in a nutshell... I have had pcos since puberty or earlier? My mother also had it (back in the day when they would "wedge" the ovaries for treatment & give full hysterectomys w/complications). I was "asssumptively" diagnosed by my first regular ob/gyn in 1993 and offerd bcp management. I as trying to become pregnant so I tracked BBT, vag. mucous, cervical location & of course the barely there periods. After a year of BCP, and an exploratory surgery where adhesions were removed, and 3 mos. of chlomid - i successfully became pregant and now have a 8 year old daughter. I NEVER had weight trouble before the preg. - infact was underweight. - however all pcos symptoms snowballed post delivery - hair, acne, skin tags, mood swings, NO periods instead of few, weight gain (eating by the food pyramid).
i was also involved in a pcos rx study with no improvement - last year.
then low-carbing was reccomended in march of 2003 - I started immediately. I lost 25 lbs. in 3 mos. & periods came on almost immediately, but i had no change in hair... i "took a break" from atkins from july 4th - labor day & periods stopped. as soon as i went back on induction 9.3.3 - i started period again.
so i just went to my first RE - and he recommended Yasmin to help w/hair and said keep on the low-carb since it seems to be helping - but he reccomended sugarbusters???

looking for any comments on yasmin and/or sugarbusters?????

also willing to offer the "extended story" or any details to any member that may need help.

thanks in advance redfern - this is my first post - please excuse any fubars

You've proven to yourself and to your docs that lowcarbing is really working for you. The fact that your periods came back and you've lost weight just shows that you got your insulin under control and that in turn has regulated your hormones. Most definitely keep it up!

As far as the recommendation for sugarbusters go, I'd skip it. The reason lcing works is because it lowers your insulin levels, but the exact diet plan you use isn't important. It sounds like your current plan is suiting you just fine and I see no reason to switch.

As far as the Yasmin goes, I personally would not use it. Hormonal birth control pills actually work AGAINST your body and all the good things lcing does. A much better alternative is to take metformin/Glucophage. It sounds to me that you're definitely insulin resistant and the metformin will really help regulate your insulin. LCing is still necessary, but the metformin gives you an added boost and helps your body work like a "normal" person's body. Insulin is the cause of all the abnormally high androgens (like testosterone) that cause the excess facial/body hair and also the thinning of the head hair. Once the insulin is in check, the androgens should lower to normal levels, and the hair problems should lesson.

A note about the hair growth, though:

There are two types of hairs on your body, one type is the really fine, light hairs (found on most skin) and the other is the thick, course hair found in the pubic regions and your head. In the case of high testosterone, some of the fine hairs turn into the course hairs. Once this conversion takes place, it can't revert back to the fine hairs, even once the testosterone levels are normalized. In essense, they've been "ruined" for good. I've got this problem on a lot of places and pretty much the only permanent solution is laser hair removal, but sometimes electrolysis works too.

Our hormones didn't get out of whack in a short period of time and they certainly won't normalize in a short period of time either.

Congratulations on your weight loss, I think you've done wonderful in the last few months. Your doctor should have run some blood tests to check for insulin levels, triglycerides, testosterone, etc and the goal is to get all those levels normal. Keep up the good work, though, and try not to get frustrated because some times it takes a long time (a year or two) before everything really turns back to normal. The weight loss is a good physical reminder the diet is working, but the labs should really prove that it is.

Oh, and one last thing: the mention that the pregnancy really caused things to snowball is such a common story, unfortunately. It seems that in some women, the pregnancy just opens up the floodgates. It's not that you didn't have PCOS before, it's just that the hormonal changes during pregnancy really just brought it all out.

Sourdaisy,
Thanks so much for your reply. That is the first I had heard that it was common for the symptoms to increase after a pregnancy. (I guess I had expected the opposite - assumed all those great female hormones would be forced to kick-in while growning a child & nursing for 2 years...)

Little discouraging about the hair - I have lots of it everywhere. Most longer than usual but still fine. However, on my chin, neck, side-burns, upper lip, navel line, groin, etc. it is getting dark & coarse. For 9 years (I HAVE NEVER SHAVED, except my legs - I am afraid it will make it worse???) I have mainly used tweasing on face & chin & occasionally hair remover lotion on neck - where too sensitive to pluck... any other suggestions??? I do shave navel & girly parts, just no where near face.

It (facial areas) need to be done nearly daily... I sware some can grow an inch when I blink - always paranoid when at work (in a prof. office) that someone can see them growing from accross a meeting/table... silly, because I am far from vain. (never wear make-up, hair usually in a simple ponytail, as casual of clothing as I can get away with...)

Speaking of head hair... mine was always VERY thick, full of body & wave - after pregnancy, still TONS of hair, but it instantly went very fine, dry, wirey & kinky curly - but lots of it... until recently. It now seems to be falling out in handfulls by the day - and I am starting to see some thin spots around the "widows peak" area and over the last few months, it seems to be loosing the curl... none of this really matters to me - I just want to make sure I am not heading down the path of irreversible hairloss??? any of these signs sound familiar to anyone???

Other than "hair" problems - lcarbing seems to be correcting/controlling all other symptoms, so that is why my dr. said he didn't advise glucophage treatment... Beside I had a major liver surgery in '99 due to a benign tumor - but it limits meds options for me. He felt the yasmin, would give me just that extra boost of hormone leveling/regularity and that it has some other combo-drug (starts with S???) that would help with the hair???? any one know about this? I haven't started the pills yet - he wants me to start today. I am excited, but also nervous & holding for comments.

Thanks again, Fern

Hi there! I haven't formally been diagnosed with PCOS, but I blame my doctor b/c she has blown me off since last year. I got off my birth control pill in April of 2001 to get pregnant, and STOPPED having periods. I weighed 240... had skin tags... no period... dark patches of skin in my underarms and groin area... high blood pressure... and multiple small follicles and cysts on my ovaries. DUH!!! So anyway, I diagnosed myself, went back on the pill b/c I wouldn't have my own period (Taking Yasmin now) and went on a low carb diet. Here's my question:

I weighed 240 in February of 2003. I started my diet in July of 2003 and now weigh about 205. Do you think it's safe to get back off the pill and see if I'm "fixed"? Have I lost enough weight to have gotten myself better? I am scared to see if I still have PCOS, so I've got an appointment with a endocrinologist October 15th, but besides getting off of the pill, is there any other way to know? I'm so scared of disappointment again, as this has been a very depressing journey for me.

Thanks!

swirl,
of course I am no dr. and can't speak for your body, but I was told loosing as little as 10-15 lbs. "should" be enough to spontaneously re-start periods... As soon as I had been on Atkins (and not any bcp/hormones), for a couple of weeks and had lost the first 10 lbs., my periods started back. I would hope for you, that if you went off the bcp with the amount you have already lost, that you too would have periods naturally - but as far as any other benefit you may have been getting from the bcp - would be lost. good luck with the endo - hopefully the dr. will find a happy medium to both regulate you and get you fertile!!! let me know what you find out after your appt.
good luck,
fern

Fern,

Thanks for the encouragement... that made me feel lots better. I'm ready to get off the pill and see what happens!

Yasmin is working really well for me. It straightened my periods out and made them a lot more bareable. I have not noticed any difference in hair either while low carbing or using the pill. I just went ahead and did laser. It was the best $150 I have ever spent. I was like you plucking and some hair would grow during the day, I would get home see them and freak out wondering if people could tell. The laser removal took away 90% of the hair! I may do it again, but there is so little left not even sure if it's worth it.

I started noticing a huge difference in my PCOS symptoms a few months after I started cutting carbs a year ago. After I got serious about LC this summer I started seeing the most improvement.

Also I was nervous about taking any kind of birth control pill, so I read John Lee's book "what your doctor may not tell you about premenopause" and started using some natural progesterone cream. I knew I'd been having anovulatory cycles for a long time and was probably progesterone deficient, and NPC is supposedly pretty safe (more so than bcps). This stuff has been awesome for me! I used it for several months from days 5 onwards to suppress ovulation, the idea is to give your ovaries a break so they can heal. Then (per instructions) I waited and the next month I ovulated just fine on my own. I still supplement with it during the latter part of my cycle, as I don't feel I'm entirely out of the woods there yet, but symptoms are much better. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it as an alternative in case anyone is interested. I highly recommend reading the book first, it is well written and answered any questions I had.

G.