Educational Media Reviews Online

Women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), like other sufferers of chronic disorders for which much is still unknown, endure years of diagnostic testing and expensive, often ineffective treatments. Add to that the emotionally charged symptoms that are the hallmark of PCOS - obesity, hirsutism and infertility - and one might be forgiven a certain amount of self-pity. Yet, that is one quality that is seldom in evidence in this documentary, either on the part of the filmmaker, herself a sufferer, or her fellow sufferers interviewed in the film. In fact, a kind of black humor runs like an undercurrent throughout the video, particularly in such scenes as the director's visit to a "medical intuitive" as one stop on her sometimes desperate personal journey for answers to this medical mystery. Of course, there are also a number of poignant reminders that this disease does exact a human toll from its victims in the interviewees' stories of rejection, their grief over their infertility, and their frustration at the simple lack of understanding from the rest of the world - sometimes even those in the medical profession - especially in the frequent exhortations to lose weight. Yet these women too talk more about the ways in which they have come to terms with the diagnosis and its uncertainties. The director makes use of some striking production techniques, especially the use of printed words and phrases fading in and out to augment the "action" of the film. Particularly useful for local support group viewing, this documentary is highly recommended.