My Story(Help!!)

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
1

First off here are my questions first then my story…

  1. Does it usually take this long?
  2. How much Longer?
  3. Is there anything else I can do in conjunction with electrolysis to speed it up?
  4. Should I find a new electrologist?

I am 32 years old around 18 a few thick black hairs started to pop up on my chin. So I started plucking, waxing, pluckin waxing,plucking (you get it!) etc for 11 years. Feb of 2007 I finally contacted a electrologist I told her it wasn’t that bad so she told me not to pluck or wax till I went to see her a week later. OMG I could not believe how much thick black hair I had. She said the hair was very stubborn and it would be a journey so I was in it for the long hall. Finally after 2 years of seeing her (yes the amount of hair and thickness of hair decreased a lot I thought it would be gone. Now during all this I kept talking to my Dr. about it and she acted like I was being vain and never saw it as a issue. So 2 yeasr after electrolysis I went back to my Dr. and demanded she made this an issue. She sent me to one of her colegues (I thought I was going to an endocrinologist) but she sent me to a fertility specialist. So I just went with it he did blood work (not to extensive and ultra sound of my ovaries) blood work fine but ovaries I guess showed I had PCOS. All he cared about was getting me pregnant rather dealing with the issue I was there for. So now I am 3 years into it (1/2 hr each week with total clearance). With still alot of dark black hairs on my face(it growing in new places now lip, back, feet, nipples). THe day after my sessin with her new hairs are already popping out. Could someone please give some advise, encouragement …PLEASE HELP!! Sorry it’s sooooooo long!

2

Hi, sorry about all the frustration. Does not sound very fun.

Regarding time length: Since you’ve seen improvement, I’m going to assume your electrologist is a good one. Normally an area would take about 9-12ish months to be completely finished, but as you’re experiencing, hormone issues will utterly destroy that time-line (PCOS is a hormone problem in case you didn’t already know). This has nothing to do with effectiveness of the electrologist. The hair you’re seeing is brand new hair that is being stimulated by hormonal issues and if you hadn’t had all this electrolysis, you’d have the original hair PLUS this new hair. Yikes!

You NEED to get the hormones under control first. That is the only way to stop this. Good for you for making your doctor listen to your concerns! PCOS is really really common and mostly the symptoms are managed with birth control pills or anti-androgens. Common pills for this stuff are Yaz/Yasmin/Dianette/Spironolactone/etc, if you’re a good candidate. It won’t remove your hair (though you might see some reduction), but it will prevent new hair from forming in most situations.

Also, there are some theories that cutting things out of your diet can help (I’m not into that personally, but I think James here suggests removing artificial sweeteners so you may want to ask him what’s worked for his patients). Losing weight in general is supposed to help if you can manage it.

Whatever you choose, fix the issue, then you’ll probably be done with electrolysis in a matter of months. Good luck!

3

MPK’s advice is excellent, and the only thing I can add is that clients I have treated, have noticed greatly reduced new growth, while following low carb diets. The effect only seems to last while the diet is adhered to. There is some sort of relationship with insulin production, that I do not fully understand and PCOS.

4

PCOS is a syndrome that has a lot of side effects. Its affect on the ovaries is not really the important bit. It used to be thought that cysts on the ovaries caused it, but now it is understood that insulin resistance (the precursor to diabetes) causes it all. There is a balance of insulin with the body’s hormones, and when any part of the equation is out of whack, you can have one or more of the many symptoms of PCOS, including:

  • Hirsutism (unwanted hair) especially in a male pattern
  • Male pattern baldness
  • Weight gain in the abdomen area
  • Acne, especially cystic acne
  • Skin tags
  • Cysts on ovaries, causing a lot of pain
  • Endometriosis
  • Very heavy menstrual periods
  • Very irregular or non-existent menstrual periods
  • Inability to ovulate or conceive
  • Extremely difficult time losing weight

It’s really not fun. There is no cure. Here are some of the tactics that help some people:

  • If you can, lose weight. It will make you less insulin resistant. Also, fat produces estrogen, so it is a vicious cycle of hormones. It’s very difficult for a lot of PCOS women to lose weight though, so please don’t let it affect your self-esteem if you can’t.
  • Exercise - moderate exercise such as 20 minutes of walking a day will make you less insulin resistant even if you don’t lose weight.
  • A low carb diet helps SOME people (not all). It doesn’t help if limiting carbs ends up causing you to binge.
  • Birth control pills short-circuit the body’s production of estrogen and progesterone, effectively masking many of the symptoms. The effect only lasts as long as you are on birth control pills. There are health risks with long-term birth-control usage, and you may need to try different pills until you find one which works well with your body. Also, obviously birth control pills are counterproductive if you are trying to conceive.
  • Progesterone, when taken for 10 days per month, can give you a menstrual period if you are not having one, and can give you a regular and light one if you are having trouble with that. There is one form (Prometrium is the name in the US) which is safe to take if you are trying to conceive. It is important to have regular periods for uterine health if you have PCOS.
  • Spironolactone (aka aldactone) is an anti-androgen which is taken mainly as a protectant against male-pattern heart disease. Some of its side effects include slowing excess hirsutism and male-pattern baldness, which are both problems in some PCOS women. (How ironic that some of us lose it on our heads and gain it on our chins)
  • Diabetic medications such as Metformin (Glucophage) can help to normalize blood glucose in SOME diabetic and pre-diabetic women, and can often alleviate PCOS symptoms. Sadly, I personally am not one of those women. Your mileage may vary.

From how out-of-control your hair growth is, I think that you need to see an endocrinologist ASAP (as you seem to know). If you are trying to conceive, you will need to see a reproductive endocrinologist, who can help you and specializes in PCOS. I don’t want to be Debbie Downer, but many women with PCOS simply cannot conceive on their own. Often, they are successful with the right medical help. Mostly, please realize that as awful as the hair growth is, medically it is only a symptom of a much more serious (but manageable) issue.

Please PM me or ask here if you have any more questions. Also please check out a great website for PCOS sufferers at http://soulcysters.net. It is a forum like this one. Sorry this post is long, but hopefully it will be helpful to some women.

5

Thanks for the great advice… more helpful than my Dr.'s!! I have decided not to do birth control pills because I have had a few miscarriages and I feel it would be taking two steps back concerning concieving. And yes I have almost every symptom on that list. I am 145lbs 5’5 I have been trying to lose 25 lbs (all in my stomach) but it is really difficult. I am going to try the low carb diet, hopefully that will help. Thanks for the feedback.

6

You should understand that if the hormones are not under control whether using spiro or birth control etc, you will need touchups for the NEW hair your body will develop in the future after you finish electrolysis treatments.

7

I had treatment for an unrelated condition through The Pfeiffer Research Institute, which cured my longstanding hypoglycaemia, and changed my body shape. I have heard that it is quite sucessful in treating PCOS. It rebalances biochemistry, using custom made vitamins and minerals, after extensive blood testing.

8

Many people have PCOS due to accumulated food additives, and ohter chemical synergies. being more careful about what one eats and drinks can go a long way to reversing it. Detoxing and increasing nutritional defenses is also key.

(think about this, you put toothpast in your mouth, that has sodium fluoride in it, the active ingredient of rat poison by the way, and then you use a commercial antiperspirant/deodorant with aluminum salts and alchol in it, and you drink tap water with chlorine and more fluoride. Sodium plus aluminum, plus chlorine combines inside you to make an aluminum fluoride salt, and chloroform. Great way to get alzhiemer’s and lower your immune system strength)

9

James, I’m sorry but aluminum has been eliminated as a possible cause for Alzheimer’s, and PCOS is simply not caused by food additives. It is a medical syndrome, and most women who have it already have it as soon as they hit puberty. You guys go on and on about not promoting hair-removal myths, so please do not promote PCOS myths either. Women do not have PCOS because of anything they have to done to themselves. PCOS is a strongly hereditary syndrome of disorders.

For what it’s worth, I encounter the same attitudes about diabetes. Diabetics do not “bring it on themselves.” There are lots of really fat people whose bodies can handle insulin just fine, and quite a few thin ones who cannot. This is true for type 2 “Adult Onset” diabetes as well as Type 2 “Juvenile” diabetes (which also can manifest in adulthood).

As a PCOS sufferer myself since at least age 15 (while living in a vegetarian household with very few processed foods available), I do try to advocate for women with PCOS and spread the accurate info around. No offense intended. :slight_smile:

10

Alzheimer’s is a tough nut. Although many things can be said to be coinciding in many cases, no large number of researchers seems to agree on much when it comes to that. Diabetes, on the other hand, is a different case. When researchers want to do diabetes tests, they take baby rats, and inject them with good ole MSG, MonoSodium Glutimate. This ubiquitous food additive that is in your potato chips, soup, candy, fast food restarant items, and so on is known to cause insulin resistence, increased carbohydrate hunger, weight gain, hormonal disruption, and in heavy use, diabetes. When the commercial boasts, “Betcha can’t eat just one”, they know what they are talking about. That feeling when you have eaten a whole bag, and want more, or when you eat a whole sub at SubWay, and feel like you want another one, is a drug effect from MSG, also known as “hydrolyzed vegetable protein”.

I don’t mean to say that PCOS sufferers “brought it on themselves” only that they have been born into a world where it would be hard for them NOT to end up having this problem. They are exposed to things that accumulate in their system until they have one or another problem eventually. Regardless of what one believes about Alzheimer’s and Aluminum, there is no good reason for Aluminum to be a part of anything that is in food, or touches your body. It is known to be poisonous to the human system.

Buddy Ebson was the origonal actor tapped to portray The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. The makeup they put on his face and hands was made with mercury and aluminum. He got so sick that he had to drop out of the picture, and said that he never fully recovered from the experience, and was sickly the rest of his life.

So, just ask yourself, how often is a woman exposed, unknowingly to things that have an effect on her hormonal systems? From air pollution, water contamination, to unknown food additves, to artificial sweeteners, how many things would build up and have a synergistic effect to where constant exposure of small amounts would equal a large problem? There is a reason why the rules for Organic Farming tolerates small levels of chemicals being found in the organic prodce, it is because, one can’t keep the toxins from leaching into your soil, air, and food, even if one doesn’t directly spray it on. People are still finding DDT in their blood when testing for toxins, and that has been banned for over 30 years, and we assume not in use. Children born this year, are still testing positive for DDT.

11

The rats were getting lots more MSG than any human would ever injest: SciELO Brazil - Monosodium glutamate (MSG)-obese rats develop glucose intolerance and insulin resistance to peripheral glucose uptake Monosodium glutamate (MSG)-obese rats develop glucose intolerance and insulin resistance to peripheral glucose uptake

Also, you are not understanding the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, James. Type 1 diabetes comes from a pancreas that does not produce the islet cells which create insulin, which can process glucose. Type 2 diabetes means that the body becomes resistant to the insulin, so that more insulin is needed to process the same amount of glucose.

Sure, if you inject rats with anything in high amounts they will get diseases. It is not medically valid. Lots of people inject lots of MSG (and other glucose-rich products such as rice and potatoes) without their bodies ever breaking down. Others eat a healthy diet and get the problem. The problem is not the food, but the pancreas. PCOS and insulin resistance are interlinked. YOu can’t cure either one of them. You can only manage them. Some people do have luck by reducing glucose intake or adding protein and/or fiber to slow the intake of glucose. But not everyone!

We used to think that stomach ulcers were caused by stress too. Now they are cured with an antibiotic. We don’t know everything. We probably don’t even know 1% of how our bodies work. But MSG has been used for years and years in Asian cultures with very few ill effects. Also, until the 20th century, most people ate way more carbs than protein, and most people did not have diabetes. Diabetes very quickly led to death back then because there was no insulin, no test strips, etc. The brain needs a significant amount of carbs just to have enough glucose to function.

Here is some info on the aluminum <–> Alzheimer’s link: http://www.alzheimerinfo.info/alzheimers-disease--myths.php

12

My theory is that our increased exposure to so many unnatural substances is changing our DNA, and increasing our tendencies to lots of illnesses. What do others think?

13

I believe in the synergistic cumulative theory. A good book to read on this is The One Hundred Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald. Another good read is Murder By Injection by the late Eustace Mullins, who passed little over a month ago.

14

I don’t think you “get” PCOS from anything other than a hereditary or chance hormonal condition. Bad diet and other negative factors just make it worse. So you can get it slightly under control by improving the latter, but you can’t change your hormonal balance without something affecting the hormones, i.e. hormonal medication. There is a reason that you get your symptoms back once you stop medication. I don’t think there’ve been any claims by anyone stating they completely got rid of their PCOS via a change in diet or otherwise.

Btw, in many other countries, they don’t have the processed foods and diets that many Americans have and there are still women with PCOS.

15

I agree with all of this. Also of interest is that women who have total hysterectomies don’t have relief from PCOS symptoms at all (to many women’s intense disappointment).

16

I have read that Insulite Labs get really good results reversing this condition, by rebalancing ones biochemistry. Their site is worth a look. It is a truly horrible condition in so many ways.

17

I know it is a waste of my time to say this, but what the hell, I am a professional time waster, some say.

Anyway, here it goes; what I am saying is that in order to treat PCOS, you have to put something into your body. As for how one got it, I really can’t try to explain what takes books to discuss. I frequently post the titles of books that give great information with 25 page bibliographies, and I don’t have evidence that many people who discount what these books say, have ever read them to follow the trail.

Many things that we call hereditary are not genetic in the way we think of (no way to avoid) but are rather a kin to a disease state being passed along because the mother was experiencing some problem, or did not have enough of something to be able to pass along a better situation. Some things can be addressed at a later date, some can not.

18

Yes, the treatment involves taking specific vitamins and herbs.

19

I think I’m going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I don’t understand what I could have put into my body by age 15 to give me PCOS, especially since I was eating an organic vegetarian diet, by edict of my parents, and I was a very active kid.