I never imagined I would ever blog on a medical subject. Seriously!

So two days ago. I got diagnosed with PCOS or PCOD, Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or polycystic ovary disease (PCOD), a medical condition in which a woman’s hormones are out of balance. Most women with PCOS grow many small cysts on their ovaries.

It is diagnosed when periods get highly irregular in young women, or it is usually postponed until after marriage, when the woman is trying to get pregnant. For me, this diagnosis was accidental.

I have always cramps since I got my first periods. One can say I am quite used to a surprisingly high degree of pain every time before I start menstruating and for the first few days of the cycle. Growing up I was told pain is normal and girls must go through a certain degree of pain to become strong. I still remember a male relative who told me, “there is so much more pain life has in store for a woman, this is nothing.” These wise words from a man who neither had a vagina nor had to go through one day of menstrual cramps filled me with wonder-woman level strength and hope, and I thanked him profusely for adding such value to my life and to the life of the woman around him with his life changing advice.

So, period cramps = part of life. That’s how life was. You suffer, you rest, you move on.

Until one-day things started to get beyond bearable. For the six months or so, the pain has become more acute now accompanied by nausea, diarrhoea at times. I think I really took notice when I couldn’t go to work for the first few days when your cramps demand you be in bed and cry a little. You know shit hit the roof when you experience pain to the point of blanking out. Phew.

I remembered the wise man’s golden words, and decided to do the exact opposite of it. To stop normalising pain and get help. In my very own style, I postponed it for six months, lived with guilt, told myself I suck and moped around. Until one day, my boyfriend googled and sent me a list of experienced gynaecologists to choose from. I chose the one that seemed to be most convenient from a location point of view, and we landed up there, just chill and all, in a crowd of expecting mothers and bored fathers.

I went inside the consultation room alone and told the doctor about my life inhibiting cramps. She suspected endometriosis but she needed to do a scan in order to be sure. She also said I seemed to be anaemic and ordered to get a blood test done, to check the thyroid and diabetes situation. I came out of the room feeling not so chill. After squirting out a whole lot of blood for the tests, and with instructions to return the next day with a full bladder for the scan, we left confused.

The next day, I came back to the tired mommies and the bored fathers, looking us at enviously. I was nervous, I had read a lot about endometriosis, and I was hoping it does not come to that. The scan was a session of applying cold gel on your lower abdomen and poking at your full bladder. I wondered if I should tell the doctor this was not my kind of tickle. I refrained from it.

After all the tests, I went in for consultation again, this time with my boyfriend, who was still figuring out this mysterious world of female reproductive health. His questions and ideas were downright plain and childlike at the same time. I wonder if there are any men out there who were brought up with an acceptable level of knowledge about the female body and menstrual health, conversations with their mothers, sisters, friends, teachers? Nobody?

Okay, fine. Moving on.

After a quick interrogation of whether he is my boyfriend or fiancee etc, the doctor quickly revealed that the ovaries are bigger than normal. I see. I wondered what that meant, and a rather comical animation of me carrying my oversized ovaries popped into my mind. It would make an interesting visual, I thought. Meanwhile, my doctor used the word “PCOS” and I was like Duh! My periods are super regular, how can I have PCOS! I mean, I know, because I have a bunch of friends who have PCOS and they all have irregular periods, or trying to have babies.

I was told that I have several small cysts in my ovary causing a major hormonal imbalance and needed to be treated right away with medicines and an immediate change in lifestyle. I was confused. Till yesterday, I thought I was the poster girl for regular periods and suddenly, I was in the PCOS league too. I asked her if endometriosis was ruled out, and she said she couldn’t say for sure without a laparoscopy, and prescribed a drug to rule that out.

At this point, I was completely freaked out, and my mind shut down to the closing questions asked and the general gyaan that was being given. My blood results came out ok, apart from the fact that I was indeed anaemic.

I returned back home that day, with a whole lot of questions, and a bag full of medicines. Medicines I don’t even know what for really, medicines whose side effects I did not know, medicines that freaked the hell out of me.

I remember having this strong feeling that told me “Do not touch those medicines, they are not good for you. I had paid for those medicines, but the voice was so strong I could not ignore it.

I decided to seek help from the wonderful community of women I am surrounded by. I put out a simple message on my Instagram stories, for people with PCOS and how they went about it.

The response was overwhelming. Within a span of few hours, so many women wrote back saying they are struggling with the same, and gave me so many valuable inputs on how to deal with it. I really cannot stress this enough – No-one can help a woman like another woman!

All those conversations made me realize how ridiculously common PCOS is, how no one really knows how to deal with it, and everybody is on the same boat trying to do their best, and lastly how no one really talks about it!

I have decided to do a series of posts, on this, and share with you all the guidance I have received from this wonderful network of women. In their own words. Even in this article, I have linked some good sites that I feel might benefit someone looking to understand better, I want to start a discussion on this, and I think if I were more aware of things like these, I could have easily avoided getting here. This is very personal to me especially because PCOS not just messes with your body, but also has a lot of effect on your mental health. Who would have thought!

For now, there are two things I am absolutely certain of –

1)NOT GONNA TAKE THOSE PILLS

2) GOING TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO KICK PCOS NATURALLY.

Who’s with me?