I was just told I have mild PCOS. My periods are VERY irregular, anywhere from 30-55 days. I am starting a low g.i. diet and was hoping that would help restore my periods (instead of taking metformin) Has anyone had any success doing this? DH and I are ttc our first child and I would like to get my periods back to normal as naturally as possible.

Within 2 weeks of starting lc woe I had my first menses. I've been at this almost 5 years and in that time I've only missed TOM twice. I should also say - I also take metformin. My doctor had me stop it, but weight loss stalled, so she had me restart it.
Barb

I am a 35 year old female, mother of twin girls 20 months old. Since I was 8 years old, I was told that I had what used to be called Stein Leventhal Syndrome and now is known as PCOS. I am new to this Forum and as I sit here and read all the threads that women have written regarding PCOS, Low Carb Diets and facial and bosy hair, honestly, it is nice to know that I am not ALONE! PCOS has been a part of my life when most young girls are running around playing and laughing, I was laid up in pain most months with the WORST periods anyone can imagine. As most of know, with PCOS, your menstrual cycle is never normal. I remember getting my period at the age of 8 and it seemed as though I would always have it. It would come for 3 months and then not show up for 5 months! I was lucky enough though not to gain the weight when I was younger and didn't know about facial hair(wish I was young again). When I turned 14, that is when all the other factors of having PCOS starting showing up. Hair grew on my face, my stomach, I started to gain the weight, I was tired all the time from bleeding so much!
I remember being told by 2 different doctors when I was 14 that I wouldn't ever be able to have children b/c the PCOS was so bad. Hey, I didn't think about having children at 14 and knew that if God wanted me to bear children then it was totally up to him and that one day I would be able too. I lived with the PCOS and the symptoms almost all my life. Two years ago, my husband and I decided that we were going to go to a specialist (actually more then one it turned out to be) to see if we could get pregnant. I have to tell you, it was NOT fun! I think I had been to every damn specialist on Long Island and all of them after blood tests, shots, sonos, more shots, clomid, glucophage, a test to see if I had blocked tubes, more shots decided that I was not going to be able to get pregnant. I have to tell you, it was a horrible couple of months. My husband and I used to get so excited only to be let down in the end. We decided to wait a few months. About 6 months later, I received a name of a Infertility Specialist in Port Jefferson that was supposed to be awesome. We decided, what the heck, we have tried everything else. I have to say, this time it worked.... I was put on Clomid at first because I think that is what every Dr. starts patients off with. The clomid made me crazy. I was INSANE! I went right back to the Dr's office and explained that if he didn't take me off of the medicine, I was going to kill someone! ( I am sure that we have all had that feeling on medicine at one time or another).. From that point on, I am not even sure what happened. I started on Gonal F shots that I had to give to myself everyday for a week. I remember taking the shots (oh my goodness, they hurt) and the next thing we did was insemination. The Dr. explained to us that there was a 15% chance that it would take the first time so that I didn't get my hopes up. Well, we waited the two weeks and come to find out, I got pregnant( no applause just yet).
4 days after hearing the news, I went in for a sono and bloodwork, we had lost the baby, my HCG levels had dropped. Ok, that was a big time hit on us but on the positive side, I GOT PREGNANT! Something I never thought would happen. So we realized that it was not that I was not able to get pregnant, it was that the sperm didn't survive the long trip. It was almost like the sperm would enter and be killed off by some sort of acid.. We just needed help for it to get there! We waited a month and tried again on Dec 28th 2006... I am happy to say that I have two beautiful, amazing miracles by the name of Madison and Paige. They are 20 months old and were born at 28 weeks. Each one was 2 pounds a piece and are now 29 and 30 pounds..
I must say Glucophage does work for losing weight. I started my journey at 175, on glucophage, I got down to 155 and then with all the shots and crap that was happening, I went up to 199. I gave birth to my twins at 212 and I am now back down to 175. I still have the facial hair which I am hoping that
Atkins will help change that! If anyone has ANY questions, please do not hesitate to ask me...

Hello everyone! I'm 19 and I was diagnosed with PCOS a few years ago. I got my period at 11 and had them pretty much every month for a year and a half then they stopped. I ended up getting them once every 6 months! Doctors told me that it was because I was overweight. I knew that could be a reason but they were so quick to dismiss anything other than my being overweight. Then 3 years ago I found a doctor that told me about PCOS and said we should check all my hormone levels and such and found out that I wasn't just overweight! I had a condition that contributed to my extremely irregular periods and effected my weight as well. I was on a whole host of medications for the PCOS and also some anti-depressants since I was feeling the "high school woes" I hated the way the meds made me feel so I quit taking them. My periods have gone back to every six months. Recently, I lost some weight and i've read online that even a 10 pound weight loss can kickstart your hormones into leveling out. Lo and behold, i've had regular periods for the past 3 months! Now, the facial and body hair..that's another story. That's SO embarrassing! I can't stand it! I'm in the process of finding a doctor close to home that will recognize and diagnose me with PCOS again. Not many doctors will acknowledge that the condition exists and won't prescribe the meds! I want to have kids soon and i'm afraid if I don't lose the weight and get back on the meds that i'm ruining my chances of having them!

I am SO glad I found this forum! I can't believe there are so many women out there living with PCOS and going through the same things I am!
I look forward to hearing from some of you in hopes we can help support each other and swap info!

Coming from a background of taking multiple vitamins daily, a lot of facial hair and extra weight can be reduced by taking iodine.

A ''normal'' person needs about 13mg of iodine each day. Used to, it would come from our food, but nowadays, that is so lacking.

If you go to the Vitamin Shoppe or Whole Foods, you can get some Iodine or a multi that is rich in iodine, and it will kick start your thyroid into gear and get your hormones back in order as well as your weight loss. If your hormones are out of whack, then excessive/abnormal facial hair can develop. The iodine will help to soften the current facial hair and will hinder new hair from growing.

You can find out if you are iodine deficient by getting some of the liquid iodine from the drug store. Slather some on your bicep, about a 3 inch squares worth, and keep it there over night. If it is gone by the morning, then you are definitely deficient. If it's just pale, then you're maybe a tiny bit deficient. But it's something worth looking into, or talking to a nutritional counselor (that has a working knowledge of vitamins, herbs, and minerals) about.

Also, you should consider a vitamin for your adrenals, which help with levels of energy, those "caffeine depleted headaches" as well as sleep loss and anxiety. Sometimes places will have a supplement called Adrenal Complex...

Ahhh, Ladies! I feel like I'm home! I'm Kelli, age 30, and have recently been diagnosed as well! What a mess. MommyofTwins (sorry....don't know your name), you are such an inspiration! I cried when reading your story. Although my childhood experiences weren't exactly like yours, it was so similar that I felt like I was reading my own story! My hubs and I have been TTC for the past 4 years. Our problem isn't so much the conceiving (although we've never used any form of BC and have only conceived once each year), it's the carrying. I have had 4 m/c's in the past 4 years with no explanation until my last m/c about 6 months ago...PCOS. Apparently more than 50% of all PCOS pregnancies end in m/c, so I thought I was just going to be one of those people who never had children. What a heartbreak! I was devastated. But the doc started me on 1500mg of Glucophage (Metformin) XL....man did it KILL my stomach!... and put me on a LC diet to see if my insulin levels would correct, thereby helping my hormone levels regulate, etc. And voila! At my last appointment in April, they were NORMAL! Woo-hoo! I've never felt better...and am down almost 50 lbs since January. So, I've decided to make LC a way of life from here on out and become as healthy as I can be. Clomid is an option for us, too, M.O.T. but I haven't tried it yet. I've got to get heathier (for me) before we TTC again, but I just wanted to let you know how much your story encouraged me!

Meg and MissBubble....nice to see you on this thread, too. I'll definitely look into the iodine thing. I'll take any help I can get on this journey! :P

I agree with Kelli. MommyofTwins, your story is truly inspirational! Gives me hope even though i'm not at the point in my life just yet to have to worry about trying to conceive.

Kelli-Congratulations on your weightloss success so far! I'm so glad to hear it helped work out some of your other kinks PCOS related. That's great!