Dr. House, MD

I used to be addicted to this show a long time ago, but I stopped watching it right around the time he went into rehab. Anyways, I was watching a rerun of it late one night and the "story" was about a little overweight girl who had a heart attack. I won't go into detail but House figured out that she has a tumor on her pituitary gland or in other words, Cushing's.

So that got me thinking. I have similar "issues", minus the whole heart attack thing, and I went to the most reliable thing that I could, Dr. Google.

Oh dear God, I think that I have Cushing's now! Seriously, the symptoms mirror almost the exact same symptoms as PCOS.

The exact definition of Cushing's is:

Cushing's syndrome occurs when your body is exposed to high levels of the hormone cortisol for a long time. The most common cause of Cushing's syndrome, sometimes called hypercortisolism, is the use of oral corticosteroid medication. The condition can also occur when your body makes too much cortisol.

Symptoms:

Common signs and symptoms involve progressive obesity and skin changes, such as:

• Weight gain and fatty tissue deposits, particularly around the midsection and upper back, in the face (moon face) and between the shoulders (buffalo hump)
• Pink or purple stretch marks (striae) on the skin of the abdomen, thighs, breasts and arms
• Thinning, fragile skin that bruises easily
• Slow healing of cuts, insect bites and infections
• Acne

Women with Cushing's syndrome may experience:

• Thicker or more visible body and facial hair (hirsutism)
• Irregular or absent menstrual periods

The reason why I think that I must have this disease is that when I was little, I was hospitalized quite a few times due to my asthma. Their medicine of choice? Steroids. I grew up on the stuff.

My mom even told me that the doctor even told her when I was 2 or 3 yrs old that all of this probably would make it hard for me to have kids of my own.

Sooo, what to do, what to do? I'm right in the middle of a medicated cycle, which of course includes Dexamethasone (a low dose STEROID!)

I will ask at my RE appt on Monday, Dec 10th about what they think about it.