You catch yourself avoiding mirrors. You cancel a date because a breakout showed up overnight. You wear a jumper in July to cover something you've spent an hour trying to hide. If any of that sounds familiar, here's the first thing to know: you're not imagining it. PCOS doesn't just affect your ovaries, it can quietly chip away at how you feel about yourself in a room, on a date, or in a work meeting.

Most PCOS information starts with the same sentence, something like "if you're a woman trying to get pregnant, here's what you need to know." For a large number of people with PCOS, that sentence works fine. For plenty of others, it's the first sign that the information in front of them wasn't written with them in mind.

If you've spent any time in PCOS forums or LGBTQIA+ health spaces, you may have come across a claim that sounds almost too specific to be made up: that lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to have PCOS. It gets repeated as a fact, sometimes with a wink, sometimes as a punchline about "gay hormones." Neither is fair to the actual research, and neither is fair to you if you're a lesbian or bisexual woman trying to work out what's going on with your own cycle, skin or bloodwork.

Short answer: yes, laser hair removal works on PCOS-related hair growth, and for most women it is the most effective long-term option available. But hormonal hair does not play by the same rules as ordinary hair, so it usually needs more sessions, more patience, and a bit of maintenance to keep it in check. You're not imagining it if your chin hair grew back faster than your friend's did after the same laser package. It's not a flaw in your skin or your willpower. It's androgens, doing what androgens do.

It can be a struggle to stay positive with PCOS. To boost mental wellness you should try building a support network, making time for self-care, journaling and getting enough sleep