Danielle’s PCOS story
“When I first found out, I was scared and sad, especially when they said it may impact my fertility. But then denial kicked in.”
From denial to defiance, Danielle has shaped her experience with PCOS into something positive and proactive. She is now helping others to do the same.
Danielle first realised something was up in her second year at university.
‘I just remembered not having my period for about 6 months and thinking to myself, what’s wrong here? I felt I should be having my period so this concerned me.’ As many people do at university, she was eating badly, staying up late, and drinking too much. ‘I’m sure in hindsight that worsened my PCOS symptoms but at the time I was so confused!’
Eventually, she went to the doctor who fairly quickly assumed she might have PCOS. Danielle had never heard of it before, so the doctor explained to her what it was and referred her for a scan. A phone call confirmed the diagnosis: PCOS.
Denial kicks in
‘When I first found out, I was scared and sad, especially when they said it may impact my fertility. But then denial kicked in.’ Danielle didn’t have a full grasp of the situation or understand the other health concerns that can come with having PCOS such as diabetes.
Although the doctor was not dismissive, Danielle did feel a lack of guidance, information, and support was offered to her. ‘I was told to take the pill, but when I raised a few concerns about it, the doctor just checked if I was seeing anyone and then said I should be taking it anyway.’
There was little explanation about PCOS or how it could impact her day-to-day life. The common PCOS symptoms were covered and the doctor was kind but “no one ever explained the impact of insulin or stress” which ultimately had a huge impact on Danielle’s ability to manage her PCOS.
‘Now I look back, it seems crazy that no one mentioned the link to me. It’s frustrating I had to put the pieces together myself. I felt like no one was really taking me seriously.’
Danielle’s experience on the pill was positive at first. ‘I felt good that I was seeing a bleed again because to me that said I had fixed my PCOS, I didn’t realise that PCOS is much more than not having a period’. However, she struggled with a significant loss of libido, a concern she expressed to her doctor but was met with indifference, ‘That made me feel really dismissed and disheartened.’
Intense workouts and restrictive eating
The only real guidance Danielle had from her doctor, other than taking the contraceptive pill, was to lose weight, advice she looks back on with frustration. ‘There was no explanation on how to lose weight in a healthy way or explanation of why that could help my symptoms. I didn’t really feel I knew what I was doing.’ Her attempts focused on intense workouts and restrictive eating.
‘In hindsight, I was terrible to my body all in the name of counting calories so I could lose weight. It makes me feel sad that I didn’t have better information from the doctors.’
Change is coming
Things started to turn around for Danielle when she learned about insulin resistance and PCOS. ‘For someone like me who has diabetes in their family, insulin resistance was a large part of the issue. But no one said to me the reason you need to lose weight is so that your insulin can balance out again.’
‘I was suddenly getting this crippling pain in my right ovary. It turns out it was something completely unrelated, but because I was so anxious about it, I started googling like crazy about all the possible explanations related to my PCOS.’ Danielle took herself down a Google rabbit hole and found hundreds of people with PCOS explaining how they have improved their PCOS.
‘I suddenly realised these were changes I could make too!’
Once she started understanding the link between PCOS, insulin resistance, and lifestyle she was able to take control and implement the changes her body needed. The podcast ‘A Cyster and Her Mister’ helped Danielle realise that there were many other people who were managing their PCOS without medical intervention. This motivated her to start her own social media page – @stresslesspcos.
Finding her passion
‘Sometimes I’m quite grateful for my PCOS because of the way it has allowed me to improve my lifestyle. Even before I knew I had PCOS, I was constantly anxious and depressed, I was tired, I had a lot of mood swings, I hated my body.’
Managing PCOS has taught Danielle how to have a healthy lifestyle and she isn’t sure if that would have happened without her diagnosis. “Getting diagnosed with PCOS has really helped me find my passion. I have learnt so much about PCOS and now I really want to share that with other people, so they don’t have to go through what I went through.’
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