Different

I've always felt like I was different from other girls my age growing up.  Coming into adolescence I always seemed to be a little behind others my age.  I can remember being in 5th or 6th grade and anxiously awaiting my last few teeth to fall out so that I could have braces like everyone else in my class already did.  Most people dreaded getting braces, but I wanted them so badly just so I would fit in.  I watched as people came back from their orthodontist appointments every month with a new color combo on their bands. I couldn't wait for the day when I could have green bands on my bottom braces and red bands on top for the Christmas season (and black and orange for Halloween of course!).  However, by the time my last tooth fell out and the braces were put on everyone else was getting theirs off and having braces wasn't so cool anymore....

In 5th grade they made us watch the much-anticipated "sex" videos.  They separated us out and put boys in one classroom and girls in another.  I was so excited thinking they were going to explain in great detail how men and women have sex.  As it turns out, we watched some corny 10 minute video on girls getting their periods for the first time and how to use a sanitary pad.  Boy was I disappointed! I can't imagine what kind of video the boys had to watch.  If they weren't showing us videos on how to have sex, what else would 5th grade boys need to know?!  Each girl received a little packet that included a pamphlet and a couple sanitary pads.  I came home and put my packet in my dresser drawer, and would get it out on occasion, anxiously awaiting the day I would be able to use them.  Most girls in my class had already started their periods by now and knew how to use all that stuff.  But not me....

As the years went by with no period, my mom would reassure me that I was normal and just took a little longer than other girls my age.  As I would cry myself to sleep on many, many nights, she would always remind me how I had to wait longer than everyone else to get braces, and I was just a little slower with menstruating also and eventually I would catch up.  It made me feel better for awhile, but it was always in the back of my mine how un-normal I was.... 

When I turned 14 with no period in sight, my mom made an appointment for me with her gynecologist.  He sent me for a blood test to check my thyroid, which came back normal.  He said if I hadn't gotten my period in a year to come back.  That year came and went with no period so I went back to the doctor, and he told me the same thing.  By the time another year passed, the doctor finally prescribed some pills (Provera) for me to take to induce my first period.  I took the pills and finally, at age 16, I got my first period!  I continued to get a period after that but my cycles were very long, averaging about 1 period every two months....

I didn't know then, but I now know these long cycles are one of many symptoms of PCOS.