I saw the endo today.

He told me for the Hirsutism I can take spironolactone (sp)

he said it would be for purely cosmetic purposes and I have nothing wrong with me, but its the only known drug that can stop some of the excess hair growth. So that with the vaniqa (which is so expensive!) should help and eventually laser.

I am scared of taking the spirono stuff. Reading about it online it seems to be a diuretic and helps people with high blood pressure which I dont have.

I also read stuff that said it caused cancer in rats.

I cant deal with the hair but I also dont want cancer, I dont know what to do. Sighs

He said take the diuretic 3 times a day and the glucophage 500mg twice a day.
Add that to my GLA, CLA and multivitamin that I take 3 times a day and I will feel like a total pill junkie.

I have dealt with the excess hair issue for 12-15 years now! (was diagnosed PCOS between the birth of my daughters) I don't take any meds on a regular basis other than bc pills - even though I had my tubes tied in 1992 when youngest was born and also had to take Clomid to get pregnant with her my insurance won't cover the bc pills as medical necessity - sorry my pet peeve!

I had the laser surgery done two years ago. My insurance didn't cover it and it was expensive. It wasn't super painful but you could definately feel it. My face was red like sunburn for about 4 days and burnt like crazy - which they said was normal. I used a ton of aloe gel which would take away the burn pretty well for a little bit. But I kept telling myself it was worth it! I forced myself to go back for the second painful treatment because it was worth it!

Unless your new Rx makes the hair growth go away don't waste your money on the laser surgery! My hair came back just as thick and just as dark as before! I just went and bought a better razor! My hair was growing back within three months!

My cousin is a hairstylist and I'm thinking of trying waxing to see if it can possibly make my face a little smoother! I hate having to shave every morning and then again at night if we go away!

I hope that my circumstances are different from others that may post here and someone can give you lots of hope and encouragement. I hesitated to post a negative respose to you but felt I should prepare you for the possibility the laser surgery may not give you the effect that the laser operator tells it will. Maybe with the drug it will work!

I am rooting for you and wish you more success than I have had! I have always refused the meds other than the bc pills because it makes planning vacation easier!!!

Actually it keeps me from becoming a total "witch" and hormonal nightmare to those around me!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

oh dear

laser seemed like my only hope. They said it would take like 5 or 6 sessions and that the majority of the hair wont ever grow back. How much more painful than waxing can it be?

The pill is supposed to stop some of the growth and the cream to dramatically slow down the growth of it.

I just want to live my life as a normal person instead of being constantly paranoid about my beard.

I really didn't mean to depress you more I just wanted to be honest about it!

There may be more improvements now in the laser industry but my OBGYN told me that usually PCOS women will just grow new hair folicles and the process will start over but the hair will be thinner and lighter. Maybe I was just an extraordinary case and it works for other? MAybe that's why they said 5-6 treatments!

My best advice would be talk to someone else that has had it done there that has PCOS too! I really wish I had done that first!

I don't know how much more painful it could be than waxing I only ever had eyebrows waxed before. I would say it is a lot like tiny needle pricks while they are doing it. The worst part for me was the smell of burning hair while they were doing it and the sunburn effects afterward. I am very fair complected and that may have had something to do with it too!

Sorry to ruin your day that was never my intention!!!

As long as your androgen levels are high the hair will grow back. I guess they must be since your doctor prescribed spironolactone. When your hormones are in better balance then hair regrowth will become minimal, no matter how you remove them.

If you are worried about the spiro you could give the Glucophage a few months first and see if there are any improvements that way. I hate taking weird drugs too. I used to get unwanted hairs, but after a few months on LC they simply stopped growing back. Occasionally one or two reappear but I think these are leftovers and new follicles aren't being stimulated to grow anymore. Perhaps my problem wasn't as severe as yours, but after 20 years of that crap I know how you feel!

Btw, I also used Natural Progesterone cream to get things balanced a little quicker, that might have helped too. This was my deficiency from years of anovulatory cycles. You might consider getting your hormone levels tested to see if you are deficient somewhere and supplement with bioidentical hormones if necessary. Vliet's book "women, weight and hormones" is a great start.

I got my hormones tested and everything came out normal. The doc said that while all the results came out normal for the ones they checked for, there are others they didnt test for like something sulfur.

He said the spiro would be strictly for cosmetic purposes since my hormones were all fine, but its the only known drug that will actually stop the hair from growing and used to treat hirsutism.

Waxing hurt in the begining but now I am an expert, I think my skin just toughened up to it or something. I hope as I lose more weight it will get better.

I will definitely look for people with PCOS who had laser done and ask them how it went. Waiting a few more months for things with me to balance more anyway.

This hair is abosolute torture to deal with. I dont want to take BC because I am FINALLY ovulating on my own for the first time in my life and fairly regularly. The glucophage should make me even more regular. I would like to hopefully keep things up this way.

Are you sure they are normal, or simply in the normal ranges? Just to rule this out you may want to obtain a copy of the medical report and do some research into optimal ranges as opposed to acceptable ones.

I hope things get better for you. I firmly believe in the hormone connection as my own body has undergone such dramatic changes as I've balanced my own hormone levels. If you are no longer making the extra androgens from PCOS I think there is a good chance the laser would help without the spiro, but this is just my opinion from my own experience.

btw, there is a big difference between BC pills and bioidentical hormones, the latter do not prevent pregnancy but lack the other side effects of the synthetics. They can be very helpful, but you do need a good endo to get it right.

I found waxing to be really effective. I have found a wonderful waxer who supports the skin whilst they wax. It makes it quite painless but I've found most waxers don't do this. It also appears to grow back thinner. It is certainly much less painful than plucking, which I used to do.
I also tried laser but because I have light auburn hair, my hirsutism is either red or blonde and laser works best on dark hair because of the dark pigmentation.

Melberry

Hi
I used spironolactone for about a year, didnt stop my hair growing at all. Obviously, everyone is different. Dont worry about the cancer in rats they told me about that as well, it doesnt affect you only rats.

I had horrible reactions to probably the glucophage over the weekend. It was extreme nausea and vomiting and horrible stomach cramps and weakness. I almost went to the emergency room. I didnt take the meds on sat or sunday and had an appointment today not with the endo but with the ob/gyn. He said I should call the endo and tell him, but that I dont need the meds, the glocophage can help me with weight loss and maybe fertility, but he is almost positive I am ovulating on my own and unless I plan on having kids now he said I really didnt need to take either of the medications. He said the spironolactone may or may not help with the hirsutism and if it does help it wont be much and will take time. He said its my choice if I wanted to take it, but there was no need for me to take it at all so I am not going to.

I asked for my hormone test results so I can do some research on them. The problem is, I have no idea how to read this.

I will do some searches and hopefully figure something out.

Okay...

I did some google searches.

My thyroid seems to be okay. The range it should be in is 0.27-4.20 and my TSH was 2.15

I did find one website that suggested anything over 2.5 was underactive, but mine is still below that and in the middle of the majority of ranges that I found. Out of curiosity, does anyone know how to (speed up?) your thyroid?

my FSH is 3.0 which seems to be fine and I was exactly mid cycle then. I got my period 17/18 days later.

my LH was 4.4 which also seemed right in the middle there.

The only thing I couldnt understand is Testosterone said 43.

The doc told me testosterone needs to be between 22-80 so according to the doc I am right in there, but I couldnt find much on the internet and the few pages I did find, seemed to be saying that I needed to be a 4 or a 9 or some single digit number that matches all the other numbers.

If thats the case 43 seems pretty scary. Also when I searched it was difficult to find any ranges for women, only men.

If anyone knows about what the testosterone should be in a female I would appreciate it if you can either tell me here, or PM or my journal or somewhere.

Thanks,

MJ

I found this website with some general hormone tests for women: http://www.keratin.com/ab/ab012.shtml Wow there are a lot of them.

I also happen to have Vliet's book at the moment ("Women weight and hormones"). She feels optimal total testosterone ranges are between 40 - 60 ng/dl, with the percent of free testosterone being 1 to 2 percent of the total.

Maybe your hormone balance is improving from LC! I found that it took some months before I noticed positive changes, there is probably a lag, but I didn't get any tests so I couldn't say for sure.

If you want any other info from Vliet, I have this book checked out for a few more days.

Thanks!

I went to the website and they said



my FSH is 3 which is very good from what I read but my LH is 4.4 which is a bit higher, so that makes sense.

LH of 4.4 is still pretty good though from what I read.

I have NO DOUBT in my mind that LC helped with my hormone levels to some degree. I think a great degree.

Its helped with my symptoms, my moods and I am now mensturating and probably ovulating on my own thanks to LC. I fully believe that my previous WOE is what made me sick and have all these problems and I never intend to go back to that ever again!

Even though I am not TTC I called up my old ob/gyn he's retired but really the best Ive ever known and he was my mothers ob/gyn for years.

He told me to take my temperature rectally first thing every morning before I get out of bed and make a chart and see if it hits 98.2 and what days and I should be able to track my ovulation and get a better idea on whats going on.

My total testosterone level seems to be within the optimal range, but how do I know what the percent of free testosterone is?

Either way, I think that continuing to low carb will help my hormone levels get even better along with everything else about me and I am happy about that. I just finally feel like I am making progress and taking care of my health finally and going in the right direction and it feels so wonderful.

Thanks for all the help and support!

MJ

The free testosterone level would be measured in the lab from your sample, so I guess you would have to specify that in advance. If you do this again you might want to also ask for a progesterone level test, as that will give you an idea of how well you have been ovulating (actually entering the follicular phase) as opposed to the little eggs just regressing into cysts. But it sounds like overall you are doing great here!