There are times when you go into your doctor and they tell you what your condition is called. Well in the last 10 years there have been a couple different names of my condition. When I first started my fertility journey, I had a 5% chance of conceiving on my own and would have to use donor eggs in order to be pregnant. I was told my eggs were bad, and that they were old. As the years went on, and as I changed doctors, they worded things differently and eventually I didn’t feel like an old bag of bones. Will go into this in regular posts as this page is more for improving your knowledge on POF itself.
POF- Premature Ovarian Failure- this one being the most disappointing sounding, because as we all know the word failure wont make anyone feel good.
POI- Premature Ovarian Insufficiency- Being insufficient sounds so much better, as it feels like something that is fixable.
Symptoms that occur with POF: (I have all but the vaginal dryness)
- Irregular or skipped periods (amenorrhea), which might occur for years or develop after a pregnancy or after stopping birth control pills
- Difficulty conceiving
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Vaginal dryness
- Irritability or difficulty concentrating
- Decreased sexual desire
Mayoclinic’s description of POF
Premature ovarian failure — also known as primary ovarian insufficiency — is a loss of normal function of your ovaries before age 40. If your ovaries fail, they don’t produce normal amounts of the hormone estrogen or release eggs regularly. Infertility is a common result.
Premature ovarian failure is sometimes referred to as premature menopause, but the two conditions aren’t the same. Women with premature ovarian failure can have irregular or occasional periods for years and might even become pregnant. Women with premature menopause stop having periods and can’t become pregnant.
Restoring estrogen levels in women with premature ovarian failure helps prevent some complications, such as osteoporosis, that occur as a result of low estrogen.
There are still a lot of unknown causes and factors for POF, so as much research as I have done I will be constantly adding more…
Helpful websites for POF
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719365/
A book that got me through learning about POF when first diagnosed
Jessica Joys Fertility or not... 