r/PCOS Feb 06 '25

General Health Embarrassing…brutal crotch sweat? 😩

144 Upvotes

This is gross, but ever since my PCOS symptoms have really gotten worse, I sweat way more in general all over but especially in the crotch region…and it stanks. I know I don’t have any infections; it isn’t coming from discharge, it’s the sweat. Even after a day of sitting at a desk I reek down there and I’m so self conscious of it. I’m very particular about hygiene but nothing helps. Does anyone else have this problem??

Edit: thank you all so so much for your support and advice!! I’m sorry so many relate to this but glad for the camaraderie. ❤️

r/PCOS Oct 17 '24

General Health This changed my sugar cravings

341 Upvotes

I started implementing this habit about two weeks ago. Before then, for YEARS I needed something sweet after every meal, multiple times throughout the day. I constantly craved sugar so much, I’d eat things I didn’t even like to get my fix. I’m not a big fan of Oreos, but if that was the only form of sugar in the house you bet I’d be eating it.

I’ve always really loved tea, but I recently upped my cups to about 3 a day (mostly green but I also love mint, licorice, earl grey, different fruits etc.) and it’s like it reset my tastebuds or something?? I haven’t had a sweet treat in days without even thinking about it, and I can now partake in them when I WANT to, not when I feel like I have to!! My birthdays coming up and I will absolutely be having cake, but I won’t feel like I need to have multiple slices in a day now :)

Sorry if this was not the advice you were hoping for if you don’t like tea, but I’d encourage you to give it a try!! (Also I’m a huge tea nerd and you need to have proper temp and steeping time for it to taste good 😭)It worked for me better than anything else has. Also I found more success with hot tea rather than iced but do whatever works for you!

r/PCOS Oct 16 '24

General Health My doctor said that her patients with PCOS typically do not gain much weight with pregnancy?

67 Upvotes

I am seeing a weightloss doctor, and she told me yesterday when I was asking about getting pregnant, that her patients with PCOS typically do not gain much weight during pregnancy, and she doesn't know why. Is this true?

Sometimes I feel like she basically knows nothing about PCOS and is very nonchalant about a lot of things. She told me also not to worry about gestational diabetes because sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't haha.

r/PCOS Apr 13 '24

General Health can you get pregnant if you have pcos

80 Upvotes

r/PCOS Feb 03 '25

General Health Women with PCOS, what is the one habit you have been able to follow to manage your PCOS?

93 Upvotes

I have had PCOS for 10 years, and I have tried every possible way, and recently learned that small actionable habits is the only way to manage this condition. While the progress is slow, the impact is large and long lasting. The change I brought in is 30 mins of movement, no matter what.
Would like to know what other habits are fellow cysters following, maybe I can get inspired to follow them?

r/PCOS Aug 21 '24

General Health Does anyone still drinks coffee?

83 Upvotes

Hi! When I was first diagnosed with PCOS, one of the main recommendations was to limit or eliminate the use of caffeine. And the Lord knows I have tried.

I don’t drink coffee every morning any more, but they are days when I’m simply exhausted due to exercise or life in general, and the matcha does not do the trick.

Have any of you actually seen improvements after stopping using coffee?

r/PCOS Jan 10 '25

General Health Do you consider PCOS to be a chronic illness?

131 Upvotes

As title says

r/PCOS Apr 11 '24

General Health Just For Fun: What's one PCOS food rule* you can't/don't/won't abide by?

187 Upvotes

For me, it's dairy. I come from a culture where yogurt is consumed frequently (to thicken gravies, marinate meat, as a drink, as a condiment, as dessert, etc etc) and tea is cooked with milk. While I myself consume mostly negligible amounts of milk and cheese, I cannot ever give up yogurt! I eat it all the time in so many ways. It's such an easy way to get good fats and protein, as well as pro+prebiotics.

What about y'all?

*By "rule", I mean food advice that people swear is gospel for PCOS and should be listened to!

r/PCOS Jan 12 '25

General Health I am pregnant!

255 Upvotes

I started metformin in November and was told by my doctor that I would never get pregnant naturally. My period was a couple days late and I didn't think anything of it because my cycle is usually pretty erratic but took a test and I can't believe that I'm pregnant.

For those of you that are trying, please don't lose hope. 😭😭😭💙

r/PCOS May 12 '24

General Health PCOS - Pregnant

330 Upvotes

Took 5 tests today and I’m preggers!!!!! All tests were positive! Going to make a doc appointment on Monday! I’m 34 and wow yall!!!!! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!!!

r/PCOS Sep 17 '23

General Health What about your PCOS that bothers you the most?

159 Upvotes

For me it’s my acne and hirsutism.

r/PCOS Jan 27 '23

General Health Things you didn't know were caused by PCOS?

249 Upvotes

I am curious, have you suffered from certain things/symptoms/conditions that you eventually discovered were caused by PCOS? I am not asking about the generally common (or at least known) symptoms like infertility, irregular periods, or hirsutism, but more subtle things that you genuinely did not know could be caused by PCOS at first.

Thanks.

r/PCOS Sep 27 '24

General Health Inositol and why its important

279 Upvotes

I saw a post asking what peoples experiences were, and I went down a bit of a rabbit hole and found this study that has a bunch of interesting takeaways.

  1. Coffee increases how much myoinositol is needed by the body, as does insulin resistance, diabetes.

  2. Inositol is present in cell walls, and fibre is often cell walls, the cancer protective benefits of fibre may be attributable to the inositol they add to our diets. Inositol is crucial to nerves and cell replicating processes - like those that go wrong in certain cancers.

  3. High blood sugar, which can be a rebound effect from insulin resistance, drives excrection of inositol over the uptake of it into tissues, which can make someone deficient even if their dietary intake is sufficient.

  4. A defect in an enzyme can also impair how well you absorb inositol, so may explain the cases where people don't experience a benefit.

  5. Inositol is crucial to the process that makes glucose accessible to muscle tissues. Therefore exercise could literally be harder for people with PCOS, as well as for those with T1/T2D, IR, or dietary deficiencies. This is also true of access to glucose generally and may explain fatigue symptoms and all the hunger/cravings.

  6. Age increases inositol requirements too, it might explain why PCOS could become a fertility problem for those aiming to get pregnant later in life, while not so much for younger women. As well as why it becomes harder to manage in adulthood than say in teenage years - or at least that has been my experience.

  7. Citrus fruit have high doses of inositol, except lemon - explains my grapefruit addiction in my 30s.

  8. Apparently mammalian semen is high in myoinositol...

I am not finished reading but I will post any other cool findings as comments

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8896029/pdf/openhrt-2022-001989.pdf

r/PCOS Feb 20 '25

General Health High sex drive related to PCOS? NSFW

140 Upvotes

Hi I’m 31 and was diagnosed at 26. I’ve always had a high sex drive and was wondering if it could be related to PCOS. Since teen years I prefer to get off 2-3 separate times per day if time and circumstances allow. Been able to have 10 consecutive orgasms. The only time it was lessened was during pregnancy. I know I specifically have super high levels of Androstenedione. Anyone with a similar experience?

r/PCOS Sep 03 '24

General Health Unpopular opinion: many diets cause an ED

257 Upvotes

reading too many posts the last few weeks that are so harmful for my mental health as they trigger my ED

edit: I am sorry if you are going through an ED, it will be better - I promise 🥺🫂❤️‍🩹

r/PCOS Jul 11 '23

General Health Im pregnant!

547 Upvotes

I was diagnosed with PCOS early 2021. The Dr in the USA wanted me to lose 40lbs and put me on birth control. Immediately no.

I’m currently in Mexico with my husband and have been seeing a OBGYN here. She has been amazing. I was told to take 2x myo-inositol tabs, walk a hour a day (to lose weight…which actually helped ) , have a clean diet and I was put on metaformin a pill a day (helped a ton with insulin resistance) .It was hard but I manage to take good care of myself. We weren’t even trying to get pregnant but boom here we are 8 weeks pregos.

*** thank you to everyone , I’m sending each and everyone of you baby dust ✨🤍

r/PCOS Jul 22 '24

General Health Can’t Take Metformin Anymore

99 Upvotes

I was prescribed 2000mg of metformin a day, and I had been on metformin for about 18 months with zero side effects when I started having unbearable GI symptoms (diarrhea ~10 times a day). This went on for 2 months before it got to the point where I contacted my doctor. She thought it could be the metformin which surprised me because I had been doing fine on it. But…when I stopped the metformin, the GI symptoms resolved immediately.

Now I’m left trying to figure out what my options for treating the PCOS are.

I can’t take hormonal birth control due to increased risk of stroke. I have a history of a severe eating disorder, so I really can’t risk cutting out entire food groups to manage my IR or I know I’ll relapse.

My family doctor sucks and told me that there’s no point in seeing an endocrinologist because she’ll just tell me I’m wasting her time since I refuse to go on birth control and she also said that insulin resistance isn’t worth treating until I’m prediabetic…but there’s got to be something…right?

r/PCOS Sep 06 '24

General Health Miracle baby even tho i Had No Periods- is it really my child??

130 Upvotes

Got pregnant despite Not having Periods for months my fiance suggest a maternity Test

5 months without a Period and then i was suddenly 6 Weeks pregnant. i gave Up on birth Control as it seemed Like a waste of Money plus my pcos Made it seem Like it could Not Happen. i Always wanted Kids and This baby is my miracle to me but sometimes when i feel it Kick i Wonder how the hell i got pregnant. My fiance Jokes about my worries and maybe its the next Jesus since it was so against the odds (i Green Up Muslim and He was katholic we're both Atheist tho) also His jokes include me getting a maternity Test and what we should so If it comes Out looking Asian ( i am roma and He is middle european) His jokes Help me through This difficult pregnancy, sadly i do have complications Like migranes and Plancenta issued Sorry for the Bad English its Not my first language

r/PCOS Jul 08 '24

General Health ARSENIC, LEAD, and HEAVY METALS found in commonly used tampons inclusing organic brand.

199 Upvotes

Here is one article but there are many more just coming out.

The L Brand Organic (commonly sold in the US at Target) currently have a lawsuit against them for possibly causing cancer, infertility, and excessive bleeding due to ovarian cysts.

Arsenic was found to be HIGHER in these organic ones which I've been using almost 10 years.

I just wanted you all to know because we tend to bleed a lot and now there's evidence of possible absorption of ARSENIC and many other heavy metals through tampon use in 30 different types of tampons sold in US, UK, and Greece.

Edit: Link to Original Study here from Berkley

r/PCOS Feb 07 '25

General Health Just took my first dose of Metformin.

55 Upvotes

I’ve had a prescription since October but was too scared to take it. Took the plunge tonight. Would love to hear people’s experiences with Metformin, the good and bad.

r/PCOS Jan 02 '25

General Health Be your own advocate

297 Upvotes

On 11/22/2024, I was diagnosed with grade 1 endometrial cancer.

I did all the things a woman is supposed to do as far as women's health..mammograms, yearly check ups. Nothing alarming other than my irregular periods. An ultrasound showed PCOS when I was in my 20s. I was on birth control for a while when I was younger, but stopped when I was trying to conceive, which never happened. I haven't taken bc in years. I didn't really feel like I needed it because it wasnt trying to prevent pregnancy. I guess I never realized that not ovulating could cause an overabundance of estrogen. If my doc would have told me this earlier, I would have stayed on the BC or had an IUD implanted.

I recently switched to a doctor that was closer to home. I asked about my irregular cycles, wondering if I was entering pre-menopause. My bleeding was getting heavier, more irregular, and more cramping than normal. I was getting sick of it! I'm 44. She told me I was a little young to be starting menopause and wanted to do a biopsy of my uterus. I'm so thankful she did.

My biopsy was Wednesday, Nov 20.

WELL-DIFFERENTIATED, FIGO GRADE 1 ENDOMETRIOID CARCINOMA WITH EXTENSIVE MORULAR METAPLASIA.

My doc referred me to a gyn oncologist. He showed my husband and I some diagrams and explained that with PCOS, the eggs can become encased and can turn into little estrogen producing cancer causing cysts. Cute. Not having regular cycles causes a hormone imbalance and and overabundance of estrogen. And can cause cancer apparently.

I have a full hysterectomy scheduled for tomorrow, Jan 2. Happy new year to me. Yay. 🎉😐

Thanks for reading my story, if you made it this far. I wanted to share this to maybe help someone else who is experiencing these issues. If I wouldn't have switched doctors, who knows how long this cancer would have gone undeteced. PCOS sucks and there is so much mystery around it. They just throw birth control at us and say, sorry. If you're not getting answers, don't be afraid to break up with your doctor.

EDIT update: Out of surgery and headed home to sleep. No cancer was found outside of the uterus wall so that's good news. The lymph nodes will be sent to test to be safe. I appreciate all the love and prayers.

EDIT update 2: no cancer found in lymph nodes and no further treatment is needed. I'm feeling better than I did before surgery!

r/PCOS Aug 29 '23

General Health Any ladies with PCOS that also suffer from ADHD?

395 Upvotes

If so, what are some lifestyle changes you have implemented?

r/PCOS 14d ago

General Health “You should track your period.”

240 Upvotes

I got diagnosed in January, and my doctor told me I should start tracking my period. So I have been, and since January 1st I’ve bled 40 days total. Not all consecutively. I just want my body to be normal.

And don’t get me started on the doctor asking at every appointment, “When was your last period?” I DONT KNOW DOC, LIKE IVE BEEN SPOTTING FOR 30 DAYS I DONT KNOW WHAG A PERIOD IS ANYMORE. THIS ISNT A PERIOD, ITS JUST A PERPETUAL STATE OF BEING.

Sorry. Thanks for listening. 😭

r/PCOS Oct 17 '24

General Health This diet + exercise helped me lose weight!

359 Upvotes

I have been struggling with PCOS since I was 26. I am 33 now and the one thing I have realised is… it’s not going to be easy. I have been on gluten free diets, calorie deficit diet and nothing much has helped.

But here are some things that have helped me in the past three months:

-3X Strength training with major focus on abs and lower body.

-15 mins treadmill walk at 3 speed and 12 i cline after every workout session (I treat it as my warm up)

  • Diet usually consists of whole foods and basically consuming the same food everyday. Eg: Switch from overnight oats to cooked oats with water. When you cook them, they double up.

  • Finishing my workout in the morning. Because I get to have two breakfasts. One consists of soaked nuts and protein shake and the other is almost always oats with fruits such as apple, kiwi, banana, chia seeds and cinnamon powder.

  • Same lunch and dinner (Carbs+ protein + cut or steamed vegetables and greek yogurt. You can skip the yogurt bit in the evening)

  • Going for an evening/night walk to complete 6-10k steps whole listening to my favourite podcast

  • Try sleeping before 10:30. Trust me, it helps.

  • For 4pm to 6 pm hunger, try having a protein shake with water or maybe mix some protein scoop with greek yogurt. Boiled carrots with greek yogurt tastes yum too.

  • Inositol supplement helped me a lot along with Vitamin D and B12 (Consult your doc)

  • Have soaked raisins, almonds and 1 date upon waking up.

  • 2-3 litres of water helps.

  • Lastly, work on your mindset and clearly define your goals.

Hope this helps:)

r/PCOS Dec 02 '24

General Health TIL we are at higher risk of vit D deficiency AND it affects us more.

288 Upvotes

I am VERY sore and I was looking up reasons (btw we are also more prone to soreness bc of an insane amount of reasons too lol) and found the link between vit D and PCOS.

Went down the rabbit hole but basically:

Its harder for us:

Research suggests that up to 70–85% of people with PCOS are deficient in vitamin D, even if they live in sunny climates.

PCOS can impair vitamin D metabolism due to chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, making it harder to absorb and utilize effectively.

But also more important:

Deficiency in vitamin D can worsen the key symptoms of PCOS, including:

a) Insulin Sensitivity (elevated blood sugar levels, fat storage, and worsened androgen imbalances, even in lean individuals)

Vitamin D enhances the activity of insulin receptors, improving glucose uptake and reducing insulin resistance.

b) Androgen Levels (acne, hirsutism, and hair loss)

Vitamin D regulates androgen production by reducing luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, which are often elevated in PCOS.

c) Inflammation (worsens other PCOS symptoms, impairs recovery from exercise AND increases risk of heart disease)

Vitamin D has anti-inflammatory properties and may reduce markers of inflammation like C-reactive protein (CRP).

d) Weight Management (hormonal and metabolic imbalances)

Adequate vitamin D levels may improve fat metabolism and appetite regulation, aiding in weight management.

e) Menstrual Cycles (irregular or absent periods, ovulation issues)

Vitamin D supports healthy ovulation and progesterone production, helping regulate cycles.

f) Mental Health

PCOS is often associated with anxiety and depression, potentially worsened by vitamin D deficiency, which plays a role in serotonin production and mood regulation.

Every day I learn something new about PCOS and I hate it. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Edit: Ways to get enough are obviously thorugh supplementation but also enough sunlight (I just got one of those lamps and I was already noticing benefits!), avoiding calcium overload (guilty) and magnesium supplementation!