![]() But these particular traits were not distressing for me, despite the expectation for them to be. The hyperandrogenism and virilization associated with PCOS can cause great distress for many cis women, manifesting as a type of gender dysphoria. Not because of the associated health risks but because of its outward manifestations. It was always framed as invasive, unwanted, and ruinous. ![]() Even so, the more I read, the more I began to feel persuaded to regard my body’s hormonal architecture as a blight. ![]() ![]() I would soon come to understand that PCOS treatments were often simply gender-affirming care for cis women-measures taken to ensure that they could continue to “feel like women.” The resources I found offered remedies to help lower testosterone, reduce facial and body hair, increase chances of pregnancy, reduce body weight, and regulate or restore menstruation-all things tied to the traditional vision of womanhood, all things I had no interest in addressing. They not only operated on assumptions about the gender identity of those seeking out PCOS resources and community, but also presumed a desire to remain committed to a particular performance of that gender identity, staying neatly within the bounds of womanhood and what womanhood is permitted to look like. The language and information I encountered were heavily gendered and cisnormative, often failing to consider the experience of anyone other than cis women. While PCOS is linked to various health conditions-such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer-these were not the things most resources focused on, nor were they discussed with me during my medical diagnosis. But finding those things proved to be quite difficult for me, as someone who is at odds with a binary understanding of gender. ![]() PCOS ( Polycystic ovary syndrome) is defined as a hormone disorder characterized by “complex interactions between the ovaries, androgens, other hormones, and insulin.” A significant feature is elevated androgens, or “male hormones.”įollowing my PCOS diagnosis, I went in search of resources and community. ![]()
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