Today the words PCOS/PCOD are so commonly used terms. It is nearly true that if you are working today, travelling a lot for work, not cooking your own meal, eating processed quick meals on the go, you are on the highway to infertility.

 

Aakanksha's day was divided with coffee and more coffee and then a working lunch of pizza over some work discussion, followed by mid afternoon coffee, then no time for snacks in the evening as there are more meetings and conference calls, staying hungry till you reach home after spending an hour in traffic. Her head is spinning, so she orders in some takeaway from her iPhone app and also happily adds desserts too(as she think you deserve some treat after a long crazy day). She tries to sleep but is too tired as well as too excited to sleep.

 

This was Aakanksha's cycle everyday. When you multiply by 30 days and 12 months leads to insulin resistance, obesity and PCOS. If not all, most of the days look like this and it’s no wonder, 1 in every 5 women have PCOS. 

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While PCOD means Poly Cystic Ovary disease, affecting the ovaries due to stress and irregular lifestyle, PCOS(Poly Cystic Ovary Syndrome) is complete disturbance not only on ovaries, but your skin with pimples, oily skin, hair thinning, growth of facial hair, suffering irregular painful periods, obesity, insulin resistance, mood swings, headaches, high male hormones, high blood pressure etc. All this got diagnosed when Aakanksha was trying to get pregnant. 

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While doctors prescribed female hormone medicine to balance PCOS, or diabetes medicine to control insulin sensitivity, it is not the root cause solution. The root cause solution can be reached if we understand our body, its function and relation to other balancing elements like food, timing, sleep, stress management, exercise and fitness well.

 

Let us understand our body cycle of 28 days to know what we need to make it work in a regular rhythm. 
 

When we get periods(Day 1-Day 5), estrogen and progesterone levels drop low.

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Hypothalamus triggers pituitary to release Follicle Stimulating Hormone-FSH(more till Day 14) and Lutenizing Hormone-LH(more after Day14). FSH and LH produce follicles in the ovary. Follicles starts producing estrogen and growing bigger. As estrogen increases, the uterine lining grows. The cervix lining is thin and watery.

 

Around day 15, the ovulation phase begins and enzymatic actions break open the follicle releasing the mature egg. The egg travels to fallopian tube and survives for maximum 12-24 hours. The uterus lining is thick and full of nutrients and is ready to receive the egg. FSH and LH are at the peak for 24 hours.

 

Day 16 onwards, luteal phase begins. Estrogen level drops and progesterone level increases the thickening of mucus at the cervix to stop the entry of the sperm or bacteria. If fertilisation occurs, the embryo secretes HCG to produce estrogen and progesterone and one is pregnant.

 

If there is no fertilisation, the levels of estrogen and progesterone level drops and egg passes out of uterus and the period starts. 

 

Now, let’s connect the science above to the science of nutrition. All the enzymes are made of amino acids which in turn is protein. The uterine lining which gets thickened during the cycle needs essential fats, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates to welcome the egg. The ovaries are located in the lower region of abdomen just above vagina. So when we have that pinchable fat in abdomen as tyres hanging and putting pressure on our ovaries, we are stressing them out. Loosing that visceral fat helps ovaries function better.

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During PCOS , women experience either irregular or no periods. The follicles in his situation do not grow to full maturity to produce an egg. One of the key reasons is unhealthy body-fat composition or excess weight gain and poor nutrition.

 

In PCOS, the FSH and LH ratio is imbalanced. More LH means more male hormone(testosterone) produced. While normal amount of testosterone is needed to maintain bone and muscle density. Ovaries produce another group of male hormones called androgens. This increase in male hormone increases facial hair, deposits of fat on the waist and above it, acne, thinning of hair, mood changes, insulin resistance, difficulty in conceiving. Long term effects are diabetes mellitus, heart disease, poor join health, mood swings, depression and infertility.

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We are living in this system where eating healthier food and exercising regularly is getting tougher by the day. We skip meals because of the weighing scale and random news online like 5 food to avoid to loose weight etc. We are misguided that certain food type will help loose weight and certain will not.

 

Effortless, regular periods are result of optimum body fat, health and fitness level. When you feel pain, discomfort, cramps, headache your health and fitness is compromised.

 

Get personalised guidance to learn what to add to balance the meals which help in making hormones, enzymes, improving insulin sensitivity and loosing that fat over the abdomen and ovaries.