PCOD stands for Polycystic Ovarian Disease. It is one of the most common conditions that affect 5% to 10% of women who lie in the age group of 12 to 45 years. It generally affects women in their reproductive age. The most prevalent problem that occurs in PCOD is the imbalance in the woman’s hormones. It becomes evident when there are irregularities in the menstrual cycle and ovulation period. Consequently, it gets challenging for the woman to conceive. The most evident features of PCOD are no ovulation, no or irregular periods, excessive acne on the skin, and hirsutism. Moreover, if the woman does not get timely treatment, she can develop other complications, like insulin-resistant diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol. This directly leads to heart diseases.
There are some evident symptoms of PCOD, which are relatively common in every patient. Here is a list of some common symptoms of the disease for your reference:
People with PCOD develop visible acne on various parts of the body, like the face, neck, and back. There is an evident increase in weight and the patient faces problems in losing it. Even after trying various activities, like gyming, aerobics, physical workout, and many more, there is no considerable change in weight loss.
The hair on the scalp starts becoming thin, even after using hair growth oils.
Irregularity in the menstrual cycle is one of the most prominent symptoms of having PCOD. Research says that women with PCOD experience less than nine periods in a year. There are some women who do not experience any periods at all. But, at the same time, there are people who have very heavy bleeding during their periods.
Not to mention, fertility problems do occur in people with PCOD or PCOS. A woman also experiences depression due to all the changes that are happening in her body due to the disease.
These are a few symptoms of PCOD that you must keep a check on. If you find anything fishy in your body, you must consult a doctor in the least possible time. The doctor also makes other investigations for sugar estimation, thyroid hormone tests, and ultrasound of the pelvic region. People also make use of things, like serum androgens and luteinizing hormones.
To get appropriate treatment for the disease, one must consult a doctor and try to investigate the root cause of the presence of the disease. Here are a few common causes of PCOD that you would know:
In general, females are responsible for making female sex men hormones. At the same time, they make a tiny amount of male sex hormones, called androgens. These movements in the female body help to regulate the natural development of eggs in the ovaries during periods.
PCOD is closely related to an imbalance in these sex hormones. They slightly begin to make more androgens. This causes irregularities in the ovulation, sometimes they even stop ovulating. This becomes the root cause of the growth of pimples and extra hair on the body of the patient.
Sac-like structures, called follicles, are present in the ovaries. These sacs contain female eggs. Generally, one or more eggs release at the time of the menstruation cycle. This process of the release of eggs is called ovulation.
If a person is having PCOD or PCOS, the eggs in these follicles do not attain maturity and fail to release from the ovaries. Instead, they form a very small cyst in the ovary, and hence the disease is called Polycystic ovary disease. PCOD seems to run in families, so the women who have it might have got it from their mothers or somebody else in the family. This may also get transmitted if someone from a close family has irregularity in periods or diabetes.
These are a few causes of PCOD. After knowing the root cause in your case, the first thing that you should do is to consult the doctor for the appropriate treatment.
Thanks Giving
This article is written and submitted to The E Today by Shrushti Mehta.
We thank her for her research and analysis and hope to see the awareness about health and nutrition being spread ahead to larger mass of our citizens.