Is Taking Birth Control Pills A Band-Aid Treatment For PCOS?

I remember in my early training that the first question to ask a patient with polycystic ovary syndrome was: "Are you trying to get pregnant?" If no, hand them the birth control pill. If yes, choose between clomid, a fertility drug, and metformin, an insulin sensitizer. No questions related to lifestyle, stress, nutrition, total toxic burden – there were 29 more patients to get to that day. It turns out, many lifestyle changes have been shown to pull someone out of the metabolic chaos of PCOS, therefore decreasing their chances of developing comorbidities such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, anxiety, depression and infertility. Insulin resistance is one of the root physiological imbalances in most, if not all, PCOS. This is where your pancreas needs to pump out more and more insulin in response to high blood sugar levels. Insulin lowers the blood sugar by storing the glucose in cells. The cells become resistant to the constant insulin and need more to be signaled to lower the blood sugar. When this resistance goes on for a while, you have high insulin and high blood sugar. Incidentally, insulin is a fat storage hormone, concentrating fat in the belly region. High insulin levels can tell the ovaries to make more testosterone. That's why some women with PCOS have symptoms of excess androgens, like dark hairs on the face and belly. Ask for a fasting insulin and fasting glucose level to be drawn, along with a HgbA1C (an average of blood sugars fo...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news