"By 28, I was already accepting that I might just be 'the PCOS girl' forever. Every appointment meant a new prescription. My jaw had that constant cycle of cystic breakouts. Coworkers would ask if I was okay when it was just another bad skin week.
It destroyed my confidence more than I expected. I avoided photos. Stopped wearing my hair up because of the thinning at the crown. Caught myself googling 'why does inositol stop working' at 1am more than once. Some days it honestly felt pointless to even try.
I tried Soluma without much belief, more as a last step before accepting birth control indefinitely. Within two weeks, I noticed the anxiety I'd normalized just... quieter. And by the third week, the jawline flare I was expecting didn't come.
By month three, I wasn't thinking about my skin before meetings anymore. I didn't feel 'fixed,' but I finally stopped feeling hopeless — and that alone changed everything.
My DHEA-S went from 387 to 241. My gynecologist reduced my spironolactone. She said whatever I'd changed, keep doing it. Four years of being told I was being managed appropriately. Twelve weeks to finally move in the right direction."