Just going to point out that as much as this excerpt here describes it as affecting âfertilityâ and oh woe, they canât get pregnant as easyâŚuh, itâs also something that can make them fucking miserable and POTENTIALLY KILL THEM
Hereâs the thing: ovaries normally do produce cysts. Theyâre supposed to! To an extent. They produce like, a tiny number, maybe one, each menstrual cycle, because the egg that is ready to be hypothetically fertilized, is PUSHED OUT to the fallopian tube, by an actual cyst.
This is the normal process, in the â4 out of 5âł women who donât have PCOS.
In PCOS, though, my understanding is that the cyst production does not happen in this nice, orderly fashion, only happening approximately every few weeks; instead, it goes haywire and happens all over the place and WAY too much (hence âpolycysticâ).Â
Left unchecked, this can cause the organ to become damaged, it can cause it to swell and even press on other things in the abdomen and put OTHER parts of the body at risk, can cause all sorts of awful things.
IIRC ( @tekka-wekka I think you know more about this than I do, by all means please correct me if Iâm wrong about any of it?) it tends to cause a lot of pain or heavy bleeding during many peopleâs menstrual cycles and, as noted, causes them to be more irregular - so itâs basically a disability, one that can be LIFE-THREATENING.
And guess what the main treatment for PCOS is, to keep the cysts in line and regulate the menstrual cycle properly?
Hormone-regulating pills.
You know, the ones normally labeled âbirth controlâ.Â
This was what Sandra Fluke was testifying about a few years back, during health care debates, by the way. She had a friend who had EXACTLY this condition, and the fact that Georgetownâs student health coverage would NOT cover her âbirth controlâ medication meant that she went without it for three monthsâŚand her ovaries, filled with cysts, enlarged so much that she required EMERGENCY SURGERY (to remove them entirely, IIRC).Â
Which is why Sandra Fluke was FIRMLY arguing for increased access to âbirth controlâ medications; because leaving aside questions of autonomy, itâs an actual literal life-or-death health necessity for many people! Such as those with PCOS in specific!
But I digress.
My point is: this is a condition that goes beyond âfertilityâ issues; it requires a LOT of people to go on pretty much (IIRC) permanent hormonal regulation to carefully regulate their menstrual cycles in order to NOT DIE. Because, left untreated, it can, in fact, literally pose that risk. (And depending on the specific hormonal birth control in question - this may have the trade off of things like a higher stroke risk, so thatâsâŚthatâs a thing, too, oops)
So uh. This?
This is REALLY good news.
But not JUST for folks with PCOS who want to have biological children; itâs literally just good news in general, because this could be LIFE-SAVING research??
I just wanted to point that out because, like, I donât think a lot of people are aware of PCOS and how it can potentially KILL YOU, and thereâs a lot of misconceptions about ovarian/uterine health in general, and like⌠and I think some folks might scroll past this thinking itâs mostly about âfertilityâ?
When itâs actually a condition that impacts WAY more than that, and chances are very very good you actually know someone with this condition, whether you realize it or not.
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