When feeling down, remember that PCOS is what helped our ancestors survive.
There is a lot of sad and negative posts on here so I thought I'd add a more positive one. This post points out just a few things out of the many in regards to PCOS. Excuse my English!
First of all, there's an evolutionary reason for PCOS. Since our bodies often go "huh, that works good enough" in regards to a lot of traits, a condition that has previously benefitted us through most of history has now become less desirable simply because we live differently. A drastic change to the way we live only occurred about 200 years ago with the industrial revolution, while the condition has existed for thousands of years.
As for why our bodies thought PCOS was a good idea? There are many aspects to it, but here are some simplified reasons:
Those of our ancestors who developed insulin resistance could more easily store energy in fat cells, which in turn helped ensure our survival during periods of starvation.
Irregular ovulation spaced out the birth of children and made it easier to care for fewer young children at once, ensuring the children actually survived to adulthood. It probably also reduced the maternal mortality as well.
Whilst the reason is still unknown, menopause sets in later in life for many of us, so the window to carry children is wider.
An increased amount of androgens and insulin results in higher bone density and more lean muscle mass than the average woman. This made it possibly for our ancestors to survive harsher enviroments that demanded a lot of activity, while today, many elite athletes have PCOS since it gives them a physical advantage to perform better.
So, simply put, we had better chances of reproduction and survival when the condition manifested in our genes. It's what's called an adaptive survival response. (Fun fact: lactose tolerance is another example of this.)
In today's world - with a more sedentary lifestyle filled with constant access to food and hormone disrupting chemicals - it's become a maladaptive response instead, and this is why diet, exercise and stress management is so important (among other things).
Hopefully this can help shed some light on why we have this!
Here's some interesting reading: * https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/85/10/3496/2851114?redirectedFrom=fulltext * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835454/ * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3164771/ * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8189332/
EDIT: Remember, this is still a condition that needs to be handled properly, so make sure to take care of yourself! I just thought that sometimes it helps to know a bit about where it comes from.