Words: Dr Naveen Kumar BOGGARAPU
GB, a thirty-five-year-old accounts manager, presented with conspicuous hair growth on her face and hands. Her periods, she reported, were irregular, or lop-sided. She had been diagnosed of ovarian cysts, or polycystic ovary syndrome [PCOS], following investigations etc., by her gynaecologist.
PCOS, a hormonal disorder, is usually triggered by the accrual of immature follicles in the ovaries. It causes typical PCOS symptoms in 5-10 per cent of women of reproductive age. PCOS is supposed to be one of the leading causes of female infertility and the most common trigger for endocrine disorders.
The usual straight signs, or symptoms, are anovulation [lack of ovulation], excess androgenic [male] hormones, and insulin resistance. Anovulation results in irregular menstruation, amenorrhoea [lack of periods], and ovulation-related infertility. Hormone imbalance leads to acne [pimples] and hirsutism [hair on face, hands etc]. Insulin resistance is associated with obesity, type-2 diabetes, and high cholesterol levels. The symptoms and severity of the disorder differ significantly among affected women.
When I began to take her case, GB told me that she had married eight years ago and that her wedlock lasted for just four years. She said that her husband was wayward and he often treated her like a doormat. She also said that he often unsettled her and their little daughter. GB was, thus, left with no choice but to divorce him — for which he readily agreed, owing to GB’s parents’ contacts at the top level. This obviously had upset her emotional and psychological make-up.
She also informed that she found a guy, who seemed to be decent and well-mannered. She married him, after a couple of years, but as luck would have it, the marriage was again a disaster. This was because her husband declined to accept her daughter. Her two back-to-back failed marriages had taken a perceptible toll on her — she soon became bigoted towards life and also the people she knew well. GB divulged too that her mother gave far more importance to her only brother; not her. This childhood repression and its resultant impact was now a remnant of the past, but it was, as yet, quite evident, although she admitted that she was now close to her brother and shared her problems, or anxieties, with him.
I analysed her medical history, past and presenting symptoms, as also personal ordeal, and prescribed her the homeopathic remedy, Natrum carbonicum 200C, along with Apis mellifica 6C — the former for her emotional and psychological issues, and the latter for her ovarian cysts. After 12-14 months of homeopathic treatment, her hair loss reduced considerably as also her other symptoms. Her periods were regular too and, most notably, she appeared calm and accepting of herself and people around her. She was, at the time of writing this case, more friendly with friends and others alike, unlike before, and is happy doing her best for her bright daughter.
Case-2: More Than Skin Deep
Ten-year-old KM presented with erythematous plaques and crusts, speckled with secondary infection and lesions. The discharge of fluid in the affected area was profuse. This was attended to by severe distress, pain and unbearable itching. The lesions first appeared when KM was twelve-months-old. The paediatrician, who they often consulted, had prescribed her local steroid applications.
When I took up her case, I was not aware of her old asthma-like symptoms. This was revealed by her grandparents, who accompanied her during the first follow-up. This, they reported, was treated with antibiotics, oral steroids, among others, during every flare-up. When KM turned six, she began to develop severe skin symptoms, possibly allergy. That she was the only kid to her parents was confirmation enough that she was a protected child.
Her grandpa reported that she was extremely rigorous about everything and she wanted her grandparents and mother to be with her all the time. She would often throw tantrums when her mom would leave home to attend office. The little kid, he emphasised, would, likewise, get unstoppably upset, as and when she’d not get what she would ask for. She also had a swelling sense of deficit when she compared their unfancied car with her school friend’s glamorous new imported car.
I prescribed KM the homeopathic remedy, Calcarea phosphoricum 200C, based on her presenting symptoms, besides her long-standing, repressed emotional and distinctive behaviour. She responded to treatment favourably in a matter of six months and is now free of her skin problems, aside from her bottled-up feelings of being materialistically inadequate when she was a child.
