Women with PCOS have ovaries that create an abundance of follicles each month without producing an egg. PCOS can contribute to irregular periods, depression, excessive weight gain (despite diet and exercise efforts), acne, and excess facial hair. It is also the most common cause of infertility among women in the US.
PCOS is often temporary. Who gets PCOS? It is seen in:
- girls going through puberty (when their ovaries are trying to set a regular menstrual pattern)
- women during the transition years of perimenopause
What is PCOS?
Understanding PCOS is easier if one tries to picture what goes on inside the ovaries every month.
Each month the ovaries begin to ripen a number of follicles. Normal follicles are cysts, in that they are pockets of tissue filled with benign fluid and hormones, mostly estrogen. The amount of immature follicles changes with each cycle - but during normal times, one or two follicles grow stronger than the others and produce an egg. When we ovulate, the egg in the dominant follicle pops out and is captured in the fallopian tube on its way to the uterus. This event is caused by and in turn triggers a host of hormonal secretions, including estrogen and progesterone, which work together to prepare the body to support a pregnancy if the egg is fertilized or a normal monthly period if it is not.
In PCOS, the egg is not released due to a series of changes that take place in the ovaries and in the normal hormonal pathways. There is no one reason for how these changes take place. There are lots of theories about PCOS being proposed, but the end result is the same: no ovulation and no resulting pregnancy or period.
What Are Polycystic Ovaries?
When ovaries become polycystic they create a lot of follicles. Some say they look like a pearl necklace on the ovaries. No one follicle becomes dominant and ovulation can’t occur. For the most part, these multiple ovarian cysts are not dangerous in themselves. However, they do bring with them uncomfortable side effects. Because a woman with PCOS doesn’t ovulate, her natural sequence of hormonal events gets interrupted, her levels of estrogen and androgens (testosterone and DHEA) remain high, and her body reacts with symptoms.
What are the symptoms of PCOS?
The most common symptoms of PCOS are:
- irregular or absent periods
- infertility
- increased hair growth
- unusual weight gain, even with dieting or increased exercise
Women with PCOS will often go for months without a period and then start bleeding heavily for days. This occurs when the uterine lining has gotten too thick and the body must naturally shed it. Because PCOS disrupts ovulation it can be very difficult to become pregnant.
Other signs of PCOS include:
- acne
- high blood pressure
- obesity
- abnormal facial and body hair growth (due to too much testosterone)
One of the less recognizable symptoms of PCOS is depression. While depression happens for many reasons, it is always a good idea to consider PCOS if you have other PCOS symptoms. In some cases antidepressants are prescribed which do not alleviate the underlying issues and therefore are not very helpful.
PCOS and insulin resistance
Another telltale symptom of PCOS is steady, significant weight gain - even with reduced caloric intake. Some women say they’re gaining weight no matter what they do. It’s not unusual for women with PCOS to say they’ve recently gained 60 or more pounds in less than a year, despite dieting all the time and exercise. This weight usually accumulates around their middle. Why do women with PCOS gain weight at such alarming rates? The research is showing that PCOS is strongly linked with insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is a condition some people get by eating too many carbohydrates and leads to sustained high levels of insulin in the bloodstream. It is possible that this extra insulin hitches onto the receptors lining the ovary and stimulates cyst production. This is an issue that should be monitored because women with insulin resistance have a much higher risk of developing other serious health problems, like diabetes and heart disease. In fact, if you’re headed down the path to PCOS, what that means is that you’re now getting into the category of metabolic syndrome. This is a category you want to get out of as fast as you can, because with all the damaging inflammatory processes going on with this syndrome there is potential for serious problems down the road.
Another interesting consideration for some is that while many people think of PCOS as a condition that only affects women who are overweight. Though not often, from time to time thin women are afflicted with insulin resistance and PCOS.
On the bright side, women with insulin resistance and PCOS respond very well to:
- modifications in their diet
- adding nutritional support in the form of soy and other functional foods
- multivitamins, minerals (Do you have a way to tell if the supplement (vitamin) that you’re using is being absorbed & assimilated?)
- omega-3’s
- beginning an exercise program.
Women often get normal periods as their insulin levels normalize. This is something that’s always treatable and easily treatable.
Here's a good site for more information about PCOS and natural approaches to treating PCOS.
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