PCOS treatment advice please!

[MakeWayMoana]

I have polycystic ovaries, which has caused difficulty conceiving, irregular periods, facial hair, acne, and very stubborn weight gain.

I’ve finished having children now, so infertility is no longer a concern, but the weight gain and hair growth is getting me down. I’ve just come across the option of Laparoscopic ovarian drilling, which looks like it reduces the level of testosterone in the body.

I’m wondering if anyone has any experience of having this treatment done to treat the other symptoms of PCOS, not just infertility?

TIA

Exercise
Diet

@MumChp Supremely unhelpful reply. I have a medical condition which causes weight gain - I’m fit and healthy, go to the gym and do strength training twice a week, walk my kids to school, paddleboard regularly, generally have an active lifestyle and I eat well.

Thanks to chronic dieting (caused by people like you spouting the outdated advice of eat less move more), I also have chronic metabolic adaptation which has led to a higher set point weight than I would have had had I never gone to slimming world. However, I’m at peace with being a bit overweight, I can cope with that - as I said I’m fitter and healthier than a lot of people who are a lot smaller than me.

However, no amount of salad and jogging can get rid of a beard - so unless you’ve got anything helpful to say regarding an actual medical condition and the treatment for that, then why even comment 🙄

There is always one ignorant poster isn't there!
Having PCOS isn't all being fat it comes with a whole host of symptoms!!!

I am following with interest OP as I have PCOS also with a beard I may add!!
Metformin I just can't get on with, even 500mg I vomit and have the shits 🤣🤣

Maybe elaborating on ‘diet’ may help as that was quite abrupt however ‘diet’ for me was by eating lower GI food. It was hard, I love pasta, I love toast. I wasn’t given metformin (thankfully after seeing what it can do) and have less severe symptoms than you. I take it medical advice has been less than helpful?

I have had laparoscopic ovarian drilling twice. It only made my cycles ‘normal’ for about six months then I reverted back to irregular cycles. Metformin definitely helped me to lose weight as it gave me diarrhoea if I ate any unhealthy or greasy food. I also followed a PCOS diet I found on the Internet which helped too. You just need to find a diet that works for you.

@Deanthebean thanks for posting, felt proper deflated after the diet and exercise response! The array of symptoms is definitely much wider than just being a bit fat - I’m spottier now than I was at 15!!

I’m going to speak to the GP about the surgery option - I’ll let you know what they say!!

@Happymomoftwo thanks for replying. Did you have any other symptoms like acne or excess hair growth? Were they impacted by the ovarian drilling?

@MakeWayMoanaMy main symptoms other than irregular cycles and infertility are thinning hair, chin hair and struggling to lose weight. I saw no impact on these following the drilling. I had the laparoscopies about four years apart, the second one showed the same level of pcos as the first so it had returned after the drilling.

Actually diet and exercise can work for those of us with pcos, I gained weight with perimenopause (48) and lost my weight using apple workouts using weights and clearing processed food out of my diet.

We have a high risk of diabetes compared to the general population and excess fat reduces insulin sensitivity. You could ask the GP for a Hba1C blood test if they aren’t already doing one yearly for you.

My relative with it who is young and more hirsute than me also loses weight through diet but is young enough that her muscle mass isn’t declining naturally with age.

I’ve seen drilling as an option for reducing our androgens to air conception for years but if you aren’t trying to conceive using it the NHS would class that as elective surgery and it may not be available unless you lie and say you want a child and haven’t been able to conceive naturally. Google your local trusts name and ovarian drilling and if that doesn’t show anything try the NICE guidelines and see what the criteria is.

Dianette worked brilliantly for my skin/facial hair but I’m contraindicated from it, if you can take a CCP you can ask for that but I think they reclassified it as not a contraceptive so it wouldn’t be free.

Yes diet and excercise does and can work however OP has already stated this is more about her hair growth.
I have terrible hair growth on my chin and neck.
I'm also morbidly overweight and I struggle to lose weight however I have lost 2.5 stone so is coming off slowly.
My hbac1 has come down from 44 to 42.
I was prescribed Metformin but I cannot tolerate 500mg never mind 2000mg that I'm prescribed.
The gynecologist that I saw made it clear she wouldn't help me unless i was trying to get pregnant ( I'm not).
So I'm place making to see what else could help me other than losing weight which I'm already doing.

The drilling is on the nhs websites as a procedure to trigger ovulation and as someone else said it’s a temporary thing cysts can come back. They offered to drain one of mine and I honestly could not be bothered because it can come back.

I don’t think anything helps with the hair growth with PCOS short of laser. I tried the spearmint capsules for ages and saw no difference. It’s really hard to fight what your bodies been born to do.

The ketogenic diet is a therapy for PCOS

Its highly related to insulin resistance which is why it often goes hand in hand with diabetes

The ketogenic diet fixes this, actually quite quickly

@Glittertwins Can you please me know what’s wrong with Metformin? I know some people have claimed to have lost weight somehow using it. But OP, I do believe it’s not going to be a one-size fits all sort of solution. It all depends on your lifestyle, your activity levels etc. It’s great that you’re done having kids, but you could try to see if it’s linked to gut health? How much is it down to bloating and gas, and how much if it is actual weight gain? In terms of hirsutism, you could see if you can get laser hair removal. I believe you may have to go for several sessions, but if it’s just your face then perhaps it might just be a smaller area and won’t take as many sessions?

explosive diarrhoea wasn’t pleasant for the person concerned (not due to eating anything unhealthy or greasy either).

I don’t think anything can get rid of the hair - PCOS beards are superhuman beards of strength and are harder to get rid of than Japanese Knotweed and grow just as fast. I’ve had 8 years of electrolysis and decided to have a break before starting laser (perimenopause has given me a complete lack of pain tolerance) and it’s growing back as fast and thick as ever. I think I’ll just be having to budget £50 a month for laser for the rest of my life the same as budgeting for visiting the hairdresser.

In my experience, metformin needs to be started really slowly. Starting with a low dose, only increasing it every few weeks. This was the only way I could tolerate it.