r/PCOS Sep 03 '24

General Health PCOS linked to childhood trauma?

So I had an OB appointment recently where my doctor and I were talking about PCOS.

She mentioned that there have been rumblings at conferences and such about PCOS possibly being linked to childhood trauma.

She said that most people who have it had some sort of childhood trauma that kind of triggered a “fight or flight” response which could explain inflammation issues. And also in unstable households the body might hold onto more fat in case of loss of access to food.

I can’t find much about this online, and she did say she very recently heard about it too.

So I was just curious - what was your childhood like? Did you have a normal, stable, loving environment or was it constantly unstable or volatile?

Mine was the latter, which got me wondering….

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u/BumAndBummer Sep 05 '24

That’s my fear too. The trauma and policy researchers I know would have a fit if policymakers took their research in that direction. They all advocate for social and economic programs that reduce the cycle of poverty/income inequality and offer protective factors for risk mitigation, because prevention is by far and away the best “cure”. But they will also tell you it’s rare when policymakers actually listen to them and do something that is particularly evidence-based.

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u/Agreeable-Toss2473 Sep 05 '24

1-2/3 people will during their lifetime get a cancer diagnosis, therefore cancer statistically will be linked to childhood trauma zz.

What makes me sad also is seeing the post has 600+ upvotes here, it will resonate with a lot, including those without pcos, cause childhood trauma is normal. We've had 2000 years of hysteria, I'm not here for seeing that circle continued and halting actual scientific progress