I can think of a million reasons to not start this blog but something deep down inside of me keeps asking me to do it. So here I am.

*DISCLAIMER* To anyone that does not want to hear about the wonders of the female body stop now. To everyone else. Dive in.

At the age of 14 most of my friends had started to get their periods. I had not. By 15 I was getting curious where it was. By 16 I had my first serious boyfriend and was curious when and where my so called period was. My mother happened to still see her OBGYN who delivered me and so she made a phone call. I was to go in and get a series of blood tests done, a pelvic ultrasound and answer a series of questions.  “Do you have excess facial hair?” was the first question out of my dad’s mouth as we were sitting around the kitchen table discussing everything. I had never even heard of PCOS let alone any desire to talk about the lack of hair on my face at that given moment.

When the blood results came in, I was called in to see a female fertility specialist at a nearby clinic. I was 16. I had no desire to get pregnant,  I just wanted my period. After a short conversation I was whisked into a nearby examination room where the doctor asked if I would mind if five of her students came in to have a look at what was showing on the screen. “Beautiful, perfect pearls!” the doctor said. A classic case of PCOS, Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. We went back into her office and briefly discussed what this meant. Although I had little to none of the symptoms of a traditional PCOS case I was going to be put on birth control to bring on menstruation.

Sure enough, with the aid of birth control I was bleeding regularly. I finally felt some aspect of normal and could relate to what other girls my age were going through.