When the Diagnosis Took 10 Years: My Story

Twelve years. That’s how long it took for Shelby to receive a diagnosis. In this powerful first episode, she opens up about the long road to being diagnosed with PCOS and endometriosis—a journey marked by pain, confusion, and being dismissed by doctors again and again.

Shelby shares what it felt like to live with symptoms that were constantly brushed off, the emotional toll of not being believed, and the quiet strength it took to keep seeking answers. If you’ve ever felt overlooked or misdiagnosed, Shelby’s story will resonate deeply with your own.

This is more than a diagnosis story—it’s the beginning of a movement. A space for women of faith navigating chronic illness with honesty, hope, and holy confidence.

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to Fearfully and wonderfully diagnosed. I'm your host, Shelby Payne, and I want to thank you for listening today. 

I started this podcast because I realized there's not a lot of space carved out specifically for Christian women navigating PCOS and endometriosis. After walking through both conditions for over 12 years, I decided to create that space myself, a place to feel seen, encouraged, and uplifted.  In today's very first episode, I want to share my story with you. My hope is that it resonates, brings comfort, and reminds you that you are not alone. 

My symptoms came on at the age of 16. It was a normal day. My sister was pregnant with her first child, and I dabbled in photography at the time, so I was getting ready to go take her maternity photos. When, all of a sudden, I felt this intense pain I had never felt before. I curled up on the couch, and my mom brought me a heat pad. I had to cancel the photo session that day as the pain was not going away. 

I was complaining of pain in my side, and since my sister had had appendicitis that almost ruptured, my mom took this very seriously and took me to the emergency room. This would be the place where I would first be dismissed and ignored. They did one ultrasound and then discharged me with a diagnosis of gas pains. I remember feeling very discouraged. I was 16 years old, so I had had gas pains before. I knew what they felt like, and I knew this wasn't that. I knew something was wrong wrong with my body. I wish I could say the story is rare, but unfortunately, this is all too common. So many of us have had to fight to be taken seriously. 

With the pain still there, at the age of 17, I went to the OBGYN for answers. It was here that they ran zero tests and zero investigations.. They simply told me to take birth control. I didn't want to be on birth control, and when I said no to that, she advised I'd take four Advil or two a leave for the pain. So that's what I would do over the next nine years, twice a day, many days out of the month. 

Another year went by, and at 18, something was definitely wrong. I didn't have a minstrual cycle for six months. I went back to the OBGYN, who did one ultrasound and nothing more. She gave me an ovulation pill, and without any knowledge of what was going on, dropped a bomb on me. She said that I'd likely have trouble conceiving children in the future because of my problems ovulating. Yet she did not look into why I wasn't ovulating. This would stick with me for the next nine years. The fear that at only 18, I couldn't have children.

I went by the next few years, just trying to survive the pain, and mostly having given up on finding answers. At 22, things got way worse when I had to leave work early for the pain. As I was driving home, the pain was so severe that my legs started shaking, and once I made it home, I cried out in pain until I passed out. I would have gone to a doctor, but at this point, I had learned that they did not care and would not help. 

At 23, I was convinced to try the doctor again because I was missing work for the pain. I went to a new place and saw a nurse practitioner, who finally, thankfully listened to me. She ran labs and she ordered an ultrasound. It was there that they found the infamous string of pearls along my ovaries, and she diagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. I was relieved to have a name to what I was facing, but this wasn't the end. I was still experiencing severe pain. We tried multiple medications over the next year and a half, and nothing was improving the pain I felt. I decided to visit an endocrinologist, seeing as they were hormone specialists. I knew PCOS can come with insulin resistance and can cause diabetes later in life. So I was seeking some answers. The male doctor took one glance at my chart, said, you're not overweight, so I don't see how I can help you, and left.

Another brick wall was hit. Eventually, I went back to my nurse practitioner who referred me to a new doctor, and this doctor introduced me to a new medication. She said I could either try this, and if not, the only other option was surgery. I went home and prayed about it with my husband, and we decided it was worth trying. And I'm so glad that we did, because trying that medication was the first time in 10 years I had felt true relief from my pain. And when I went back to the doctor six months later, she confirmed a diagnosis of endometriosis. 

After 10 years, I had answers and my pain had a name. There were a lot of conflicting feelings that came with that, and I'll get into that in a later episode, but I will say it felt great to have a diagnosis, but also terrible to know that that diagnosis had no cure. And since you can only be on the medication for a year at a time with breaks in between, I am still struggling with both illnesses. I still have pain, hormonal imbalances, fears, and other symptoms that come with it. But I've learned how to walk through this, and I've learned how to seek God in the middle of it. 

If you or someone you love is walking through this, I want to invite you to hit the follow button and stick around. This podcast isn't about having all the answers. It's about having each other. In future episodes, we'll cover how to honor God through your diagnosis, things that helped me, and more. It's okay to talk about hard things as Christian women. It's okay to talk about our reproductive health. These are real conditions, and we can learn to honor God through them. Come back next week when we talk about the feelings after the diagnosis and how to navigate them. 

And remember, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, even with a diagnosis. Thank you for listening and I'll see you all next week.