Too much information!

For the last 6 years I have been contending with the pain and dyfunction associated with PCOS,etc. In 1999, I had my first laparoscopic surgery to remove the offending beasts and they even threw in a tubal ligation for FREE!(the tubal is another story)Two years passed and again I was in debilitating pain from yet another persistant cyst-thus surgery #2-Exploratory Laparotomy. Then last September-surprise MORE PAIN, started on the newest treatment-Glucophage-no success=laparoscopic surgery #3. Now, I face multiple cysts once again on both ovaries with such excruciating pain that I have to take pain pills-that barely reduce the pain to make me operational. Finally, it is time to remove the beasts that are constantly betraying me and strive for a better quality of life-Supracervical Hyst with BSO here I come! The pain has got to stop!!!! Reading about all the reprecusions to my decision is overwhelming-so does anyone have some key pointers in going into surgery?

I'm sorry about all of the pain and suffering that you endured. Am I right in assuming, that you kept your ovaries when you had surgery. If so I think I will make mine a total LAVH.

Thanks for the feedback. Jan H

Elise, the number one thing you need to know is that having ahyst will not cure your PCOS. It will remove the cystic ovaries, yes, but the underlying cause of this will still be there, insulin resistance. You still should be treated for it to prevent the things that can result from it, like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, acne, facial hair, obesity and endometrial cancer (that is what I ended up with from it, plus high blood pressure). Please read the following post I wrote which is from a previous thread about PCOS and hysterectomies. It may include a lot of what you already know but I am including the whole thing anyway.

I am very glad I went through with the hyst and BSO, it has just been a year now. I no longer have to live by how I feel each month and am glad I had the ovaries taken also. I had a ruptured cyst about a week before my first appt with my gyn and I figured why leaave them in if the PCOS could still cause that and if I might have cancer in the endometrium, why leave another place to get that in. Hysts aren't a piece of cake and it can cause other problems for some ladies (but for the majority it can be a huge blessing), but it was the right thing for me.

You can also find some links to PCOS sites in the resource boards that are very helpful too.

Hugs,

Linda >^..^<
StampinCat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having a hyst does not reverse or cure your PCOS. It is called Polycystic Ovarian syndrome because that is the main thing that is affected by this syndrome that we notice the most. The main symptoms are overweight (thought there are thin PCOS women) with an inability to successfully diet and keep it off, acne, excessive hair where you don't want hair growing (face, toes), thin scalp hair, infrequent or no periods and on ultrasound the ovaries look like they have a ring of pearls around them or like choc chip cookies (the multiple small cysts). Untreated PCOS can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes (we run out of the insulin after using such high amounts) and this one is what got me, endometrial cancer (that is what I had besides the fibroids).

This is not caused by anything going on in our ovaries but the cause makes our ovaries polycystic. It all starts way back in our pituitary gland that regulates most of our hormone functions (not just reproductive). PCOS is caused by insulin resistance. Insulin is a pancreatic hormone. Insulin converts the sugar in our blood system (that has been absorbed through the stomach) to usable energy in our cells. PCOS women have abnormally high level of insulin in their blood. Blood sugar rates run normal. Liken it to this. It takes the PCOS woman twice as much insulin to convert the same amount of sugar as it does a normal person. This imbalance is what causes our hormones that affect the ovaries and ovulation to go out of wack. So even if you have your ovaries removed, you still have the insulin resistance that caused the ovary problems. You still need to keep taking the medication that helps control it. All of those potential complications are still there .

It wasn't until over 7-8 years ago that the scientists knew the direct cause of PCOS and then had a treatment a few years after that. PCOS women can now be treated with a drug used for diabetes...but remember, they don't have diabetes. It just happens that about the time they found the cause a new drug for diabetes was developed that made you use your insulin more effeciently. For diabetics, they can many times reduce the amount of insulin injections they take with this or even go back to taking pills only. For the PCOS woman it makes us use our insulin effeciently enough that we know only use the same amount to convert the sugar that the normal person does. A couple years ago it still wasn't listed as being used for PCOS.

I went from having a fasting insulin level about 2-3 times the normla rate to back to normal when I started taking this med. Glucophage (Metformin) is one of these and Avandia and some other new ones work also. Most POCS women when put on these meds have a slight reduction in their facial hair, thickening of their scalp hair, acne is lessened and by going on a low carb diet (this is the diet of choice for PCOS women) can now finally loose weight successfully. Periods start back up regulary and many women who couldn't get pregnant before are now having success...so they are ovulating again or with fertility treatments ae having more success.

I started having regular periods within 2 months of going on the pills. It can take a bit of tweeking to find the right dose for each woman. It is usally quite a bit more than for diabetics. Unfortunately a lot of gyns still don't get what PCOS is all about and some are just now starting to prescribe these drugs. For some time it has been mostly the fertility and endocrine doctors that have understood this fully. Gyns typically would tell a PCOS woman that if she lost weight the problem would go away. Noooo....you can't loose the weight because you do have the PCOS. They are getting better but I had to keep reminding both my gyn and gyn-onc that I still needed the meds because it was an insulin problem.

If you have a doctor who doesn't know much about this from the endocrine side of things, find yourself a reproductive endocrinologist (fertility doctor - they treat this without having to do fertility treatments) or a regular endocrinologist. Get on the medication so you can prevent the complications of not having it treated. A lot of the gyn's are starting to use it more and more but mostly when someone comes in for fertility problems. I also had a gp who read the info I printed off the internet (medical reasearch artlices) who was very willing to work with me on it too. There are some good links here for PCOS web sites:



My endometrial cancer very likely was there because I went so many years without having periods before I was finally started on provera, which I only probably took 3-4 years before I was started on glucophage and the periods came back. I used to complain about ugh, this is supposed to be a good thing, my periods starting up? But if it hadn't then I may have never known. When things started getting so heavy and painful, and I thought it was fibroids I went to the gyn. So it was good to have those periods back. I also had an endometrial biopsy about 3-4 years ago that was normal and I went in then because those regular periods started getting irregular and just a bit more painful.

I have gone through what a lot of you have. I was told I had polycystic ovaries and that would make it hard to conceive. I went through fertility treatments and quit when I couldn't take the pain from the hyperstimulated (from the hormone shots) ovaries that got as big as melons. Just couldn't face it anymore, and get that way, and then have a period. We had chosen fertility treatments over adoption with the money we had available because I am adopted myself and this was important to me, to have my own flesh and blood. We settled on being childless. We have great neices and nephews and the 3 cats are our "furkids". ABout 4-5 years after I stopped treatments I overheard the secretaries at church talking about Stein Leventhal Syndrome (the old name for PCOS or someone with polycystic ovaries). I asked them what they were talking about and they showed me a magazine article about PCOS and the lady in the picture looked just like me. That was the start of my journey to getting treatment and knowlegde about PCOS. I found web sites and support boards that were full of ladies like me. I know now that God lead me all the way through this. To finding out about the magazine article and the treatment to having my periods again and something to warn me when things weren't right inside so I had the surgery in time and finding this site. His timing has been perfect all along.

Please, don't accept that you have PCOS and not do anything about it. There is a very simple treatment for it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~