I'm having such a hard time finding one of these with the entire set (lancelets, strips, glucometer etc.). I don't have diabetes but I want to start monitoring my glucose for PCOS. I found some cheap looking sets on Amazon but they seem sketchy. Anywhere I can buy a whole set online?
I want to look into this procedure for my lean PCOS with no insulin resistance. I am out of options at this point and this surgery would potentially be lifechanging for me. Does anyone have experience getting this procedure in Canada?
I'm in my mid 30s and I've had lean PCOS my entire life and my partner and I are in a place where we're ready to try. I got AMH tested and it's astronomically high though?! It came back as >164 pmol/L or >23 ng/ml (US units). It was so high they didn't even give an exact number...
I get 5 or 6 periods per year on average. Naturopath said I don't have insulin resistance and my PCOS is more of a brain-ovary miscommunication driving up LH. I'm not sure if I ovulate but it seems unlikely given my extremely high AMH? I have 2 weeks or so of PMS where I can tell my period is coming just based on some mild breast tenderness. I used to have much more breast tenderness before I got covid though for some reason - it seems to have done something with hormones. But I know PMS symptoms doesn't necessarily indicate I've ovulated.
I have PCOS but am not insulin resistant and very thin - my main issue is lack of ovulation from brain miscommunication driving up testosterone production. I was drinking spearmint tea for several years and it helped with my acne, light hair growth but I stopped drinking it for a year due to other health issues. Well, a year later my acne started coming back with a vengeance but I also started experiencing MUCH worse androgenic symptoms like extremely oily skin and hair, excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis), temperature dysregulation, internal tremors, and very depressed mood like a dark cloud hanging over me. I also developed something called persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) where I felt consistently stimulated despite not being mentally aroused, though I did also experience increased libido. The symptoms were obviously very distressing and it seemed like my androgen receptors were even more sensitive than they ever were before I drank the spearmint tea.
I decided to try drinking spearmint again but seemed to have developed some sort of sensitivity to it because it caused burning in my stomach. I had to drink a diluted version of it which I tolerated for a few months, and it resolved a lot of my symptoms, but then my stomach had a reaction I haven't been able to recover from. Now I can only drink it intermittently to just barely stave off the horrible symptoms I mentioned.
I have been considering trying finasteride to help resolve the worsened androgen symptoms and I was wondering if a woman with PCOS took it, would there be less of a chance of developing it? Would it actually potentially be negligible or helpful because if they did develop PFS it would mean androgens don't convert to DHT anymore and cause as severe symptoms?
I have been taking pumpkin seed oil the last few weeks as I've read it's a mild DHT blocker. Is this still risky?
I am really desperate to resolve my symptoms but reading about PFS is concerning me especially because I already have so many issues but I feel like I have no choice but to take a DHT blocker the rest of my life probably.
Does anyone have any insight? I've told multiple doctors about what's happening to me and no one seems to know.
I've been experiencing chronic telogen effluvium since I got covid 3 years ago but noticed that I'm going through another big hair shed a few weeks after starting vitamin D. The only other thing I also introduced is pumpkin seed oil but that's supposed to help with hair growth. Could introducing it cause more shedding or has anyone experienced this?
I've been experiencing chronic telogen effluvium since I got covid 3 years ago but noticed that I'm going through another big hair shed a few weeks after starting vitamin D. The only other thing I also introduced is pumpkin seed oil but that's supposed to help with hair growth. Could introducing it cause more shedding or has anyone experienced this?
edit: I'm taking around 2700-3000 iu of Vitamin D from two different brands daily. The first is Jamieson brand D3 2000 IU and the other is Seeking Health D3 and K2 (MK-4) drops in olive oil 500 IU per drop. Been doing this for almost 3 weeks now.
So I got my recent fasting insulin and glucose tests back and my HOMA IR is 1.5. 7 years ago (age 27) it was 1.3. My fasting insulin went up from 40 pmol/L to 47 pmol/L. Pretty much all my menstruating life I've had acne and then I started getting more hair growth in my mid 20s - nothing too crazy, but 7-8 thicker hairs below my navel and some peach fuzz on the sides of my face. NO overt symptoms of insulin resistance and I have a difficult time gaining weight. But my testosterone is crazy high in the 80s-90s. How can my HOMA IR be what it is and my testosterone is this high? How could it have been 1.3 at age 27 yet my periods have been irregular since Day 1? To add to that, my triglycerides and cholesterol are perfect and I have no fatty liver on ultrasound.
I'm thinking that there's a miscommunication between my brain and ovaries where LH drives up testosterone and this has always been the case due to some genetic predisposition. But I'm reluctant to believe that insulin resistance was severe enough at age 12 to be driving the irregular cycles - it was primarily a brain miscommunication putting me in a prolonged follicular phase where LH signals to the ovaries to make more testosterone. Interestingly, lowering my testosterone using spearmint tea did not regulate my periods - if anything, it made my follicular phase longer because there's some evidence to suggest spearmint increases LH.
BUT I do think my insulin is climbing up and now compounding the issue despite it being more of a miscommunication issue.
In the last 6 months I've started being more mindful of carb intake and right now I'm at under 300g per day. I do not know how to lower my carb intake more than that because I have gastritis (difficult for me to digest protein) AND I am trying to maintain my weight because I'm currently borderline underweight. A dietician I spoke to said under 300g of carbs is fine though I do know for PCOS many recommend under 100. I've started supplementing with vitamin D as well as I was found to be severely deficient.
I'm starting to get really anxious that my testosterone is just naturally always going to be high and I won't be able to manage it especially if insulin may not be the driver and I can't cut carbs even more due to my stomach issues. I also can't drink spearmint tea anymore or take anything that will mess up my stomach. Spironolactone also carries a high risk for causing or exacerbating gastritis, unfortunately. The high T symptoms are hugely distressing since my levels started elevating after having to cut spearmint tea out. It's affecting me mentally and making me feel suicidal tbh. It's like my androgen receptors have become hypersensitive to androgens giving me worsening symptoms compared to before I drank spearmint. I am not comfortable going on BC either considering it can worsen insulin resistance and cause other issues long-term. At this point, my only hope seems to be cyclical bio-identical progesterone therapy which I plan to discuss with a naturopath soon. Has anyone found themselves in a similar spot and was there anything that worked for you?
I had to stay in the same space as this person for at least 20 mins and they sneezed loud and openly without covering their mouth. I wore an n95 but it's not fit-tested and when I took it off realized the seal felt kind of on the loose side.
So covid is very low in my area and I'm not worried about it being that, but when I went to get my blood drawn this woman who was very sick and sniffling in the small waiting area sneezed loudly and openly right beside me. It sounded like she had a cold but I've got chronic health issues (and am getting a procedure done in 2 days) and I'm worried about being infected. I had my n95 mask on but when I got back home I noticed the seal wasn't very tight with this particular mask. I was also kind of rushed and didn't check it perfectly today since I figured covid was lower. Given that her viral load was high and I was directly in line of her aerosols and had to walk through the same space, what are my chances of getting what she had if it wasn't covid?