Raising Awareness...

Today I have heard about a charity called Verity who raise money and awareness for a syndrome quite close to my heart - Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Verity are a self-help group for women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, purely focusing on helping women cope with some of the symptoms and encouraging the healthcare system to input more research into the syndrome.

PCOS is quite common - around 10% of women have it but often quite mild and may only have one symptom. Symptoms include: irregular periods, acne, mood swings, reduced fertility, alopecia, weight gain, finding it hard to lose weight and hirsutism (excessive hair growth) on their face, chest and back due to cysts on the ovaries causing hormonal abnormalities. This can be very embarrassing for us women especially when it comes to hirsutism as hair that isn't on our head is seen as unattractive and unhygienic and especially for young women who are still at school and will probably have to face bullying. Being a beauty therapist I have seen firsthand how hirsutism has affected women with their confidence and self-esteem, even girls as young as 13 have come to me to have facial hair waxed which cannot be easy to do.

I found out I had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome about 6 years ago after fighting with the healthcare system for about 5 years to help me with my period irregularities and bad acne which I had from age 13 through to about 19. It took that long for the many doctors and dermatologists to diagnose me and even after I was told, it wasn't very well explained which therefore led me to search for answers on the internet which mostly showed me the worst outcomes of the syndrome - cancer, diabetes, heart disease and infertility. At 18 those aren't the words you want to be hearing. I was worried then and to be honest, I still feel worried now. To know that there is a charity out there that broadens our knowledge of PCOS, that runs lectures and groups to help with our understanding is great for women - especially young women who have just found out that they have the syndrome as information was not easily available when I found out I had the syndrome.

Please have a look at the Verity website for more information: http://www.verity-pcos.org.uk/
More than anything I would like to raise awareness because PCOS is overlooked by the medical profession currently and I would like to help change that.

PLEASE SHARE!! :) x