Bearded Lady?!

[BLG1007]

What can possibly be done to get the hair growth under control? It is hard to feel like a woman when you have so many male characteristics. Hair on your face, chest, around your nipples, on your belly, inner thigh. All of this then leads me to depression, feeling self concious about myself, and often times has an effect on my sex life with my husband. I don't feel like a pretty, sexy, confident woman so I push him away a lot and thus makes him feel bad. Any suggestions?:confused:

[fellow_cyster]

I totally understand what you're saying. The excess hair is probably one of the worst symptoms for me to deal with.
I get what you say about your husband also, but I gotta tell you, my husband knows i have "whiskers" but it does not turn him off. Its mostly our issue, we know its there and we let it get to us more than it should. Our husbands are turned on by us, our bodies... not our hairy face :) It sounds silly but my hubby told me i was overreacting about it. He does not notice it at all because you know men, they rarely notice little things like that!
There are plenty of options... If you want to go the prescription way, there is something called Vaniqa. Its a cream you can get from your doctor that has been proven to significantly reduce facial hair. I have not tried it, was going to but my insurance didn't cover it, so I moved onto something else.
You can wax (ouch!) or use a dipilatory cream but whatever you do, DON'T SHAVE! Shaving makes the hair more course and darker.
What I recommend is something called Saw Palmetto. Its an herb that reduces your testosterone levels. This can help MANY issues that high testosterone causes: excess hair on body/face, acne/oily skin, and hair loss.
I have all of those and started taking the Saw Palmetto because of the facial hair and mostly my hair loss. I started about 3 weeks ago and I already notice a SIGNIFICANT change in my facial hair. I have not had to pluck/deal with them for days, which is a HUGE change.
Saw Palmetto gives a lot of benefits because reducing your overall testosterone levels is SO good for us PCOS'ers, it can also help regulate our cycles as well...
Hope this helps!
Pamela
www.pcosinfo.com

[BLG1007]

Thank you fellow cyster! How much of the saw palmetto? Which brand do you prefer? I know that some companies lie about what is in the supplments so I wasn't sure if you had a certain company that you prefer. Yes the hair and, the fat gut are the things that repluse me! And yes, my hubby sounds like yours, where he doesn't notice it, and he even says "I can't keep my hands off you!!! You look beautiful!!" Its so hard to think so when you feel you look like a side attraction at the carnival!!

[June1285]

You know...it's good just to hear other women who are going through the same thing. I'm only 23 and I am not married, but I struggle a lot with relating to the opposite sex. Sometimes, I feel like..."who would ever want a Hairy beast?" I know how it feels to not feel like a woman...i hate it! But honestly, just hearing you guys talk about your husbands and the way they react, really gives me hope for my future husband! Thank you so much!

[BLG1007]

You are SO welcome!!! I often look at my husband, whom is very muscular from working out his whole life, and is really good looking and I wonder how can he love me?! PRAISE THE LORD HE DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its just me that I need to get over and realize that no matter how much it bothers me, it doesn't bother him, and he loves me and still chases me around the house! If it helps any I was 23 when I met my husband, and I weighed 210 pounds, I am now 185(would like to be around 150) I am now 26 been married 2 years this October. Now if I could just get over myself...and stay positive..things wouldn't look so bad!(still working on that!)
Also, if you haven't yet, order the PCOS System from Insulite, I have been on it a month and I have already seen signifiant changes. I can't wait to see how things will be after a few more months!

Take Care!
BLG1007

[HunneyBee]

Thanks so much for the Saw Palmetto advice. I am 44 and was not diagnosed until I was 42. Looking back now I started to show symptoms shortly after my son was born. He was born two months before I turned 22. My facial hair used to be so bad there were hundreds of hairs on my chin. I shaved for awhile because there was so much I was too embarassed to let it grow long enough to get it waxed and way too many to pluck. I tried nair but it burnt my skin and didn't even remove one hair. Finally I decided to take off a few days from work and not leave my house for anything and let it grow long enough to get it waxed. Since I have been getting it waxed less and less hair has grown back and I usually am able to pluck them myself now. Since I am infertile I have not been using any birth control. My new boyfriend was rather freaked out about that so I started using the mini pill. After just a few months my chest hair, the hair around my nipples and my facial hair has got a lot less. One other weird thing was when I started to get hair on my chin, upper lip, chest and a few other places, the hair on my shins and calves, which used to be hairy, stopped growing. I rarely have to shave my legs. I have ordered the PCOS System from Insulite. I bought some Saw Palmetto for my boyfriend, heard it was good for prostrate health, but he has not been taking it so it is mine now and I am going to go take it right now. Thanks again for the tip, I can't wait to start feeling more like a girl again.

[jsraja]

Breaded lady where in high content of harmones which cause exeed hairs........

[PitPony]

Hi, I would just like to add to this discussion my experiences. I have had facial hair for 30 years. At the time of first noticing it there were very few doctors who had any experience with pcos. It was not until about 10 years later that awareness had risen. As a result I had NO help with dealing with my hairiness - I also hairs on my have nipples, tummy, and thighs - all of which combined to make me feel totally abnormal. I did the best i could with what was available at the time, just shaving or depilatory creams, plus bleach really, and tried to live my life. I was always worried at the back of my mind that no man would find me attractive, or that they would until they found out how abnormal I am! and for a time I was right. Most men don't seem to notice it, one boyfriend years ago was really supportive and said it didn't bother him, I have also had the opposite experience where one boyfriend was totally freaked out by it and made me feel like a complete freak. I am happy to say that I am now married to a man who couldn't care less about the hair. Before we moved in together I sat him down and explained about the pcos and the hair - which he hand't noticed! - and told him if would be a problem for him to deal with then we had better face it earlier rather than later in our relationship. He basically said that it made no difference to him. He didn't want to say it was nothing, because obviously it was a big something to me! but he said that it didn't change the fact that it is me that he loves and to be fair he doesn't seem to care. I don't shave my thighs, tummy or pluck my nipples very often now because he is so cool about it. Occasionally I get a little insecure and ask him how he can love a hairy beast like me, and doesn't he think I'm not a real woman because of it, he always reassures me. He certainly isn't turned off by my extra hairiness!

Now for something that might help you: recently I bought a Philips Lumea device which is a home laser system. The instructions tell you it is not for facial use but I use it on my face and have had no problems with it. They also say that the laser does not kill off the hairs but puts them into a 'resting' phase so that they don't grow. I have used it every two weeks for the last 3 months and my facial hair has almost completely stopped growing, I think I will need one more treatment and that will be it completely.
I think I will have to use it approximately 4 weekly after that to keep the hairs in a resting phase. I know this isn't a 'permanent' solution in the sense that I'll never have to do it again, but I can live with having to treat my face every 4 weeks instead of plucking the hairs every day! The plucking was having a bad effect on my skin as I was having a lot of ingrowing hairs which I had to dig out with a needle! I also noticed that I have a lot of scarring to my chin area which since I have been using the Lumea has really improved although it is still slightly discoloured but I am hoping that this will fade over time.

So, that's me for now, hope that's off some help to you.

[Starfish&Coffee]

Hello!

To PitPony.. thanks for laying out your experience... it sounds like mine with the hair.... I am going to look into the home laser... because I shave/pluck/and as of late use my Bellabe (have you heard of that?). The combo seems to be enough for my face to not have many 5-o-clock shadows...

Thanks!
Georgia