I have lost my Identity: Disease Management Challenges of the Women Suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)

The main symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are hirsutism, menstrual irregularity, obesity, infertility, and so on. Respondents for the present study were interviewed at Sri Maharaja Gulab Singh (SMGS) Hospital in the Jammu district of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in India. In-depth interviews were conducted for 41 respondents suffering from PCOS. It was observed that women in this part of the country fail to understand this disease and expressed their dilemma related to it. Except for a few, majority of the respondents were not aware that the disease they were suffering from was PCOS. For unmarried women, this disease was either the onset of hirsutism or menstrual irregularity or acne whereas for married ones, it was usually the onset of infertility. Depending upon their social desire, they consulted doctor to get rid of that particular symptom only. By means of constructivist perspective, it was found that it is the social impact of PCOS which makes these women to consult a doctor. In India, role of women is usually determined by their social status, and this determines their health-seeking behaviour. Since married women with no children are looked down in the Indian society, these women seek treatment only for infertility. Similarly, unmarried women fail to understand physiological disturbances resulting in menstrual irregularity and they seek treatment for that. Others wanted treatment for acne and hirsutism. There was an absence of common discourse related to PCOS due to which different respondents had different expressions for the same disease.