Hey ladies! So a quick preface.. I’m currently living/traveling abroad and don’t have access to many doctors in the village I am living in. I was able to find an OBGYN clinic not too far away but this doctor isn’t particularly my favorite.. but he’s better than nothing!

So here’s what happened. I’d been spotting leading up to ovulation so I thought I’d get checked out. This doctor told me I have several small ovarian cysts on both ovaries and even showed them to me on an ultrasound. I’ve had ovarian cysts for years, I’m in my 30’s now and I’ve had since my early 20’s... always small and harmless.. so I wasn’t too concerned.

But then he said I have PCOS. He also said that it’s likely I’m not ovulating..!!

The thing is, I know that not to be true because I take ovulation tests every month as a sort of “backup” form of birth control, and they’re always positive at the same time each cycle. With the blinking smiley face in the days leading up, and then the smiley face on the day of ovulation (plus I always spot that day and have slight cramps), and then the empty face the next day, right on cue.

I can also feel myself ovulating, I can tell by changes in my body, the way I look before during and after, etc. The way my skin is, the level of bloating or lack there of, and so on. I’m aware that I can still get the hormonal surge (LH) and then not completely ovulate (thus becoming a cyst) but all the signs are saying I do completely ovulate.

Also, when I was reading about PCOS, it talks about irregular periods, excess body hair, head hair thinning/falling out, weight gain, acne.. and so on. Of course not everyone has all or even most of these symptoms.. but I do not have even one of those symptoms. My periods are incredibly regular, and again, I’m fairly certain that I’m ovulating.

So anyway this doctor gave me some prescription to Metforma which I’m skeptical about, and then sold me directly some (very expensive!!) progesterone cream. He said my levels must be low. The thing is, I am very in tune with my body. I know that I’m producing plenty of progesterone when I’m supposed to be (second half of cycle) because I know all of the side effects that progesterone has on me.. my skin completely transforms from dry to oily right after ovulation, my face even changes to look slightly more tired and bloated, my body too. I get more tired and sluggish, and so on. I actually hate that part of my cycle because of the effect progesterone has on me! So I just got very skeptical, as you can probably tell, that this doctor was perhaps misinforming me.

I don’t want to take all of these hormone altering substances if my hormones are just fine. I am also slightly traumatized because when I got off the birth control pill years ago, my body went into some crazy hormone swings that took almost a full year to balance out. So yeah I never want to f*ck with hormones again if I can help it lol!!!

So I guess what I’m getting at is....

Has anyone experienced something similar where you have cysts but not PCOS per se? Were you still ovulating? What about any experiences with doctors who misdiagnose you and then prescribe you something you don’t really need? Any other advice?

Thanks for reading all of this, whew!