It was when Jonna Lindström Johannesson and her husband were trying to have a second child that she noticed the symptoms, including missing her period. But when she contacted the health center they told her to be patient.
Finally, she turned to a specialist gynecologist and was diagnosed with PCOS. By then she had been trying to get pregnant for two years.
– But then I didn’t get any help, they just said “lose weight”.
Many dissatisfied with care
Jonna Lindström Johannesson is one of many with PCOS that SVT Nyheter has been in contact with. The majority state that it took time – sometimes years – until they received a confirmed diagnosis. Few feel they have received enough information or help to treat all their symptoms.
Elisabet Stener-Victorin, professor of reproductive physiology at Karolinska Institutet, is a leading researcher in PCOS. According to her, there is a lack of knowledge about the syndrome within healthcare, which contributes to the fact that it is severely underdiagnosed.
PCOS is often seen only as a fertility problem, which is why patients don’t always get enough help for their other symptoms, she says.
– In Australia, which leads the international PCOS guidelines, it is not only specialist healthcare but also primary healthcare that handles those diagnosed. Already there, you can get help with treatment of various symptoms and information to best counter the risks of the various ailments and diseases that PCOS increases the risk of.
The Minister of Health: Priority question
Health Minister Acko Ankarberg Johansson (KD) states in an email to SVT Nyheter that research into several diseases that affect girls and women, for example PCOS, is a priority issue for the government.