Here goes with continuing my quest into explaining The Joys of PCOS.
Two of the symptoms of PCOS are irregular periods, or a complete lack of periods and irregular ovulation, or no ovulation at all. I could explain the joys of both of those seperately, but I guess it's just as easy to cover both in one post!
I started my periods at 11. They were irregular, heavy and painful, but we put that down to my body just getting used to what goes on once a month (or whenever!). But, when things didn't change, the doctors put me on the pill at 13 (it's fair to say they're fricking genius'. Not. Idiots more like...)
The pill seemed to do the trick - my periods became more regular, less painful and generally more manageable, until I had to come off of the pill at 16 due to migraines. (Yeah, that's right. The doctor kept prescribing the pill to a 13/14/15/16 year old as a way of controlling her periods. Crazy-ness!).
It turns out that all the pill had done was cover and disguise all of my underlying PCOS symptoms. Once I stopped taking it, my weight ballooned, and my periods wents MENTAL. I never knew what was going on. I could bleed for 13 days, stop for 2, and then start over again.
As my weight has increased over the years, my periods have become more and more infrequent. I went back on to a different pill as a contraceptive when things got serious with Mr B, and we bumbled along for a while like that - never quite knowing when (or if!) my next period would arrive. (The longest I went without was 2 years. When I mentioned it to the doctor, he informed me that I wasn't "filling up with blood", and that "a lot of women would be grateful for a lack of periods". And we're back to the doctors being geniusses again...!)
I stopped taking the pill for the last time in November 2008, 12 months before our wedding, because I knew we wanted to start TTC once we were Mr and Mrs. In the 12 months leading up to the wedding I lost some weight, and I finally got some sort of cycle.
In May of 2010, I started temping and charting to try and understand whether I was ovulating. That, it seems, is pretty hit and miss, too. Some months I do, some months I don't. Some months I ovulate but don't bleed, some months I don't ovulate but bleed, and some months nothing at all happens.
I've got to be honest, before I was diagnosed, I never thought making a baby would involve thermometers, cervical fluid (two words I never thought would be in my vocabulary, to be honest), and ovulation kits. The stork rocking up with a baby seems like a much better way to do this thing!
I'm currently 69 days into a cycle that doesn't seem to have any sign of ovulation so far. Awesome.
It's frustrating, never knowing when or if Aunt Flo is going to show up. On the flip side, my friends always know they can rely on me if they're caught out!
Mr B and I have been *officially* trying for a Baby B for just over 12 months, and it would be great to say that I understand my body now.
I understand it more, but certainly not totally.
Maybe I never will?
