The impacts PCOS has on your overall health can change over time. Women in their teens and 20s are more likely to have symptoms due to excess androgens such as unwanted facial hair and acne. As these women enter their 30s, they seem to be more likely to experience obesity, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, and diabetes.  Marcia Brumbaugh, PhD, for example, had irregular periods as a teenager. She wasn’t officially diagnosed with PCOS at the time, but she was put on birth control, which she took until she was in her 30s, and trying to conceive. Now, after having had two children, she says she’s noticed her weight seems to be increasing with no clear cause, and given a family history of diabetes, she expects that she may need treatment to prevent developing the disease at some point in the future.