Dear Body / 04 INTERVIEWEE
LINYA Diagnosed with PCOS at thirteen after experiencing severe period pain, Linya has lived with the condition for more than a decade. Although she was once told to “have children earlier,” PCOS gradually became less significant in her everyday life. Despite irregular periods and uncertainty around future fertility, she does not see the condition as something that defines her.
When did you first find out you had PCOS? I was diagnosed at around thirteen. My period pain was so severe that I had to go to hospital for an IV. After an ultrasound, the doctor told me I had PCOS. How did you feel when you were diagnosed at thirteen? I had no idea what PCOS meant. I was so young that I didn’t really have any concept of it. What advice did the doctor give you at the time? The doctor told me that I should have children earlier. I was only around thirteen to fifteen years old when I was told that. What did doctors tell you about your PCOS later in life? More than ten years later, another doctor told me that everything looked normal and that my condition had improved a lot. I still don’t know whether the original diagnosis was inaccurate or whether the later doctor simply viewed it differently. How does PCOS affect your life now? My periods are still irregular, usually around fifty to sixty days apart, but otherwise my life feels quite normal. I don’t really pay much attention to it anymore.
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Have you worried about PCOS affecting your fertility or marriage? My husband knows about it and accepts it. If we have difficulty having children in the future, IVF is simply one of the options. To me, it feels like a normal possibility rather than something frightening. How do you see PCOS now? I don’t really see it as a stigma. It and I wouldn't define it as a label for myself. Most of the time, I don’t even think about it, if you hadn’t brought it up, I probably wouldn’t have thought about it at all.
Linya / External voices
After our interview, Linya created a collage inspired by Dear Body, using mother-ofpearl and dried flowers to form a femaleshaped vase. She also left a note that read: “This is a work about our bodies—beautiful as we are, vibrant as we are.”
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Dear Body / 04
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“The pain was so severe that I had to go to hospital for an IV.”
Linya / External voices
“At thirteen, I had no idea what PCOS even meant.”
“My period still comes, but the intervals are longer— since then, it's been every 50 or 60 days.”
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Dear Body / 04
When I went to hospital with period pain at 13, the doctor advised me:
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Linya / External voices
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Dear Body / 04
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Linya / External voices
About reproduction I never tried to hide my PCOS from my husband. When he was still my fiancé, we had already talked about the possibility that getting pregnant might be more difficult for me, and he simply said he accepted it. Whether we try IVF or let things happen naturally, there will always be options. And if I really can’t get pregnant, adoption is also an option. I think worrying about fertility with PCOS is completely normal. But for me, PCOS has never really become a stigma while growing up. It feels more like a label—but not one I choose to stick on myself. Most of the time, I don’t even think about it.
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Dear Body / 04
It isn't really a stigma and I wouldn't use PCOS as a label for myself. I have other achievements in my life as well. 9
Linya / External voices
“If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't even have thought about it.”
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Design & Research: Xingxi Lin Interview Participant: Linya Photography: Xingxi Lin Typeface Arial Black Franklin Gothic Book Franklin Gothic Demi Franklin Gothic Demi Cond Print & bind: Printed in Glasgow 2026 Publisher: Published by Glasgow School of Art 2026 © Xingxi Lin 2026 Dear Body is an editorial design project exploring the lived experiences of women with PCOS through personal interviews and visual storytelling. All inter views are published with participants' permission. Names have been changed where requested. This publication combines original graphic design, interview materials, and adapted visual elements. Some collage images were sourced from publicly available online references (Pinterest) and transformed through editing, recolouring, texturing and recomposition for educational purposes.