Some thoughts and discussions from me.

Good morning, my friends Smile

Before I dive into the nitty gritty of this post, a little disclaimer: it’s about to get personal up in here! Any male readers who might not want to hear about womanly issues may want to skip this post Winking smile  Seriously — if you don’t care to read about PCOS, feel free to move along! Also, the primary reason I’m writing publicly about this is to possibly help someone else with PCOS, or at least connect with you/her.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve given you guys an update on what’s going on with my PCOS.  (Here’s part 1, part 2, and part 3.) In fact, the last update I gave ya’ll was that I have blood sugar issues. Blood sugar is directly tied to insulin, which is a hormone that can affect the sex hormones, which can affect the reproductive system, thusly resulting in PCOS. In the past 7 or 8 months, I have learned a LOT about insulin.

Now, after a year of battling issues with my cycle (50-60 days apart, and then none since last October) I have good news. My hormones are back in the normal range, and I got my period back – thusly, I reversed my PCOS!

So, if you’ve been following along on my story, or if you have PCOS yourself, this post is going to be on the next part of my story, and then what I believe reversed my PCOS.

—-

My PCOS Story, Part 4

About a month ago, I sucked it up and made an appointment with an OB/GYN. The naturopath I saw a few months back was insanely expensive, and I was just ready to do something – anything – to get my period back, even if that meant turning western medicine. At my first appointment, I just met with my doctor, told her what was going on, and showed her my blood work from last October, which is what lead my previous doctor to diagnose me with PCOS. I instantly clicked with her and knew I was in good hands. She’s an athlete herself, and was completely open to my want of staying away from any drugs, if possible.

After talking with her, she suggested I get an ultrasound, since I hadn’t gotten one before, to check out my ovaries for cysts. We scheduled it a week out, and that entire week I was a wreck, picturing the worst case scenario, as I do. Then the appointment came, and everything looked…completely healthy and normal. In fact, her words were, β€œyou could take these ovaries out for a drink!” haha Still, I hadn’t had a period, so that outcome was confusing. Typically, people PCOS either have physical symptoms (hair falling out, acne, facial hair, overweight) OR lots of cysts on the ovaries. I had neither, at this point in time.

At this point, she ordered more blood work, so I headed down to the lab and got lots of blood drawn, and played the waiting game again. About a week later, I got a call from my doctor saying, β€œit’s really weird…all of your hormones are within normal range.” Since I still hadn’t gotten my period, we talked about how she thought it was hypogonadsm instead – from lots of life changes over the year and then next steps. So, next steps were either clomid, another drug, birth control, or acupuncture.

That weekend I went to Blend, and had the time of my life. I felt SO happy on the plane ride home, and just had such a good feeling. Plus, I got to see Shane, who was on a business trip the entire week before, and the week coming up. Coincidentally, he was leaving for LA as I was getting back from Blend, and our gates were right next to each other at the airport. So I got to spend some time with him. During that time, I went to the bathroom to find out I started my period!! I’d been praying about this for months, and finally God answered my prayers. So, the reason my hormones were in normal ranges were because things are back on track!!

What I Believe Helped Reverse my PCOS

Oh man, I tried everything under the sun to reverse my PCOS. I pretty much went paleo, took some crazy supplements, drank a silly potion, did seed cycling, went gluten-free instead of paleo, changed up my exercise, changed up my lifestyle, quit eating added sugar, tried to quit drinking coffee (ha..hahaha) and more. Most of it, I believe, didn’t really work. However, I also don’t think it was any one thing, but rather a combination of things changed from nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle. Here’s what I think worked for me:

Nutrition

  • Eating for good blood sugar regulation. I think, out of everything I tried, as far as diet goes, eating to maintain healthy blood sugar levels has helped the most. Like I mentioned earlier, insulin is linked to PCOS. In my case, I had hypoglycemic tendencies.

image

For me, this doesn’t mean low carb or no sugar. It means eating any meals or snacks with balanced macros. It means that I can’t just have a banana or another piece of fruit for a snack. It means I can’t have froyo on an empty stomach. I can have those things, but only along with or close to eating a good amount of protein and fat, as well. I have to be careful when it comes to carbs, and eat more protein or fat than carbs in my meals and snacks.

          –a note on gluten:

            As for the whole gluten free thing, I’m still on the fence. I went gluten free for a long time, but lately, I’ve been reintroducing gluten back into my diet. Obviously, I’m drinking beer. But I’m also having sandwiches at        restaurants even if they don’t have gluten free bread. I do, however, have some adverse side effects after eating gluten sometimes. Like after eating pizza last weekend, my stomach was not happy with me in the morning. I’m still trying to figure it out. I’d really like it if my body is perfectly fine eating gluten, because being gluten-free is just not fun. I’m just being honest. But what sucks even more? Explaining why I’m choosing something gluten-free over regular. It’s so complicated, and people are SO damn quick to judge. Ugh.

          –a note on paleo:

          I do not believe a paleo diet helped me at all. In fact, it just made me more rigid with my eating, causing stress. It also made me lose weight, which I don’t think helped at all (see why below.) I think it also caused me to eat too few carbs. I do believe paleo can be good for some people, and I do appreciate its focus on eating whole foods. Also, I do think it helped me learn how to cook some meals which agree better with my blood sugar levels. However, I don’t think it helped me reverse my PCOS.

  • Taking fish oil, vitamin B, inositol.

image

Out of ALL the supplements I tried in the past year, I believe these three to be the most helpful in my healing.

Lifestyle

  • De-stress, relax, and cutting myself a break. I can be hard on myself, as we all can be. From the research I’d done, I learned a stressed lifestyle can also promote hormone imbalances such as PCOS. Yoga was a big one for me in regards to stress. I immersed myself in it, and credit SO much to it, since I really took my practice seriously last November.

image

It’s helped me to not be such a reactionary person. I don’t β€œfreak out” or overreact to situations as much anymore. I also don’t sweat the small stuff. I’ve ended toxic friendships in my life, and don’t have time for people who bring drama into my life. Not to mention, my body feels SO much better, and I’m much more flexible than I ever was before! I can’t sing yoga’s praises enough.

I also started taking more baths, drinking tea, do relaxing/fun activities…and just trying to be a more relaxed person in general. When this whole thing started, I’d quit my job and changed careers so that I was 100% in the fitness world. That was SCARY for me. Super duper scary. It was a risk worth taking, but it was also a stressor on my body.

  • Gaining weight. I’ve gained abut 5-10 pounds over the past few months. Although I was never considered underweight, and my BMI is smack dab in the middle of a healthy range, I’m naturally pretty lean and muscular. It just so happened that as my jeans got a little tighter and tighter, I got my period and my hormones were back in a normal range, and I don’t think that’s entirely coincidental. My pants are all pretty tight right now, so it’s a good thing that if I’m not wearing yoga pants or crops for work, I’m in sun dresses in the summer Winking smile But still, totally worth it for my fertility.

Fitness

  • Cut back on intensity. This one could go along with lifestyle, I suppose, but I cut WAY back on any intense exercise. Sprints and runs turned into walks. Heavy lifting and heart-pumping circuit training turned into mobility work and body weight exercises. Exercise is, in essence, a stressor on the body. For the most part, it’s a good stressor – one that our body responds to and gets stronger – but sometimes it’s too much. For me, it was a stressor my body couldn’t take. I couldn’t quit my job (another stressor,) but I could cut back on exercise. I’ve increased a bit since then, but not as nearly much as it was before.

Aaaand now I’ve written a book. If you’re still reading, thanks for sticking around Open-mouthed smile If anyone has any questions or is going/went through a similar situation, please feel free to email me! Have a great Thursday, my friends.