A Letter To My Cyst-ers*

All That I’ve Learned About PCOS

A diagnosis of Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (also known as PCOS) can really suck. There’s not much more to say about it, other than that. If you have been diagnosed or are en route to diagnosis - I see you, and I hear you. And I wish I could hold you all close on this one.

It’s not an understood condition, either, by society in general or the medical establishment. Such is the way with women’s reproductive health, while we stand at the edge once again.

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

Good luck in diagnostics - or better still, not being laughed out of the building. Because women be crazy, mysterious. Let’s just flash back to then! Even The Guardian thought it necessary to deep dive into the condition, which was strikingly unusual. It’s almost like we’ve always articulated the issue - we’re just not being listened to, on the basis of ingrained sexism. *Sighs*

(And that is doing us all a disservice meanwhile. Patriachy ain’t just hurtin’ the women.)

Mythbusting for Happiful Magazine this month got a response I hadn’t expected. I have two features in this month’s issue - one was the cover story in the right hand column on the bottom of the front page - but it was the piece with the most reaction I have had to any writing in a long time. That was unusual, because usually I just sit at my laptop, making the contents of my brain tangible, coming ‘out to play’ not very often or only when I need to eat.

Meanwhile, a subscriber of this newsletter asked for a ‘what to know 101’ type piece - we’re going to call this my love letter to similar women, caught in this ridiculous cycle of indifference. We just need to be seen. This is the grand sum of what I have learned in the last two years, how this has felt, and what I wish to impart to anyone in the same circumstances. I love you all dearly.

* And yes, this is a dark humoured pun.