I'm 19 and newly diagnosed. My doctor wrote a prescription for Metformin; I filled it but haven't started taking yet (I am skeptical of treating problems with pills instead of solving them). Looking for lifestyle changes that would help, I found Atkins. I'm currently on day two of induction. I'm planning on going four to six weeks, then checking back in and seeing if anything has improved before starting the medication to see if I even need it. I was wondering if anyone has tried this personally, and if/what it has improved with pcos specifically?

Hiya,

If you've been prescribed Metformin, are you diabetic? or is that just for the PCOS?

I don't know a huge amount personally but I have read time and again how women with PCOS have found relief from their symptoms with low carb. Try having a look at the marksdailyapple.com forums, I'm sure there is a regular lady on there who suffered from it and found great results on the Primal Blueprint.

I'm totally with you on the treating symptoms with pills rather than solving the cause.

My father is on Metformin for his T2 diabetes, I did a lot of reading on the drug and to be honest, in my opinion the actual evidence from studies and research has only proved to have a minimal positive effect. It certainly made no difference to my father's test results, and the long term side effects are not nice at all.

Hopefully someone will come along with first hand experience of PCOS to advise you, but in the mean time I will say, read like you've never read before! There is SO much information available now, albeit some good, some dubious, but informing yourself as well can only be a good thing.

Good luck to you & welcome to the forum

PS. I believe that low carb of whatever plan you choose, Atkins or whatever, will do wonders for you if you follow it to the letter.

Thanks for the response ^.^
Not diabetic, just pcos and cholesterol issues. I think I may have posted too soon; looking around this subforum they're pretty abundant.
As far as reading, I'm most of the way through DANDR, and watched Fathead. The links posted on here alone are enlightening. Kind of sad how even in this arena the truth is bashed and obscured, when it's so important...

Hey there! My doctor also prescribed metformin for my PCOS. I ended up giving it up after I started to low-carb. I noticed that my cycles always come back when I really focus on keeping the carb levels down.

Think about it.. insulin is a hormone. Many people who have PCOS are also hypoglycemic.. producing too much insulin. Low-carbing has a wonderful effect of regulating your body's insulin levels.. many times helping regulate your periods as well.. at least that is my experience thus far. Low-carb is the only "dietary" way I've been able to regulate my period. I've done low-calorie and my period always vanishes unless I take metformin.