New Here and looking for answers

[Lorry]

:D Hello everyone
Ok here is my story. I am 38 and I have been on birth control pills since I was 17 in order to "control" my PCOS and get a regular period.
I am not looking to get pregnant but I am looking to feel healthy.
I am 40 pounds overweight and I have lost that same 40 pounds and gained it back about 4 times in the last 15 years. I have been on every birth control pill known to man and changed after a year or so because of bad side effects. (headaches, chronic neck pain, dizziness and night blindness, skin oversensitive to sun) I am a walking side effect of birth control pills. Add to that the symptoms of PCOS.
I have never been on any other drug for PCOS :?:
BUT I am willing to try anything now...I did go off the pill for 9 months once and soon got severe acne, bad skin tags, my hair thinned on my head and grew everywhere else, mood swings, anger spurts... :oops:
I am scared to go off the pill again..
I am seeing the doctor next week...HELP
Can anyone give me advice on what to try next :idea:

Thanks a million

[hollydlr]

Several suggestions for you to try:

1) Ask your doctor about Metformin. Even if you are not insulin resistant, it helps many women with PCOS get their weight under control.

2) Change your nutritional lifestyle to low-carb. Something like South Beach, Schwarzbein Principle, Glycemic Index, or Insulin Resistance Diet. This is not a short term diet to lose weight. It has to be a forever change.

3) Try to do moderate exercise on a regular basis.

4) Consider adding some supplements, especially fish oil. Cinnamon seems to be helpful too - there are several threads about that in the diet section.

5) As far as BCPs, have you tried Yasmin? Its pretty new and a bunch of women on here have started taking it.

6) If you are looking to get off BCPs due to side-effects, you might want to use natural progesterone cream to try to keep your cycle regular, and there is a supplement called DIM that helps keep your estrogen metabolism healthy and might help too.

7) If you are going to go the more natural approach, you might consider consulting with an alternative doctor, naturopath or someone like that who has an education about herbs and things. A lot of women also find benefit in Acupuncture.

Hope that gives you some ideas - I don't mean to overwhelm you but there are a lot of things you can look into.

Good luck!!