Hi Tracy and everyone,
I am Vicki and I am also new here to the Low Carb boards. I was diagnosed with PCOS in '01 at the age of 33.
I have had issues with weight since puberty. I was in the 160's in Jr. High, depressed..miserable..oh and I forgot to mention my dark upper lip hair too! I had to practically starve myself while in high school to get down to 135 lbs and I still felt fatter than all of my friends..I would love to be 135 now! It's all relative isn't it?
I managed to keep my weight relatively down and by the time I got pregnant with my first baby at age 20, I was 145 lbs. I have to mention that I have never had normal periods..I would only menstruate about 5-7 times a year so I was very happy to get pregnant so easily. After gaining almost 40 lbs with that pregnancy, I was lucky to have lost almost all of it but 5 lbs. when I became pregnant again at 150 lbs...I was still nursing my daughter a little and hadn't had a period but I got preg I guess on the first ovulation cycle.
I gained again close to 40 lbs with my 2nd pregnancy and this time around it was a bit harder to get it all off but I got close to it. Mind you I was in my very early 20s so I think that had something to do with me being able to get back down on the scale. When my 2nd child turned 2 I got on the BCP. I was so through with making babies and being a milk machine! I wanted my body back to myself and didn't want to worry about having any more babies..at least for a while. I stayed on the BCP for about 3-4 years when I decided I wanted to give my body a rest from the hormones. I had always wanted 3 kids so if I became pregnant, I would have been happy..also didn't want the third to be too far apart from my son and daughter. I figured if it was in the cards for me to have another then it would happen. By this time around my weight was creeping up even though my eating habits were the same..I was close to 30 yrs old and was afraid it had something to do with age. I also noticed to chin hairs sprouting up that I had never seen before.
Not a period in sight. I believe the pill was masking the gradual progression of PCOS but of course at the time I had no idea what PCOS was..I didn't know what was happening to me. I also dropped into a deep depression in '97 after losing my brother to suicide so that added to everything else. My weight shot up from 158 to 203 lbs in 3 years. I did get a few periods but when diagnosed in 12/01, I hadn't had one since 12/99! Miserable and in desperate need for answers I headed to an endo- that is when I first heard of PCOS..he more or less told me he thought I had it even before tests were run. Of course tests were done and he was right. His solution? Go home, diet and exercise and come back and see him in 3 months! I HAD TRIED TO LOSE WEIGHT TO NO AVAIL PREVIOUS TO SEEING HIM..HE WAS MY LAST RESORT! I was so discouraged. I never saw him again but by the following year and still fat and miserable, I found out about a endo who specialized in women with fertility problems and PCOS. This new Dr. ran an GTT and it came back slightly above normal at 127 but he said that even if the test showed "normal" he would put me on Metformin anyway as I had all the classic symptoms. I got up to 2000mg/day after starting in 7/02..I got my first period in years 2 months later in Sept. By late October, waiting for my 2nd period to follow..it never came..took pregnancy test in early Nov. and to my surprise POSITIVE! I was also losing weight on Metformin in the few months I was on it. The endo recommended staying on Metformin until the 12th week of preg to try to prevent miscarriage. I opted for 10 weeks then got off of it. I now have a beautiful, healthy 14 month old baby girl.
Yes there is quite an age difference between my baby and her 14 yr old sister and 12 yr old brother but she was well worth the long wait and she is loved like crazy by all of us! I do have to mention that just prior to seeing the PCOS-Endo, I had lost 18 lbs on Jenny Craig. Prior to Jenny Craig I managed to only lose 10-13 lbs on my own in a year..not much progress.
Even though Metformin was a Godsend at that time in my life, I really want to be able to normalize my hormones naturally by low-carbing and exercise.
I have yet to get a period but I am still nursing quite a bit. My Endo told me that I can't go on Met until I wean her but truthfully..I don't want the drugs.
I am going to see how this diet/lifestyle change is going to effect my body and take things from there..once I start losing. I did gain 35 lbs with this last pregnancy and lost all but 5..so I am very happy about that but I have been stuck at the same weight for months now so started the South Beach diet 3 days ago.
So..Tracy..sorry for being so loooong winded here but I just wanted to share with you my story, although long, I hope you and possibly others will find some hope from it.
Best of luck to you! See you around,
Vicki
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