Getting Diagnosed with PCOS: My Personal Experience and What I Learned

Getting a diagnosis for PCOS was both a relief and a challenge for me. I had been struggling with symptoms of the condition since I was around 15 years old, which is when I started noticing serious weight fluctuations and the first few thick, dark hairs growing under my chin. A few years after this I heard about PCOS from a friend who had just gotten her diagnosis. After hearing her describe her struggles, a lot of what she was saying really resonated with my own experience, so I did some research into it, which only strengthened my suspicions that this could also be what I was dealing with. That same friend was the one who gave me the courage to finally go to my GP near the end of 2022. I had been very nervous and embarrassed about going, as I’d heard some bad stories from people online about doctors minimising and ignoring other women’s experiences.

However, I was pleasantly surprised, as my GP was very supportive and understanding, she did not ignore my concerns and wasted no time getting me booked in for a blood test.. The results came back quickly, and I had another appointment over the phone to discuss them, and was told that I did indeed have very high levels of androgens, as well as prolactin, which suggests that I have PCOS. To follow up, she referred me to have an ultrasound done on my ovaries to check for “cysts”, scheduled just after the new year. This was the scariest part of the process for me, but despite the appointment being very short due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the nurses who performed to ultrasound were lovely and made me feel at ease. A third follow up appointment with my GP followed for the results, which confirmed for certain that I have PCOS.

I felt a little weight lifted from my mind finally having a name to put to the difficulties I’d been experiencing for the past few years, that I wasn’t just overthinking my symptoms and making them out to be worse than they are, they were really there and had finally been validated. From here, my GP gave me the option to go on some form of birth control to help regulate my period and maybe manage my symptoms a little, but I decided to decline this for a few reasons. Mostly because irregular periods were not my main concern, as I was struggling much more dealing with wild weight fluctuations and chronic fatigue. I had also read that these symptoms can also be side effects for some people taking birth control, so I didn’t want to risk taking anything that could worsen these symptoms instead of helping me deal with them.

Secondly, to my knowledge, taking birth control does not give you are “real” period, since it blocks ovulation, instead it is known as “withdrawal bleeding” caused by withdrawal when you stop taking the medication for that week to merely simulate a period. While I understand that many women with PCOS will find many benefits when taking birth control, I simply decided that this wasn’t the right option for me, and I encourage any of you reading to do your own research on the pros and cons before deciding what is best for you.

During my third appointment, my GP assured me that while PCOS affects fertility, there are many treatments available to aid ovulation when I’m ready to have children, calming one of my biggest fears. She even emphasised that using protection during sex may be even more important for women with PCOS, since it is much harder for us to predict when we are ovulating and plan accordingly, the chances of falling pregnant unexpectedly can increase!

While this diagnosis has help to ease my mind, I still felt very uncertain about a lot of things, not being told much more than that the cause of PCOS was unknown and that it has no “cure”. Was there any way I could manage this condition naturally? What changes would I need to make in my lifestyle? And what does this mean for my long-term health? Finding answers to these questions has mostly come from my own research, and I’ve come to understand that many symptoms of PCOS can be managed by making lifestyle changes to address some of the root causes of the condition, which I talked about in my previous post, mainly insulin resistance and high stress levels.

Overall, I feel incredibly lucky to have had such a positive diagnosis experience, as I know many other women aren’t so lucky. I was diagnosed at 20, but many women don’t even recognise the symptoms of PCOS until later in life, and many spend ages fighting to have their voices heard by medical professionals, waiting years until their concerns are finally listened to and taken seriously by the right doctor.

I’d love to gain more insight into other’s experience getting diagnosed, so if you are willing to share, please leave a comment below with your story!

As always, thank you for reading, and please stay tuned for my next post where I’ll be talking about my night-time routine for managing stress! <3


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Location: Glasgow, UK

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