Excerpt
PCOS Is My Power
1The Not-So-Basic BasicsWhat We All Should Know About PCOS
Case StudyHello . . . Rapid Weight Gain?
At twenty-five, Jordan was rapidly gaining weight.
Twenty-five pounds over three months, to be exact. To her knowledge, nothing—nada—about Jordan’s lifestyle had changed. Not her diet, exercise, or stress levels. Except for the fact that her boyfriend of a few months abruptly left her after the twentieth pound crept in around her waist. That didn’t feel too good.
The breakup plus the randomness of the weight gain overwhelmed Jordan. Day after day, she struggled to fit into the stretchiest pants she could find on Amazon. Even XXL wasn’t enough. Also, weirdly, her period randomly vanished. Everything was off. And Jordan had no idea why.
Her body, it seemed, had taken on a life of its own, and she felt like a foreigner in her own skin. After a few months, the ballooning of her hips continued. Jordan was slumped, defeated, and swallowed in sadness. Her self-confidence had never been so low.
Finally, totally at a loss, Jordan made an appointment with her primary care doctor (who was slammed with patients that day). When she walked in, her doctor just glanced at her chart. When it was finally time for Jordan to ask some questions, she stuttered, “But what could cause this?”
Her doctor didn’t look up. “Just give up carbs and eat veggies and fish for dinner. You’ll be fine. There’s nothing really wrong with you.”
Then, Jordan’s doctor promptly scooted her out the door, and that was that. She got an iced coffee with caramel to cheer herself up and then, at the coffee shop, Jordan started to scroll Instagram.
A reel popped up. It was from a registered PCOS dietitian making a dessert recipe: a cinnamon-roasted peach with Greek yogurt. Then, the dietitian started talking about a condition Jordan had never heard of before–a hormonal condition called PCOS.
Huh? Jordan said to herself. WTF is that?
This Instagram lady started to explain what PCOS was and that some of the symptoms could include rapid weight gain and an unpredictable period.
What? Now that got Jordan’s attention. The more Jordan thought about it, her period had been missing for, like, at least four months (and she for sure wasn’t pregnant). And it had been missing since this whole weight gain thing started.
A little idea ballooned in Jordan’s head. Maybe, just maybe, she had PCOS, whatever that was. She clicked Follow for the dietitian’s page. After scrolling through recipes, workouts, and information about PCOS—like which medical labs someone should have to be diagnosed properly—a strange and awful thought popped up: Was she sick?
Racked with fear and guilt that she somehow gave herself PCOS and her body was just irreparably broken, Jordan booked another doctor’s appointment. This time, she brought her phone and showed her doctor the medical lab Instagram reel. At the appointment, Jordan requested those labs. This time, the doctor agreed and ordered a full hormone test and a pelvic ultrasound.
The ultrasound was fast, and it revealed something Jordan had never seen before: a string of pearl-like cysts on her ovaries (a telltale sign of PCOS).
Sh*t.
Then, a week later, the rest of the results were in. The doctor called Jordan and explained she had a high androgen count. This hormonal abnormality, paired with the string of pearls on her ovaries, qualified Jordan for PCOS through the Rotterdam criteria.
(The Rotterdam criteria are the three pieces of evidence the medical community requires for a diagnosis of PCOS. The three Rotterdam criteria are: (1) missing or irregular periods, (2) pearl-like cysts on your ovaries, and (3) high androgens, aka male sex hormones, or the physical signs of high androgens like acne or facial hair. This is important if you want to receive a clinical diagnosis for this condition.)
“Now what?” Jordan whispered to her doctor on the phone, fear sinking in.
The doctor replied, “Just quit sugar, try to lose some weight, and I’ll give you a prescription for the Pill. That will regulate your period. Come back when you’re interested in conceiving, because that might be nearly impossible. Have a good day!”
And he hung up.
Jordan was stunned. She didn’t have a clue what to do next and wasn’t particularly interested in birth control. She grabbed her phone and immediately started scrolling through that dietitian’s Instagram for more information. (That page she’s on? That’s me: Cory Ruth, your PCOS dietitian.)
Jordan binged my content for two weeks before deciding enough was enough. She hired me to be her dietitian, and we went to work.
After carefully onboarding Jordan to understand her symptoms and her desired goals, I got her on a high anti-inflammatory diet (think nuts, fish, avocado) and started to carefully observe her cycle through basal body temperature (BBT) tracking, which is a natural way to track your period. (BBT tracking is a tool that uses your body temperature to tell where you are on your cycle. When used consistently, it can be an excellent replacement for birth control.) We followed this protocol for ninety days.
Three months later (with Jordan still enjoying tacos with her friends every once in a while), she had lost all the weight (plus the five pounds that had been stuck on since, like, forever) and fit into all her clothes again. Her period was back on track, and Jordan had started dating a new boo who supported her PCOS diagnosis like a true gentleman.
Win, girl, win.
Getting StartedIt’s very possible you read that case study and were vigorously nodding your head.
Me, too, you said to yourself as you read about Jordan’s predicament.
Girl . . . same. I know most PCOS warriors were once in Jordan’s shoes, myself included. So many of us start our PCOS journey in a similar state of panic and confusion.
When I first got my diagnosis, I was in my early twenties and overwhelmed. And not just because of my PCOS—I didn’t even know I had it! I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of being launched into adulthood. I had just graduated school, was saddled with debt, and was crushed by my lack of an answer to the question, WTF am I going to do with my life?
The reason I found out I had PCOS was painfully silly. After graduating from college with a sociology degree, I thought I’d make helping people my career, so I signed up for a master’s in psychology in San Francisco.
Between you and me, talking about feelings was not entirely my forte. But I didn’t figure that out for a solid few months. By the time I had decided to quit the program, I had sold my beloved car (the program was in San Francisco! I walked everywhere y’all!). At that point, I was broke, confused, and nearly fifty pounds overweight. My period had been missing for months, I was moody AF, and I had no idea why. (Little did I know the combination of stress with my TBD chronic condition had hit its peak.)
With no clue what to do, I did the only thing available: I moved in with my dad.
This was a little bit out of left field for me because my parents had divorced when I was only seven, and I grew up living with my bad*ss lawyer single mama. But Dad lived closer to SF, and he invited me to stay. Secretly, I was terrified it would go badly, but there was nowhere else to go.
Babes, it turned out to be the best year of my life even though the week I moved in, my dad got a pretty scary diagnosis: prediabetes.
I found out when we went to dinner one night. While we were waiting for the menus, my dad took out his prediabetes testing kit and pricked his finger. Red blood oozed out, and he scooped it up for a sample. He explained to me the science behind the way our bodies use sugar and how too much sugar causes our glucose to spike, and after years of chronically spiked glucose, he had developed insulin resistance, which is what made him prediabetic. And even though I was so sad for my dad, I thought the science behind his condition was pretty cool.
A week after my dad got his prediabetes diagnosis, my dad’s aunt—who had been struggling with type 2 diabetes for years—had to be rushed to the emergency room. The doctors announced her diabetes had gone too far. As a result, she had to get her leg amputated.
A couple of days later, we picked her up from the hospital. The poor woman had one less limb than she was born with and looked so weak and frail. I’ll never forget how my dad’s face fell when he saw the state of his aunt’s lower body, bandaged like a wounded veteran.
That evening, I overheard my dad talking to his doctor about what steps he could take to stay healthy despite his diagnosis and avoid what my aunt had gone through. The doctor kept it simple: Diabetes (much like PCOS) has a strong lifestyle and blood sugar component. If you keep your sugar intake low, that will help you keep your blood sugar steady and your symptoms will reduce. Pair that diet change with some stress management and exercise? You’ll get better.
