Please help-unexplained weight gain - pcos?

[breed]

I am not sure where to turn, so I hope this forum can help. I am a 34 year old woman who has noticed over the last 10 years that carbohydrates will cause me to carry an extra 15-20 lbs. (Even strict very low calorie carbohydrate diets.) Most of this weight is carried in the abdomen. Last fall, I switched back to a low-carb diet as a lifestyle which put me at a healthy weight of 118 lbs. In December, I suffered from an irregular period (which was odd since I am on the pill) and severe bloating for months. The bloating has subsided, yet for the last several months I have been gaining weight even on a 1200 calorie low-carb calorie diet with lots of exercise. I am back up to 135 pounds. If I eat carbs or a normal amount of calories, my weight gets even higher. Metabolism shouldn't change so drastically in a couple of months. Needless to say, I have been to OB/GYNs, endocrinologists, naturopaths, etc. who have run tests but have come up w/ nothing for me. Here are the results:

Saliva cortisol - Normal
Urine cortisol - Slightly elevated
Serum cortisol - Slightly elevated
CT Scan - Normal
LH/FSH - Ratio high (but doctor says checked at wrong time)
Sonogram - No cysts, just 2 small fibroids
Blood Sugar/Diabetes/Insulin Tests - Normal
Thyroid - Normal (performed several times)
Testosterone - Normal

The doctors felt that the cortisol was not high enough to be an issue and that I didn't have enough symptoms to point to PCOS (no cysts, hair growth, etc.) I would like to try metformin, yet I can't find a doctor in DC to prescribe it to me. Could this be hormone related? I'm at a loss - what should I do?

[jadefox26]

Well, there are sites on line where you can buy metformin, but it can get expensive doing it that way - however, it might help in the short term for you to try it out and see if it would begin to work for you.
I'm sorry you're haivng these problems - I can't really shed much more light on it for you - I wish I could tell you this or that would work, but I guess you're just doing everything to can to make yourself better - keep it up - you never know eventually your body might kick itself into touch and the weight may start to come off?
xx

[Mereja]

This is exactly how I started out when I was about 22 years old. And I kept gaining slowly not knowing what to do. And through the years I have gotten almost all the symptoms of PCOS and the doctors have just said "you need to loose weight".

You should have your insulin level checked because your body right now may be keeping your glucose down to normal but your body is making a lot of insulin which turns stores everything as fat. Eventually your glucose will slowly go up and then you will be pre-diabetic. If your insulin is high then you probably have insulin resistance and over time will make you have all kinds of symptoms. If your insulin is high, there are some doctors who are willing to give you metformin or glucophage so correct the problem before it gets worse, but others just wait until your sugar starts getting out of control.

I hope I explained this right, but you should look into insulin resistance because that can make you gain weight eating very little and blood sugars can be being held down at least for a while.

I am just finally starting to get these things under control after 25 years of problems and going to doctors. Finally someone checked my insulin level. I wish they had done that when I still only weighed 130.

[BellaJL]

Hi,
I have exactly the same symptoms and have been going through the same things, except I'm 22. According to doctors, nothing is "wong", but I know that this is not normal. Anyway, I was just wondering if you have had any luck in finding out what's causing your distress. Perhaps there's a link. Best wishes!

[MsTwacky]

Hi Breed,

I have PCOS and take Metformin. However the Metformin doesn't really help me in the weight loss. I've been on it since last November when I started this journey and I still have only lost about 35 lbs. But I had to Low Carb AND Exercise to see that much come off.

My insulin levels were normal too. But the Metformin is no guarantee for weight loss or a regulation of your periods since this month I have yet to get my period for the first time in about 17-18 months.

It may be just insulin resistance and exercise and low carb should help that.
Your not severely overweight and it may just be that your metabolism is slowing down.

I'm sure if you really wanted it you can get your hands on some Metformin, however it may be to no avail to you as well as your liver needs to be checked periodically as a result of taking it.

But it may be hormones...some women start signs of menopause very early on. Just a thought.



I hope this helps!

[Grimalkin]

Get a copy of your lab reports with the *actual numbers*, then look up a book like "Women Weight and Hormones" by Vliet and see what the optimal ranges are instead of just the acceptable ones. Those ranges can be way too broad and many doctors will blow you off if nothing comes up flagged on the report. At least this way you'll have a better idea of how your hormonal balance is right now.

[WantsMore]

I'm covered in fibroids all over and my levels are off, so it was a very easy diagnosis. I don't know what they do in other case. My hormone level was higher than normal. I'm trying to think of the name. It's a male hormone, not testosterone. It starts with an A. Did you check on that? I gained major weight due to not knowing I had it. I wasn't eating large amounts, but I was eating carbs. I had no clue why I gained so much weight and ate so little. I didn't need a pill for losing weight, Atkins is doing it well. I was on a Metaphormin like pill for the high blood sugar but Atkins has taken that from 200something to 80-90.

[somatropin]

I'm trying to think of the name. It's a male hormone, not testosterone. It starts with an A. Did you check on that? I gained major weight due to not knowing I had it.

androgens may be what your thinking of.

Dave

[ItsTheWooo]

I am not sure where to turn, so I hope this forum can help. I am a 34 year old woman who has noticed over the last 10 years that carbohydrates will cause me to carry an extra 15-20 lbs. (Even strict very low calorie carbohydrate diets.) Most of this weight is carried in the abdomen. Last fall, I switched back to a low-carb diet as a lifestyle which put me at a healthy weight of 118 lbs. In December, I suffered from an irregular period (which was odd since I am on the pill) and severe bloating for months. The bloating has subsided, yet for the last several months I have been gaining weight even on a 1200 calorie low-carb calorie diet with lots of exercise. I am back up to 135 pounds. If I eat carbs or a normal amount of calories, my weight gets even higher. Metabolism shouldn't change so drastically in a couple of months. Needless to say, I have been to OB/GYNs, endocrinologists, naturopaths, etc. who have run tests but have come up w/ nothing for me. Here are the results:

Saliva cortisol - Normal
Urine cortisol - Slightly elevated
Serum cortisol - Slightly elevated
CT Scan - Normal
LH/FSH - Ratio high (but doctor says checked at wrong time)
Sonogram - No cysts, just 2 small fibroids
Blood Sugar/Diabetes/Insulin Tests - Normal
Thyroid - Normal (performed several times)
Testosterone - Normal

The doctors felt that the cortisol was not high enough to be an issue and that I didn't have enough symptoms to point to PCOS (no cysts, hair growth, etc.) I would like to try metformin, yet I can't find a doctor in DC to prescribe it to me. Could this be hormone related? I'm at a loss - what should I do?

This is just a suggestion...
But maybe the problem is more psychological than physical?
Maybe your body is broken down from all the dieting, so when you eat more it reflects a scale weight gain, even though what's actually being gained is lean body mass? That's what happened to me. I was eating like 1100 calories a day (and on some days much lower). This was causing me to lose weight rather slowly (energy conservation grrr). When I stopped restricting and just allowed myself to eat as much as my body desired, my muscles began popping and the scale showed some weight elevation. In reality, I did not gain fat. I was gaining muscle mass and losing body fat because I was recovering from semi-starvation.

Unless you're positively certain you gain fat on more than 1200 calories, maybe you should consider that what's really going on is your body is "repairing" itself from being broken down by restriction and excessive exercise.

Another point of consideration is that you may very well have hypothyroidism or PCOS/insulin resistance, you just are hard to diagnose. Did the doc check the T3 and T4 levels in addition to the TSH level? Sometimes T3 and T4 are inadequate even though TSH is normal.

Also, I find that the overt strong physical symptoms of hormone imbalance (hair growth, acne) correlate very strongly with heaviness just as much as the insulin problems. Studies have shown this too... heavy women with PCOS have more of the aesthetic issues than thin PCOS women do. For example, now that I'm thin my body hair issues have gotten much better and I rarely ever get acne anymore, however my periods and fertility are all still messed up which implies that the underlying problem is still there (I personally have not had a period in like half a year now).
You are a thin woman. Just because you don't have acne and hair growth issues doesn't mean that you don't have PCOS. You have irregular periods, which just isn't normal. I suspect that insulin signaling problems might be the problem for you. Post the results of your GTT so people can look at it. Lots of docs don't pay attention to the insulin levels and just what the sugar is... if you don't go hypo or hyper they assume it's normal when that might not be so. If insulin is too high that implies problems and points toward PCOS/IR.

If your problem is one of abnormal insulin signaling, the metformin might be of help. It shuts off your liver from making too much sugar and it also increases insulin sensitivity. Keep in mind metformin is an icky drug. I've never taken it myself, but I have heard the side effects are wretched. I wouldn't take it unless I absolutely have to, so make sure you really have PCOS first before you get it.

Anyway those are just some suggestions/thoughts that came to me... I hope this helps.

[black57]

I have had moderate symptoms of hypoglycemia but lab results always come back negative. After beginning Atkins, symptoms vanished. So I have concluded that I was hypoglycemic regardless of what the tests say.

ItsTheWoo has given good advice. Many things can be contributing to your weight gain. But be sure and measure yourself before you come to any conclusions.