Doubts because of possible PCOS?

[Equinox12]

Alright, so I'm hoping to see a doctor sometime this week because I suspect I have PCOS. I posted on another forum, worrying that I was intersex because my body is very androgynous/masculine and quite a few said to get checked for PCOS. After looking at the symptoms, I'm 90% sure that I do suffer from the condition but I'll have to wait until my mom can take me to see a doctor to find out.

Anyway, I've been thinking and I've become super confused, about sex and gender really. Like my whole world has been messed up :/ Am I still biologically female? Or am I somewhere in between? Besides that, I've been confused about my gender too. I've identified as FTM for a year, I think. I've always felt different from females butI always thought that it was because I was FTM, what if I'm just a masculine woman? If I could have characteristics of both, maybe it would've be so bad. I still don't want breasts but there are women who want to be flat chested.

What do I do? Is it likely that I would change my gender identity at this point in time? Is it possible that I have gender dysphoria because of PCOS, maybe if they gave me testosterone lowering drugs my dysphoria would go away? Any advice?

[Wild_Goose_Chase]

Hi :) I'm not sure I can help much but I have PCOS...I've never felt like other females but neither have I felt like I'm not female. For me personally I don't think PCOS has any bearing on my gender identity.

[Heart]

If you're worried about it, it's absolutely fine to hold off on the transition things until you have this sorted!! No one would (or should) blame you for that. Navigating the health system can get stressful in and of itself; if you feel like taking some time off the gender journey in order to figure out what this means for you, then do it! PCOS is known to change hormone levels, and that can change other things sometimes. That of course doesn't mean it's not real! You feel the way you do, and that is truth, no matter what is happening that may or may not cause it.

My advice would be this: take some time to work through the health system and get the diagnosis. Do the treatment(s) they recommend, and then come back to gender. Maybe you feel the same way and maybe you don't. It doesn't matter. What matters is how you feel, not what causes it or what changes it. Transition will always be there, there's no rush.

But also, if you feel like transitioning, this medical thing should not hold you back if you don't want to be held back.

For what it's worth, someone I know well and love greatly (and I'm trying to keep this anonymous, sorry) has PCOS, and she says she "is not attached" to gender, but still identifies as a girl. She still uses "she" pronouns and is "mostly gay" (ie lesbian) and all that jazz. She's beautiful and awesome, and a woman. So not all people with PCOS identify as genderqueer. Maybe your PCOS factors in to your gender identity, and if it does, that's fine and doesn't delegitimize it at all. And maybe it doesn't, like with that woman I'm talking about.

I know these things can be scary. I hope we can support you through everything you need. *hugs*

[Gloom]

Hey, I have PCOS and know a couple other people who do offhand.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you how changing your hormone levels would affect how you feel, but I can talk about my own experience and the experiences of the other people I know.

I know one person with PCOS who, like me, identifies as mostly agender but still prefers to be on T. They apparently went on birth control pills for most of their teenagehood but it didn't change their gender identity so they eventually just switched to T.

I was offered birth control pills, but never went on them because the concept squicked me out a lot. I identify pretty firmly in the neutral zone and I didn't want any body changes in the feminine direction. I was also worried that it might change how I feel about my gender. It's true that it might have helped with my gender dysphoria at the time, but I was also afraid of being erased...being non-binary was a pretty huge part of who I was/am and it was difficult to imagine myself without that. These days I'm on T and while I think I prefer it, I do go back and forth about whether I want it sometimes--but no real regrets about anything and a lot of it is related to anxiety problems I have. I also had top surgery but I have 0 regrets about that. My gender identity has been pretty constant throughout all of this. There are times when I think I'm FTM instead of non-binary but they are rare and usually related to social factors (it turns out living as gender neutral in a world obsessed with a gender binary is really hard). I also questioned my gender identity super hard before top surgery, but I concluded that it didn't matter to me because I wanted to have the surgery regardless of how I identified.

Another person I know with PCOS identifies as female, and I've read a lot about women with the condition being annoyed by the masculinizing effects that can happen. I think the obvious flag for me was that my experienced differed greatly from theirs. I either liked or completely didn't care about the masculinizing effects I had from PCOS. It did make coming out to my parents even harder though, since my mom doesn't and will never understand why I didn't at least try the birth control pills. I will never know how that would have affected the situation, but I'm totally at peace with that.

This is really your decision. If you know the possible effects of the drugs they offer you and are not adverse to them, then there's really no harm in trying. That way you could rule out PCOS as a possible cause of dysphoria. On the other hand, if you don't want to for any reason, you don't have to.

Feel free to drop me a line or reply here if you have more questions. Here to help, and I hope you can get everything sorted out! :)

[Grumpy Alien]

I can't help much with gender but I had similar PCOS worries. I say don't worry too much about terminology. Get to the doctor and think about how you ultimately view yourself. Those come before any labels.

[Equinox12]

Thank you for the replies! ^^ I'm seeing a doctor this Friday after school, which is a fair way away considering it's only Tuesday afternoon but it's better than nothing. I'm super nervous since I hate blood and needles and getting ultrasounds and doctors in general :P I'll update once I see a doctor~

[Chardog]

Alright, so I'm hoping to see a doctor sometime this week because I suspect I have PCOS. I posted on another forum, worrying that I was intersex because my body is very androgynous/masculine and quite a few said to get checked for PCOS. After looking at the symptoms, I'm 90% sure that I do suffer from the condition but I'll have to wait until my mom can take me to see a doctor to find out.

Anyway, I've been thinking and I've become super confused, about sex and gender really. Like my whole world has been messed up :/ Am I still biologically female? Or am I somewhere in between? Besides that, I've been confused about my gender too. I've identified as FTM for a year, I think. I've always felt different from females butI always thought that it was because I was FTM, what if I'm just a masculine woman? If I could have characteristics of both, maybe it would've be so bad. I still don't want breasts but there are women who want to be flat chested.

What do I do? Is it likely that I would change my gender identity at this point in time? Is it possible that I have gender dysphoria because of PCOS, maybe if they gave me testosterone lowering drugs my dysphoria would go away? Any advice?

PCOS has nothing to do with gender identity. You are still biologically a female. Based on issues I've had with my reproductive system, it's been assumed I had it to some degree. That being said, gender is based in the mind- not the reproductive organs. While PCOS can boost your T levels to a degree, it isn't an indicator or cause of being transgender. If you have PCOS and are trans, those two things are separate of each other (correlation does not equal causation).

What do you do? That is up to you.

Do you change your gender identity? If that is something you feel is appropriate for you outside of the PCOS issue.. I wouldn't make a change based on the diagnosis alone.

Dysphoria because of PCOS? I'd say that's unlikely, as it's your female features that would be causing you distress.

Advice? I think you need to think about your gender without considering the PCOS as a factor. If you didn't know you had PCOS, how would you feel otherwise? That's what you should base your decisions on...

[Emery.]

I'd say... we don't know. I've read somewhere (not in English) that hormonal issues can affect how we feel gender. But. The thing is we don't really know. If you turn out to have PCOS, you can try birth control and see how you feel. If you stop feeling like a boy - then it's one dysphoria less. It's nothing to worry about, it's a reason to be happy. If you don't, well, things will stay as they are, and you know how it is now, so nothing is going to happen. Nevertheless, your identity is not any less valid even if it is influenced by your hormones. Lots of cis people, I'd say most, feel like men or women exactly because of their hormones, and it's totally valid, nobody questions them. Trans people often also feel like what they are because of pre-natal hormones and sensitivity of their brains to hormones. It doesn't make anyone's identity less valid.

Btw, my blood went to the lab yesterday too, being tested for testosterne and such stuff, so we're all in this together. I feel like they took a whole arsenal of ampules of my blood to feed a clan of vampires xP