Ever wondered if those confusing health signs could point towards Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)? Dive into this week’s ‘Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday’ episode, ‘Could It Be PCOS? Unraveling the Signs and Symptoms.’ We’re taking a deep dive into the world of PCOS, shedding light on the symptoms that often go unnoticed or misunderstood. From irregular menstrual cycles to unexpected body changes, we'll guide you through the maze of PCOS indicators. This episode isn’t just about listing symptoms; it’s about understanding the complexities of PCOS and how they might be playing out in your life. Whether you’re seeking answers for yourself or just looking to learn more, join us for an informative, empathetic journey into deciphering one of the most common hormonal disorders in women. Your journey to understanding PCOS starts here!
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of 'Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday' with Dr. Mark Amols. If you found this episode insightful, please share it with friends and family who might benefit from our discussion. Remember, your feedback is invaluable to us – leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred listening platform.
Stay connected with us for updates and fertility tips – follow us on Facebook. For more resources and information, visit our website at www.NewDirectionFertility.com.
Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us at TBFT@NewDirectionFertility.com.
Join us next Tuesday for more discussions on fertility, where we blend medical expertise with a touch of humor to make complex topics accessible and engaging. Until then, keep the conversation going and remember: understanding your fertility is a journey we're on together.
Ever wondered if those confusing health signs could point towards Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)? Dive into this week’s ‘Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday’ episode, ‘Could It Be PCOS? Unraveling the Signs and Symptoms.’ We’re taking a deep dive into the world of PCOS, shedding light on the symptoms that often go unnoticed or misunderstood. From irregular menstrual cycles to unexpected body changes, we'll guide you through the maze of PCOS indicators. This episode isn’t just about listing symptoms; it’s about understanding the complexities of PCOS and how they might be playing out in your life. Whether you’re seeking answers for yourself or just looking to learn more, join us for an informative, empathetic journey into deciphering one of the most common hormonal disorders in women. Your journey to understanding PCOS starts here!
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of 'Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday' with Dr. Mark Amols. If you found this episode insightful, please share it with friends and family who might benefit from our discussion. Remember, your feedback is invaluable to us – leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred listening platform.
Stay connected with us for updates and fertility tips – follow us on Facebook. For more resources and information, visit our website at www.NewDirectionFertility.com.
Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us at TBFT@NewDirectionFertility.com.
Join us next Tuesday for more discussions on fertility, where we blend medical expertise with a touch of humor to make complex topics accessible and engaging. Until then, keep the conversation going and remember: understanding your fertility is a journey we're on together.
Today we talk about how do you know if you have PCos, also known. As polycystic ovarian syndrome. I'm Dr. Mark Amos, and this is taco. About fertility Tuesday. U one of the things I get asked a lot is, do I have polycystic ovarian syndrome? PCos for short. And I'm not surprised I get asked. This question, because if you look at the diagnosis, it's a little confusing. There are doctors out there who use certain criteria that are not part of. The diagnosis, and then there are people. On the Internet who say things. And so it can be very confusing as a patient to know whether you have polycystic ovarian syndrome or not. And so today we're going to talk about what symptoms you may have that. Could be related to polycystic ovarian syndrome. But doesn't mean you have it. In addition, we'll talk about what the. Real diagnosis entails, and we'll also talk about things you should do to treat your polycystic ovarian syndrome, not just from a fertility standpoint, but really from a medical standpoint. Now, to understand polycystic ovarian syndrome, you. Have to understand the history of it. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is, first of all, a misnomer. I've said this before in the podcast. Where they aren't cyst, they're actually follicles. Just like any person has on their. Ovary, and they have multiple follicles. And a long time ago, they thought. Those were cyst and called polycystic ovaries, kind of like polycystic kidneys, which are cyst, but in this situation, they're just follicles, the same thing every woman has. Now, prior to 2003, since 1990, the. National Institute of Health established the criteria for polycystic ovarian syndrome. And you had to have either irregular. Cycles or no periods, and you had. Have to either clinical or biochemical evidence of hyperanginism, which means basically having elevated testosterone by chemical or by having signs. Of it, such as if you're growing. A beard, that would mean that you. Have elevated testosterone levels. But if you notice something, what's missing from that? Polycystic ovaries. Polycystic ovaries were not part of the criteria back in 1990. Matter of fact, when I was a resident, I had one of my attendants get mad at me when I mentioned. To them that patient had polystyched ovarian. Syndrome, and he didn't know about the. New criteria that occurred in 2003. And that's the Rotterdam criteria. Now, the Rotterdam criteria are different. In the past, you had to have. Both of those things to be able to have PCos back up based off of the NIH criteria. But in 2003, something changed. Now you had to have two of three criteria to have polycystic ovarian syndrome. The first criteria could be irregular cycles or no periods. The second symptom could be either clinical or chemical evidence of hyperandronism. And the last criteria would be polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is characterized by at. Least twelve or more follicles on, One or both of the ovaries, or increased volume being greater than ten cubic centimeters. So with the Rotterdam criteria, the inclusiveness of polycystic ovarian syndrome expanded. Now, with that came some debate, and. It'S a very reasonable debate. The question is, are all people with. Polycystic ovarian syndrome the same? And the answer is absolutely not. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, you can have a girl who is skinny, who has polycystic ovaries and gets some acne. Her periods are on time every month, but we would still call that polycystic ovarian syndrome. On the other end of the spectrum, you could have a woman with a full beard. She can have no mensies. She can have hairal over her breast. She can have polycystic ovaries, type two diabetes, and be severely obese. And she has polycystic ovarian syndrome. So the question is, what do all of these have in common, then, if they're so extreme? And how do you know if you have it? Well, what they have in common is that there is a metabolism that's associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome. And this m metabolism is usually elevated insulin levels, or what we call insulin resistance. From a medical standpoint, that is the purpose of treating it medically, to reduce the insulin resistance and some of the. Side effects that come from that, such. As diabetes and heart disease. Other things like endometrial cancer, can occur. Too, with elevated insulin levels and not having a mensis. When we think of polycystic ovarian syndrome, we think of it as a fertility problem. Matter of fact, that's why most doctors. Don'T even diagnose it, because unless someone's. Trying to get pregnant, they don't think about it. But there are some symptoms of PCOS that can be problematic. For example, I'm a guy, right now. I have a beard, but most girls. Don'T want a beard. And I'm pretty sure most girls don't want hair over the breast. And so if you have polycystic ovarian. Syndrome, it's important to treat it early, because if you do, you can prevent those from happening. And so I even would say adolescents. Who appear that might have polycystic ovarian. Syndrome should be treated, and that's with. Birth control at that time, to prevent some of the symptoms of polycystic ovarian syndrome. That way, they don't get the sequelae of having hair on their breast or hair on their face. That doesn't go away. The only way to get rid of. That is then with electrolysis, and that. Takes multiple treatments, and it's still not perfect. Now, I don't expect you to go. Get your labs drawn today to find out if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. So let's talk about the clinical things. That you may be looking at right. Now that may make you think you have polycystic ovarian syndrome and when you should see your doctor. Probably the biggest thing that would make. You think you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. Is if you have irregular cycles, not having a period at all or having. Irregular cycles, meaning one month it's 28 days. The next month is 45 days. The next month it's 50 days. That would be considered irregular 90% of the time. If that is going on, it's going to be due to polycystic ovarian syndrome. Now, that doesn't mean you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. It just means that's a cause of it. It's like, I always make the joke. Whenever I have nausea, I think I'm pregnant, but technically I can't be pregnant. So it's just a symptom that's associated with pregnancy. It doesn't mean I have it. The same thing goes with irregular cycles. There are things like thyroid problems, prolactin issues, and other issues that can cause that. But if you have irregular cycles, you may have polycystic ovarian syndrome. Now, all women get a little dark. Hair here and there. They may get a dark hair on their nipple. They may get some dark hair under. Their lip, on the upper lip. But women generally do not get hair on their chin and on their neck. They do not get hair between their breast. They do not get hair above their belly button. If you develop hairs in those areas. Or on the inner thighs significantly, you. Might have elevated testosterone levels, causing hercitism. Which is the medical term for having. Dark hairs, called terminal hairs, in the wrong spot. One of the most interesting stories that really opened my mind was when I. Was seeing a teenager at, ah, mayo click in Minnesota, and she had some dark hair on her face. And I asked her, do you have any dark hair anywhere else? And she said, oh, yeah, I also. Have it all over my chest. And I asked the mom, it was. Okay if I could just take a look to see how significant was. And she had as much hair on her chest that you would expect a. Male to have between the breast, on the breast. And when I looked at the mom. I said, have you had her tested for this to figure out what's going on? And her mom said to me, oh, no. her dad is very hairy. That's very normal for him. Now, there's some truth to certain ethnicities. Might have more hair, let's say, on the side of their face than others. Or maybe on the back of their. Neck a little bit. But there is no ethnicity, there is no dad that you can have that can make you get hair between your breast. If you are getting dark hairs between. Your breast, then you probably have some. Type of elevated testosterone, maybe PCos, maybe something else. But the point is, it needs to. Be worked up at that time if. You have some of these symptoms and. You'Re trying to get pregnant and not getting pregnant again. Another possibility that you might have polycystic. Ovarian syndrome, it's not one of the. Criteria, but is definitely something that could point towards it. One of the things I see a. Lot of doctors do is they'll tell someone they have polycystic ovarian syndrome because. Their LH FSH ratio is inverted, meaning. Normally the FSH and LH are one to one, or even FSH is two. To one to LH. But sometimes the LH can be three times higher than FSH number. And it's true, a lot of people who have polystick ovarian syndrome will have that inversion, but that is not a diagnostic criteria. Just because you have that does not. Mean you have PCos. And this is where I see people. Incorrectly diagnosed with PCos. In my career, I have found women diagnosed with PCos having hypothyroidism, with brain tumors called hyperprolactinemias. And I've even had some patients with cancers. One of the other things that happens. Is sometimes women, when they are severely insulin resistance and have severe dementia ovarian reserve, are diagnosed with PCos, when in. Reality they have metabolic syndrome, and they. Don'T have polycystic ovarian syndrome. And they're difficult to tell the difference because polycystic ovarian syndrome is a form of metabolic syndrome. And so there's a difference of why one is occurring. But in the end, why does it matter? Why do you need the diagnosis? The answer is you don't. What you need the diagnosis for is to treat yourself. Now, if it's coming from fertility, then you need to see a fertility doctor, because you need help trying to get pregnant. If your issue is ovulation, then you're going to need medications helping you ovulate. If you don't have polysteach ovarian syndrome, then you may have some other hormonal disorder, and that will be treated by the doctor as well to fix things. But if you're not trying to get pregnant, there's still the medical benefits. One, having a period, not having a. Period every month can sometimes cause things like endometrial cancers over long periods of. Time, making sure that you don't get hercitism again. I, don't even like having to. Shave all the time. I'm pretty sure women would not want to. And so in that situation, you can prevent those hairs from coming on and. Then having to have to remove them in the future. But the other thing is your health. There are things you can do when. You have polystychical ovarian syndrome that can prove your health. There are things called myonostal, there's metformin. There'S actually healthy diets, like low carb. Diets, that help women with polycystic ovarian syndrome. And so what I would tell you is, if you have any question that you may have it, it's a very simple diagnosis. All you need to do is follow up with your doctor and basically get an ultrasound of your pelvis to see if you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. Two, check some hormones. The five of you have elevated testosterone. To make sure you don't have other hormonal disorders. And the third thing is get a history that your doctor will do with those things. They can diagnose you with polycystic ovarian. Syndrome, and then you can know what path you need to take for treatment. One interesting caveat is, although only eight. To 10% of the population has polycystic. Ovarian syndrome, up to 33% of the. Population has polycystic ovaries. Meaning just because you have the ovaries. Does not mean you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. And this is a big distinction because there are women out there who have polycystic appearing ovaries. And when they go through IVF they. Make so many eggs, and the eggs. Are usually very good quality. But women who have polycystic ovarian syndrome, when they go through IVF, they also make a lot of eggs, but their egg quality is poor because of that insulin resistance. And so there's a big difference between those two. But unfortunately, when dealing with maybe primary. Care doctors, they don't realize that. And they call them both polycystic ovarian syndrome patients, when in reality, one has polycystic ovaries, the other one has polycystic ovarian syndrome. Now, if you asked most doctors, they're. Going to assume you have polycystic ovarian. Syndrome if you're overweight. And that's wrong. About 50% of women with polycystic ovarian syndrome aren't overweight. So it's not something that's specific to polycystic ovarian syndrome. Matter of fact, it's become such a problem that people assume when people overweight. That that's the problem. They're treating the wrong thing. So although weight can be associated with it, don't think because you're overweight, that means you have polystystic ovarian syndrome. You want to have some of those. Criteria that we talked about. The other thing to keep in mind is don't be worried if you have. Polystovarian syndrome that you're never going to have a kid. That's definitely not true. It's actually very easy to get people pregnant who have polystick ovarian syndrome as. Long as you're getting the right treatment. So if it's not working with your obGyn, taking some clomid or femara, go. See a fertility doctor. They'll get you on the right path to success. Hopefully this was helpful to someone who maybe thought they had polycystic ovarian syndrome. Or maybe you just wanted to learn a little bit more about it. Maybe you have a family member you. Can tell about it. Either way, I hope this was helpful. And that now with this newfound knowledge. You can prevent a friend from wasting. Time thinking they have polystyce ovarian syndrome. Or someone who needs to see a. Doctor who may have it now knows. To have that extra little push to get there. It's a new year, and I thank everyone from last year who listened to this, and I hope we have a great year again with some more podcast episodes. Several of you have given me some ideas, which I will be doing, this year. As always, I greatly appreciate everyone who listens to us, and I appreciate the reviews you guys give and please tell everyone about us. I look forward to talking to you again next week on taco belt fertility Tuesday.