PCOS History Part I

PCOS History and Journey

This may sound crazy but I think my PCOS started at a very early age, not just when I started my menses or when my periods started getting scattered, but my lifestyle for years has brought me to where I am today.

Growing up, we were not allowed to have an excess amount of sugar, white bread, sugared breakfast cereals, cookies, punch and other highly artificial drinks. Nevertheless the less our diets were still full of processed foods, Top Ramen, Campbell’s soups, pasta, over cooked vegetables, colored wheat bread, hormonal meet and diary products, juice pasteurized to death from concentrate, margarine, and so on. Like most parents, they thought they were doing the right thing. My brother and I was at a normal weight so there was no cause for concern. For years however, I watched my mother struggle with her weight on the classic Weight Watchers diets, low-fat diets, oat bran diets and so on.

We ate mostly at home with the occasional trip to the buffet style restaurant, Mc Donald’s, or pizza.

When I was 11 and starting Jr. High, my relationship with food started to go further downhill. I was bringing less and less home-prepared lunches and started eating more at school. A typical school lunch for me consisted of a Cup of Noodles and a bucket of French fries: fried white noodles, MSG, sodium and processed potatoes cooked in God knows what. A soda was thrown in the mix. Still, I was at a normal weight so there were no cause for concern because my mother had no idea I was eating this way.

When I turned 12, I started my menstrual cycle. It started out painless and “normal”. By age 13, they were starting to get irregular. I started getting them every other month instead of monthly. I was also starting high school. Doctors told me it was normal and that my body was still adjusting.

(To be continued...)