anahorvath.com

Tag: PCOS

  • A Little Health Scare

    So it’s been an interesting past couple of days for me… On Thursday, I had a bit of a health scare that made the end of my week pretty exciting. Here’s what’s going on…

    Currently, I’m doing a bit of work as a nanny and while I was nannying on Thursday I had the most excruciating and awful pain in my pelvis come on. It felt like I had been stabbed or hit by a bus or something. Regardless of how I describe it, I was in a lot of pain. From that moment on, it was pretty tough to do much. Obviously I had to be there for the kid, but my mood dropped and I felt like I couldn’t move much. I didn’t want to eat and the only thing that made me feel good was hugging my knees to my chest. I also noticed that I was pretty bloated too. And when I say I was bloated, it felt like I was maybe 4-5 months pregnant (not that I’ve been pregnant, but it looked like it for sure)…

    I managed to make it through the rest of my nannying day somehow. Then, when I got home, I decided I needed to sleep. The pain I was feeling had traveled up into my abdomen as well but it was also starting to feel the worst on the right side of my pelvis. It was pretty tough to sleep being in that much pain, but at least lying down felt good. I had chills and a fever too to add on to everything now. Going through my head I wondered what could be going on. I hadn’t eaten anything out of the ordinary so I wasn’t sure that it was a food poisoning problem. Plus the only thing I had eaten on Thursday was my usual protein shake in the morning! Thinking about the fever, I wasn’t sure that I had some virus or other bug because I wasn’t showing any other symptoms.

    Thursday night was horrible. I was still in a lot of pain but my fever dropped off pretty quick so that wasn’t a big concern. Bloating was still horrible though and I didn’t have much of an appetite. I did force myself to eat dinner though. Sleeping was an absolute joke though. Any time I tried to turn, I was incredibly uncomfortable. Not a fun night. Yes, I was still in a lot of pain but I decided I didn’t need to go to an ER right away because my fever had gone away and I was feeling ok enough to eat dinner Thursday night. My mom and I decided that regardless of how I was doing Friday, I needed to see a doctor in the morning.

    And so that’s what I did. I went to an urgent care office Friday morning. My pain was still pretty bad (slightly better than the day before though!) and the bloating was still bad. Thank goodness I didn’t have another fever or the chills though. My biggest concern throughout all of this was that my appendix may have burst. Fever is typically a sign of infection, so if something was wrong with my appendix, this could be a sign. The pain was in the right part of my lower abdomen which could be my appendix. Bloating is also commonly seen with appendicitis or a ruptured appendix. At the doctor’s office, I was very happy to find out that whatever was going on was not appendicitis. Unfortunately, though the answer I was given still wasn’t definitive. That being said, the doctor was pretty sure that an ovarian cyst had ruptured. The symptoms of a cyst rupture are pretty similar to that of appendicitis and the location of the pain can also be very similar. With his conclusion, I was told to take Aleve as needed and take it easy the rest of the weekend. I asked if there’s anything that can be done in the future if this happens again, and I was pretty discouraged to learn that there really isn’t much I can do beside take pain meds. If anyone with a medical background could provide some more insight, I would greatly appreciate it.

    Looking back on my little health scare now, I’m incredibly thankful that I’m okay and feeling better now. I’m still in some pain and there’s still some bloating, but it is much much better than it was. Thursday night, I was fully preparing myself to need surgery the next day for a ruptured appendix or something like that. I am feeling so blessed that wasn’t the case. I really hope this isn’t something that I ever experience again and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else ever. Worst. Feeling. EVER.

    Make sure to take care of yourselves and have a wonderful rest of your weekend. See you all next Sunday. ❤️

  • I Have PCOS

    PCOS

    Hi everyone! Sorry for missing last weekend. It was a bit crazy! It was good though, so nothing too crazy is going on in my life. This post may be a bit personal and if you’re not that into health-related content, then maybe you come back next Sunday! Please do what’s best for you. I will be talking about some stuff that relates more to the female body also, so again, if that’s not your thing, that’s totally fine! So this past week, I was informed that I have PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome. I just wanted to take this time and dedicate this post to reflecting on that and sharing a bit about it.

    According to the Office of Women’s Health from the US Department of Health and Human Services, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is:

    a common health problem caused by an imbalance of reproductive hormones. The hormonal imbalance creates problems in the ovaries. The ovaries make the egg that is released each month as part of a healthy menstrual cycle. With PCOS, the egg may not develop as it should or it may not be released during ovulation as it should be.

    – Office on Women’s Health in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

    As a result of failed ovulation and improper development of the egg, this can lead to the formation of cysts (which can vary in size) in the ovaries. In some women, this can be painful and in others it may not bother them. Some women don’t even actually develop cysts and may still be diagnosed with PCOS. And when referring to “hormonal imbalance”, the Office on Women’s Health is referring to high androgen (“male” hormone, even though women do naturally have a small amount of these) levels and high levels of insulin. Again, not all women with PCOS present with both high androgen levels and high insulin levels, but this is typically the case. Typical other symptoms or signs that a woman may have PCOS include but are not limited to hair loss, weight gain or having a difficult time losing weight, increased presence of facial hair, acne, and/or irregular/non-existent periods.

    Before I discuss my own personal experiences, I would just like to say that by no means am I a doctor. Just because I experienced one thing doesn’t mean it will hold true for everyone, so please keep that in mind. I speak only for myself when I say what I’m going to say. 😉 When looking at my case, my biggest issue was my extremely irregular period. And when I say irregular, I mean that it would typically come every 2-3 months and if I was lucky, it might show every month like it is supposed to. Yes, I did breakout more around the time of my period but I figured that was normal. When my period skipped, I experienced what I thought was cramping/pelvic pain, and I thought it might come and then it never did. I did experience some hair loss beginning when I was about 15 or 16 but I feel that might have been related to going on a steroid inhaler for an extended amount of time. I don’t think I’ll truly ever know if that was correlated though, because my hair is growing much thicker and faster than it ever has now (and I’m SO thankful for it!!).

    In an attempt to treat what I thought was just irregular periods, I was on birth control for about a year. This did help regulate my period but I began having heart palpitations. The longer I was on the pill, the more frequently I had palpitations too, which was concerning. As a result of that, I came off the pill and thankfully the extra heartbeats or lack of a heartbeat came to a stop. I thought that maybe a year of regulation on the pill would serve as a jumpstart for my body. Maybe my hormones had finally figured it out. But oh boy, WAS I WRONG. I understand that birth control can do strange things with your hormone and that some women don’t see their period for a year after coming off of the pill, but something just felt wrong. My period did not come and I was just concerned.

    So, I ended up finding an OB/GYN in my area and I shared everything with her. After discussing some things with her, I had an ultrasound done and two separate blood tests. During the ultrasound, we were looking for the appearance of cysts in my ovaries. They were there. During the blood tests, she was looking to see what my follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were like. She checked other hormones, but these were two key ones. My LH was higher than my FSH which on a very basic level means that my ovaries would be unable to ovulate properly, hence so many missed periods. In a normal case, on the third day of a woman’s period, FSH and LH should be at a 1:1 ratio. Again, my levels did not look like that.

    At this point, my OB/GYN was pretty confident I had PCOS, but I had my second blood test done to confirm that it was PCOS and not some other disorder/disease that mimics polycystic ovarian syndrome. I had a full lipid panel done in addition to having a diabetes screening, and had a few more hormone levels checked. From that blood test, my diagnosis was confirmed.

    Prior to officially knowing what was going on, there was a lot of uncertainty. I fear the unknown and it was honestly troubling and frustrating not knowing why my body wasn’t working right. I had done some research on PCOS prior to being told that’s what I had and it was a bit scary reading some stuff. The biggest red flag that came to me was the word infertility. Every source I combed through mentioned that it may be more challenging to have kids and that was disappointing to me! But, from what I learned with my OB/GYN and the ultrasound technician and with further research, PCOS is the most common, but treatable, cause of infertility in women, which was incredibly encouraging.

    I think it’s important to note that prior to getting a diagnosis or a result, it’s okay to feel scared and unsure. But, you shouldn’t allow yourself to jump to conclusions and get all worked up over something you don’t really know much about yet. You need to educate yourself and properly do your research to look for solutions and a brighter perspective. Yes, there is no cure for PCOS but there are ways to manage it. Yes, there may be a slight challenge with fertility but I know that it is extremely possible to have healthy, normal pregnancies even with PCOS and that penalty of women been through that. Yes, there might be a lot that I still don’t know about this condition that I have but it will not change how I function as a person. If anything, it will help me be more in-tune with my body and see what all I am capable of in attempting to become the best version of myself.

    I’m just going to continue working out, eating healthy, loving food (because who doesn’t?!?), and loving life. Have a wonderful week everyone! ❤️