Understanding PCOS – Polycystic Ovary Syndrome so you can feel empowered and be part of the discussion with your health care provider!
PCOS is pretty much an epidemic, affecting 1 in 8 women. Unfortunately, most doctors don’t know how to diagnose or treat PCOS beyond hormonal birth control. They often tell women to lose weight, but the root is a metabolic condition that can be reversed. Read my post on pro-metabolism. Most of my blog posts address the metabolism and how to bring it back in balance.
Our medical professionals don’t really understand women’s health.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome was first described in 1721 by Antonio Vallisneri.
Yet even today, health practitioners are not able to help most women understand PCOS, let alone help women with PCOS related symptoms. A substantial percent of female physicians struggle with infertility challenges themselves. This shows they are not adequately trained in fertility awareness and support.
So why take their advice? Why are they not better educated?
My personal hormone story has been a long time coming. I started my cycle very late at age 16. I was very athletic, skinny (underweight), and only cycled every 60 days. Fast forward 20 year and my cycle shortened to 35 days. It took that long to change, and this is still not considered a healthy cycle. In addition, I started having extreme night sweats in my mid 30ies. It took an unofficial diagnosis of “peri-menopause” at age 35 by a health practitioner for me to say, “no way”. I committed to finding out what was off with my hormones and finally at age 37 I started having normal cycles, every 28 days sharp, with zero PMS (premenstrual syndrome) symptoms. During my studies I learned that our hormone production is closely tied to our metabolic health. I also learned which tests show the most accurate hormone results. I was previously misled by saliva and blood hormone testing, and also by untrained health professionals.
Health literature is free and available to everybody, there is no reason to wait around for your Doctor.
Let’s understand PCOS.
PCOS is an imbalance with hormones that affects women during their childbearing years. The ovaries' signaling mechanism tends to be disrupted, sending misinformation that affects estrogen, progesterone and androgen production. It is these hormones that regulate your female menstrual cycle including bleeding and ovulation. When the signaling is off, and these hormones are out of balance, ovulation might not happen, which leads to infertility.
Ovulation is the part in the middle of your cycle when your ovaries release an egg which can then be fertilized. Ovulation is signaled by your levels of hormones and their ratio at a specific time. And your hormones in return get signals from your brain via stimulating hormones like FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormone). These two hormones are sent by glands in your brain. Signaling messengers play a huge role in this process and your body's messenger highways need to be clear for exact communication.
A lot of women don’t know they have PCOS. Roughly 70% have not been diagnosed by their medical professional!
PCOS is a group of symptoms caused by hormonal misproduction / miscommunication that affect the ovaries and ovulation.
These symptoms include:
Cysts or polycysts (many cysts) in the ovaries
High levels of male hormones (androgens)
Irregular or skipped periods
Heavy bleeding
Hair growth on back, belly, face or chest
Weight gain
Dark skin patches on neck creases, groin and under breasts
Cysts are little sacs that are fluid filled. In PCOS, these sacs contain immature eggs that never mature enough to trigger an ovulation because hormone ratios and levels are off. Elevated androgen (male hormone) levels further contribute to the issue.
The symptoms listed above lead to a PCOS diagnosis which can be overwhelming enough, without having to wade through the sea of conflicting information (and misinformation) out there. So let me explain further:
What causes PCOS?
Just like with most diseases, PCOS is caused by an underlaying imbalance that has been developing over a long time, often unnoticed.
Genetics play a role of course, but we needn't be slaves to our genes, we can alter their function.
Insulin resistance and blood sugar imbalances lead to a lot of missignaling
Low Metabolism
Lack of nutrients
Excess stress (mental, emotional, physical and everything else mentioned on this list causes stress)
Large toxic load and poor detoxification (endotoxins, heavy metals, chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, etc.)
Elevated Androgens and low Progesterone
Most folks get minimal results from both the conventional and functional models.
After doing the basic foundational work like cleaning up their diet and environment, getting a water filter, getting enough sleep and strength training, those treating PCOS often see symptoms improve for a bit, and then worsen again.
Healing PCOS naturally is possible nevertheless.
But to do this, we must reevaluate how to approach metabolic disorders.
Reducing STRESS & DEPLETION is the start.
PCOS is a disorder where the cells are STARVING. They need fuel, and are having a hard time getting it and using it properly. Instead of using available fuel, your body puts it into storage as a safeguard. Women may mistake this for needing less energy, so they eat less, fast and skip meals. This is a big mistake because this elevates your stress hormones, which ultimately signal your body to digest muscle mass, and turn it into blood sugar. Following these stress hormones further depresses metabolic function. The only way to reduce stress hormones is to manually balance blood sugar and provide adequate nourishment.
Polyunsaturated fats get released from the cells when cortisol and adrenaline are high. These free fatty acids are scientifically proven to interfere with the cells' response to insulin and glucose uptake. Getting your fats from heat stable saturated sources and keeping stress low will increase the cells’ ability to utilize its preferred source of fuel: sugar.
Most women with PCOS have slow metabolisms, which means impaired and SLOW digestion. Eating foods that promote excessive bacterial growth will increase irritation and inflammation in an already sluggish, stressed, and impaired digestive tract. Excessive intake of fermentable fibers like raw greens, cruciferous veggies, nuts and seeds, and improperly prepared beans and grains can be bothersome for many. Eating bioavailable and nutrient dense foods is key. And by 'nutrient-dense', I do not mean veggies.
Limiting “toxic” light and increasing the spectrum of Red light from the sun is absolutely essential for the conversion of cholesterol into sex hormones- specifically progesterone. Red light therapy or 30 minutes of sunlight a day can take tremendous amounts of stress off of the body. Limiting screen exposure or using blue blocking glasses, especially after the sun goes down is just as important.
Because PCOS is partially a stress driven condition that involves oxidation of free fatty acids that increase estrogen production in the tissues, we need to reduce our exposure to extra estrogens as much as possible in both our environment (plastics, endocrine disruptors) and our diet (seeds, soy, etc.).
With excessive adrenal output of both sex steroids and mineralocorticoids (a fancy name for hormones), often women with PCOS are depleted of vital trace minerals like magnesium, sodium, potassium, bioavailable calcium, copper and other trace minerals. In addition, vitamins like b vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K2 and vitamin E are often being burned through faster than they can be replenished. This has deep, metabolic consequences affecting everything from liver function to hair growth.
Progesterone is the hormone every woman with PCOS needs to pay attention to. It’s both anti-androgen, anti-estrogen and pro-metabolic. It lowers stress and inflammation, and increases sleep quality and feelings of calm. In a state of undernourishment, depletion and stress, ovulation becomes irregular or stops altogether. Because we only make progesterone when we ovulate, we need to be hyper-focused on taking the steps to encourage progesterone production again. But if you are dealing with profound ovulation issues, looking into bioidentical progesterone can be life changing while you are working on making your own.
This is the foundation to recovery for all hormonal issues, whether it be PCOS, Thyroid Issues, Endometriosis, Autoimmunity, etc...
PCOS reversal diet
Eat protein, carbs and fat every 3 hours
Make sure you are eating enough calories
Avoid polyunsaturated fats (nuts, seeds, grains)
Avoid gut irritating / endotoxin producing foods (soy, nuts, grains, seeds)
Get natural sunlight or red light therapy every day
Avoid xenoestrogens and phytoestrogens (plastics)
Minerals are your best friend
Get natural progesterone levels up
I offer DUTCH Urine Sex and Steroid Hormone testing which produces accurate full day hormone level readings. This test includes downstream pathways of metabolized hormones, so it is accurate where other tests fail. Don't be shy to reach out for a free consultation.
Resources available to you:
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/48078
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19910321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3553224/
https://joe.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/joe/190/1/1900039.xml
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2861983/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8935479/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6547785/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27925712/
https://raypeat.com/articles/
https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/polycystic-ovary-syndrome