Why I'm Thankful for PCOS

My Turkey Doodle

I've seen a lot of posts on various social media sites/blogs/text messages about what people are thankful for this year. Generally it's the usual family, friends, pets, job, etc that almost anyone is thankful for, even if they don't always express it. There's nothing wrong with expressing your thankfulness for these things but this year I wanted to do something different. For the past week or so I've been trying to look for the silver lining as they say, and come up with why I can be thankful for my PCOS.

I've only been able to come up with one reason: it gives me oily skin. Normally that is nothing to be thankful about, but due to my situation it is indeed a blessing. Ever since I can remember I suffered from eczema, which is sort of the opposite of acne. It is a very itchy condition that would lead me to scratch myself until I bled. It also tends to get itchier as it heals, so the closer I would get to being healed the more likely I was to re-open them again and re-start the cycle. It was very bad all the way down my right arm, from my shoulder to my hand. So bad that at one point I couldn't even remember what it felt like not to itch. I also had to be very careful what kind of soap products I used, and when it got really bad couldn't even take proper showers (there's a special no water necessary cleaning solution my dermatologist would give me for those times).

Thanks to my PCOS this all got incredibly better after I hit puberty. I now really only have to worry about one spot on my right hand, the bottoms of my feet, and the top part of my right ankle (like where my ankle meets the top of my foot, I can't think of how to describe it other than that). I can pick up and use pretty much any body wash I want, use whatever hand soap is lying around, and even use hand sanitizer when the spot on my hand isn't bothering me! For the most part people can't even tell when they look at me, which is much better than looking like some scaly dinosaur. I still can't wear rings, but overall my quality of life greatly improved skin-wise.

In a way I can also thank my eczema for keeping my oily skin in check. So many women have horrible acne problems and that's something I've never had to worry about. I'll get the odd pimple now and then but nothing that would give me scars. Basically the two cancel each other out and that's something I'm thankful for.