Last night I learned of another girl who has PCOS. She just found out she has it and, without knowing much about the disease, she could only ask her doctor questions based on the small tidbits she’s heard.
One of her first questions was, “will this make me gain weight?” This girl is very skinny, but she has a lot of problem with inflammation after she eats—so much so, in fact, that people have asked her if she’s pregnant.
“No. PCOS doesn’t make you gain weight. That’s just an excuse that fat girls use,” her doctor told her. Yes, her doctor. A medical professional. Then the doctor wrote a prescription for birth control so the girl would start getting her period again (which she hadn’t seen in about a year).
There are so many things that infuriate me about this interaction. First of all, the fact that doctors know SO little about PCOS. Second of all, how dare someone who is supposed to help people cure their health issues tell a patient that people use this disorder as an excuse to be fat?
I am also upset that the doctor merely prescribed birth control and expects that to solve all hormonal problems. Sure, birth control will make this girl get her period, but it’s not a solution. It will actually just cover up her issues without treating them.
I’m definitely more frustrated about this interaction than this girl was because she doesn’t know that she should be. Why shouldn’t she listen to her doctor? Why shouldn’t she do some research on the effects of birth control on her hormones and on her PCOS? As of right now, she has no reason not to believe the doctor.
I spent so. Many. Years. blindly listening to doctors and trusting their diagnoses and treatments. When none of these methods worked for my issues, it made me feel like I was the problem.
They made me feel like I was the problem.
I went to a gynecologist one time, a female, by the way, and she gave me suggestions on losing weight based on what her FIFTY-YEAR-OLD HUSBAND was doing. When I told her how I ate and how much I worked out, I could tell she didn’t believe me. She took one look at my body and, much like the doctor this girl saw, assumed I was using my diagnosis as an “excuse.”
It makes me so incredibly sad how many women go to doctors and leave feeling more dejected and hopeless than they felt when they got there. When they spend hours sweating at the gym and trying to eat as little as possible to work past the roadblocks their body is giving them.
I’ve gone to doctors who honestly recommended eating only 500 calories in a day to lose weight. Others basically shrugged and told me I was doing whatever I could and they didn’t know why it wasn’t working.
PCOS is a condition that causes inflammation. It makes it difficult (but not impossible) for your body to regulate insulin. It makes it harder to lose weight and very easy to gain it (contrary to what this doctor said). It presents differently in everyone.
The chemicals found in our daily lives trick our bodies into thinking we have more estrogen in our systems and the rest of our hormones try to compensate for that. Most of us are in constant states of adrenal fatigue. Even really thin people who have “normal” blood sugar levels are sending their blood sugar soaring and crashing on a daily basis. Our bodies are just doing what they can to keep up with our modern lifestyle.
But doing something as simple as eating right for your hormones can help you get your body functioning better. I promise. Don’t completely overlook the things your doctor says, but try to do your own research to make sure you are finding the right solution for yourself and for your health.
