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Ginny: I've been an athlete almost my entire life, ended up being an award-winning athlete and even
Ginny: I've been an athlete almost my entire life, ended up being an award-winning athlete and evenalmost played in college. So this is really who I am. This is what I identify as.I became a phys-ed teacher for a while because I wanted to be able to share this joy of movementwith other people. For myself, I took up running and I found that it was a brilliant way for me tocombat the anxiety that I started experiencing with PCOS.I first found out I had PCOS when I was 18. I wasn't given much information on it except for the factthat I might have issues having children later on in life.When you're diagnosed with PCOS, you meet two of three criteria. Either you have polycystic ovaries,which means there's many different little cysts on your ovaries. You can have high androgens, or youhave amenorrhea, which are missed menstrual cycles.I've always found it interesting that you don't have to have cysts on your ovaries to have polycysticovary syndrome. For me, it's a tough definition because to me, it's all-encompassing. It's affectedevery part of my life.After my husband and I got married, we decided we wanted to start working on a family. We foundthat it was quite difficult. It took about five years of fertility treatments to get pregnant with our firstchild.Mike Silvestro: Just the long-standing timeline of having the babies definitely took an emotional toll onboth of us, but especially Ginny. That's sort of when I started seeing the effects of PCOS on my wife.Ginny: There were times where we'd go through the fertility treatments maybe three or four months,and I'm like, "I have to take a break. It's too much of a toll on my body." I remember the first sixmonths in, it just brought me to my knees, like, “Why is this not happening? My body is dealing withso much.” And there were times when my husband's had to pull me up off the floor because it was sohard. We wanted a child so bad and it just wasn't happening.Mike: My wife is probably the strongest woman I've ever met in my life; and you just have to be therefor them in whatever capacity they need you to be there.Ginny: As I've gotten older and closer to my late thirties and forties, my PCOS has changed my lifequite a bit.It would've been nice if people would tell me it wasn't just about fertility. PCOS is a metabolic issue,so if you're not eating balanced, then that can cause some problems with your hormones, which willin turn make it difficult for you to get pregnant. It would've just been nice to have that knowledge.I think it would've changed my journey entirely.© The Wellness NetworkThroughout my years with PCOS, I've dealt with some anxiety and depression. There's a directcorrelation to having PCOS and dealing with those mental health issues. It's hard when you'reworking every single day to do the best that you can for your body and your body's not responding theway that it should. So it has in the past put me in places where I've become depressed.I started to document my own journey about 10 years ago online, just kind of what I was doing withexercise and being very vocal about me being a person with PCOS, but look at what I can do.Hey, Jess. How are you?Jess: Good. How are you, Ginny?Ginny: All right. Anything that we should worry about today? Your body feeling all right?About eight years ago, I became a personal trainer who specializes in working with patients withPCOS. It helps them manage their symptoms. I help them learn more about this chronic illness andteach them different resources that they can use to help better manage their body.Excellent. You can stop right there. Go grab your medium band and I'll show you exactly what we'redoing today.It's more of a gentle form of personal training than what you would see if you went to the gym whereit's push, push, push, push, push. Instead, it's what can your body do today? How are you feelingmentally? And that might change tomorrow, but that's okay because we're going to give you grace.‘Looks good. How we feeling?’Jess: “Got a sweat going on!”Ginny: It's been shown that there's a 50% chance that my kids can also have PCOS, so I keep a veryclose eye out on all three of my kids.It's become a genuine concern of mine because I don't want my children to go through what I've beenthrough my entire life.So we've been very proactive here. My kids all work out with me and they see me do it for so long. It'sbeen almost 10, 15 years of me working out in front of them, and it's created such a positiverelationship with us, but it's also created a positive relationship with exercise for them.Mike: I think she's morphed a bit over the years too. I want to say she's less angry towards thecondition. She is managing through the symptoms as best she can, and she's helping people.© The Wellness NetworkGinny: At this point in my life now, I'm working with people every single day that have PCOS andhelping them manage their symptoms and addressing different issues that are coming up for them.It's been so fulfilling to be able to do something like that in my life for something that was so harsh inmy lifetime, to be able to turn it around and just make it something positive.© The Wellness NetworkThis program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.© The Wellness Network
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