Hi there, I'm a 35 year old female. I previously thought I may have pcos as I'd say the past 5 years I've had quite excessive hair for a female especially facially. It's really getting me down. I'm now thinking maybe I have a hormonal imbalance. My biggest symptoms as the moment are low mood, thinning hair on head, excessive facial hair, lethargy most of the time, feeling down alot, hot flushes now and then, some anxiety though not massive amounts. I just don't know what to do. Is there anything I can take to help balance out my hormones. I had previously been doctors regarding looking in to pcos but as I have children and don't want anymore they did not care and shunned me out, although it's affecting my life massively, so now I don't feel confident in going back to the Dr about this issue. Anyone in a similar situation
When you go to the doctor, say your hair is thinning and you have been growing facial hair. If you have any other symptoms like acne, irregular periods or you are having trouble maintaining a healthy weight, mention that too. Don’t mention PCOS, some doctors hate you diagnosing yourself. What they usually do at the start is take some blood to test your hormones. If they come back imbalanced, they should offer you a couple of ultrasounds, one over your tummy and another internally. That will determine if you have cysts on your ovaries. If they don’t offer this, say you are trying to have another baby and are having trouble, they don’t need to know you are lying and they will have to investigate.
I was diagnosed in my 20s and I was told I needed to be on the pill because that helped my symptoms and gave me regular periods, which is important because you need to shed your womb lining regularly to prevent cancer. Later on in my late 20s I was offered metformin which is supposed to help balance your hormones, but it didn’t agree with my stomach as I got terrible indigestion and reflux. I wouldn’t recommend the pill at your age, particularly if you do have a hormone imbalance as your risk for a pulmonary embolism is a lot higher. There are anti-androgen tablets that you could try.
If you want to go for a more natural approach, give up sugar, alcohol have a low gi diet, drink loads of water, take multivitamins and minerals and exercise regularly.