That statistic in itself is scary but what’s even worse is that PCOS cannot be diagnosed with one simple test. Signs and symptoms vary from woman to woman and less than 50% of cases are diagnosed.

Not only is PCOS one of the leading causes of fertility problems in women, it affects their appearance, self-esteem, mood, and also brings with it additional health problems.

What is PCOS?

This hormonal disorder causes a collection of small bead-like cysts around the outer edge of the ovaries, yet it’s not just the ovaries that are affected. PCOS causes hormonal imbalances in each of your body’s glands, including the pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroid, thymus, adrenal, and pancreas.

The exact cause? The short answer – researchers are not entirely sure! However, we do know that it involves a combination of genetic and environmental factors, and many researchers believe it is caused by excess insulin produced in the body.

Excess insulin, which leads to insulin resistance, is known to cause the ovaries to produce extra androgen (a male hormone, testosterone), which can cause many of the symptoms associated with PCOS. The condition itself can also result in heart disease and Type 2 diabetes if left untreated.

There is no ‘cure’ for PCOS but you can address the root causes of the symptoms to manage the condition and render it almost inactive.

Knowing the signs and symptoms of PCOS can also help you get an early diagnosis, so you can begin correcting the condition in a timely manner.

What the doctors are looking for…

There are three main features of the condition and, according to the NHS, if you have two or more you will be diagnosed with PCOS.

• Cysts that develop inside your ovaries
• Ovulation is disrupted and eggs are not regularly released
• Androgen levels are high (male hormone, testosterone)

Symptoms and signs

Here are some of the most common symptoms and signs related to PCOS:

• Oily skin and/or recurring acne
• Infrequent, irregular periods or amenorreah
• Difficulty or inability to fall pregnant due to irregular, or lack of, ovulation
• Hirsutism: excess hair growth on the face, chest, back and/or buttocks
• Weight gain
• Hair loss from the head or thinning hair

Conventional treatment

There are many treatments available for PCOS and your doctor will tailor the treatment to your specific symptoms. After completing an extensive investigation, including blood tests and ultrasound, he or she may suggest the following:

Medication to help regulate your period. For individuals who are not trying to fall pregnant, the doctor may prescribe a low-dose birth control pill. This will help to decrease androgen production and balance your hormones. However, it will not fix the underlying causes of PCOS and taking the pill presents its own risks.

Metformin is commonly prescribed to regulate insulin for those women with insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes.

For individuals wanting to become pregnant, a medication such as Clomid (Clomifene citrate) may be prescribed to help induce ovulation (this stimulates your ovaries to release eggs).

Medication to reduce excess hair growth. Your doctor may prescribe a medication such as Aldactone to help block the effects androgen has on the skin. Because this medication is known to cause birth defects, it is suggested that you tell your doctor if you are pregnant or plan on becoming so. Again this is not dealing with the underlying causes!

If you are looking to become pregnant and medication doesn’t help to induce ovulation, another option is an outpatient surgical procedure called laparoscopic ovarian drilling. This ovulation-inducing procedure involves the surgeon making tiny holes in the follicles on the surface of the ovaries with a laser.

My thoughts?

As PCOS is a lifelong condition we need to be looking at – and correcting – the underlying causes, which includes correcting insulin resistance and eating to nourish the body and balance the hormones. If not, we are just using a ‘band aid’ approach, and when we take that band aid off we are left with the original symptoms.

Even if you choose to take the conventional approach, please work on the underlying causes at the same time. Try my PCOS programme!

Dietary changes & advice

Food cravings: food cravings tend to increase with PCOS, especially for carbohydrates. Some studies have found that younger women who present with raised androgen levels and menstrual disturbances have greater cravings for high fat and fast foods than those with normal levels.

Weight management: insulin resistance is a key concern among those with PCOS, with research studies presenting 60% of women with PCOS as obese. Obesity itself carries a host of serious health risks, but it seems that obese women with PCOS are on average heavier than obese women without. It really is advisable to change your eating habits with this condition. This can help improve insulin resistance, testosterone levels, and improve ovulation and menstruation. Physical activity is also known to help improve glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, while reducing abdominal fat.

Fatty acids: these have been reported to affect the glucose metabolism by altering insulin function, as a diet with high monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids is associated with a decrease in insulin sensitivity.

Low GI diet: current research is in favour of changing overall dietary habits to improve insulin sensitivity in addition to this and weight loss. The best advice would be to combine weight loss with a healthy diet and low GI foods.

Supplements: I would advise you to work with a practitioner to get the correct supplements for you as an individual. Some of the supplements that I use in clinic include:

• Vitamin D: this vitamin has been found to be involved in egg maturation and development.
• Oily fish: Omega-3 fats (EPA and DHA) found in cold water fish can help increase fertility levels and lower androgen levels.
• Myo-inositol (MYO): improves all aspects of PCOS from insulin sensitivity, reproduction and hormonal imbalance to metabolic issues.
• N-acetylcystine (NAC): boosts your immune system and protects against free radical and oxidative stress.

My personal story

What really drove my passion in nutrition and natural healing (and led me to study at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, where I spent four years qualifying in this amazing field!) were my own health issues.

Having an under-active thyroid and PCOS, I struggled with my weight (and mood) and felt as if all I were eating were lettuce leaves, and yet I still managed to put on 20kg in two years.

I was already on thyroid hormone replacement therapy when they recommended I take pharmaceutical drugs (AKA the pill!) for the PCOS. I declined, as by that stage my knowledge of nutrition and nutrients had developed enough for me to decide to try the natural route first.

I am happy to say that it all paid off and through dietary changes, supplements, total perseverance and determination I managed to drop 22kg in weight, which I have kept off for more than four years! Furthermore, I now have a 30 day menstrual cycle instead of 90.

My personal journey doesn’t end here though, as the next step is to have a healthy baby naturally. Meanwhile, I would love to assist other women in dealing with this condition to the same life-changing results!

Nourishing well wishes,

Angelique

Consult your doctor or health care practitioner for any health problems, and before embarking on any new health regimes, using any supplements or before making any changes in prescribed medications or food programmes.

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We all have a story to tell and sometimes that story defines us, sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes we share our story so that one day we can hopefully help someone else who is going through the same. So yes this is an extremely personal story; one that I feel I need to share.

On the 3^rd of May 2014 we jumped for joy, I had my first ever positive pregnancy test. I was so excited, we did it – wow! We’d followed my fertility eating plan and it had worked.

I know it’s not the norm to tell too many people in the early days in case it goes wrong. I personally think I would rather people know so that I can have all the good energy vibes and, as a friend said, the support if anything happens. And boy did it…

On the 13^th of June 2014 we had the most painful and horrific experience to date. We had a miscarriage. I found out the day before and left my gynaecologist’s room feeling numb, not quite understanding. I think he noticed as he kept asking ‘do you understand you are losing your baby?’ I didn’t. Last week we saw the little heartbeat, this week there was nothing – how is that possible?

I went straight from his Harley Street office to an acupuncturist. I needed to know that my body was ready to handle this, my gynaecologist said it would take two weeks to happen, I felt it would be sooner. The acupuncturist said he couldn’t save the baby and I had to explain I wasn’t there for that, there was nothing left to save. I needed to know that my energy was flowing as my body had work to do.

Once back from my acupuncture I cried a sound that brought my mum and husband running with painkillers and concerned looks. But I wasn’t in physical pain, that sound was straight from my heart breaking. The promise of my baby had just been taken away from me.

My heart was breaking and I was racking my brain to find out what I had done wrong, even though the gynaecologist had told me several times that it was the embryo’s DNA and natural selection.

I knew this was nature’s way, I wanted a healthy baby and my amazing body was miscarrying at the time when the body scans the foetus for any DNA mutation.

That night the miscarriage was well underway, and by 1 am I was in a full miscarriage labour. 6 am and I could hardly breathe – the pain from the contractions came in 5 second apart waves of knock-your-breath-away pain.

My husband was incredible, opening windows, closing windows, switching on fans, switching off fans, and opening doors, as I paced saying ‘it’s not meant to be like this, I am not meant to be bleeding, I am pregnant’. But I no longer was.

At 2 pm on Friday the 13^th I passed the gestational sac. My mum was there to help and for the first time in over 13 hours the pain stopped. Well the pain in my abdomen at least.

When things like this happen there are two possibilities…

You either turn angry and downtrodden or you look at the situation and feel grateful. Grateful? Surely I have lost the plot now!

Well I am about to get all tree-huggy on you, but I am grateful! I am grateful that we work and, that with a past history of eating disorders, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), hypothyroidism and being 35-years-old, we are able to fall pregnant naturally. Grateful that my body knew what to do when something was wrong and that my body did an amazing job.

I am so grateful for all these things and a loving husband who is my rock, my amazing family – without them I wouldn’t be me – and super supportive friends who have walked this journey with me.

Let me explain why I feel such gratitude…

My journey into nutrition (and where I am today) wasn’t one of having been super healthy my whole life. No, on the contrary, it’s been a journey of self-sabotage, healing and discovery.

I am very fortunate I have a mum who has always been into health, naturopathy and nutrition, so from a young age I had a good foundation and always told my mum that I wanted to heal people.

From the age of about 18 it all went south! I ate badly, drank loads of alcohol and put on a lot of weight, and I’m sure I had insulin resistance. My periods, which had never been regular, were now really out of whack.

By 20 I was the heaviest I had been and decided to lose weight, but not in a healthy way! I developed bulimia and anorexia, exercised twice a day and lost so much weight my periods stopped for 6 months. I weighed around 45kg and I was ill. I didn’t feel or look good and was once even likened to a cartoon – big platform shoes, tiny body and a big head!

Have you heard the saying ‘your genes load the gun but your environment pulls the trigger?’ Well my genes meant I was predisposed to hypothyroidism (a family condition) and my environment – with my totally unhealthy relationship with food, over-exercising and stress & strain on my adrenal glands – pulled that trigger. My thyroid attacked itself and I developed autoimmune hypothyroidism.

It didn’t end there though, I decided to start eating again and I didn’t know when to stop and I once again put on a tremendous amount of weight. I overate and overate but I carried on exercising obsessively. Thinking back to what I put my body through – the stress of it all – I marvel at its resilience!

My parents took me to a nutritionist, which reignited a passion in me, I wanted to do what she did, I wanted to help people heal.

By the age of 27 I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, about 20kgs over weight, and only then, I finally took control. This included baby steps in changing my habits and beliefs around food, and big steps in enrolling with the Institute of Optimum Nutrition to embark on a four year study journey. This is where I discovered that mood swings and not menstruating for 90 days at a time were not ‘normal for some girls’ as one doctor had said. That it was actually totally abnormal.

I ran further tests and I was eventually given the diagnosis of PCOS. I learnt how stress and digestive well-being are major players in thyroid health and that our health begins in the colon.

Only I could make these changes, I needed to make them and I did. I lost 18kg and started menstruating every 30 to 35 days – a massive improvement.

It wasn’t easy but I haven’t looked back and I draw on my own life experience when working with my clients. Really you can tell me anything – it’s okay, I won’t judge you, I have probably done similar myself! However, I will guide you to make better choices for your health while I investigate the underlying causes of your symptoms.

Fast forward to today and yes I am grateful for so many things…

My healing journey is not over, I am not perfect and I don’t claim to be, but I have so many blessings to be grateful for. I know we will fall pregnant again and we will meet our healthy happy baby. This was just the practice run! And, in light of all my personal experiences and the many lessons I’ve learned along the way, I would absolutely love to support those of you going through any of the same, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Nourishing well wishes

Angelique

Consult your doctor or health care practitioner for any health problems, before embarking on any new health regimes, using any supplements or before making any changes in prescribed medications or food programmes.

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The post Eating disorders, hypothyroidism, PCOS, fertility, conception & miscarriage appeared first on London Nutritionist - Angelique Panagos, DipION FdSc mBANT CNHC.