- Lack of menstruation
- Male pattern hair growth (chin, neck chest, abdomen, etc) or less frequently hair loss (head)
- Polycystic Ovaries (multiple cysts)
1. Acknowledge that PCOS has causes.
2. Ditch endocrine disrupting products and switch to healthy products.
If you are like most women, you likely have 20 -30 products that are exacerbating your troubles and making it difficult for your body to function properly. Several years ago a woman struggling with infertility reached out to Dr. Ollie Wenker and asked him what to do. He replied: get rid of all your personal care and cleaning products. She followed his advice and switched to better products (and it wasn't as easy or affordable then as it is now) and the next year, she greeted him to thank him as a new mom. Check your body care products, cleaning products, makeup and laundry products for the following:- SLS/SLES
Parabens - Phthalates
- Fragrance/Parfum
- Optical/Florescent Brighteners
- Bismuth
- Ethanolamines (MEA, DEA, and TEA
3. Change Your Eating Habits
- unhealthy oils like corn, canola and vegetable for olive, avocado and coconut
- high fructose corn syrup and sugar for maple syrup, dates, honey and molasses*
- conventional dairy for organic dairy** some women with PCOS do better with dairy elimination
- conventional meats for pastured, organic meats - if the animals don't take prophylactic antibiotics they can't pass them on to you -disrupting your microbiome, and affecting your ovaries.
- consuming a variety of fresh vegetables at every meal
- consuming fresh fruits every day
- consuming healthy fats at every meal: tree nuts olives, coconut, ghee
- eliminating grains. I HIGHLY recommend this because when you eliminate grains you can fill in that space with legumes and vegetables which support a diverse microbiome and bring SIGNIFICANTLY more nutrition. You can always sprinkle grains in once you've made progress in your PCOS and see how certain grains affect your body and adjust as needed.
4. Ditch Type A Exercise
We live in a "go-go-go" culture and many of us are accustomed to Jillian Micaheals type energy when it comes to fitness. However, due to the cascade of hormonal problems many women have adrenal problems as well. For decades weight lifting has been prescribed for PCOS regulation. Why? because when we increase our muscle mass, we improve our body's ability to use glucose properly and therefore those muscles improve insulin regulation. 5. Use Alternative Modalities
There are many alternative approaches that may support PCOS, I am going to speak specifically to ones I have first hand experience with or client sucesss stories.
- Acupuncture! for me one treatment a week took me from 4 menstrual cycles in a year to EIGHT! I doubled my ovulation that year.
- Progesterone, not synthetic progesterone (let's skip extra cancer risks, shall we?) I'm talking about the progesterone from wild yams. This is what I use everyday
- Fertility / Reproductive Health Massage. I recommend Claire Marie Miller certified practitioners. This is the training I took that restored my menstrual cycles to 28-29 days
- Spearmint Tea - this has been shown to reduce androgens and help get reduce male-pattern hair growth.
- Clary Sage essential oil - for cramps.
- Castor Oil Packs - for gentle cleansing of the intestines which reduces load on ovaries, plus it eases cramps and supports relaxation.. Get first access to my newest e-book on Castor Oil Packs ---> learn how
Managing PCOS is so important
- Eliminate endocrine disrupting products
- Eat for nutrition and blood sugar regulation
- Exercise in ways that support increased muscle mass, and reduce cortisol levels
- Use alternative modalities and products to ease the symptoms of PCOS like cramps, amenorrhea and infertility.
PCOS has many effects on the body, for some folks it impacts milk supply. Here's a bit about that too:
What will your first step be?
Birth is a very special time in your life, but it's one day out of the entire childbearing year. I planned well for my breastfeeding experience. I located a La Leche League meeting before birth, I read two books on breastfeeding, I think I even took a class. I had a healthy pregnancy, delivery without interventions and didn’t have any known risk factors for breastfeeding trouble.
Though I was initially worried that my awkward looking breasts wouldn’t do the trick, what I’d learned reassured me that all breasts, no matter the size, can make milk.
Within minutes of birth my sweet baby was latched well and I was enjoying my first foods after the birth. Forty-eight hours later there was another story. Our Midwife arrived for our check in and I’d overslept due to being up all night with an insatiable baby. I was already experiencing my first moments of anxiety that presented as rage. Of course I didn’t know that, I just knew I was exhausted.
Our daughter had lost 12% of her body weight. We settled on a plan to supplement half an ounce, nurse for 10 minutes each breast and then I would pump for 20 minutes. The next weigh in she still had not gained and we were up to an ounce per feed. The next weigh in she was gaining but too slowly so we did 2oz per feed.
I’ll never forget running out of donor milk and having to use formula. I could not think of a bigger failure at that point. My body had failed my baby and I didn’t have liquid gold to give her. I was so distraught I made it incorrectly and my husband had to walk to the store and buy more.
I was drowning in worry, shame and terror. I had no idea why this was happening and no one else seemed to either. Halfway through her first year, I discovered one paragraph in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding that changed the course of my life. The words Insufficient Glandular Tissue were attached to those rare women who couldn’t exclusively breastfeed. The description of IGT breasts described mine perfectly and I dove deep into the internet researching that phrase.
In 2011, there weren’t many places you could find information on IGT, but I found them. And while I have many breastfeeding journey stories to share, today I want to direct you to what I have found to be the best book on low milk supply. The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk here is the newer, inclusive edition
Check out my review on IGTV below:
This book is excellent and necessary as many professionals are not equipped to recognize, and treat low milk supply. Nor are there many places where mothers can find camaraderie and community when struggling with chronic low supply. Most mothers will need more support than just a book, and I’d love to have mamas get the support they need.
Schedule your free breastfeeding coaching session to lay out a plan to get you to your goals.
Birth is a very special time in your life, but it's one day out of the entire childbearing year. 
