A Hormonal Epidemic in Kashmir's Classrooms and Colleges

Polycystic Ovarian Disease is silently growing in Kashmir's teenage girls and women. Doctors say the solution isn't in pills but in everyday choices.

- Amaar Mir

You hear it in whispers during bus rides, in clinic waiting rooms, in college corridors. Girls skipping periods for months. Women in their 20s growing facial hair. Teenagers breaking down over sudden weight gain and cystic acne.

A silent crisis is gripping women in Kashmir, and it has a name: PCOD.

"I hadn't seen my period in five months," says 19-year-old Iqra from Anantnag. "I was scared, but the doctor just wrote it off as stress."

When she finally got an ultrasound, the image showed what doctors call a "string of pearls": rows of tiny, undeveloped follicles lining her ovaries. It confirmed what she had feared: Polycystic Ovarian Disease, or PCOD. And she’s not alone.

A recent estimate suggests that more than 37% of women and girls in Kashmir may be affected by PCOD. That's more than one in three. Many doctors say it's not an issue that medicine alone can fix.

"We're seeing it in girls as young as 13," says Dr. Iffat Wani, a gynecologist based in Srinagar. "And we can't just hand them pills and send them off. The root problem is deeper—lifestyle, food, stress, and too much sitting."

PCOD isn't just about irregular periods. It can mean hair growing where it shouldn't, acne that refuses to heal, sudden weight gain, and infertility.

Most of this is linked to hormonal confusion inside the body, especially when insulin and male hormones (called androgens) take over.

"People think PCOD is about cysts. But it's really a hormonal imbalance," says Dr. Wani. "The ovaries don't release eggs regularly. That throws everything off."