Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods
PCOS is defined as a set of symptoms including androgen excess and anovulatory cycles. In simplest terms, PCOS is the condition of androgen excess when all other causes of androgen excess have been ruled out. It’s an umbrella diagnosis which can be caused by different underlying drivers or functional types. The four functional types of PCOS are insulin-resistant PCOS, post-pill PCOS, inflammatory PCOS, and adrenal PCOS.
Phytoestrogens are a special group of phytonutrients that occur naturally in almost all plant foods. The two major classes are isoflavones in soy, and lignans in seeds, whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.
They’re called phytoestrogens because they interact with estrogen receptors but they’re not estrogen. In fact, they bind so weakly to estrogen receptors that they effectively block estradiol and are therefore better classified as ANTI-estrogen.
Struggling with hormonal weight gain around your middle? It’s a common problem with PCOS and menopause but it’s not caused by estrogen.
In women, estrogen is beneficial for weight loss. The abdominal weight gain of PCOS and menopause is more likely to be caused by insulin and testosterone.
Let’s take a closer look.
Read moreHelp for the Hormonal Weight Gain of PCOS and Menopause
Ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone are highly beneficial for health. That means that natural ovulatory menstrual cycles are beneficial for health because ovulation is the only way to make ovarian hormones.
Does that surprise you? Men make testosterone every day, so you might think that women would do something similar, but we don’t. Instead, we make our hormones as a surge of estrogen leading up to ovulation and an even bigger surge of progesterone for the two weeks after ovulation.
Read moreThe Secret Powers of Ovulation (It’s Not Just for Making a Baby)
To treat PCOS, you need to know what’s driving it. In other words, you need to know your functional type of PCOS.
You could have insulin-resistant PCOS, post-pill PCOS (which is temporary), inflammatory PCOS, or the far less common adrenal PCOS. These are functional types of PCOS based on the underlying physiological driver.
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