Anxiety with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

hi, yes i am on a mini pill. Any idea if that makes a difference to things?

Anything affecting your hormones can give you mood alterations, it is not as bad as the combined pill though. How long have you been on it for?

Around 10 years!

Were you recommended to go on it to help your PCOS symptoms? Do you get any PCOS symptoms?

I believe at the time i was gaining weight from the combined pill and not getting along with it, so switched to mini pill.

my pcos symptoms include no / extremely rare periods, anxiety, panic attacks and low moods.

The mini pill is better for you than the combined pill. But it will make your periods lighter and sometimes stops them altogether and it is important to shed your womb lining regularly otherwise you are at higher risk of female cancers. Would you consider having a break from the pill to see if it helps with your anxiety and regulate your periods? It may make it worse to start though. Also get your vitamin levels checked, certain deficiencies can give you anxiety.

Have you been offered metformin to help balance your hormones?

I would be pretty apprehensive to stop the mini pill and would be concerned it would worsen my anxiety? To be honest I never seem to be given much advice at my doctors for it and have never been offered that drug no.

I am even considering going private to get the help I need.

Ask your gp if you could speak to someone in endocrinology. Then you can discuss everything that is worrying you and they can explain all the things that can help your symptoms. Say you are getting a lot of symptoms from PCOS, look up the symptoms and tell them every one that you suffer with personally, then say it is making your life unbearable and hopefully they will let you see someone without having to go private. This is an illness that can lead to other health problems if you are not educated in it and if your gp can't give you any info, then they should let you see a specialist.

Thats great advice thank you. Do you know whether hormone treatment can help or is that the same thing as you suggested?

I haven't seen anyone for over 10 years about my PCOS so I don't know if there are any more developments. I was told about metformin and how it helps so many symptoms of PCOS and about how the pill which I was on at the time was good for the physical symptoms like acne. That was called Dianette and I wouldn't recommend it now, it is a very high risk contraceptive pill. I ended up getting very unwell from it. I tried metformin in my breaks from the pill, and I got the worst digestive problems I was told to try the slow release one but I realised you couldn't drink alcohol with it and I like a couple of glasses of wine in the evening. I never really tried it properly. In my 30s my periods became more regular, so I don't take anything now. The best advice I got was to avoid sugar because it makes you put on weight very easily and gives you bad skin. Check the sugar content in everything because it is in things you wouldn't necessarily expect. I was told always make sure it is under 9 grams. Dairy is bad for skin as well.

Not all women with PCOS have insulin resistance. There are 4 types of PCOS and only one is caused by insulin resistance. My blood glucose levels are and have always been perfect, and my testosterone isn't particularly high (slightly above normal), nor is my Oestrogen. Mine is caused by chronically low Progesterone for unknown reasons, either inflammation of genetics.

However, I agree about anxiety and depression - this could be manifold. Partly psychological due to the stress and worry of having a condition, and also because of the hormone imbalance, it could lead to increased cortisol levels and decreased melanin and serotonin. I do experience both but I have had more of an issue with anxiety in my life. My Dr gave me propranalol which is a beta blocker to reduce the physical side effects of anxiety such as palpitations, breathlessness, sweating, shaking etc and counselling to help manage my mind.

Unluckily for me, I was diagnosed with PCOS as a teen and went on Birth control pills for many years, until I decided to try manage my symptoms in a more clean and natural way which actually worked, and I was thrilled to be having regular periods for a few years. But with the new found monthly visitor, I realised I was in an abnormal amount of pain, and discovered I have Endometriosis as a result of getting my PCOS symptoms under control. So now although I'd prefer a natural approach, I'm back on a mini pill to stop my periods and slow down the Endo, whilst also hiding PCOS symptoms. In many ways I'm much healthier on it - my hair and skin are better, no periods, no anemia, and the pain is 100% improved. But I do still have niggling pain around my ovaries.

But the first pill I went back on was Cerazette and it wasn't great - I did feel miserable and anxious on it, very emotional, spotting the whole time, and so hungry all the time!! Im now on Noriday which is Norethisterone and I was warned a side effect can be Depression, but Im doing great on it. I feel happier, less hungry and I've stopped spotting.