A woman has explained how she’s hairy and proud after embracing her condition which sees her grow male body hair. Nova Galaxia, from Richmond, Virginia suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome. The syndrome means she has high levels of male hormones which cause excessive body hair and results in irregular periods. Appearing on This Morning opposite Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, Nova explained how she initially noticed signs aged 12 while going through puberty, before being diagnosed aged 16.
She kept her issues from her parents throughout her teenage years, despite being bulled at school over her body hair. ‘I kept it very secret for a long time,’ Nova said. ‘I think it was about three years before I told an adult I was having this problem. ‘It wasn’t just the hair, it was also I wasn’t having periods anymore. I didn’t tell anyone that because I was nervous that I would be looked at like a freak.’
She was inspired by model, Harnaam Kaur, who has the same condition, which gave her the confidence to embrace her diagnosis. ‘The first time I went out after I stopped shaving, it was just for a quick grocery trip and I kept trying to shift my hair to hide my face, I caught myself being obnoxiously self conscious about it to the point where my partner was annoyed,’ Nova said. ‘It took a while for me to get to the point where I stopped hiding when I was going out. It took maybe a couple of weeks. But I kept going out more and more and it got easier over time. ‘It was something which held me back for so long, something which controlled my life for such a long time. It was something I hated about myself, and nobody needs to hate some part of themselves. But when you hate something that is a part of you so long, it controls you. It feels miserable and it drags you down.
‘Once I stopped it was like I was rebelling against that hate. I was rebelling against that control I had over myself. It felt amazing honestly.’ Reaction since she’s been hairy and proud have also surprised her, being swamped with positive remarks. ‘It was way, way more positive than I expected,’ Nova added. ‘I feel most of the disgust was something I had within myself. I’ve gotten some negativity, but about as much as I expected – it’s been way, way more positive. It completely erases all the negative honestly.’