What is PCOS?

Written By Shirien Pfitzer

What is PCOS? Good question! In the short way: it’s a hormonal disorder accompanied by a metabolism disfunction. But: one of the best medical definitions online is written by the Androgen Excess and PCOS society:

PCOS is the most common androgen-excess disorder, and affects between 5% to 10% of all women. PCOS typically involves … irregular or absent menstrual periods in combination with excess androgens (male hormones) and possilby polycystic ovaries. Increased production or sensitivity to androgens commonly leads to hirsutism (male-patterned hair growth), acne, or alopecia (thinning or loss of scalp hair).

Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, we got you. In the following article, we will try to help you to understand what the main idea of PCOS is, which types of PCOS are existing and what symptoms you might have. At the end, we will give you Links to Blogs and books where you can dig deeper and get more medical background. We are not doctors or professional PCOS consultants. We will try to give you all information we collected for our personal journey and advise you to always ask your doctor first.

Lets start from the top:

What are the most common symptoms?

There are a bunch of symptoms woman with PCOS can be affected by. But there are some things, most woman with PCOS have in common:

  • irregular periods or missing periods

  • No/or infrequent ovulations

  • Development of cysts in the ovaries

  • difficulty getting pregnant

  • excessive hair growth – usually on the face, chest or back

  • weight gain

  • tiredness

  • thinning hair and hair loss 

  • Inflammations

Most of those symptoms are caused by irregular hormonal levels. As there are more than 4 different types of PCOS, the symptoms can variate. To know the root of your PCOS you have to find out which PCOS type you are:

Different PCOS types

Insulin-resistant PCOS

Probably over 70% of woman that are diagnosed with PCOS have a PCOS type caused by insulin-resistants. In that case your body might not process Insulin correctly and the cells of your body don't respond properly to the hormone insulin. This can increase your risk of developing diabetes type 2. This type of PCOS is often accompanied by:

  • hunger after a proper meal

  • frequent urge to urinate

  • sudden strong hunger or thirst feelings

  • bad breath

  • weight gain, caused by the strong hunger feelings

  • tingling feelings in your hands or feet, especially at night

  • tiredness even after you slept 8 hours

  • frequent infections and more

To get this PCOS under control, you have to tackle your insulin Levels through a change of diet and through proper supplements. You can read here, how Shirien managed her symptoms.

PCOS induced by the Pill

This is the second most common type of PCOS. Dr. Shawn Darou explains what it means to be diagnosed by PCOS after the Pill:

“The pill suppresses the communication between the brain and your ovaries which stops ovulation. When most women stop the pill, this communication will come back right away along with regular ovulation and regular periods. Some women however, will experience ovulation suppression for months or even years after the pill, meaning they won’t have a period at all…Pill induced PCOS is, where periods were regular before starting the birth control pill, but absent afterwards along with some signs of PCOS such as acne, a high LH to FSH ratio and possibly cysts on the ovaries. The good news with a diagnosis of pill-induced PCOS, is that once your menstrual cycle returns and you start to ovulate regularly, the other signs and symptoms of PCOS are likely to resolve for good.”

PCOS caused by adrenal insufficiency

This type of PCOS is often combined with PCOS caused by Insulin resistance.

The simple answer to this PCOS type, explained by the PCOS nutritionist is, that your body is producing more adrenal hormones than normal or in other words: your cortisol levels are just constantly too high. This is caused mostly by stress, inflammations through foods like dairy or gluten, dieting, too much exercise, too much caffeine and more.

And as you maybe notice: one of the symptoms of PCOS is weight gain and tiredness and woman with PCOS try to solve those issues with dieting and Caffeine. But through this, PCOS gets even worse as it raises the Cortisol level in your body.

PCOS cause by other diseases like thyroid disease or deficiency of iodine

Here the main problem is not PCOS but other sicknesses. It is important to get your body checked and to find the root, that causes the incorrect hormone levels. As the root can be different sicknesses, the symptoms are completely different. This PCOS can probably be controlled in a few months after finding the roots.

As you can see, PCOS is more than just a missing Period or an Ovulation issue. It affects all your body. That’s why PCOS can not just be healed by taking the Pill or by waiting until you want to be pregnant. You need to change your lifestyle, your diet, your way of working out, your sleep rhythm etc. You can read more about that if you click here!

But first, we really advise you, to understand all the different types of PCOS, the side effects, the medical symptoms and so on. Then, with the help of your doctor, you will be able to understand which PCOS type you are. To support you through this seek of informations, we provided a list of things we would recommend you to read (those are only our favourites recommendations, we don’t have any partnerships with any of those websites):



Shirien Pfitzer
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How to be Diagnosed with PCOS