Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder that affects approximately 5% of all women. It occurs amongst all races and nationalities, is the most common hormonal disorder among women of reproductive age, and is a leading cause of infertility. The principal features are obesity, anovulation (resulting in irregular menstruation), and excessive amounts or effects of androgenic (masculinizing) hormones. The symptoms and severity of the syndrome vary greatly among women. While the causes are unknown, insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity are all strongly correlated with PCOS.

Common symptoms of PCOS include:
Oligomenorrhea, amenorrhea — irregular, few, or absent menstrual periods.
Infertility, generally resulting from chronic anovulation (lack of ovulation).
Hirsutism — excessive and increased body hair, typically in a male pattern affecting face, chest and legs.
Hair loss appearing as thinning hair on the top of the head
Acne, oily skin, seborrhea.
Obesity: one in two women with PCOS are obese.
Depression.
Deepening of voice
Mild symptoms of hyperandrogenism, such as acne or hyperseborrhea, are frequent in adolescent girls and are often associated with irregular menstrual cycles. In most instances, these symptoms are transient and only reflect the immaturity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis during the first years following menarche.
PCOS can present in any age during the reproductive years. Due to its often vague presentation it can take years to reach a diagnosis.

Women with PCOS are at risk for the following:
Endometrial hyperplasia and endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterine lining) are possible, due to overaccumulation of uterine lining, and also lack of progesterone resulting in prolonged stimulation of uterine cells by estrogen. It is however unclear if this risk is directly due to the syndrome or from the associated obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and hyperandrogenism.
Insulin resistance/Type II diabetes
High blood pressure
Dyslipidemia (disorders of lipid metabolism — cholesterol and triglycerides)
Cardiovascular disease
Strokes
Weight gain
Miscarriage
acanthosis nigricans (patches of darkened skin under the arms, in the groin area, on the back of the neck)
Autoimmune thyroiditis

I got the information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  Welcome to my blog "The Life with PCOS"! I will be sharing my victories and my struggles that I have with PCOS on this blog. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 15 years old while I was living in Utah. I have a lot of the symptoms of PCOS but the one that I have struggled with the longest is the weight.

     When I was 15 I started to gain weight and after I was diagnosed the doctor put me on birth control pills to help control the PCOS and I eventually lost the weight. I do believe that I lost the weight do to other factors in my life at the time and not just the medicine. After high school,  I discontinued the use of my medicine and started to see the weight come back along with a lot of the other feminine problems that go along with PCOS.     

     Eventually, I got married and after about 5 months of marriage my husband I decided to try and conceive a baby.  I swear I was buying a pregnancy test every month because of the lack of a period. After several years of trying to get pregnant and not succeeding, we decided to see my doctor about the difficulties that we were having. She told us to continue to try for more year and then we will be a little more aggressive about us TTC.

     One year passed, and I still was not pregnant, my doctor put me on Clomide (a fertility drug) and Provera (to help regulate my periods). I was in the office every month seeing if I was ovulating. At the end of one year of being on the medicine the doctor suggested that I go to a fertility doctor to see about doing something more to become pregnant. My husband and I were losing hope that it would ever happen to us.   

     My husband and I decided that we would see the infertility doctor but that we were going to start looking at doing the foster care program with the intention of adoption. We started the foster care classes in February of 2007 and on February 28th, 2007 I went to the infertility doctor were they ran some test and did an ultrasound to see my ovaries. We finally finished our foster care classes the first Tuesday of March and we still had some stuff that we needed to finish and turn in before we would be able to foster/adopt any children. That same Tuesday I was starting to get nauseated; however, I get motion sickness and my hubby wasn't feeling good so I thought that it was from that. Wednesday night I had a dream that I was pregnant so when I went to Wal-Mart on Thursday, I decided that I would get a pregnancy test. After I got home from Wal-Mart, I took the first of the two tests that were in the package and it looked like two lines were on there. I immediately called my husband and told him the possible good news.      

     We were both in shock and unsure if that was really two lines on the test so I took the other pregnancy test and it had the same results. After the second test, I called my husband and told him that it had the same results as the first test and he told me to call the doctor. I called the doctor’s office and they told me to come into the office on Friday and that they would run some blood work, only problem was is that I wouldn't find out the results until Monday.

     All weekend long I didn't feel good and was really tired. Monday morning came and I got ready for work and was on my way there when I got sick all over the place I ended up calling in and went back home. When I arrived home my hubby told me that if I wasn't pregnant then I was to go to the hospital. Around 1PM the doctor’s office called and told me congratulations that I was pregnant! I started to cry. One week after I found out that I was pregnant the infertility doctor’s office called and told me the same.

     My baby was born November 5th, 2007 we named him Jason Ross, Jr. but we call him JJ. It took us 7 years from the time we started trying to get pregnant until he was born to finally have a child. JJ is our gift from God and we thank Him every day.

UPDATE

My husband I have moved back to Utah where my husband is a mechanic for a local shop. I am attending school to become an Elementary Teacher. As for my son, he is an energetic little boy who loves all things cars, dirt, and superheroes. He was diagnosed, in June 2012, with extreme ADHD and moderate ODD.