September is PCOS awareness month, and we at PCOS Cysterhood UK have started a campaign called #Foambeardselfies where participants don a shaving foam beard and take a selfie tagging #PCOSCysterhoodUK and #Foambeardselfie. Silly I hear you say… yes but it is very symbolic, many PCOS sufferers have one of the most common symptoms which is facial hair, which many shave off, hence the birth of the foam beard selfie campaign.
PCOS is a very complex syndrome, it has 32 known symptoms plus there may be many more that haven’t yet been researched.
The main symptoms include:
Cysts on the ovaries
Absent or irregular periods
Painful periods
Pelvic pain
Excess hair on the face and body.
Unexplained weight gain and loss.
Insulin resistance
Dental problems
Male pattern baldness and hair loss.
Infertility.
With PCOS comes a higher risk of ovarian and gynaecological cancers.
PCOS sufferers are up-to 62% more likely to miscarry
And those are just a few.
Many PCOS sufferers are diagnosed at a young age, and even told as young as 13 that it would be very very difficult to have children. As you can imagine, being told that at a young age can be quite the life changer, many become depressed.
PCOS isn’t a very well known or researched condition, even doctors admit they don’t know many aspects of PCOS, that is where we need help, from you, the public, we need to raise awareness for PCOS so the medical field realises we do need help, we do need to be medicated and we do need to be treated just like any other group of people with an illness, THERE IS NO CURE FOR PCOS! But with the right medication and the right medical help we can overcome the worst of the symptoms and lead the lives we deserve.
The only support many of our ‘cysters’ have is from our secret Facebook support group, many have said it has changed their attitudes towards their health and has given them the confidence they need to get some help from doctors.
We are a very long way off of getting the correct medical help but we will get there.
If you would like to get involved with the #Foambeardselfie campaign check out our like page https://www.facebook.com/PCOSCysterhoodUK and our awareness campaigns event page https://www.facebook.com/events/1517838471785526/
We also have an awareness campaign video:
All support means the world to us, we are not asking for donations, we are asking you to help sufferers have a voice.
Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Nadine,
PCOS Cysterhood UK
Co-Founder
