(some of) the best supplements for PCOS
Today: A PWB x PCOS series mashup.
Two questions: What are the best supplements for PCOS? How’ve we been doing in our Epic Quest to Make a Kid?
Great question(s). Let’s chat. Briefly:
The best supplements for PCOS (for me)
First, to be extremely professional and underwhelming, I’d like to refer you to our bucket theory. As it applies to this, there’s a simple answer: The best supplements for PCOS are the ones that your doctor has told you to take; and, above that, any that you happen to love, be able to afford, and are manageable for you.
Yell it loud, yell it proud for the people in the back!
Okay, let’s talk about the most popular supplement for PCOS: Metformin.
PCOS messes with your insulin which messes with your sugar levels which messes with YOU. The most common form of PCOS by far is insulin-resistant PCOS, which tends to manifest with symptoms of diabetes and obesity. Metformin is a very widely-used and widely-studied diabetes drug. It’s cheap, it’s relatively safe, and it works. When my doctor found out that I had PCOS, he put me on metformin immediately. (It’s also safe for pregnancy.) (I am not a doctor; please have this conversation with yours.)
A common alternative to metformin is inositol, which is a naturally-derived substance that seeks to do similar things with fewer side effects. I’m thinking about transitioning from metformin to inositol this fall, so, I’ll be doing more research about it then.
Here’s what I’m currently taking, and what these little pills would say to me, probably, if they were sentient:
- Ashwagandha (calm down)
- B6 (calm down)
- Magnesium (no, really, calm down)
- Rhodiola (okay, now, I mean it, CALM DOWN)
- L-Theanine (…we give up)
I also take metformin and a prenatal for sugar management and wish fulfillment, but, honestly, I started seeing the biggest life change when I started dabbling with the above. Which, like, I think should probably tell me something.
(I also don’t take all of the above every day, but they’re all frequently-used members of my stress management toolkit.)
As I’ve mentioned before, I have adrenal PCOS, which means that my adrenal glands happily pump out way more cortisol (the stress hormone) than any human needs to have. It’s stupid simple, but I started seeing the most results when I stopped trying to treat my anxiety/depression/mildly obsessive behaviors with behavioral fixes and started adding in steps to help my body stop stressing in a more direct way.
(Behavioral fixes have helped, but, like, my body is a stress factory, and planting a nice garden outside of the factory isn’t going to shut the factory down.)
(Dude, I came up with that analogy on the spot, and I’m not half-mad at it.)
Other supplement options for PCOS
So, as we’ve covered it to some degree, metformin and inositol are great options for women with insulin-resistant PCOS; I use a barrage of stress-management supplements for my adrenal PCOS. There’s also metabolic PCOS, inflammatory PCOS, and post-Pill-PCOS—what supplements, if any, match those?
Here, I can’t speak with much experience, but if you’re struggling with inflammatory PCOS, I’d check out anti-inflammatories (Cinnamon! Turmeric! Ginger!). If you’re struggling with a sluggish metabolism (hi), I’d say JOIN ME in trying to remember to eat breakfast, eat enough food, and exercise intentionally.
Other supplements I’m seeing out there:
- Chromium: Another sugar management situation
- Zinc: Can help with androgen imbalances
- Vitamin D: Women with PCOS (as well as like most humans) are deficient in this
- Berberine: Can help with metabolism
- Adaptogens: This is a class of herbs that can help balance hormones - ashwagandha and rhodiola are examples
- Probiotics: Also good for most humans, but these can help with inflammatory PCOS by helping heal your gut
- And more, probably.
HI HI HI HI HI This is for information only; please do your own research and speak with your doctor before starting a new supplement.
TO END ON AN EQUALLY NUANCED NOTE: Remember that food is medicine. The best way to manage your PCOS is probably to, like, eat a rainbow of veggies and food that makes you feel fresh and young and whole. (That’s all, I won’t rave about diets rn, eat in a way that makes you feel good and I’ll talk about that more in another post)
fertility things
Our fertility update for Project Waterbear: We sent out our Q1 newsletter the other day to family and friends, and I summed up the situation in a tidy paragraph for that, so, I’ll borrow that for here:
Re: our ongoing infertility saga, the big news is that there’s no news. We are hurtling towards other various fun milestones - another year of trying, one year of experimenting with ovulation meds / hormonal support, etc. We’ve also (most days) been able to be pretty much at peace with it; we’re focusing these days on investing in our family’s future, getting really really mentally and physically healthy ourselves, and (likely towards the end of this year) starting to figure out our journey towards adoption. (We are fully aware that these are the types of things that people say immediately prior to finding out that they’re pregnant, but - to say another knock-on-wood sentence - it just doesn’t look like the data’s supporting that for us. And we’re gonna be okay.)
Two more things I wanna hit on really quick for the blog:
- It doesn’t make any rational sense to us that I’m not pregnant, and that’s not fun. We were weirdly excited to hear about my PCOS diagnosis last fall, because we thought that was an explanation. We’re … not so sure about that anymore. I know I talk on the blog about LUFS and specific hormonal imbalances and stress and ish, but, like, real talk: I ovulate (or do a really really really really good imitation of ovulating) annoyingly regularly, we’re in good health, my stress has been going down for months (really), and, like, we’re at month 4-5 (depending how you count) of Femara, which is *supposed to* work in six months if it’s gonna work. So. That initial ‘finally, an explanation’ or ‘finally, a plan’ relief has, uh, worn off. We’re back to WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING. Sure, I have PCOS, but, I ovulate and I take good care of myself and my mom had PCOS and she had six of us? Like, that’s just ceased to be a good explanation? (/endrant)
- I don’t know that you ever really ‘heal’ from infertility—which is good to know. Yesterday, a(nother) friend of mine announced that she’s pregnant with her second child—the second one she’s had since Ted and I realized we’d have a hard time building our family. Which is So! Great! for her and her family—I’m really quite happy—but there was something about that news that made us realize that the number of our loved ones who are having multiple beautiful offspring while we’re sitting here twiddling our thumbs is, um, growing. And, again, it’s less about the pregnancy announcement specifically—when you’re infertile, you kind of have to get good at weathering those—and more about the realization that it’s been that many months since we started trying to have one kid. I think—I think it’s less a comparison thing, and more of a ‘wow, is time really passing that quickly?’ thing….and, like, well, that realization didn’t make yesterday fun.
Ted and I think that moving through infertility is much like moving through the different stages of grief, and, for a while now, we’ve pretty much been at Acceptance. Yesterday taught us that the wound’s maybe scabbing over, but the wound can re-open pretty easily. And I think that’s probably going to be something we’re going to be dealing with for the rest of our lives? Good to know, I guess.
weight loss things
So much for me taking a picture every day. Here’s Monday, April 12:
Weight check in:
Saturday, April 10: 71.7
Sunday, April 11: 71.65
Monday, April 12: 71.75
Consistent. (I'm also always my heaviest on Mondays; Thursdays tend to be my lightest day. Something something healthy weekend eating routines HAHA.)
Over the weekend, I realized it was time to stop talking about ‘losing the weight from Easter indulgences’ — especially as, like, we kept eating leftover Easter food all week, so. I’m in my luteal phase (should restart the cycle maybe next week) which, you know, I tend to be relatively dense and bloat-y (and extremely attractive) then, so. I’m not worried. But it is time to stop blaming Easter.
On a whim this weekend I signed up for the Sweat app (Kayla Itsines) and I’ve done three workouts and it’s kinda been the best? So we’ll see where that goes. And we finally finished the butter cake (BUTTER CAKE) and other very very indulgent things we got for Easter, so, my diet should go back to a relatively normal one this week. We’ll see where that takes us.