Hi all,
Welcome to the first post of my new blog 🙂 This blog is intended to be more a diary of my ongoing self-treatment of my PCOS but hopefully over time I’ll include more general information of diet, exercise, lifestyle modification and recent research around PCOS that might be more useful to some of you. So if you’re interested in my story, read on. Otherwise, stay posted.
First off a little about me. My name is Carlie, I’m a 32 year old Aussie (settled in Melbourne), a recently unemployed chemist (the one makes drugs in a lab, not the ones that work in a pharmacy) and part-time student.
I was diagnosed with PCOS a few months ago after a 2 year wait, 2 doctors, 3 sets of tests, 2 ultrasounds and lots of internet research. I’d always had irregular periods which didn’t really bother me until I’d settled down into a long term relationship with my current partner. Having no period for 3 months can be unsettling when you’re not wanting children any time soon.
My first port of call was my reliable GP. She was the first that suggested PCOS but, after normal bloodwork and no sign of polycystic ovaries (PCO’s) her comment was to ‘come back when I wanted to get pregnant’. I didn’t want to get pregnant, I wanted to get healthy.
Two years later, more weight gain (it had been creeping up on me by about 1-2kg per year) and another 3 month period absence, I went to a women’s health clinic near my work. Same tests but this time my ultrasound showed 25 follicles per ovary (the threshold for PCO’s is 12). So despite my normal hormone, insulin and blood sugar levels I finally got my diagnosis.
Unfortunately, I realised my journey back to health was just beginning. The advice from my doctor was to ‘lose weight, about 3-5 kg’. No medication was recommended, which I’m not disappointed with, and she had a few dietary tips for me but nothing I hadn’t found on the internet before, even some that conflicted with what I had read.
I’m sure many of the cysters out there can relate to this frustration. Telling someone with this condition to ‘just lose weight’ can feel like a kick in the guts. What the hell do you think we’ve been trying to do??? It’s VERY difficult for us PCOS girls to just lose weight. It hangs around no matter how hard we diet or work out.
Okay, rant mode off and back to the present day. Lucky for me I’m considered ‘lean PCOS,’ so I’m not obese but still have a desire to lose a little bit of weight, to regulate my periods and to feel better about myself. So like most things in life, I’m doing it myself. And it starts with this blog.
With my sister getting married in a year I certainly have a motivating factor and a timeframe to make some lifestyle changes. But I want to do this for me, not for my family, boyfriend or anyone else. And I don’t want to be thin, I want to be healthy.
So here’s the plan as I see it now:
Currently I weigh in at 59.4kg, bust at 98cm, waist at 78cm and belly at 89.5cm. These measurements need to come down. The weight may not budge much but getting to 55kg would be fantastic.
I’ve been eating a low GI diet for a few years now but had eliminated pasta on advice from my doctor, as well as keeping any low GI grain to lunch rather than later in the day.
I’ll be signing up for CrossFit to get my lazy arse into gear and get some fitness happening. With no job I have no excuses anymore.
So for those of you who have made it this far, stay tuned for updates on my progress, in between other more general posts.
Smile and stay beautiful all xoxo
Do my ovaries look fat? 
Hmm it appears like your website ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I had written and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any suggestions for newbie blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.
Hello,
Sorry it’s taken me ages to reply. I’m still finding my way around WordPress and havn’t got a heap of comments yet.
This is the first blog I’ve written so I’m hardly an expert on blog writing. All I can say is write somewhat frequently, maybe 1-2 times a week. Also include things that you find interesting and others who read your blog topics would be interested in too. My blog is part personal diary and part public information so it all depends on what you want your blog to achieve.
Carlie
Thanks on your marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it.I want to encourage you to continue your great work, have a nice afternoon!
Hi Carlie,
Good luck with your PCOS goals. Crossfit sounds great. I’m glad you are a regular visitor to my blog and find it useful. Have you read about d-chiro inositol for PCOS? If you’d like a copy of the studies on it and PCOS, just email me and I’ll forward them on to you. I’ve also got information on DCI on my site: http://www.mypcos.info/1/dci/
I just want to scream every time I hear a woman was told “come back when you want to get pregnant”. The metabolic and cardiovascular sequelae to PCOS are SO SERIOUS. Good on you for taking responsibility for your own health.
I agree low GI is a very important factor in PCOS treatment, I just haven’t gotten around to writing anything much on it yet. It’s a lot of things on that list 🙂
All the best,
Anne
Thanks Anne,
I have read about DCI on your website and was looking to make a future post on myo inositol vs DCI. I took a quick look at the research and so much of it conflicts and are such small studies that it’s hard to make sense of it all. I’d love to see the studies you’ve got, I’ll send you an email to get the details.
Happy to see you here, hopefully my blog ramblings stay interesting
Carlie
Hi Carlie,
I’m forwarding you the studies now, so make yourself a pot of tea and settle in for a few night’s reading. I’ve got the lot!
I agree, the studies on the various inositols are a little contradictory and I think there is a fairly strong degree of industry influence in there causing some of it.
So far, I think the research is in agreement that DCI works better for glucose metabolism (thus minimising the hormonal sequelae of high insulin, high testosterone and disordered reproductive hormones, inflammatory markers, cholesterol and triglycerides. The latest research seems to indicate that there is a benefit from myo-inositol over DCI for egg quality when trying to conceive. At present I am not trying to conceive so my only concerns are improving my health and reducing my risk of long-term cardiovascular and metabolic complications.
I have tried myo-inositol in the past (gotta love N=1 studies, even less statistical signficance than the studies on DCI so far), but did not notice any positive effects at all. With DCI, my menstrual cycle returned 4 weeks after I started taking it, having been completely absent for 3.5 years following a 2 month stint on metformin, which turned me from a largely asymptomatic, 8 periods a year, lean PCOS-er to being a lot more symptomatic, completely anovulatory with no menses and beginning to gain weight like crazy, which continued until I started DCI. As a chemist, I’d love to hear any hypotheses you may have on my response to metformin. I’ve tried it twice now with the same result and have heard several dozen anecdotes since starting my website from women with PCOS who also experienced a very similar response. Interestingly, they were pretty much all lean, fit, active women who ate a healthier than average diet. I can’t find any mechanism which would explain this, or any case studies in the literature.
It appears to me that “PCOS” or more accurately insulin resistance, is a spectrum disorder with people having a defect in an enzyme or maybe several, that are involved in inositol metabolism. The degree of this defect probably determines whether they benefit from taking myo-inositol (being able to convert it to DCI, albeit inefficiently) or whether they need d-chiro inositol ready to go. There is probably also a small percentage of people for whom oral DCI is not helpful either. These people are probably unable to convert it into DCI-IPG, the molecule which helps to convert glucose into ATP in the cells to provide energy.
Anyway, I’m rambling something terrible, so I’d better sign off and send you your reading material. All the best, Anne
Carlie and Anne S: you’d make a great team! We need more people such as yourselves, who have PCOS and have a SCIENCE background. Hope you two communicate your findings together, ‘cos this syndrome is not a lot of fun and so little is known. If it’s going to get better in the future we need people like you to pass the info on. Good work, thanks, and best of health to you.