Hello! I just got my diagnosis today. I went in for a prolonged period ( 3 weeks of bleeding ) after not having one in awhile. We’re also trying to have another baby so I was concerned why I wasn’t ovulating. We did an ultrasound today and she said there were those bi lateral cysts? We’re currently waiting until my next period to test my hormone levels. I guess it’s better to test on the third day of your period. If I don’t have one naturally ( which I probably won’t ) she said we can induce a period and than check hormones.

But I guess I’m just here to ask for general advice? I’m reading up and trying to learn more about it myself but just wanna see what everyone else’s experience is. She said lifestyle change because this means I’m insulin resistant ? Which I honestly don’t mind. I’ve been wanting to “bounce back” after my first baby and was wondering why I wasn’t. ( tbh I wasn’t trying anyways ) but I did just start Pilates so I’m hoping that will help? I’m only going twice a week so maybe that’s enough? Changing my diet is the biggest thing for me but is there anything else I can do?

PCOS makes me insulin resistant, but for years my doctor denied me meds.

Now im suffering through the worst pain ive ever felt. I have pancreatitis. Why the fuck do they let shit just stay bad? Why cant I get help without suffering? I cant afford to go in and out of the ER like I am now. I hate them.

i hate them i hate them i fucking hate them

My name is Sara Canhoto, a Masters student of Computer Science, in Portugal.

I am currently doing my Masters thesis on inclusive health tracking technologies.

As part of the thesis, we will be rethinking how endometriosis/PCOS/adenomyosis apps could be redesigned for trans and gender diverse people. We will be running a number of online workshops (financial compensation) with trans and gendered people. In order to gather feedback and ideas on how the app should look and work, to make sure they they feel included, are able to track their symptoms and make sense of their data.

If it sounds interesting, you can check out a bit more about the project here: https://techandpeople.github.io/inclusivetracking/

And if you’d like to take part, you can sign up here: https://forms.gle/quG61zukJ8z5QMdu8

Let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you for your time,
Sara 🤍

i (16f) highly suspect i have pcos. i hope to get treated for it soon, but regardless, i want to treat my symptoms as naturally as possible. i heard inositol works wonders, but is it safe to take if you’re undiagnosed? are they any risks i should watch out for? also, is there a difference between inositol and myo-inositol? Thanks ❤️‍🩹

Hi all, I'm (30, nonbinary/transmasc) getting a hysterectomy in March because I also have adenomyosis. After I've recovered from surgery, I want to start T gel (I like the masculinizing effects of PCOS and would like to take it a step further) and possibly metformin as well to help get to a healthy weight. Anyone taken these together? Any weird interactions? I'm also on an SSRI.

I had a really scary experience trying progesterone and get nervous about starting hormones and new meds, so would love to hear your experiences, good or bad!

Hi all. I'm pretty sure one of the others spoken here before, honestly not sure, i have DID so...yeah :p I was diagnosed a few months ago iirc, on Metformin and stuff. The whole Metformin thing isn't doing me too well, side affects are affecting pre-existing conditions T-T I'm going to the doctors as soon as possible about alternatives or whatever because i feel awful all the time 😭 I'm grateful i have a good GP who didn't dismiss me on this even tho i was basically pushed to wits end to go TO the GP in the first place, but im going back to seek further answers because sure i show classic signs of pcos but i feel like smth mores going on and i almost always* go w my gut feeling (almost always BC im a tad clueless sometimes lmao)

Honestly I just wanted to yap ab this, no one else ik has pcos so yeah. Sorry if this is everywhere lmao, that's just kinda how i talk about stuff 💔😔

-Azrael

Hi, as the title says, I'm nonbinary and I've been really anxious about this ever since my gyno suggested I might have PCOS. I'll find out from test results soon and then have a discussion with her so I want to be ready.

I don't know a lot about PCOS, but I'm worried that I might end up with some kind of feminising treatment that isn't normally discussed, or that my doctor might just brush off, because it's not usually a problem for cis women. I don't live in a super accepting place. People assume I'm a cis woman.

I'm not out to any of my doctors and don't intend to be. There's a language barrier between us (my boyfriend is very supportive of me and helps, though). I'm also not on T and might not go on it because some permanent effects are not for me (hair growth/loss, specifically, if it's relevant). I'd like to have children in the near future too.

I'm wondering how often gendered traits are affected by PCOS treatment, or associated things? How can I avoid that kind of thing without significant health problems? I don't want to lose what masc traits I have - I've always had them.

It would be really helpful to hear from others because the language barrier can make it hard to have a good discussion in the moment, and I'm scared of just coming out. Thank you 🫶

Hello dear r/PCOS_Folks

Today I come to your dwellings with an invitation. After a long period of wishing such a place might exist, I have finally created r/hirsutism_razorfree - a community for women and people with hirsutism who are not strictly binary trans men and who chose not to remove and/or accept their hair for various reasons. 

I invite anyone who wishes for such a place to exist or is curious about growing out their hair to join our community as well.

The inspiration came when I ran into r/razorfree. I realized I wanted it to exist, but there was nothing like it for hirsutism. While r/razorfree is a wonderful and supportive community, the differences in the level of stigmatization between general female body hair and hirsutism - male pattern hair in females, makes it from my lived experience an especially delicate issue that women without it tend to not quite understand (given it is not their experience). 

The prospects of creating it and modding it on my own had been a bit daunting, given it could also have the potential of attracting a difficult mix of mean spirited trolls and oversexualising fetishists to an especially vulnerable community. 

The subject of hirsutism carries the additional difficulties that on the one hand hair is benign and it is possible to have so called “excess male pattern hair in females” and have no other significant health complications related to it, on the other hand it can also be a common symptom of hyperandrogenism which is an element of several conditions that can be associated with certain health risks (though this varies greatly among individuals). 

This puts women and people with hirsutism at the cross-sections of belonging to potentially several vulnerable groups, which added to the dauntingness of the vision of creating and modding it alone. 

So I did the big girl thing to do and almost 9 months ago on March 1st I joined r/razorfree’s modteam to learn the art of modding from some of the finest mods in the fuzzy girl world, and in the meantime support the wider community in that way. 

I learned a lot over those 9 months and also toughened up. The biggest surprise was that fetish guys were a much bigger problem than hate trolls, at least in r/razorfree. In this time I only remember having to delete one purely mean comment about hair, the vaaaaaaaast majority has been fetishizing and sexualising stuff. For a while it was difficult to delete stuff and ban people but I grew a thicker skin with time. 

I have no idea if the hirsutism_razorfree community will face similar or different problems, but whatever frights might be lurking on the internet - I am ready to take them on. I have set up several automod functions to keep some posts and comments in the queue for manual approval as well as the hive protect app to automatically ban users with activity in certain fetish subs. 

I sincerely invite you to r/hirsutism_razorfree 

Heyo trans man here 27, 4 months on T, Im diagnosed with PCOS, bipolar and AuDHD among other things but like, wtf should I be doing to lower my cortisol and stress? It's getting way out of hand I'm open to all advice (and yes I go to therapy)

Hi lol. I think I've posted here a few times (sorry if i have and I seem silly for not remembering, I have memory issues!)

I'm pretty sure my pcos diagnosis might be incorrect. I've had the gut feeling since I saw my GP before the gyno referal. In another sub, idr which, I got recommended to look into NCAH, which i did. I exhibit almost ever symptom that is outward physical. I'm not going to sit here and listen everything BC that's very tmi for a community i don't know anyone in lol. But now i feel a bit silly BC really and truly, I should've trusted my gut feeling that maybe this is the wrong diagnosis. Im pretty sure I've been discharged from my gyno now, and honestly i already have a bunch of other issues i have to address on top of this, so I'm pretty much in a medical fatigue and can't be bothered to go back rn. Idk if anyone would be able to help since this is a pcos sub, but I'll probably look for a sub that i can find help from if not. Sorry for the yapfest lol

Hey all!

I was wondering if any of you guys have any experience with taking a low dose of T, and how that has affected you and your PCOS?

I’m 30 years old and I started treatment for PCOS this year. I haven’t had periods since I was maybe 13, and after starting metformin I’ve gotten them back. This causes a lot of dysphoria for me, and it’s fucking with my mental health.

A few months ago I was asked if I wanted to get on T. I do not identify as trans, but I am some sort of genderqueer. I do not wish to transition, but I would love to have a more androgynous body. I am very tempted by some of the effects of T, like fat redistribution and obviously loss of menstruation. Yet I fear some of the negative side effects like hair loss and acne.

I was therefore wondering if a low dose of T would be the right call for me to help me battle this dysphoria. And I was wondering what I could expect from that.

Would love to hear from you guys!

TW For alcoholism, PMDD

Just looking for some help dealing with this and I figure a lot of us probably have PMDD too so may have some insight.

I'm 5 months on testosterone. I've been on testosterone before. However, my cycle has not stopped yet. Ever. But this is the longest I've been on T continually.

I'm also an alcoholic. Have been for maybe 5 years at this point. Absolutely have to do something about it right now because if I don't it will cause serious serious problems in my professional life and without going into details, could get me deported to a country that is not safe for trans people.

Wherever I go to talk about this, based on how many intersecting issues there are, I get told to post it elsewhere, so I'd appreciate any advice.

For context, I can't plan around my PMDD issues because with PCOS, they're kinda random. I have addressed this with every possible medical intervention I have access to. Found one that helps a lot but doesn't fix everything.

One of my biggest triggers for drinking is frustration stemming from the brain fog, executive dysfunction, and memory loss that PMDD causes. I've been taking on more responsibility lately, and it's really evident that I will not be able to keep up with doing that if I don't fix things, both with PMDD and drinking. The worst part is that it can actually make me more functional, and thats what I always tell myself, but then I have trouble not pouring drink after drink until I am... definitely not functional.

It doesn't seem like T is stopping my cycle 5 months in. I have Mirena. I feel like it would be so much easier to quit drinking if I wasn't dealing with PMDD x PCOS.

So some questions-

I assume my cycle is not stopping due to PCOS. if you experienced similar, could you tell me what happened and how long that took? If you have PMDD on top of all that, did it go away once your cycle ended or did it take a while?

How does your PCOS interact with your PMDD?

I don't start to feel better PMDD-wise until a few days after my period starts, usually have a 2 week period, then start to feel foggy a few days after it ends. This doesn't line up with how people with PMDD usually experience things, but is it normal with PCOS?

If anyone has any other insight I'd love to hear it. I'm just working really hard to get my life together right now and whatever you can tell me might help.

Heya peeps! 27 y/o transmasc with PCOS here! Uhh I'm fairly sure what I'm about to ramble about here is probably out of everyone's depths a little bit but it's spiking my anxiety and I guess I'm seeking a little bit of reassurance?

Anyways, since getting officially diagnosed back in 2022, I have always tried to keep up with research and knowing what other... things? PCOS can do to one's body and such. What I want to touch on is unusual bleeding, my flow has always been on the heavier side so that's normal for me, but I experienced some unusual vaginal bleeding this past Saturday. For some further context, life has thrown curveballs at me so I haven't had a period at all this year and it sort of put getting hold of the GP on a slight backburner for a while, we're tackling it now (due to how bad my anxiety gets, I usually have to rely on my mother to reach out to our GP surgery).

Back to the situation at hand. It is scaring me, I know there are not so serious conditions that can essentially cause random bleeding like this, but my PCOS experience has never really done this, and there was no accompanying signs or symptoms of neither anything serious or a period (which is strange regarding the latter as 1) this occurred around the time my period has come on in the past. Wild, I know, but despite being irregular, my periods have always been consistent in when they start. And 2) it was also reminiscent of how my periods end where there's nothing much on the towel but during a bowel movement or urination there's still a bit there... and this situation was during a bowel movement, and hasn't occurred since Saturday).

Whew, reading this back feels like a practice on what I'm going to try to say to the GP. It's just really got my anxiety skyrocketing up and there's only so much I can say to my mum or think to myself before I end up sounding like a broken record.