I know its not nothing

One thing I've learned about doctors in this country is that its always good to get a second opinion or to have another one just in case the first one takes your problems lightly.

I can't remember when it first started, but I've been battling oily but dehydrated skin, breakouts on my face, chest and back, along with persistent eczema, hair loss, headaches and shakiness/exhaustion when I skip a meal for quite some time.
I never realised I had eczema, always just thought it was rashes, so I never really bothered with it.
As for the hair loss and acne, I was told by a few dermatologists it was because I had oily skin which caused the breakouts, whereas the hair loss was due to bad genes. One prescribed me Diane-35 (in 2002) because he said my testerone level was too high. I was to take 1 1/2 pills for 8 months. I started putting on weight, but my skin was great and the acne and even scars cleared up. I cannot say much about my hair loss, since I never really paid attention to that.
After 8 months, I stopped (ran out of cash since I was not working at the time). 2 months later, my skin was back to oily, I was breaking out again and still putting on weight.

So I went to another doctor.
She recommended Roaccutane so that my oily skin would dry up.
After 3 months, I stopped because my skin was just TOO TOO dry - I even had nose bleeds cuz the insides of my nose dried up too (yeckh, I know).
Plus, Roaccutane could increase one's cholesterol level, which I didn't think I wanted since my mom's side has a history of heart disease and she herself has a high cholesterol level that just won't go down.

So I left things alone and decided to just look for products that would work for me.
Not easy, since I was not yet 25 and my skin was still settling down; I went from oily to dry to very dry that I could feel my skin stretch and itch, to oily but dehydrated until finally, when I turned 26 or so, it stayed at oily.
It was a whole mess of spending cash on the 'right' product only to find out it wasn't a few weeks/a month after use.
There was a couple of times when by chest acne would clear up, then flare up again whenever I had flu, asthma attacks or dry coughs.
My bacne stayed throughout clearing up only once in 2008, but that's a different matter altogether.

My weight continued to increase steadily, not that I cared really, I just didn't like having to spend money on new clothes that won't fit a few months later.
Course, I was also kinda in denial.
The different matter I mentioned in 2008 occured in Jan of that year - my menses went from a normal 5-7 days to only 1 day of very light flow.
This went on for a few months, which I was happy with since my acne cleared up, then May 2008 it went on for about  5 days.
My acne flared - huge with puss (I never had acne with puss before) on my cheeks, just under my cheekbones.
Apparently, this part will break out if you have problems with your 'lady parts'.

June 2008 til Oct 2008, it went back to one day a month.
My acne was just calming down when in Nov 08 I had another 5 day of light flow.
My acne flared up again - face, chest and back.
Then it went back to one day a month, but my acne just won't calm.
By this point, I was convinced something was wrong, so I told my GP, whose a non-practicing gyno.
She said that so long as the lack of flow was not occuring cuz of some raunchy physical activities, I have nothing to worry about.

I wasn't convinced, but how do you argue with an ob-gyn who has more knowledge than you, whereas for you its more about gut instincts.
As for my hair loss, GP insists there's nothing I can do by use Regain for at least 1 year, whereas the acne she insisted I had to face facts and just live with it, since there's no cure.
In fact, she informed me that all my problems would clear up once I lost weight, since my obesity is causing evereything to go haywire (doesn't explain the acne and hair loss though, since that's been going on since before I put on weight).
By the way, I went from 52kg in 2002 to 62kg in 2009 - apparently I'm slightly overweight, but not obese, but oh well...semantics.

In Aug of 09, it was 2 days worth of light flow followed by 5 days of spotting.
At this time, I'd gone to another doctor to see if she had a different suggestion.
I decided to start the first meet with simply informing her of all the symptoms I had, from hair loss to acne to eczema (the longest one I had from June 08) to sweating profusely at night in air-conditioned room WITH fan on to sweating immediately after getting out of the shower.
She decided to test my hormones since she thought it was something wrong with my thyroid.

2 weeks later I came back for the blood test; a week after that, I came in to check on my results.
After waiting 2 hours at the clinic (it was a very busy morning for the doctor), our five minute consultation went like this:

Dr : Your testerone level is very high. You have polycystic ovarian syndrome, but its not cancerous. Your iron is very low. That's why you have hair growth on your face and your body. (I've never noticed any manly hair growth on my face..no mustache or beard or anything, though).
Me : Oh! So the eostrogen and progesteron and other stuff are ok?
Dr : Yeah, your thyroid is ok too. Just your testerone and iron. You need to take Diane-35 for your testerone and Pharmaton for your iron. That should clear everything up.
Me : Oh ok. So is that it? No need to take the bio-identical hormones?
Dr : Yeah that's it. No need to take the bio-identical hormones.

I went off feeling having no idea what Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome  (PCOS) is and tons of questions, also, extremely unsatisfied.
So I sent her an SMS (2 since I realised after sending the 1st one I had a few more questions). She took about 4 hours to get back to me and her replies was damn short and unsatisfactory.

I get it...she was busy, but I am (or was) still her patient.
After waiting for 2 hours I think I deserved a little bit more than that.
At least a explanation about PCOS and what that meant, what the future would be, if I should be concerned, what my options are.


Honestly...doctors.