After years in the planning, the time is nigh - we are emigrating from the UK to NZ! (not so scary for me though, I've already done it once, from US 10 years ago!) We arrive on 2nd July Hurrah!

One of the things that I HOPE will be better in NZ is the health service in terms of being open to proactive management of hormonal disorders, especially PCOS. I have been low carbing for 3 years, and I feel FANTASTIC, but I do have a few symptoms which tell me that things aren't quite right with my blood sugar.

In the UK, I practically had to BEG my GP to do my blood sugar tests, and when they came back normal he just fobbed me off, despite me presenting him with reams of literature from the British Medical Journal about he condition. All they want to do is send me to the fertility clinic, which is all well and good, but I think further investigation of my symptoms is in order.

OK long story short, what do you Kiwi lasses think? Is it going to be better/easier for me to be proactively treated and/or investigated?

Cheers for any replies!

Hi there

Well I hated to see your question go unanswered, but I don't have a lot of value to add. However, three 'cases' I know of:

Around progesterone cream for hormonal problems - my mother was looking into this and got the run around from her doctor who talked about it with scepticism. However, mum tracked down a specialist who did all kinds of tests and sent her to other specialists - the short of it is that she got the progestersone cream, it worked, and she had a wheat intolerance diagnosed, which helped control mirgraines etc. Her own doctor still doesn't really understand the difference between wheat intolerance and gluten intolerance and discounts the cream as having minimal effect despite a huge improvement in mum's health.

A friend with PCOS now has three children - the second two only with the aid of a specialist and drugs. However, the second took an awfully long time coming - when my friend travelled to the States she saw a specialist there who was surprised at what a low dosage of the drug she was on. She took a couple of double doses after that and lo and behold - she got pregnant. (Warning: this is a potentially dangerous thing to do without medical supervision!!!).

There is a bit of hype from time to time in NZ about larger woman not having access to fertility treatment because of their weight - not really what PCOS sufferers need to. On the other hand, there are doctors who are vociferous about this situation, and sympathetic to the bitter irony of it!

So, I haven't really answered your question specifically, but hopefully you can get something out of this - that is that there are doctors who understand and doctors who don't, and it really pays to shop around - like you would for any service!

Good luck with your move.