I just wanted to thank everyone for posting their experiences here. I have believed that I have had PCOS for a few years now. I would like to see if many of you share the same experiences. My mother has always been very overweight. She is at her heaviest now at 300 pounds, but the lightest she has been in my memory is around 220. When she was pregnant with my sister and myself she lost a lot of weight (around 50 pounds with each of us) without dieting or morning sickness. She has very dark patches on her inner thighs, armpits, and under her breasts. She has also had several diagnosed ovarian cysts and even had surgery to have one removed about 10 years ago.

I began to gain weight once I entered puberty when I was around 11 years old. Before that I was a very thin child. I believe my doctor was even concerned that I was underweight. I developed highly irregular periods. I would go 3 -6 months without a period and then have 1 or 2 and stop again until I was around 15. My mother took me to the gynecologist and she prescribed birth control pills to regulate my periods. I remained on them until I was 22 and was diagnosed with liver problems that were affected by the hormones in the birth control. I stopped taking them and became pregnant with my son in about 6 months (with normal periods). I lost 25 pounds while I was pregnant without dieting or morning sickness (just like my mom). After I gave birth the weight came back rapidly along with the irregular periods. I went on Depo Provera for 2 years and my weight got up to a high of 230 before I began to LC. I have a dark ring on my neck, dark patches on my armpits, inner thighs, and under my breasts as well as skin tags on my neck, armpits and thighs. I had to have a rather large skin tag removed last year by my GP.

My sister has similar issues. She gained weight at puberty, had irregular periods, and has major problems with facial hair. If she let it go untreated she could grow a full beard and moustache. I have dark facial hair, but it is not half so heavy as hers. She has been able to lose some weight on LC. She went from 180 to 155 in a few months. She is also on birth control and was diagnosed as being insulin resistant. Her doctor placed her on glucophage which did nothing to help her symptoms. She has since stopped seeing doctors about her facial hair and treats it using dipilatory creams.

I have thought for some time now that we all suffer from PCOS, but was unsure of all the symptoms until reading the posts on this board.
Does this sound familiar to any of you? Can you suggest somethings we can do? What kinds of tests should our doctors be trying to diagnos this problem? I want to be more educated on it so I can be an advocate for our family. We have been put off over and over with excuses. My mother has even been told all her problems are psychological. Including her raging headaches (migranes) that plagued her during my childhood. Thanks in advance for your help!

I also wanted to add that both my sister and myself struggled with acne as teens and even as adults. I have a problem with body acne even now.