New Endocrinologist

When I left the office of the local endocrinologist, I knew I would not be going back. I needed to find someone who was more compassionate and caring and treated me as an individual. This first guy was a jerk and I wasn't going to support his business.

I looked on the internet and called around looking for an appointment with a specialist (a Reproductive Endocrinologist.) I got extremely lucky and when I reached an office in the larger city we are close to, they had just gotten a new doctor to their well-established practice. He was someone with lots of experience who just happened to move to the area recently from Atlanta. In fact, he could see me on Monday (I was calling on a Friday.) I was scheduled to go the next Monday (after my horrible appointment on Wed with the other guy). I asked my husband to come along this time to help have someone else to digest the information and to have some more support. He agreed.

We met with this doctor on Monday afternoon. He was obviously new to the practice because he was unsure of how the procedures went, but he was EXTREMELY HELPFUL. He sat and talked with us for about 3 hours, explaining PCOS, the criteria for diagnosing it, the chances of future pregnancies, normal course of treatment, etc. He then sent me for an ultrasound to check my ovaries for cysts and said that I should make an appointment in another month to discuss the results of the ultrasound.

He used the Rotterdam Criteria to diagnose PCOS in which the patient needs to have 2/3 characteristics to be diagnosed. I already had the hormone levels that were off and I needed to have polycystic appearing ovaries to be completely diagnosed. He said he would discuss those results at my next appointment.

The first Endocrinologist (early Aug)

So the office made an appointment for me to see a local (regular) endocrinologist. We live close to a small city, but I made an appointment at the office in the small city we live in. I figured it didn't really matter since I didn't have PCOS anyway.

I sat and waited in this office for about an hour and a half before getting called in. I had appointments scheduled at work all day, and waiting just meant not working for me. Not working meant not getting paid. Once he called me in, he was very matter-of-fact. He told me I had PCOS due to the blood work from my gynecologists office. He ran his hands along my neck and said "I knew those would be there" referring to the small number of skin tags I had on my neck. He told me I was insulin resistant because my father is diabetic and he said I was not ovulating. He said his office did not do ultrasound to check the ovaries for cysts and that it wasn't important anyway. He said that if I were to get pregnant (since I asked him if it would be OK if we tried), he said that I could have a baby that was a hermaphrodite due to the excess of male hormones. He then asked if he could do a physical examination. When he saw my thighs he said that they were very large and muscular, probably due to the testosterone. He was not nice in the way he delivered any of this news. He was almost mean and insulting and I felt like crying the whole time.

He said he wanted to run more blood work and that he would put me on Metformin to help with the PCOS. He then left the room. He didn't tell me whether we were done or not and I sat there in shock for about 5 minutes before I figured he must have be done. I went out to check about blood work and the office informed me that they don't do it there. I would have to go somewhere else. In addition, the next appointment they had available was in mid-September. This meant I had PCOS and there was nothing I could do about it for another 6 weeks. I just wanted to treat the problem and get pregnant.

I left his office and cried in my car. As I made it to my next appointment at work, the woman I work with told me she was pregnant with her second child. She is unmarried and they tried for one month this time around. Great timing...