PCOS: The Difficult Emotional Journey to Restoring Hormone Balance

Has your body become your enemy rather than your best friend? Do you look back on years past when maintaining a healthy weight and feeling beautiful was as simple as breathing? PCOS can be so heart wrenchingly difficult because it robs so many women of their feminine essence. The very chemical makeup of womanhood is in chaos -- and that leaks stress into all corners of life.

Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome is a collection of symptoms caused by increased production of male sex hormones in women.

These symptoms include:

Irregular Menstrual Cycle
Hirsutism (male characteristics such as facial, chest, and belly hair)
Cystic Hormonal Acne around the chin
Multiple Ovarian Cysts (seen on ultrasound).
Weight Gain
and the big one … Fertility Issues

We often see women who have self-diagnosed or been misdiagnosed feeling stressed about PCOS: “I can’t lose weight and have acne, so I must have it, right!?” Not so fast… With common diagnostics discrepancies with this dis-ease, we want to emphasize how important it is to be medically tested. Having stress about an issue you don’t have will only worsen the situation.

Additionally, there could be a different cause to your symptoms, for example, women using a Progesterone birth Control such as Mirena might experience similar symptoms. Or, a weight loss issue may actually be linked to high stress levels, inflammation, or thyroid issues which would all be treated differently.

PCOS Can impact any women, of almost any age.

Where does PCOS start?

The newest idea is that it starts with an unhealthy digestive system, so we always do gut testing to look at abnormal yeast, parasites or bacteria. In Functional Medicine we know that by healing the gut, the rest of the body is also healed. This is especially true with PCOS.

How We Test PCOS:

When we suspect PCOS, we do extensive lab work to test levels for male sex hormones (testosterone + DHEA), female sex hormones (estrogen + progesterone), and blood sugar/glucose levels.Only then can we rule out other options and confidently diagnose PCOS. We also do a pelvic ultrasound looking for the classic findings of multiple tiny cysts throughout the ovaries.

Healing is a Journey:

The good news is PCOS can be fully cured by lifestyle and diet changes, accompanied with supplements and healing tools! The hard part is...

Truly healing takes more time + effort than simply masking symptoms. We see a lot of women taking birth control to effectively mask symptoms such as acne or weight gain, but this does not heal PCOS. Once you get off birth control to have babies, PCOS will remain a problem.

It needs to be healed in a timely manner… because your fertility has a clock, and PCOS can also lead to diabetes when left untreated.

We don’t say that to cause more stress or fear, but we strongly suggest you seek a diagnosis and support if you experience these symptoms.

There is no singular cause for PCOS, which is why holistic healing is the most effective at addressing your genetics, lifestyle, diet, and stress. Conventional doctors will often treat PCOS with birth control which is truly heartbreaking... because it can be so detrimental to women’s health and fertility. The Ultimate Goal of Healing PCOS is decreasing Male Sex Hormones and increasing Female Sex Hormones. Within that greater healing journey, there are many smaller feats to be won.

The first hill we must climb is getting women ovulating. Our team provides the tools needed to do this - through relaxation practices, custom supplement regimens, herbal remedies, and diet. We want the precious body to switch out of fight-or-flight mode and remember it’s natural state of being which is love and joy. That’s when the body will know “it’s safe to have a baby now”.

Consistent Diet and Exercise is a difficult but rewarding leg of the journey. We’ve got to lower sugar intake to ease out of a prediabetic state. This helps with weight loss which lowers testosterone and cortisol (the stress hormone). A double win! This is often the most gratifying part of healing because it’s one our clients can actually see and experience feeling more beautiful.

It’s not a solo journey. When we say we provide support, we are referring to ourselves as well as our plant allies. Our Earth has gifted copious herbal remedies that support our bodies! There are unique plants that can help women reconnect with their femeinine essence by supporting hormonal balance and womb function. Isn’t that magical!?

We offer personalized supplement regimens based on your needs. Options we love are Chaste-Berry, Passionflower, Tilia, and Skull-Cap, along with adaptogens to help with stress levels such as Rhodiola + Ashwagandha! If you’re struggling with any of these symptoms, don’t resign yourself to living with it. Feeling vibrant and alive is your birthright. These symptoms are not ‘normal’. Even if PCOS isn’t the root, it is likely something else-- so it is worth seeking help. Your body is an all-knowing masterpiece and knows exactly how to heal itself. We’re just here to guide and give you the tools and support you’ll need to take on a self-healing journey.

PCOS: Holistic Approach to Polycystic Ovary Syndrome