Lurker Here

Ok I am not a failed WLS patient but decided to lurk here today to see what some of you are experiencing.  One of the girls on our forum has some info that may help some of you who are not losing at a decent rate.  If you have not heard or been tested for Insulin Resistance this thread may help you.  Sorry if I am out of line just hopeing to be a help to someone

http://www.obesityhelp.com/group/vsgswith150ormoretogo/discussion/3889176/Please-get-fasting-insulin-level-tested-For-hunger-PCOS/

Hey there. Thanks for posting this. I had a look at it and I do have PCOS and I am insulin resistant. She says a lot of great things there. She will be so surprised after she has her VSG. I am still amazed that I'm finally able to lose weight! I LOVE MY SLEEVE!

I am going to be checked to see where I am.  I wonder what perventage of overweight people have this?

That's a great question. 10% of all women have PCOS and only 5% of them even know they have it. I went my whole life without knowing I have it even though I am the textbook picture of it. I was only diagnosed with it in the fall of 2007. There were times when I had suspected it but didn't know to ask to have my fasting insulin checked. I was checked years back for actual clusters of cysts on my ovaries (which is usually the key thing used in diagnosing PCOS) and apparently they weren't acting up. I think there must be times (just like someone with bad acne, there can be times it flares up and times it subsides a bit), because I was not diagnosed all those years ago when I had suspected it. Classic symptoms of PCOS are: hirtuism (excessive body hair such as ladies who have sideburns, moustashe, hair on their back, etc.), alopecia (falling out of the hair like as in male balding), acne, pelvic pain (sometimes extreme), irregular periods (many months no periods, and other months prolonged bleeding cycles), infertility, obesity due to the insulin resistance.  ( you know as I think about it, as a young girl I knew something was different about me. I could not tolerate very sweet things. for instance, in the summer-time, we'd go to get snowcones and within just a few sips, bites, I felt so sick. I resorted to simply ordering plain ice from an early age. And wedding cake icing made me feel soooo bad. )

With PCOS so many hormones are all messed up. It is so complicated. In short though, estrogen is overproduced. Some of the excess estrogen converts to testosterone== thus producing so many of the above symptons. Also excess estrogen contributes to obesity.  In addition to this, insulin is overproduced with the insulin resistance. The excess insulin ends up in the liver where there it becomes body fat......  It becomes a vicious cycle of inducement of obesity between these 2 hormomes alone that are messed up. It is actually way more complicated than that but this is a quick way of explaining a lot of it. It is TERRIBLE. It is the most defeminizing syndrome ever. It takes a beautiful woman and turns her into someone masculine and overweight. The classic textbook PCOS woman gains the majority of her weight in her belly. I am TEXTBOOK PCOS with one exception. I have been blessed with not having bad acne problems. Not all women with PCOS has every symptom. There are actually some women who do not become overweight with it. It's so strange how some women only get some of the symptoms and others get them all.

With PCOS it is so very easy to gain weight, especially if you do not know to greatly reduce your intake of carbs & sugars. All carbs break down into sugar. It is intake of carbs/sugars that leads to the over production of insulin in the PCOS patient. The insulin is trying to do it's job to go out and grab the sugar and take it out of the bloodstream and bring it into the body's cells. But it becomes resistant and so "headquarters" gets a message back telling it to send out more insulin because the insulin that was sent out to do the job is slacking off. So more and more and more insulin is released in effort to get the job done. and  "It is the excess insulin that is apparently responsible for directly stimulating the ovaries to produce an excess of male hormones, throwing the entire system out of balance." I just got that bit from this article.  http://www.dreamababy.com/pcos-insulin.htm

I am such a private person, but I wish to God that someone had known about this and informed me when I was much younger. I TRULY believe that if I had understood all of this from an early age, I wouldn't have become so obese. If someone had told me to act just as though I were diabetic and not consume carbs/sugars regularly, I believe I wouldn't have needed to have WLS. There needs to be awareness on this so badly. This is why I've chosen to tell my story and my journey on youtube....in effort to help other girls/women. It is an aweful disease process. And there is no cure. And it can lead to uterine or cervical cancer if left unattended to and untreated.

I've gotten to a point to where I can spot a PCOS patient in a crowd, at family funtions, at the grocery stores. A Lot of women have no idea that they have it.  So let's help spread the word!

I am trying to find stories of VSG patients in the failed weight loss section and I just can not? did you find any by any chance.  I know that there must be some that have had a time it cant all be perfect

I have not been able to either.  That is one reason I was lurking to see if anyone was here. 

The DS also helps woman with PCOS. Check out the duodenal switch forum.  The VSG is the first part of a DS.