Women on this Forum: How to deal with PCOS

[soos_mite_ah]

I have recently been diagnosed with PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and apparently my horomones are out of wack. I've been told to just eat healthy and get on birth control. I tried to go online to search up what ways I can eat healthy and I keep coming across going gluten and dairy free. I'm trying that out for now but I know that PCOS can be highly individualized and it's a trial and error process. I'm curious as to what yall have tried and what has/ hasn't worked. 

[Michael569]

Not a female opinion here, hope you don't mind but the below may help you 

One of the most important things on PCOS is blood sugar management. I don't want to make any assumptions as I don't know you but the majority of women with PCOS have a degree of insulin resistance which drives hormonal imbalances. Diet generally is extremely crucial here, it has to be low in proinflammatory foods, low in animal protein and predominantly plant-based. 

Also not sure if this is relevant but in case you carry on some excess weight, that could be a complication here as well....hope saying this won't come as an offence

I don't know if you are taking any medical drugs at the moment but if not certain herbs such as Agnus Castus, Black Cohosh or Raspberry Leaf could be helpful to help you balance the LH/FSH ratio. 

Oestrogen dominance is sometimes relevant here (dutch testing can confirm that) and in such cases consuming loads of brassicas, flax seeds, tofu and other phytoestrogens will be super helpful

Coffee does seem to make PCOS worse for some women and so does dairy due to high content of bovine oestrogen and growth factors ( can stimulate growth of cysts). 

Sugar should also go. 

And finally stress is a huge contributor as well as lack of physical activity 

[Preety_India]

I guess stress worsens it really bad. 

But I don't have much knowledge on this condition at the moment. 

 

 

[mandyjw]

My advice would be to try diet first. I had something that may have been endometriosis but also had symptoms of PCOS and was also advised to take birth control pills. Birth control pills made it much worse, and turned it into a much weirder concerning pain, over a much longer period of time. Cutting dairy and sugar seemed to be a huge help. Also add in more veggies and healthy fats. Cruciferous vegetables (kale, broccoli) help regulate hormones. You should be taking vitamin D if you don't get much sun, and in order to properly absorb and use the vitamin D you also need to be making sure you get vitamin K and A to go with it, so eat an orange veggie and green leafy veggie every single day.  

You might really get a lot out of this book. Oh how I wish I'd known what was in it about 15 years sooner. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY62QSX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by mandyjw

[soos_mite_ah]

14 hours ago, Michael569 said:

Not a female opinion here, hope you don't mind but the below may help you 

One of the most important things on PCOS is blood sugar management. I don't want to make any assumptions as I don't know you but the majority of women with PCOS have a degree of insulin resistance which drives hormonal imbalances. Diet generally is extremely crucial here, it has to be low in proinflammatory foods, low in animal protein and predominantly plant-based. 

Also not sure if this is relevant but in case you carry on some excess weight, that could be a complication here as well....hope saying this won't come as an offence

I don't know if you are taking any medical drugs at the moment but if not certain herbs such as Agnus Castus, Black Cohosh or Raspberry Leaf could be helpful to help you balance the LH/FSH ratio. 

Oestrogen dominance is sometimes relevant here (dutch testing can confirm that) and in such cases consuming loads of brassicas, flax seeds, tofu and other phytoestrogens will be super helpful

Coffee does seem to make PCOS worse for some women and so does dairy due to high content of bovine oestrogen and growth factors ( can stimulate growth of cysts). 

Sugar should also go. 

And finally stress is a huge contributor as well as lack of physical activity 

I mean in regards to the excess weight, it's common for doctors to tell people with PCOS "oh just lose some weight" but that can be harmful and cause disordered eating because the issue with PCOS is the horomones not the weight. What that means is that the horomones being out of wack causes the weight gain, the weight gain doesn't cause PCOS. And by focusing of weight loss, because your body isn't cooperative with regular weight loss diets, people tend to go to the extreme and start heavily restricting food with in turn messes up your horomones more and therefore makes your PCOS worse. Once you get our horomones in control, the weight loss will become a by product of that. Don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to  clear up a potential misconception for anyone that may stumble on this thread. 

But I will say I also did hear about going caffeine free, paying attention to blood sugar and foods that could spike it whether it is carbs or sweets, avoiding dairy because it's inflammatory, as well as cutting out fried foods and going more plant based. I'm trying to do most of those things at the moment and see what helps. The only thing that I'm not doing right now is cutting out meat. I don't eat meat that frequently but when I do it's normally seafood. For now I'm getting ideas because I'm still in the beginning stages of this life style change. It's going to be a while until I see what I'm doing works or not. 

[soos_mite_ah]

4 hours ago, mandyjw said:

My advice would be to try diet first. I had something that may have been endometriosis but also had symptoms of PCOS and was also advised to take birth control pills. Birth control pills made it much worse, and turned it into a much weirder concerning pain, over a much longer period of time. Cutting dairy and sugar seemed to be a huge help. Also add in more veggies and healthy fats. Cruciferous vegetables (kale, broccoli) help regulate hormones. You should be taking vitamin D if you don't get much sun, and in order to properly absorb and use the vitamin D you also need to be making sure you get vitamin K and A to go with it, so eat an orange veggie and green leafy veggie every single day.  

You might really get a lot out of this book. Oh how I wish I'd known what was in it about 15 years sooner. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZY62QSX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1

Thank you for the heads up regarding birth control. It was the first option that was given to me by my doctor. I have already gone through the motions of getting a prescription for it and I guess I could wait a couple months before actually getting on it to see how my changes in diet and lifestyle are impacting me. And I will be sure to check the book out. It looks interesting 

[soos_mite_ah]

14 hours ago, Preety_India said:

I guess stress worsens it really bad. 

But I don't have much knowledge on this condition at the moment. 

Yeah, stress can play a huge role in it from what I have found out about it. It can either be one of the main factors causing it or it can be one of the major things making it worse. 

I found that there are like 4 major types of PCOS. People can have more than one contributing to their condition. 

• Inflammation related: usually due to inflammatory foods like dairy 
• Insulin resistance: has to do with blood sugar management
• Pill related: complications with the birth control pill
• Adrenal fatigue: due to stress

[Michael569]

9 hours ago, soos_mite_ah said:

What that means is that the horomones being out of wack causes the weight gain, the weight gain doesn't cause PCOS.

Its a bidirectional relationship and one can be caused without the presence of the other. Not every woman with imbalanced hormones becomes obese and not every obese women has to have imbalanced in hormones. Obesity is multifactorial and often caused by at least 50 other factors. 

9 hours ago, soos_mite_ah said:

But I will say I also did hear about going caffeine free, paying attention to blood sugar and foods that could spike it whether it is carbs or sweets, avoiding dairy because it's inflammatory, as well as cutting out fried foods and going more plant based. I'm trying to do most of those things at the moment and see what helps. The only thing that I'm not doing right now is cutting out meat. I don't eat meat that frequently but when I do it's normally seafood. For now I'm getting ideas because I'm still in the beginning stages of this life style change. It's going to be a while until I see what I'm doing works or not. 

But you seem to be getting on the right track. You may consider experimenting with myo-inositol & Agnus Castus (Chasetberry). Definitely bulk up your fibre intake to at least 60g per day to help you remove your oestrogen metabolites and cruciferous (brassica) vegetables every day for oestrogen balance. 

Also not sure what sorts of tests have you had but possibly requesting something like HbA1C (long term blood sugar balance) could give you some indicators. 

Additionally, although this is not cheap, Dutch Testing can reveal some insanely useful information for women about their endocrine panel. 

Good luck!