Spiro, PCOS & Running
Hello all! I am wondering if others in this group may be able to relate and provide some insight or personal experiences. I am a new runner, I started at the end of February with goals of increasing mileage up to a half-marathon distance sometime next year. Currently I run ~12mi/week, so still early days. I (33F) have been diagnosed with PCOS for several years now, and while my cycles are regular (30-32 days) my testosterone-driven symptoms like acne and hirsutism are an ongoing issue. I started taking Spironolactone late 2024 and after increasing my dose to 100mg/day my acne had been almost nonexistent for a year. Since I started running though it has been bad again 😕 I am good about topical treatments, thoroughly washing my face after morning exercise & again before bed, changing my pillowcase every 5-7 days, and using good quality sunscreen. The breakouts are almost all around my mouth/chin area so it’s likely hormonal and I assume my dermatologist will recommend increasing my Spiro dose.
I typically don’t take medication if I can help it, so being on a daily prescription is already something I don’t love and I worry I’ll just have to keep increasing as my running mileage increases. Increasing my dose before made me feel dehydrated (headaches & nausea) for a couple weeks until I got used to it so I dread dealing with that alongside training. But my adult acne was really ruining my self-esteem and nothing else worked* as well, at least when it *was* working.
Sorry this is long. I guess I’m just wondering if any others in this group have experience with Spironolactone, and if so if they can share their experience on it in relation to running? If you have had to increase your dose or if you’ve found other ways to prevent hormonal breakouts?
*I understand that PCOS management has a nutrition element. I have a history of disordered eating so please don’t recommend restrictive eating, thank you.