PCOS and Anxiety?

[WendyLady03]

So my last physical was in August, and they told me everything was fine and dandy. A week after that I ended up in the ER with severe pain in my lower right side which I thought was my appendix, but it turned out to be an ovarian cyst. From September to about January my period was really light, but lasted for quite a while, before that my period had always been very regular. January of this year I had a panic attack, followed by a few more awful panic attacks, and was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder/panic disorder and depression. The day I had the first attack, my period started........and then never stopped. I was told over and over it was the stress and the anxiety, even though it was SUPER heavy and I had very large blood clots as well. I finally convinced my doctor that it wasn't just the anxiety, and he agreed that it may be PCOS, even though I haven't noticed any abnormal hair growth. He put me on 5mg of Provera which he said should make the bleeding stop, and I've made an appt with my gynecologist this coming week to check everything out more thoroughly.

I'm just wondering if the PCOS and anxiety/depression is all intertwined, or if they are totally seperate things that just coincidentally happened at the same time in an evil bid to ruin my life? Does anyone else have severe anxiety with PCOS? I've also noticed dark patches of skin under my arms and behind my neck, is this related as well? I am in the process of losing weight since within the past year of getting a desk job I've gained exponentially, will weight loss help any of this stuff at all? I feel like I'm drowning in some kind of horrible medical/doctor/problem filled ocean and I'm trying very hard not to lose hope that things will get better. Any advice or thoughts would be very much appreciated!!!

[msniki412]

Keep us updated. Most ER docs are not familiar with PCOS, so seeing a GYN is your best option on this. I remember when I went to the ER for my abnormal bleeding...all they DX'd me with was "heavy bleeding"...gee ya think i knew that already, huh? Anyways, your gyn might have more of an idea of whats going on with the bleeding.

Bes of luck and I hope it all works out.

[WendyLady03]

Thanks for all the advice, I just thought I'd update you guys. I ended up in the ER last week because the bleeding was getting out of control. They did an ultrasound and only found one small cyst on my right ovary, which they said didn't confirm PCOS, but it didn't rule it out either. Everything else looked normal, but they told me I have to go to an OBGYN to get the hormone test. They put me on the pill to get the bleeding to stop, and it has slowed it down but has not stopped it completely.  I have the OBGYN appt soon so hopefully we'll get this all figured out, it has been such a mess. The anxiety has improved though so that is good news. I hope you guys are doing well!!

[msniki412]

I just want to point out....PCOS is not as easy as you think to diagnose. Going for ultrsounds is ONLY good if you have the cysts in the ovaries. If you have no cysts, then an ultrasound comes back normal. I had atleast a dozen external/internal ultrasounds...all normal, no cysts. Bloodwork helps ONLY if the right hormones are checked. I went for 3 different bloodtests and all came back normal. It was finally the 4th bloodwork, that all my hormones were tested and finally came back with some abnormal. I forget which hormones were tested, I would have to look at the report again.

Like I said, PCOS has a wide spread of symptoms and more and more women are suffering from this. I hope one day they can find the cause of this and prevent it.

Best of luck ladies :-)

[preggerwanabe]

hi hun my name is tiff i was diagnosed with pcos about two years ago, and its actually quite simple to diagnose all they have to do is a blood test to check your hormone levels and an ultrasound,not so bad. to answer ur question though YES all these symptoms could be related to pcos, pcos will usually make u gain weight and the skin color changes are usually due to hormone imbalances, as is the anxiety. i too have horrible anxiety with panic attacks, it does get a lil better once u get the pcos under control, loosing weight will be the most important thing! the best advise i can give u to do that is avoid sugar, carbs such as white bread pasta potatoes ect. and also dairy products it helped me loose twenty lbs, unfortunately i couldnt tolerate the metformin. hope this was helpfull:) also u should be checked for endometriosis, a good friend of mine was just diagnosed with it and she had a similar story to u.

[WendyLady03]

Thank you so much for the answer!!! We're still trying to find out if I have PCOS, but I'm fairly certain that's what it is.

[msniki412]

Well, the weight gain can cause PCOS. Having PCOS can cause anxiety/depression with all the symptoms we suffer. So, answer to the question...yes. As far as the dark patches of skin, another annoying symptom of PCOS. Ask if you can start Metormin. I've been on it 2 years and it helped me lose at one point 62lbs. I've also noticed the under arm color of my skin looks lighter. It helps with the amounts of insulin in our bodies...even if you are not insulin resistant (im not, and it still helps). Losing weight, if you are overweight will lesson the side affects of PCOS and even sometimes regain a normal period. The metformin will also help with the regain of normal period cycles as well over time. And because PCOS has a wide spread of symptoms, it is so hard to determine if you have it.