in today's video we are talking about pcos and symptoms and side effects you might experience
pcos stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome and affects one out of every 10 women between
the ages of 15 and 44 but women who have went through menopause can have it as well but the
thing is a lot of women do not even know they have it one study done on over 700 women found that 17
of the women tested had pcos however almost 70 percent of those women did not know they had it
women with pcos have a hard time getting pregnant they find it difficult to lose weight
and they are at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer
while pcos is becoming more and more common this doesn't mean it is normal but there is good news
it can be reversed but the first step to reversing it
is knowing that you have it so in today's video i'm going to outline 10 signs and symptoms of
polycystic ovarian syndrome and then we will talk about some steps to reverse it
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and
i post videos on a high fat nutrient-dense way of eating if you like this video please give it
a thumbs up feel free to share and make sure to subscribe and make sure to follow me on instagram
twitter and facebook where i share new posts every single day the topic of today is pcos and signs
and symptoms to watch out for as i mentioned at the start of the video pcos is becoming more and
more common but a lot of cases go undiagnosed and if you do have pcos it's really important to know
because not only does it affect your health but it affects the health of your unborn child as well
50 of women with pcos are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes by the time they are 40. they are also
three times as likely to develop endometrial cancer and as i already mentioned it makes
it more difficult to get pregnant of those women who are able to conceive with pcos there is also
a greater risk of miscarriages and it is twice as likely the baby will be delivered prematurely
now that all might sound scary but as i also mentioned before pcos can be reversed to be
officially diagnosed you will have to go see your doctor but there are a lot of symptoms that are
a pretty strong indicator of the syndrome of the symptoms some women will suffer from all of them
and some only a few and we will get to those symptoms in just a minute but to be officially
diagnosed with pcos you have to have two of the three following main symptoms irregular periods
high androgen hormones such as testosterone and cysts on the ovaries so as i already said you
do have to go see your doctor to be officially diagnosed but in this video i'm going to give
you 10 symptoms that are a pretty good indicator and if you have already been diagnosed with pcos
make sure to stick around until the end because i'm going to be giving you some tips to reverse
it number one missed periods irregular periods are one of the main symptoms as i already discussed
but it really is the hallmark of pcos if you are missing periods or having irregular periods
if your periods are really heavy or really light this is a pretty good indicator that something's
going on and oftentimes it's pcos the missing periods occur because of a hormonal imbalance
starting with insulin levels being too high and affecting other hormones as well every month just
before ovulation there should be a big spike in the hormone estrogen all estrogen is made
from testosterone but high insulin levels block the ovaries from converting it and as a result
the spike in estrogen doesn't happen so you do not ovulate and you do not have a period
number two acne acne is another common symptom with 1 out of every 3 women with pcos having it
this side effect stems from the hormonal imbalance again with more male hormones being produced the
skin becomes oilier and breakouts can happen these breakouts can occur not only on your face
but on your chest and back as well number three dark skin patches as you mentioned before high
insulin is the cause of irregular periods but it has other side effects as well one of which being
dark patches of skin on skin folds such as your armpits neck and groin number four excess hair
growth now this is another really common symptom up to 70 of those with pcos suffer from this
excess hair can grow in places that it typically wouldn't on the face stomach chest and back again
this comes back to testosterone being too high number five difficulty losing weight up to eighty
percent of women with pcos are overweight or obese and find it extremely difficult to lose weight
we've mentioned insulin a few times in this video but i wanted to dive into it further
and how it affects weight gain and weight loss insulin is known as the fat storage hormone
when we eat food is broken down into glucose in the bloodstream and insulin is released insulin
is responsible for carrying the glucose to our cells now the problem is that when too much
insulin is getting pumped out our cells become insulin resistant they stop taking in glucose and
insulin levels remain higher than they should for longer periods of time and remember that
insulin is also known as the fat storage hormone and this is because when insulin levels are high
our bodies are storing fat someone with pcos has high insulin levels almost all the time and this
is why it is so difficult to lose weight now you might be starting to notice a trend here insulin
is responsible for all of these symptoms whether directly or indirectly and that's no coincidence
but we will circle back to this at the end of the video number six abdominal fat if you carry a lot
of your weight in your midsection this might be a sign of pcos visceral fat is a type of fat
that is stored in the abdomen it surrounds vital organs including the liver stomach and intestines
visceral fat is hard and you will know you have visceral fat if you are not able to pinch it now
this type of fat is once again caused by high insulin levels as i mentioned before if you are
insulin resistant your cells are not responding to insulin properly and this includes your fat cells
which leads to more fat being stored as visceral fat in the abdomen number seven male pattern
baldness now this one is actually a 180 from the excess hair growth that we spoke about earlier
but some women actually experience thinning hair and balding as a result of high testosterone
number eight skin tags some women with pcos have tags of skin form on their bodies these
can be found anywhere but are commonly found in the armpits and around the neck
number nine sugar cravings after eating if you can eat a meal and still be hungry afterwards
this is a pretty strong indicator of insulin resistance and pcos high insulin levels mean
that your body is not regulating blood sugar properly the cells in your body are not able
to absorb the glucose and use it for energy so you're eating and the energy is there
but your body is unable to use it and this really is a vicious cycle number 10 infertility if you
have been trying to get pregnant with no success pcos could be the cause it is the number one cause
of infertility after all so it is more likely than not you have it if you are unable to get pregnant
so those are the 10 symptoms of pcos now if you have one or more of those symptoms you might be
feeling pretty discouraged right now but i promise you this video does have a happy ending because
pcos can be reversed with diet and lifestyle change before i talk about how to reverse
pcos i want to remind you that to be formally diagnosed you do need to go see your doctor and
if you tell them you suspect you have pcos they will know which tests to run reversing pcos you
might have noticed there was a common theme as we went through this video it is well known that pcos
is caused by a hormonal imbalance but what most people focus on is the high testosterone levels
and yes excess male hormones are what cause a lot of the symptoms such as excess hair growth and
acne but what causes this rise in testosterone the answer is insulin or high insulin levels to
be more specific the medical term for this is hyperinsulinemia the presence of an abnormally
high concentration of insulin in the blood as we talked about earlier in regards to missed periods
it is the hyperinsulinemia that blocks the conversion of testosterone into estrogen and
leaves you with high levels of testosterone so to address pcos we need to address hyperinsulinemia
but what causes levels of insulin to be high i already explained how when we eat insulin is
released in response but what we eat can make a difference to how much insulin is released
carbohydrates have the greatest response from insulin protein has a moderate response and fat
has almost no response so by reducing foods that have a high insulin response less will be produced
and your insulin will remain low this means focusing on low carb foods rich in protein and fat
such as eggs olive oil and beef i actually have a free downloadable list that has almost 100 foods
with next to no carbohydrates you can download it by going to my website healthcoachkait.com
and entering in the code word BUTTER in all caps focus on these foods and reduce foods
high in sugar grains and starches and you will significantly lower your insulin load for the day
the other strategy that is extremely effective for reversing pcos is intermittent fasting this
means you eat all of your food for the day in a condensed window and spend the rest of your day
fasting one of the most popular variations of this is 16-8 you fast for 16 hours and eat for
eight hours so if your last meal was at 7 pm your first meal the next day would be at 11 am is very
effective for pcos because when you're not eating insulin remains low intermittent fasting can also
help to improve your sensitivity to insulin so if you do have high carb foods your body will
be able to respond better to them and finally you want to build muscle if you have more muscle mass
your body has more places to store glucose which can improve insulin sensitivity and you do not
need to kill yourself at the gym either 10 to 15 minutes of resistance training three times a week
has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity be deliberate with your training work hard for short
periods of time anyways guys that is all i have for you today let me know in the comment section
down below if you have any of these symptoms and if you have been formally diagnosed with pcos
liking and commenting on my videos really helps to support my channel so even if you just want to say
hi i really appreciate it if you enjoyed this video i have another video that goes more into
pcos what causes it and just a bit deeper into how to reverse it you can check it out here if you
want to catch up on my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto
diet and cardio diet coaching programs check them out here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye