I’m a 19 yr old girl and I’ve always felt that I’m not "normal", but put those feelings down to paranoia or whatever, but I’ve been doing some research and come across CAH, and it would just explain so much. Here are my “symptoms”, I don’t know if they could all be to do with CAH, but I’ve pretty much been accepting them as normal all my life:

 

1. Irregular periods (always have been since I started five years ago and seem to be getting worse -- last one was in January)

2. Periods accompanied by mood swings (worse than average PMT I think as I seem to cry an awful lot)

3. Indigestion, tummy, diarrhoea, nausea and sometimes vomiting whenever I have a period and fairly frequently when I don’t.

4. Dizziness when I stand up, with little gold/black twinkles obscuring my vision.

5. Low blood pressure (sometimes makes it into the normal range, sometimes below the normal range).

6. Sharp, stabbing pains in my sides just below my lower ribs, sometimes accompanied by a feeling of having a tight metal band constraining my chest.

7. Thick, dark body hair on the areola, and one random one on my left arm, for some reason!

8. Muscle fatigue for no apparent reason (usually my legs, but sometimes other muscles, like right now my right arm). When this happens to my legs they go all shaky and I have to rest. Sometimes it happens when I hardly have done any exercise, which is odd seeing as I play sport and am not unfit.

9. General fatigue. Sometimes I’m just so tired and I have to lie down before I can do anything else.

10. Muscle cramps in my legs (this started only recently whereas the other symptoms have been going on for years).

11. Stomach cramps, even when I don’t have a period starting.

12. Twinges and pains unrelated to anything really happening.

13. Frequent sinus problems, and a persistent cold that never goes away.

14. Failure to achieve my expected adult height (based on my parents heights and my early weight/size, I should have grown to at least 5’7" and I stopped growing at 14 and have been 5’5" ever since).

15. I was very tomboyish as a child, I chose to have a short boyish haircut and I went swimming a lot and played football with the boys during breaks. When I went to a new school at age 11 this was not acceptable and I had to give up football (soccer to you Americans I guess) and all the girls were supposed to be into clothes and makeup and stuff and I just wasn’t, so I became very very bookish. Eventually I became more "feminine" but I still don’t really fit in with a lot of girls because they’re all into trying to flirt with the boys and be popular and funny, and prefer just to talk about stuff I actually care about. I read science journals not girly magazines. I’d rather a potential date was a friend, rather than good looking or entertaining. I can’t stand "pretty boys".

16. I have rather bisexual tendencies, and have done for years, but emotionally I’d rather be with a guy, also my religion does not allow homosexuality. Could this in part my due to having wonky (and I’m pretty sure I have *something* that makes them wonky, whether CAH or not) hormones? Does anyone else feel like this?

17. I’m not 100% sure if I’m normal "down below". I have all the womanly bits, but my labia are oddly shaped and partially fused, and I don’t think anything bigger than a tampon would fit "up there" so I don’t know if I will be able to have sex later in life.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read, this is all highly embarrassing for me, but I plan to take some of these symptoms to my doctor as soon as I get back to university. I always thought everyone hurt all the time and was sick really often, but was just better at hiding it than me and that I was just weaker than everyone else at handling pain and illness, but now I realise something isn’t right and I want it sorted!

 

What I really want to know is do my symptoms fit CAH? Do any of you sufferers experience similar problems? If I do have CAH, could my mum be affected as a carrier? (She is always tired and has insomnia and also fibroid trouble). What about my brother, or any children he might possibly have? If I have CAH, could I be infertile? My great aunt is infertile but I don’t know why. If I had CAH, would it be late onset, or is it possible that I’ve had it all my life and never known? Certainly some of my symptoms extend way back into childhood. But I noticed you have a forum specifically for LOCAH, would I be better off asking there?

 

Sorry to have so many questions.