I have PCOS, am on the pill (Brenda aka Diane) and experience terrible acne when I come off the active tablets. However my dr said this is normal. There are other medications she can use inaddtion to the pill (my dr has suggesed some if I want to go onto them) if the acne really bothers her in that week off.
Before was diagosed (diagnosed April 07), I had severe acne and painful cramping around the time of my period. But no excess hair growth, and not overweight. I had watched my ovulation signs (I just followed my cervical mucous, it can be very accurate and extremely easy to do once you know how), and I realised I wasnt ovulating. I had regular 5 day periods and consistent 34 day cycles, which never varied at all. But I wasn't ovulating during most cycles. I told my dr all these things.
It wasnt hard to be diagnosed - blood test and internal scan. I was diagnosed after I had a blood test that showed that my hormones were way off, and an internal scan that showed cysts on my left ovary.
I don't have diabetes/insulin resistence, so the low-GI diet wouldn't really help the symptoms. But if your SIL does have these issues, and a low-GI diet was recommended for her by her dr, then I would suggest she try it and see how it goes.
Thanks ladies - I will be passing this information on to her, and hopefully she can get some answers!
One thing that I find interesting - I myself am somewhat overweight, have some mild acne, and irregular periods. But I ovulate (by checking CM and temp) with every cycle. And ultrasound has never shown cysts on my ovaries. I've always wondered though, what causes my cycles to be so weird. I vary from 28 days to 50+ days, with an average of about 37ish day cycles. The luteal phase is always the same - 12 days. It seems funny then to me that a doctor would assume that a long cycle, or irregular cycles are anovulatory.
Anyways, I will do a little more reading on the low-GI diet for SIL, and see what I can come up with, and hopefully things will improve for her!
I find that doctors have some GENERAL rules and that GENERALLY, they do not apply!!!
My FS told me that I was very unlikely to concieve, I had all sorts of tests at regular intervals which all showed that I was not ovulating and then I rang the FS only a week later to say I was pregnant - well, the FS was a bit surprised!!! The reaction "Oh, well you must have ovulated!!" Oh well, yes indeed!!!!
I have read that there are women who have symptoms of PCOS, but don't have the appearance of cysts on their ovaries - so you might be one of these women. I have also read some alternative therapy books which say that the anovulatory rule is nonsense and it is perfectly normal to have ovulatory periods which are 40 plus days - some women are just like this. Whereas, other alternative therapy books claim that cycles longer than 29 days lead to reduced egg quality and a higher risk of miscarriage - probably another nonsense!!
I had one endo who told me never to read any sources about PCOS on the internet because most were rubbish and generally only applied to women at the more severe end of the scale. My first OB also told me that he thought that PCOS was over diagnosed and was unnecessarily atrributed to far too many fertility problems!!!! For those of us at the milder end of scale, perhaps he is right, but for those at the other end of the scale, he is probably very wrong!!!!
Hormone levels are related to weight. I am just trying to shift the post-baby butt with a hope that my cycles will shorten and become more "normal" - whatever that is??????
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