Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

I'm tackling a very personal subject this morning. I'm not sure how many of you know this about me, but after years of frustration, I was diagnosed with PCOS in the fall of 2006. A little background: I was a late bloomer, but when I finally starting menstruating at the age of 15, I had the most painful cramps, so much so that I couldn't go to school because I was hurled over in pain. My doctor had me on a medication that helped briefly, but within a few months, it no longer did the trick. So before I headed off for college in 2000, I was put on birth control, which was supposed to help. And it did. And it helped clear up my skin. I was a new person and so happy. Ah, but it was short lived. By the time I was a sophomore, I was frustrated with weight gain that just wouldn't go away, despite playing on a D1 college tennis team and doing additional 90 minute workouts on my own to try and lose the weight. I even weight through a period where I ate very little and tried weight loss pills. And although this was successful for me losing 20lbs, it didn't last long, because I started getting sick while on the pills and so discontinued them. I went rogue and took myself off the birth control, afraid that was what was causing my weight to be sky high. Within a week, I felt like a cloud had been lifted. I hadn't lost any weight, but I didn't feel depressed about it and I wasn't as crabby, and didn't have the mood swings I had been experiencing over the past several years. But  after six months, I still didn't have my period return, so I started to freak out and put myself back on birth control. Almost the next day, I started feeling cranky, I got headaches, and felt soooo bloated. I didn't stay on them very long. I consulted with my doctor and another doctor while I home that summer who both wanted to put me on birth control to get my cycle to return. The second doctor I saw offered a low hormone pill that would result in less side effects (although both of them told me that the side effects I was describing were not often connected to the pill--this is the point in my life where I began to really question mainstream medicine). I went back on the low hormone pill with hesitancy, and sure enough, within a month, I was back to feeling like crap. So I was done. No more birth control for me.

As I started my physical therapy program in Tacoma, WA, I began to decline even more. Yes, I was in the city with the highest rate of depression and suicide, but I was in such a funk. I couldn't focus. I couldn't study. I couldn't retain any information. And I was SO depressed. I wasn't myself, but I couldn't figure it out. I figured I just wasn't as smart as I thought I was and that's why I was struggling so much. 

Then I had a moment of divine intervention. I was at my first summer internship the summer of 2006 and overheard one of my clinical instructors talking to another staff member about how after her first baby was born, her menstrual cycle never returned and she felt just "off." She mentioned a naturopath who came down to instruct classes on visceral mobilization to the staff at the PT clinic who she began to see for this lack of cycle. 

I began to see this naturopath on a regular basis. He not only diagnosed me with PCOS, but he also discovered that my cortisol fluctuations were backwards; meaning that when they were supposed to be low (at night) they were high and when they were supposed to be high (during the day) they were low. Finally, an explanation for why I couldn't sleep at night and was so exhausted during the day. Another symptom of cortisol imbalance? Difficulty concentrating and retaining information. Another aha moment for me...this was why I was struggling so much in grad school. Once my cortisol levels got normalized, I began to love school again as I had in college. We also got my menstrual back on track thanks to herbs, not birth control. When I asked him his thoughts on birth control, he replied that he has consistently been seeing women with these issues who are taking these oral hormones. Like I had started to believe, he said that he believed that the pill has initiated these issues for me. I still believe this. I had absolutely no issues until I started taking the pill. Many would disagree, but my naturopath stated that birth control pills are one of the worst things we can put in our bodies (as well as other hormone-based pills; i.e. pretty much anything that will affect your menstrual/ovulation cycle). 

Long story short, things began to improve. After a year or so, I read that people with PCOS tend to struggle with fertility, and it's usually because they don't ovulate. So I began to track my ovulation and it turned out I wasn't ovulating. So I starting taking herbs to help with that (instead of Clomid, which is the standard MD protocol and has really awful side effects). 

Pretty soon after that (well not too soon), I was able to get pregnant (and probably a little too easily) :) Once pregnant, I began to notice something really strange. I wasn't gaining weight. I tried, believe me. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted (mostly healthy of course), but I was able to indulge in steak, creamy potatoes, etc. Things that all had all been off the menu because I couldn't seem to lose the last 10lbs I needed to. I only gained 19lbs while pregnant. Postpartum, an even stranger thing happened. After about six months, more weight fell off of me. All while I was exercising less than pre-baby and eating more (including a nightly dessert). I attributed this all to breast feeding and being a busy mom, but I spoke with our dear friend who is in charge of a big hospital in California, and he said they are seeing women diagnosed with PCOS getting pregnant and then seeing a shift in their metabolism, for the better. And it is permanent, as far as they can tell. 

Finally, I feel validated; all my prebaby hard work paid off in a beautiful son and finally a metabolism that actually rewards me for eating well and exercising when I can. If you think you may have PCOS or another hormonal imbalance, I really encourage you to seek a physician who's first inclination is not to shoot you full of medicine and hormones. That's not a fun cycle to get stuck in. Here's to your health and Happy Easter!