Eden Pines and Matthias Norman/Instagram screenshot
It's not the first time that Eden Pines talks about her polycystic ovaries, but a post she put up over the weekend made many women thank her for sharing.
In the photo she uploaded sharing her swollen belly, the model and presenter wrote "After eating swelling, abdominal pain, stabbing on the left side and above the navel. Not Helicobacter. Just polycystic ovaries."
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), also known as Stein-Lewenthal syndrome, affects up to 10 percent of women of childbearing age, and up to 75 percent of women with irregular periods suffer from it.
The syndrome includes many symptoms that can affect the reproductive system, skin, hair, body weight, and the endocrine (hormonal) system.
The syndrome got its complicated name from the fact that it also causes multiple cysts in the ovaries.
Eden Pines in a bare post/screenshot, Instagram Eden Pines
The diagnosis of the syndrome is made if two of the following three are present (and after ruling out other factors):
1. Lack of ovulation or low ovulation - that is, an irregular cycle, or even the absence of a cycle.
2. Hyperandrogenism - high levels of androgens (male sex hormones), as found in blood tests, or according to clinical symptoms such as excess, acne and baldness.
3. A polycystic structure of the ovary that appears in an ultrasound examination.
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Eden Pines
Polycystic ovaries