Brought to you, in association with Dr Rinnie Brar, PGI, Chandigarh. Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research is a premier medical and research institution in Chandigarh, India, consistently ranked in the top among the institutes for medical education in India and is an ‘Institute of National Importance
Let’s say you are a doctor who just started her career and I visit you with stomach pain. What would you do?
Most probably, you will ask me, what I had for meals? Let’s say, I had healthy meals and I have never faced an issue like this. Then? You will order some tests and try to figure out what caused the problem in the first place. Then you will prescribe me some meds and then?
You will ask me to visit in a few days and update me with the results. Why? You want to know if those meds work or not? Right?
If those meds work, great. If not, there are two cases possible — Meds were not right or you did diagnosis wrong. Now, you will keep improving your procedure unless I feel better and don’t show the same symptom anymore. Right?
As you keep having more experience, you will keep getting better( you will be able to faster diagnosis and prescribe the right treatment because of the effects of them you see on other patients) and as a doctor — you only have 1 goal — help patients stay healthy. Help me stay better.
Now you know two things —
1. You need to improve symptoms in order to say you are improving or curing the condition (like when we need to say we have cured fever, we have to check our body temp and see if it is normal)
2. Medicine is like a spectrum. You try one thing, if it works, good, Otherwise, you keep on trying unless the diseases get better. Since every human is different, you can never be sure if something works for one will work for another.
What is PCOS?
When you have a fever, you have a high temperature. When I have a fever, I also have a high temperature, then we say it is a disorder (same symptom). See, we both show the same symptom. In PCOS, we say every woman shows different symptoms (that is why it is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). Syndrome means different symptoms. When a women shows symptom like
Irregular periods or no periods at all
Difficulty getting pregnant (because of irregular ovulation or failure to ovulate)
Excessive hair growth (hirsutism) — usually on the face, chest, back or buttocks
Weight gain
Thinning hair and hair loss from the head
Acne (not talking about hormonal acne or acne, once a month)
Change in breast density
She is said to be polycystic. If you also have any other symptom than this, it is not because of pcos. Please visit a doctor for that.
I have few symptoms like this. Am I polycystic? Please visit a doctor for confirmation and start working on your lifestyle. Even if you are not diagnosed with PCOS, your symptom shows something is not right. You have to start working on it. But I know, you won’t. We all start studying for exams on the last day, we don’t take action, unless it gets serious.
How dangerous can it be? Well, for starters, it ruins your mental health, which means your relationship with family, friend and spouse. It affects maternal and intimate life(sex is not the same anymore) . It affects beauty,confidence and ability to conceive.
The worst thing, you will spend 15+ Lakhs in your life on conditions like diabetes and endometrial cancers, which gets elevated because of pcos.
The idea is not to threaten you but to help you know you can’t avoid it or ignore it. But you can surely reverse it. If you really wanna do that, we are with you. You just need to spend 20–30 mins daily on your health. We all got one life. You can either spend it healthy, happily or you can stay the way you are, depressed, less confident and unhealthy.
Some people don’t show any symptoms for years and suddenly show many symptoms in a few weeks. We have listened to stories like normal weight and suddenly, 15+ kgs in a month.
Lifestyle changes for PCOS: There is no known cure for PCOS. Only improving lifestyle is the choice (there are 100 thousands of women who have reversed pcos by adopting a healthier lifestyle). But I will tell you what you will do, you will try some things, will read something on the internet or lose motivation in some time. You will try other things, keep wasting money, will start again, make resolutions like : I will start tomorrow or I will start on new year.
Why not we do things right the first time, let’s just make the right mindset : I want to stay healthy and lead a happy life and i can do that. No one is coming to help me. I have to take my health in my hands.
If zumba works for you, do that. Don’t listen to internet!
Going gluten free and fighting parents about this. You know you wonm’t do it for more than 10 days. So focus on small steps, take staircase instead of elevator, eat home cooked food, don’t buy protein shakes. Listen to your body, not internet!
Now your doztor, or your friend or your family can’t live healthy for you. Only you can. So, become your own doctor and get ready to lead a healthy life.
Key Learnings :
1. Medicine is like a spectrum. There are no right or wrong answers. You try a few things, if it works, good and if not, try other things. What works for your friend, might not work for you.
2. Stop believing everything you read on the internet and stop trying 100s of things. Listen to your body and try a few things and. How to see if you are reversing the condition, read here.
3. Even with PCOS, you need to have 3 or more periods in a year. Please visit a doctor immediately if this is not the case with you.
4. You need to be your own doctor and listen to your body, rather than 100s of advice.
5. PCOS is a syndrome which means you show entire different symptoms from others. What You need to do is note down your symptoms, and work on them.
6. How to improve those symptoms. Well, simple, live a healthy life. Eat good food, sleep better, workout 20 mins daily (even walking would work) and stress less(track your stress and work on it)
Read about key parameters, reversing pcos here.
*The examples used here are only for educational purposes.
