Every Woman With PCOS Needs to See This ☝️
My mother had PCOS. So do I. She spent thirty years being told it was just hormones. Just weight. Just something women in our family deal with. She died at 63 of heart failure, and the word "PCOS" was on her chart the whole time. Nobody ever connected the two. I'm 34. Same diagnosis. Same bloating. Same rings that don't fit by 3pm. Same "we'll monitor it" from my doctor. After her funeral, I went looking for what actually killed her. What I found is the reason my face looks different in the mirror. And the reason I'm writing this. ======== Her name was Diane. She was a hairdresser for 30 years. Owned her own salon. Knew every regular by name and every one of their kids' birthdays. She was the fun one. The one who danced at every wedding. The one who could talk to anyone. She was 63 years old. She should still be here. ======== Diane got diagnosed with PCOS when she was 29. Got put on the pill. Told to lose weight. Told it was manageable. Told she'd probably "grow out of it." She didn't. The bloating she blamed on salt. The weight around her middle she blamed on menopause. The swelling in her ankles she blamed on standing all day at the salon. Her blood pressure started creeping up in her fifties. Her doctor called it borderline. Said they'd watch it. Watched it for ten years. Diane used to call me after those appointments. Frustrated. Saying her body felt "puffy and foreign" but her bloodwork was "normal." I told her the same thing every time. "If your doctor says it's fine, it's fine." I wish I could take those words back. The last symptom she mentioned to me was the breathlessness. She said she got winded walking from the car to the salon door. She thought she was just out of shape. She was going to start water aerobics. Two months later she was gone. ======== It was a Tuesday morning. Her husband called me from the hospital. Couldn't speak. Just sobbing. I drove two hours in a blur. Got there too late. Heart failure. They'd been t
