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Bethann Odell
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
UWRITE 1103
April 2, 2015
PCOS:
The Dangers of Depression and the Sunshine of Support
Whitney Way Thore chronicles her life on TLCs My Big Fat Fabulous Life and
has revealed the truths, trials, and tribulations of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, or PCOS.
Watching her show has captured my attention and made me passionate about this disease
and women everywhere who may be struggling with it. A huge aspect of this hormone
altering disease is the mental disorders and oppression that may come along with it.
Whitney says herself, My quest for this perfect body started at age 10 and eluded me for
the next 19 years, creating an uphill trek through self-doubt, eating disorders, polycystic
ovarian syndrome, weight loss, weight gain, and towering waves of depression (Thore).

Noah Parrott 4/8/15 5:47 PM

Comment [1]: try to make the transition a little
smoother when moving from talking about the
aspects of the disease, into the quote.
It felt like a jump going from mental orders and
oppression right into her talking about a perfect
body, it doesnt seem to line up

This quote speaks to me and I can probably say many other girls and women out there.
The part that stands out to me is towering waves of depression. Whitney Thore is not
the only woman with PCOS and depression or anxiety. Americas culture is set up to
shame those, especially women, who are obese or overweight. Women who are fighting
an uncontrollable disease are being shamed every day, resulting in mass levels of low
self-esteem for these women. Why and how is this? Diving deeper led me to uncover
studies and research done on PCOS and the levels of depression in women affected.

Noah Parrott 4/8/15 5:44 PM

Comment [2]: you could probably leave the
how out and it would still make sense.

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Between 5 and 10 percent of women of childbearing age are affected by PCOS.
They are susceptible to symptoms such as infertility, excessive hair growth, severe acne,
and weight gain. An excess of androgens in the body causes this uncontrollable disease.
This male hormone overpowers estrogen in the ovaries, making hormone levels out of
balance. Due to this, it is common for other health issues to take place, such as diabetes,
mental disorders, cardiovascular disease, and sleep apnea. There is currently no cure for
PCOS but there are some things women can do to offset the disease. Healthcare providers
encourage women to maintain a healthy lifestyle to improve fertility rates and reduce
weight gain. Going along with fertility it is common for women to find out they have
PCOS when they try to get pregnant, and cannot (Beyond Infertility). All of these
factors related to PCOS can take a huge toll on a womans life, but I believe depression is
the most important factor to emphasize. A cross-sectional study conducted through a
questionnaire of 177 women with PCOS and 109 healthy women revealed that women
with PCOS had a much higher mean depression score than the healthy women. The
factors taken into consideration in this study were different for each group of women for
each type of mental disorder. For the experimental group, the women with PCOS, the
factors of anxiety were based on self worth, health evaluation, time taken to diagnose
PCOS, and age. In the control group, the healthy women, factors included self worth,
health evaluation, and rural living. As far as depression goes, the experimental group
factors were self worth, quality of life, fitness orientation, appearance evaluation, and
time to diagnose. The control group factors for depression were self worth, illness

Noah Parrott 4/8/15 6:04 PM

Comment [3]: use the header to hold your page
number, that way you dont have to type it in each
time

orientation, and appearance orientation. The study concluded that anxiety, depression,
and negative
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body image are increased in women with PCOS (Deeks). Another study by The Primary
Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders Patient Health Questionnaire provided a selfadministered scale to 117 women out of 135 who attended a clinic for depression. They
took marriage, education, and employment into account. I thought this was interesting
and provided essential information into the reasons behind anxiety and depression in
women with PCOS. Again, this study found that women with PCOS reported higher
levels (64.1%) of anxiety and depression in their lives. The most fascinating part of this
clinical study is that sociodemographic, clinical, and biochemical parameters were
compared in an interesting way. This study was mainly trying to figure out why women
with PCOS had depression. There is thought to be a correlation between the androgens in
the body and a womans mood, but this is a controversial claim (Bhattacharya).
Depression, we are saying, is not a disease; it is a natural response to certain types of
emotional introspection that result in excessive dreaming." This fascinating quote given
by Human Givens, 2003, J. Griffin & I. Tyrrell according to the source really hit me hard
(Medical Causes). Women with PCOS are responding to these types of emotional
introspection. One woman writes a blog stating, I went off birth control in 2009 in the
hopes of conceiving. For at least 4 or 5 months after stopping the pill and before I was
diagnosed, I went into a deep depression. There was no color to my days and I was living
in survival mode, going through the motions from one day to the next. My marriage
started to suffer as I didnt find any joy in my marriage, my family or my work (Tarryn).

How can we help women just like these and turn things around? How can we shape our
society into accepting these women rather than shunning them?
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Next my research guided me towards the neurochemicals in the body related to
depression. I found that low serotonin levels are just another symptom of depression, not
a cause. An article published to clinical-depression.co.uk states, Clinical Depression is
often said to be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and this is what most drug
treatments are based on. The more negative introspection you carry out, and the fewer
pleasure-giving activities you participate in, the lower your serotonin levels become
(Medical Causes). Women with PCOS are likely to withdraw from the world because
they are ashamed of their physical symptoms and uncontrollable moods. This can also be
true for women without PCOS, but the piece of this puzzle Im uncovering is that women
with PCOS cant help their looks or moods, and thus cant control the onset depression.
Their pre-determined sickness leads to this additional medical setback.
There are many ways to go about treating depression. In Current Psychiatry Vol.
4 No.2, the two authors described how depressed mood in PCOS may be physiologic and
psychological. End-organ system deregulation occurs and creates
obesity, insulin resistance, and hyperandrogenism. Through studies conducted of a
woman referred to as Ms. K, the two writers found that other medicines may help treat
depression in PCOS women better than antidepressants can. Finding the right
combination of medicines to combat insulin problems can indeed treat depression. Ms. K
proved this theory correct. According to the study, when she was given the antidepressant
medicine venlafaxine, her symptoms increased, and after 4 weeks of tapering off the

venlafaxine and alleviating her depression symptoms with a different drug used for
insulin treatment, she found an increase in mood. This study concluded that actually
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treating PCOS with insulin-sensitizing medication could resolve the depression with
PCOS. Along with insulin medication, anti-androgens such as spironolactone can treat
baldness and acne, which reduces depression in these women as well (Elman and
Rasgon).
My last objective throughout this inquiry process is to find ways to reach out to
women with PCOS and combat depression worldwide. Through my research I have
found that the best support system for these women has been online blogs and therapy
groups. The PCOS Foundation based out of Houston, Texas holds monthly meetings for
Texan women with PCOS. Online blogs and chat rooms are a great resource for women
with depression to utilize when making it to a physical meeting is too challenging or not
accessible. Going back to Whitney Thore, she mentions in an episode of her show that
she has been flooded with emails from women contacting her and thanking her for all of
her public body acceptance efforts. It comforts me to know throughout this process that
there is a solution for depressed women with and without PCOS. Finding the correct
way to treat the depression, and finding a support group to motivate and encourage one
another is essential to the road to happiness. This quote comes from yet another blog
devoted to PCOS awareness and support: So, the bottom line is that if you are suffering
from depression with PCOS, you are not alone and it is not all in your head. Depression
is another facet to this multi-faceted syndrome. Now that weve established that
depression in indeed linked to PCOS, lets look at how we kick it in the butt so that we

Noah Parrott 4/8/15 5:57 PM

Comment [4]: good idea referencing back to a
topic at the beginning

can live the life of joy, color and sunshine we are meant to live (Tarryn). I feel this is a
beautiful and uplifting message to spread around the world. Everyone deserves to live a
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life full of joy, color, and sunshine. This includes the millions of women (both diagnosed
and undiagnosed) with PCOS.

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Works Cited
Beyond Infertility: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (pcos). Bethesda, Md.: Eunice Kennedy
Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2008.
Internet resource. 25 Feb. 2015.
Bhattacharya, SM, and A Jha. "Prevalence and Risk of Depressive Disorders in Women
with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (pcos)." Fertility and Sterility. 94.1 (2010): 3579. Print. 28 Feb. 2015.
Deeks, AA, ME Gibson-Helm, E Paul, and HJ Teede. "Is Having Polycystic Ovary
Syndrome a Predictor of Poor Psychological Function Including Anxiety and
Depression?" Human Reproduction (Oxford, England). 26.6 (2011): 1399-407.
Print. 28 Feb. 2015.
Elman, Shana and Rasgon, Natalie. When not to treat depression in PCOS with
antidepressants. Current Psychiatry. Vol. 4 No.2, Feb. 2005. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
Medical Causes of Depression. Clinical Depression. 21 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2015
Tarryn. Got the Blues? PCOS and Depression. PCOS Diet Support. 11 Feb. 2013.
25 Mar. 2015
Thore, Whitney. Meet Whitney Way Thore. No Body Shame. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

Bethann,
You chose a very interesting topic. Good job including
quotes and material from peoples blog posts, it adds to the point
that you made about blogs being a big support system for people
with this disease. With the parts where you were explaining the
experiments, I tended to lose a little focus on the paper (mainly
because I dont do well reading lists of variables or factors
anyways) but just be a little careful about not losing the reader's
attention. You also did good including a lot of sources from
medical journals as well as people from the medical field. Very
good job so far! I can't wait to read it once its finished!
-Noah