September is PCOS awareness month! Those of us who have PCOS wish that we didn’t have it. Many of us struggle with unwanted hair growth, obesity, carb intolerance, high cholesterol, blood sugar dysregulation, male-pattern balding, thyroid issues, and infertility.
The emotional impact of PCOS is rarely discussed.
I remember when I was first diagnosed with PCOS. I was left with many questions. Through research, I was able to find the answers to my physical questions. I was at peace with the idea that my body was not like other women’s bodies. My body was part of a long history of ancestral women who lived during times of famine and whose bodies learned to not reproduce during that time.
I learned how to manage my weight, my acne, my hair loss, etc. What I didn’t know how to do was manage my feelings and thoughts of being less than a “real” woman.
Depression and Anxiety became my new norm.
I convinced myself that I was broken and worthless.
The ironic part about all of that negative thinking was that I thought I was the only one. I felt alone in my misery… that is, until I found social media PCOS support groups. I realized in that moment that I hadn’t been alone. That common emotional thread of depression, disappointment, frustration and self-loathing was out there.
I had taken charge of my health and decided to not allow myself to be a victim of my own thoughts any longer. I also realized in that moment that we need more than just awareness around PCOS. There is plenty of awareness. What we really need is action and those of us diagnosed with PCOS have to be the ones who are willing to stand up and say “I am not broken and I will learn to work with my body instead of against it!”
We are not broken. We are wired differently and we have been sold a pack of lies about what our bodies need!
Take Charge of Your Health!
In many of my YouTube videos about PCOS (search NeoGenesis Nutrition), I reference the various systems within the body that are impacted by hormonal imbalance. The thyroid and adrenals are two of the most common areas. However, PCOS impacts our white blood cells, iron levels, and gut microbiome. There isn’t a system that escapes the imbalances that are diagnosed as PCOS.
But we are not our diagnosis. We need solutions, not just awareness. We need action and willingness to change the way we see ourselves and the way our bodies respond.
But where do I start?
I struggled for years trying to figure out why my blood hormone tests all came back textbook normal and, yet, I had symptoms of PCOS that just would not go away! Everything I tried seemed to make my symptoms worse, but never better. I was fighting an enemy I couldn’t see.
This is when I found the DUTCH test, which is a urine hormone test that looks at the metabolites.
What I found was that even though the blood test for my estrogen level came back normal, I was estrogen dominant. All of this excess estrogen was mimicking symptoms of too much testosterone, a well-known symptom of PCOS.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
