am back in her office with my husband (then boyfriend).  She informed us that the ultrasounds confirmed her suspicion, and that I had a small cyst on one of my ovaries.  I felt blank.  What did this mean?  Obviously something was wrong, but how broken was I?

She informed me that I had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.  The endocrinologist was super upbeat though.  She made sure I knew that this would be a serious issue, but she didn’t let me wallow in worry.  She asked if we were trying to get pregnant to which my boyfriend and I looked at each other and kind of laughed.  With me still being in school and us not being married, children were not on our mind at that point. Plus I was 22, so there was still plenty of time for us to think about it. That’s when Dr. V smiled and said that when the time comes, there were things we could do to get pregnant, and she never made it seem like there was a doubt that I could get pregnant. 

She also said that there isn’t a cure for PCOS, but that losing weight would help me and that the treatment for PCOS is birth control pills to regulate my period, because I needed to have a period to maintain better uterine health (you need a period every three months at least to lower the risk for uterine cancer). So I went back on the Pill, with the idea of children sometime in the future.

I stayed on the pill, until a year after my husband and I got married, when we agreed we would start trying for a tiny human. J