I have put on an incredible amount of weight in the past two years,” said 38-year-old Tanya Patel, plonking herself on my office chair after barely managing a few steps on her own. She was bruised all over. “Even a minor bump causes my skin to discolour and swell,” she said showing me her arms that had the words “today I escape” inscribed in Sanskrit. “I’ve had three fractures and two miscarriages and now I can’t even conceive,” she lamented, her eyes welling up. “I have hair growing all over my body and I am ashamed to even look at myself in the mirror,” she burst out crying, covering her acne in the palms of her hands.

“I’ve had PCOD [polycystic ovarian disease] for years, and doctors are attributing all my symptoms to that. My periods are irregular and I’ve been on hormonal medication forever, but I’m tired and exhausted and annoyed and irritated and depressed!” she exclaimed, as she emptied a bag full of pain killers, oestrogen and progesterone tablets, drugs for diabetes and hypertension, and mood elevators for her bipolar disorder. “My sugars are all over the place, my wounds don’t heal, and I bleed profusely if and when my period decides to come!” she said, exasperated.