Today, I am going to talk to you about the impact of Weight Loss Surgery on my Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, or PCOS. If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you will probably know that I had been diagnosed with PCOS a few years ago, and really went in-depth with how PCOS was affecting my life, but also how I was approaching the whole thing with positivity.

You can read my story here, read my most popular piece here, and read my favorite piece here, if you want the long story. Long story short, I was diagnosed with PCOS, gained a LOT of weight, and was trying desperately to reverse my horrible symptoms (no periods, weight gain, growing a bit much hair, and some others.) Since my diagnosis, I had tried REALLY hard to lose weight to get my body back to a functioning, healthy body.

I am not talking about a fad diet every other week, I am talking about truly eating in a healthy way, being active, and being mindful about how everything I do impacts my health. The most upsetting thing about PCOS is that you can only do so much. Being the control freak I am, I have had troubles realizing that I couldn’t do any more than I was doing, and I had to learn to be kind to myself. It took years of dieting with no success, but I finally decided to have weight loss surgery, and the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, to be specific.

My husband and I decided that weight loss surgery would be a viable option, my insurance covered almost all of the (huge) financial burden that the surgery would bring, and I began to prepare my mind for the journey I was about to embark upon. I watched countless hours of YouTube videos about WLS. I read and read and would stay up all night just contemplating my decision and the impact it would have on my life, but the possibilities it could bring. I took making the decision seriously, and I would NOT say that anything in this blog is me suggesting that you have the surgery. You have to figure out what is going to work for you, really research it, and imagine yourself living the life of a weight loss surgery patient. (Believe me, it’s hard.)

I had the surgery on February 8th, 2017. Two weeks before that, I was eating so many “last meals.” Everything you could imagine, and lots of it. I don’t regret doing that one bit, honestly! About a week before the surgery, I went on a pre-surgery diet which was basically eating nothing for most of the day, then having plain chicken and veggies for dinner. In that week, I lost 19 pounds. We can chalk that up to water weight, detox, etc. But the boost of weight loss gave me a period. It was the first natural period I had in years.

I’ve had a period regularly every month since then. So I’m on 9 months of periods. My body is making huge changes. I’ve continued to lose weight, feel better, normalize, and I am so very happy to say many of my PCOS symptoms have gone away or gotten so much better. I’m hopeful for the possibility of starting a family soon! (Also terrified, but that’s a different problem!)

I still have weird hair, I still have a hard time actually losing weight (I’m considered a “slow loser” by normal weight loss surgery standards,) but I am ovulating and having periods in a regular way, I have not had cysts burst, I have rid myself of pre-diabetes, I have drastically reduced my sleeping issues… I am not kidding you, it’s made a huge difference. It’s truly been life-changing.

I just thought it was a great time to update you. I really just want to make sure you know that having the surgery is HARD WORK, but it’s been so rewarding for me, and it has drastically improved my PCOS. I can do more posts about PCOS and WLS as you need me to! Send me questions or comments to my email, theprettyplusonline@gmail.com!