"Dr. Robert Oliver was the one who finally diagnosed me and referred me to Dr. Steven Sawin in Asheville," she said. "I couldn't believe it when Dr. Sawin told me all my strange symptoms were related to one disorder."
PCOS affects an estimated 6 to 10 percent of women and most don't even know they have it. Although it has been identified for years, doctors still aren't sure what causes it. It isn't curable, but it is treatable by medications and changes in diet and exercise. Childers eats very little processed food and has eliminated sugar completely from her diet.
PCOS affects the reproduction system, causing irregular menstrual cycles and infertility. The many cysts in a polycystic ovary are eggs that have matured but, due to abnormal hormone levels, were never released. In a normal ovary, a single egg develops and is released each month.
"My body was producing too much insulin which, in turn, signaled my body to release the male hormone testosterone," Childers discovered the cause of her male-pattern baldness and excess facial and pubic hair. While the reproductive system is greatly affected, PCOS affects more than the reproductive system. If affects the entire body as it wreaks havoc on hormones and causes physical and phycological damage. The disorder is probably the most common hormonal abnormality in women of reproductive age and certainly is a leading cause of infertility.
PCOS patients were once dismissed as "fat women with no self control."
"I had doctors tell me that if I just lost weight I'd be able to get pregnant," said Childers, who had a vaginal ultrasound and blood work to confirm her condition. "Most women are ashamed to talk about their symptoms."
But not Childers. In fact, she just returned from an international PCOS conference in San Diego, Calif., where she was a presenter on support group development. "People wanted to know how to start a support group, so I had prepared a handbook, 'Chapters by Childers,' that I gave out at the conference.
"I tell women with PCOS to partner with the medical community. Lots of women say they've had ugly experiences with doctors who don't understand PCOS. So I tell them to join in and help educate the general practitioners," said Childers, who has been working with the PCOS specialists throughout the United States. "Here I was - little ol' me from Jackson County - serving on a panel with these PhDs from Yale. I mean, how many times do you get to work with doctors and they actually value your opinion?"
The medical community more than values her opinion, it honors it. While in San Diego Childers was presented with the National Founders Award for Volunteerism.
"I communicate a lot on the Internet with doctors and others in the medical community about PCOS and it's so empowering to attend these conventions and finally meet them," she said.
Her mission to help other women with PCOS is relentless. "I don't get paid for any of this, but, believe me, it's a labor of love." Before San Diego, she traveled to Delaware as a guest speaker on PCOS support groups.
Childers is also assisting Dr. Sam Thatcher with his soon-to-be-released book, "PCOS: The Silent Epidemic" by writing a layman's chapter on "Getting the Care You Deserve."
She coordinates a PCOS support group for women that meets 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month at Dr. Sawin's office in Asheville. She was so successful in starting that group that she was asked to be PCOS chapter development coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic states.
"It can be really frustrating thinking you are the only woman out there going through all this. It beats your self-esteem all to heck. Just to have other women to talk to about using electrolysis, or even laser surgery, on all your facial hair rather than having to shave every day can be real morale booster."
For women who can't conceive, it's comforting to hear Childers' words of how she was infertile for years before undergoing gonatropin therapy. "I had to have shots and constant monitoring with ultrasound because of the risk of multiple births," she tells other women. At 30 weeks she went into premature labor, but with bed rest for five weeks she had a good pregnancy with regular delivery. Weighing in at 8 pounds, Hannah Emeline was born on Halloween.
Lyle and Lesa's 6-year-old adopted daughter, Tiffany Elizabeth, at first "had some issues" with the new baby in their Whittier household. "But now that Hannah is old enough to interact, Tiffany loves having a baby sister.
"Hannah has a 50 percent chance of developing PCOS, so I need to be as educated about the syndrome as I can," she said. "Hannah is part of the reason for my mission to help educate others about PCOS."
She likes the positive spin Dr. Ron Feinberg of Reproductive Associates of Delaware puts on PCOS: "Our ancestors survived in an environment where food was scarce and they had to work very hard to find food. Thus, humans evolved a highly sophisticated set of genes providing us with a thrifty, survivor-prone metabolism.
"In the modern era, those superior genes can sometimes work against us. Many of us have a set of wonderful metabolic genes that really aren't used to the types and quantities of available foods, along with the lower level of activity required to obtain those foods. Often, those superior metabolic genes of our ancestors will work against us - leading to excess stores fat calories (obesity), high insulin levels, and - in women, polycystic ovary syndrome."
Childers said finally being diagnosed for all her assorted symptoms and learning to have control over her body greatly enhanced her self-esteem. "But when Dr. Feinberg told me I actually had a 'superior' gene, that made me feel even better," she said.
For information on PCOS, visit the web site at WNCPCO@aol.com; or call (828) 285-8881.
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