Hi, I'm also new here. Just joined this forum yesterday. And started the Atkins diet yesterday, too, for the first time.

I was diagnosed PCOS almost 14 years ago by an infertility specialist/endocrinologist. I don't think I ever had a normal period ... HAd my first spotting when I was almost 12, but would bleed only every 4-6 months. When I was 17 I started hemoraging, and that's when the dr. recommended I go on birth control ... that was 1977.

I got married in 1979 (18 years old) and about a year later went off the pill. 10 years of infertility ... doing only what the insurance company would pay for ... taking temps, marking charts, etc. And I tried clomid, nothing worked ... all of this while I continued college and graduate school.

I started gaining weight at puberty and it just kept coming. At one point I reached 240 and decided to diet using a low-cal and excercise approach. I lost 60 pounds -- I was about 25 at the time. Then I lost my inertia. I went off the diet, back to the sweets, and the weight started coming back.

The infertility specialist who finally diagnosed the PCOS in 1988 suggested fertility shots (pergonal and metrodin) and I was pregant twice (miscarried the first time). Our daughter is now almost twelve years old! After she was born, I went back on the pill, because it was the only way to have any semblance of normalcy.

The infertility route was difficult and emotionally draining ... we decided not to try again because the stress was more than we wanted to put ourselves and our new family through.

It was only a couple of years ago that I first heard (on the news) of the correlation between PCOS and insulin resistance. I was diabetic during the pregnancy and figured with my weight (which went back up to nearly 300 pounds) diabetes was an inevitable reality. The insulin connection made sense to me ...

I spoke to a gyn about it when I turned 39 and she didn't seem to think there was any reason for me to do anything but stay on the pill -- which seemed to be working (at least as far as my periods were concerned).

A year later I saw a new family doctor, who happened to be "up" on PCOS. She told me everything about insulin resistance and thought that if I started with Glucophage now I might relieve my other other symptoms -- like weight gain -- and I might avoid or postpone things like diabetes and heart disease. OR she said I might try a low-carb diet ... at the time I knew nothing about them, they sounded too "trendy" to me to be any good, and I didn't have the will power or stamina to try another diet.

So I went on the medication. I didn't notice much difference, but at the same time I was developing thyroid disease (hashimotos). Now I'm also taking thyroid medication and that has made a big difference for me ... I'm feeling more energetic.

So, I've done my homework now and decided to start Atkins. So far so good, but it's only my second day. :-)