My Period Lasted For 3 Straight Months Thanks To PCOS

"Huge blood clots the size of my palm also appeared"

Photo: Getty
Photo: Getty
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September is PCOS Awareness Month. PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome) is a common disorder that affects female hormone levels. When the ovaries produce an unusually high amount of male hormones called androgens, a hormonal imbalance occurs. The condition can lead to infrequent, absent or erratic menstrual periods due to the lack of ovulation (anovulation).

Here, a 34-year-old shares how the condition has severely impacted not just her menstrual cycle but also took her through a period of emotional distress.

My periods first stopped completely when I was 26.

About six months before that, I’d taken a trial run of birth control pills, as well as a combination of Lexapro and Xanax for my chronic anxiety and depression, so I thought those might have been the reason for my period suddenly stopping. While the doctor said that wasn't the case, some women on a health forum all said their periods had stopped while on said medications, so I didn’t really know where to go from there.

Of course, I went to my GP (general practitioner) afterwards, who gave me a course of medication to kickstart my period. It worked for the first month before my period soon disappeared again.

This got me a little worried since common wisdom says that regular periods are one of the most important biomarkers of health, but it also didn’t feel like I could do anything much about it either. 

And because I was moving to Sweden at the time to be with my partner, I couldn’t really follow up with the GP in Singapore to see if there was anything else I could try and it took a few months of settling into my new city to finally book an appointment with a gynaecologist.

Once I was there, they ran some tests and gave me an ultrasound. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an answer for me either, other than I should lose some weight. It would have been good advice if they hadn’t been super vague about it — it really just came off as good old fat-shaming. But sure, I gave it a go anyway, or as best as I could, without any real knowledge or background in health and exercise.

The thing about being depressed and anxious though, on top of being a massive perfectionist, was that I had no energy for anything. It felt like a negative spiral that I couldn’t get out of. If I tried to hit the oft-quoted ten thousand steps a day, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t do anything else for the next few days. If I got caught up in work or daily life, I often forgot to take a walk, and then I felt like I needed to start an exercise schedule from scratch.

Young woman touching bridge of nose to relieve headache while resting in bed.

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So for years, I would step in and out of this cycle, without any results, which also confused me, because I’d lost weight before by upping my exercise quota in Singapore. I didn’t really understand why all the things I tried, including buying a Ringfit (an exercising action role-playing game) and doing cardio for months didn’t help all that much. Was it age, or was it a different diet in a different country? I had no answers or leads.

The bleeding finally started... and didn't stop

It wasn’t until things came to a head six years later that I finally got my diagnosis for PCOS — thanks to a really weird side effect I had after catching Covid-19 in Nov 2022. 

My period started up again, a light period, followed by nothing in January 2023, before it became three continuous months of heavy bleeding from February to April. I’d never spent so much money on menstrual pads before.

I would soak through a full night-time maxi pad in just one hour. It made it impossible to even go out for a short time because I was afraid of bleeding through my clothing.

I would go through a few maxi pads in a day, and during the worst of the bleeding, I would soak through a full night-time maxi pad in just one hour. It made it impossible to even go out for a short time because I was afraid of bleeding through my clothing. Huge blood clots the size of my palm also appeared. My lips turned white from the excessive bleeding, a sign of my iron levels dipping very low. 

Although I booked another visit with the gynaecologist, now pretty worried, it was still a few weeks away so I looked online to see if anyone else had had similar experiences. Across a few forums, women shared that their periods had become much heavier after they had Covid-19, with some women saying that it had lasted over a month for them. No one seemed to have had it for three months though.

The diagnosis

It was important to try and get a more regular menstrual cycle going, as a continuously thickened lining might lead to cancer in my later years. 

The day of the gynaecologist visit came. The nurse took one look via ultrasound at my ovaries and cheerfully told me that it was nothing much, just that my PCOS had intersected oddly with the post-effect of heavy bleeding from Covid-19.

I was shocked. I’d heard the term thrown around a lot, but never suspected that I had it.

She explained what it was to me:

PCOS, or polycystic ovary syndrome, is a condition where several egg follicles might develop but never mature enough to release eggs and continue the menstrual cycle as normal. So I might have irregular periods, and when they finally came, they might be heavier than normal because they would be a cumulation of the ones I had missed.

My original tests from the gynaecologist in 2017 also showed high levels of androgen — another sign that pointed to PCOS. She told me that for many women with PCOS, the uterine lining might thicken perpetually and that it was important to try and get a more regular menstrual cycle going, as a continuously thickened lining might lead to cancer in my later years. 

It was quite frustrating to know that I’d had the same tests run in 2017, and yet I had not been told then that I had PCOS.

Easing the effects

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More importantly, she talked about managing my stress levels and diet, as PCOS tends to also result in a dysregulation of cortisol levels and insulin resistance. Strength-training exercises were suggested for me, as building muscle would help my current efforts in cardio exercises to regulate my blood sugar levels. 

It had never occurred to me that my constant fatigue was not only because of my mental health, but also the result of factors that I didn’t even know existed.

As to why my periods had stopped so suddenly after being on birth control pills and mental health medication? The nurse theorised that they might have simply coincided with the usual onset age of PCOS, which is usually around age 25.

She gave me a course of progestin to take over the next four months. I’ve been on them for three now, and it’s been a relief to have a regular, lighter period again. Making all the changes she suggested hasn’t been easy to do all at once, but I hope that I’ll be able to incorporate them slowly, and make lasting changes that will keep most of the PCOS symptoms away.

Note: The medication mentioned in the article was prescribed to the writer. Refer to your healthcare professional for a diagnosis.

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