what is PCOS? the most common female diseases explained - part 1

 In this episode of Stellar Cycles, we’re exploring Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)—a condition many women have heard about but might not fully understand. As an ultrasound tech with hands-on experience, I’m breaking down what PCOS is, how it’s diagnosed, what causes it, and what it really means for your feminine health. 

We’ll break down PCOS symptoms, the tests involved in diagnosing it, the treatment options available, and ways to manage it in your daily life. My goal is to make this complex topic a bit clearer and help you feel more informed. Whether you’re new to PCOS or just looking for more info, this episode will help simplify things and give you a better understanding. 

Remember, this is just an overview from my perspective. Always chat with your doctor for advice tailored to your needs. Tune in to get the scoop on PCOS and how to handle it! 

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more women’s health and wellness tips! 

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Transcript

Alina: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Stellar Cycles podcast, your hot growth database for all things pertaining to your femininity, your cycle and wellness, and your walk in life. As a woman, I'm your host, Aleena, and today we are talking all things PCOS. the goal for today's episode is to give you a really well-rounded idea of what exactly PCOS is from the perspective of an ultrasound tech who myself has seen these cases firsthand in a clinical setting. My hope is that I can distill this very medical and often overused as an Internet buzz word disorder to help you understand how exactly it's defined, diagnosed and treated. in today's episode, we will be covering what we know so far about PCOS, what kind of tests women undergo in order to get it diagnosed correctly, as well as the causes and a risk factors that can lead to this condition. Not only that, we will be talking about treatment options, lifestyle management and side effects, as well as what the long term outlook and prognosis could be for this disorder. Again, this is only to inform from the limited perspective and research of an ultrasound tech who has taken a keen interest to women's reproductive health any personal diagnosis or treatment should be sought through your doctor and health care provider. why is it that we need to talk about PCOS? Well, it's crucial for several reasons. PCOS affects about 10% of women who are in their reproductive age understanding. PCOS can help us detect to earlier and be able to manage it better. PCOS is actually known to be the leading cause of hormonal imbalance. And we'll talk a little bit later about why it causes our hormones to be imbalanced. It's also linked to development of other serious health conditions and of course, more on which those could be throughout this episode. As we talk about PCOS, it's also a very common cause of infertility, which I know can be a really scary thing in today's time as it's affecting more and more women. Another reason why we want to talk about PCOS is because it can help us understand how to manage the menstrual irregularities that come with it. And PCOS can have a huge impact on mental health, especially when it comes to some of the symptoms that PCOS girls experience that can really greatly affect their self-esteem. So with PCOS, there are things such as a lifestyle that you can take into your own hands that can improve this condition for you and really make you feel empowered and in charge of your health. Of course, the more research that there is around PCOS, the better we can understand it and it helps women to connect with each other and share experiences. Finally, I think it's really important to talk about PCOS because it can help us have a holistic approach, which means addressing the problem and the person as a whole not as separate systems, because truly everything really is interconnected. Now, PCOS, I just really want to tell you guys that this is something that I knew nothing about prior to going to ultrasound school and it being a literal part of our curriculum and kind of like that. My patients didn't know anything about it either. And the diagnosis of PCOS can be very scary, especially if you don't understand it. So by learning about PCOS, I believe that women can really take control of their health. They can seek appropriate medical care and also advocate for themselves and others facing challenges such as these. Now, PCOS is not to be confused with ovarian cysts. That is going to be its own episode in this series about the most common reproductive disorders that affect American women. let's get into it. How is PCOS defined? Well, it's an acronym that stands for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. It is a common endocrine, meaning hormonal disorder that affects women of reproductive age, commonly characterized by these symptoms and signs. And I just want to remind you guys, that syndrome is usually a collection of various problems, and the problems for PCOS are irregular periods, hyperandrogenism, polycystic ovaries and insulin resistance. And I will go into each one of these. the very first one is going to be that irregularity of menses or the period. when it comes down to it, women with PCOS, often have infrequent, irregular or prolonged menstrual cycles. And this is because the ovaries are not regularly releasing eggs, which is called ovulation. So when ovulation is thrown off, your period is thrown off too, and it can really affect the timing of it. The next one we have is it's a mouthful. It's called Hyperandrogenism. Androgens are male hormones, and hyperandrogenism means that a woman with PCOS is experiencing elevated levels of male hormones androgens which can cause really unpleasant physical signs like excess facial and body hair, which is called hirsutism. You can get severe acne that it's really hard to manage and also experience male pattern baldness. So as you can imagine, if you're experiencing anything like this, it can probably really affect your self-esteem and often can lead to depression and anxiety in PCOS patients. having elevated levels of male hormones can really affect how your body presents and how you're perceived as a woman, which is really, really interesting. The next characteristic of PCOS is that first part of the acronym Polycystic Ovary is polycystic means that there's many cysts on the ovaries. And I just want to remind you guys that cysts on our ovaries are completely normal. It's when there's either too many of them, which is what polycystic means, or when they grow larger than they need to be and cause discomfort and could potentially rupture in our pelvis. But we will have another episode about ovarian cysts. But in this case and PCOS, it just means that the ovaries might become a lot bigger than they need to be because they contain many, many, many small fluid filled sacs, also called follicles. That contains the eggs. So even though this syndrome can be called polycystic ovarian syndrome, that doesn't mean all the women with PCOS have polycystic ovaries. And we'll talk about that a little later. so far we have irregular periods. We have excess male hormones, we have polycystic ovaries, ovaries that are bigger and have many, many eggs that are clearly not being released during ovulation and affecting the period. And finally, we have insulin resistance. PCOS really hits your blood sugar. a lot of women with PCOS, they're going to have insulin resistance, which can lead to higher levels of insulin in the blood and an increased risk of developing type two diabetes. when it comes to clinical presentation or how PCOS. Patients will usually show up in the clinical setting. There's a classic triad of PCOS, which means there's a triple sign that usually when doctors see this are like, okay, it could be PCOS, let's run the tests. So the triad is oligo malaria oligo means big or prolonged. Oligo Maria. Maria is the word for period. was Oligo Maria. That could mean infrequent or very spaced out periods. That's usually what it means. Like when the doctor asks you, are your periods regular? Regular means your cycle lasts about the same number of days, whether that's 28 days or 32 days. And are you pretty sure when your period comes? Does it come usually at the same time every month? If that's not the case, then they could suspect that you have that Olga maria and or an ovulation. Remember, the ovulation is when one egg gets released every month. that's what keeps your hormones going and that's what keeps your body on time. But an ovulation means that your ovaries are kind of holding on to all of those eggs and not releasing them. And that's what's causing the ovaries to get bigger and have many, many of those little follicles containing the eggs. So the first one in the triad that people usually present with is the oligo minora, right? Some sort of irregular period, like I said earlier, hirsutism. And that means abnormal facial or body hair, especially for a woman. And third of all, obesity. This is a pretty dependable sign because when someone is very overweight, they have difficulty managing their weight gain. That usually means there's some sort of insulin resistance or blood sugar problem involved. So when these types of patients show up in the clinical setting, the doctor will have every reason to test them for PCOS. how is PCOS diagnosed and what sort of tests are required to truly say that a patient has PCOS? Well, there's something called the Rotterdam criteria that is used to make the diagnosis. in order to get the diagnosis of PCOS, you need to have any two of the following three for the diagnosis, which means ovulatory dysfunction. That means you're probably not ovulating. The second one is clinical or hormone tests. Signs of those elevated male hormone levels. That means you might have the facial hair, you might have the severe acne, you might have the male pattern baldness. And the third one is polycystic ovarian morphology or the shape and the look of your ovaries on ultrasound or an elevated AMH and what AMH is. It's a test for your ovarian reserve. it counts how many eggs you have in your ovaries. PCOS, makes it so that your ovaries hold on to the eggs instead of properly releasing or ovulating them in a timely manner. ultrasound is necessary for a diagnosis of PCOS. Now, like I said earlier, ovaries can look completely normal with PCOS, which is why those hormone tests are then done to see. Okay, even though the ovaries look right on ultrasound, are they still holding on to too many eggs? Are enough eggs leaving the ovary as they should be? Or are there male hormones which all of us women have? Are those male hormones being elevated? Right. Much more so than they need to be. However, if the ovaries do look like PCOS ovaries, this is kind of what they look like. in general, PCOS will show larger ovaries and they'll have an increased number of those little bubbles or follicles, which are those little fluid sacs that contain our eggs. the other criteria is more than 20 follicles per ovary. the other thing, too, is these many, many tiny ovarian cysts, these little bubbles, they can very often be around the edge or the perimeter of the ovary instead of evenly dispersed throughout the tissue. So that's kind of what is used for diagnosis. There's all of that criteria. There's hormone tests, there is ultrasound evaluation, too. So even though PCOS is a very popular buzz word and people just equate that with hormonal imbalance of any kind. Those are the things that you have to go through with your doctor and the tests that you need to have in order to actually say that you have diagnosis and to pursue treatment. So what are the things that could predispose a woman to getting PCOS? And as I go through these, I really want you guys to think about why this is a problem not only in the world, but very specifically in the United States. Okay. I really want you to come to your own conclusions here. Well, the causes can include genetics sometimes is just a genetic condition. You can't really do much about what you're born with except for modify your lifestyle to combat that. The other cause could be just higher male hormones, those androgens. Right? And it's not all the way proven or understood why women can have higher male hormones. But I do think it could have something to do with. And again, this is me just spitballing here, but it could have a lot to do with our environment and having things thrown off and maybe even sometimes women having to take on more masculine roles. And essentially when they start living and acting like a man, then I mean, your body just follows suit. But that's just like my crazy little opinion. I don't know if that's true. The third cause can be insulin resistance. again, that has to do with blood sugar. And when the body is experiencing insulin resistance, it actually needs to produce more insulin in order to deal with blood sugar, which can lead to higher male hormone production. that's another thing that can change our levels of male hormones in our bodies as women. the fourth cause, which again, I really want you guys to think about why this affects American women is chronic inflammation. So think stress, think environmental factors may be a very, very demanding job that your body just never feels completely safe from. And a lot of people just grow up living in homes and eating certain types of foods that leads to chronic inflammation that really never goes away. risk factors for people getting predisposed to PCOS can just be family history. It's more likely that you will get PCOS if someone in your family has had it. Mom, grandma, sister, cousin. It's just more likely. Another big risk factor is obesity because of course it affects insulin resistance. Another thing too that could lead to PCOS if we're not careful and is kind of tied to obesity, is a sedentary lifestyle If you're not moving around, if you're not, you know, giving your metabolism any help, then it just it's a cascade effect and it helps all of those things to prosper and thrive. All of those other risk factors and other ones can include hormonal conditions. Again, because everything is interconnected. So maybe something like hypothyroidism, maybe your thyroid is not functioning as well as it could. And that, of course, affects and imbalances the other hormones in your body. enough about all the doom and gloom. What are the treatment options as well as the side effects when it comes to PCOS? Well, I would say the most popular one and probably popular because it's easy to prescribe and there's not a lot of lifestyle. Modifications that people have to incorporate when it comes to this option is, of course, going to be hormonal contraceptives. There's a few different types and a very popular one is the oral contraceptive pill. it is very highly believed in the medical community that birth control pills are given because they help regulate menstrual cycles. Well, that's the wording that's used. But since we talk about it so much on this podcast, there's really no way that birth control which shuts off your hormone production is going to regulate your menstrual cycle. It might seem like it's putting you on to some sort of cycle because when you're when you're taking the birth control pills for the three weeks and then you have the little different colored pills for the last week, it's not a real period. It is just a withdrawal bleed because you're not getting those synthetic hormones. So when they're absent from your body, you just start bleeding. So that's the way that they were designed. However, birth control pills can be helpful for PCOS because as well as shutting down your own hormone production, they're also going to reduce those male hormone levels, which, as we know, birth control pills really help manage acne. They help manage that facial and body hair that women aren't really supposed to have. But side effects of birth control pills can include nausea, weight gain. I know that when I was on birth control for about six months, I definitely got a little heavier than I normally am with not really any dietary changes or exercise changes. And of course, we know that birth control can really affect our mood. It can also and lead to an increased risk of blood clots. And blood clots can be dangerous. And this is really not that talked about. I don't think this was ever mentioned to me when I went on the birth control pill was that it can increase your risk of blood clots, which means that if a blood clot forms in your vein, that can eventually become dislodged and travel up the vein and end up in your lung. one last side effect of birth control pills is very sensitive, very tender breasts, apart from the contraceptive pills, which we take by mouth. Another option for hormonal contraceptives as a treatment for PCOS are things like hormonal patches and vaginal rings. these are just alternative forms of contraception with the similar benefits and similar side effects of those pills that we take by the mouth. in addition to the contraceptive, the things that really affect your own hormone levels, we have things such as anti-androgen medications. these are pills and pharmaceuticals that are going to work against the elevated male hormone levels and kind of help bring them down so that the female hormone levels can get to work. One really popular one that's also used for acne is spironolactone. this medication, it's going to reduce those androgens, those male hormones. to help with the symptoms such as facial hair and severe acne. But it does come with some side effects and that can be increased urination. You might find yourself peeing a little more. It can actually make you dizzy and it can give you menstrual irregularities, which if we already have that with PCOS, that's what we're trying to get under control. Right. it's not recommended during pregnancy because it can cause potential birth defects. because insulin resistance can be such a huge part of PCOS, there are interventions called insulin sensitization, so very popular. One that you might have heard of is metformin and it's commonly used to treat insulin resistance in women with PCOS and also helps with weight management as well as restoring those regular menstrual cycles. However, metformin can lead to some unpleasant side effects, such as GI issues like nausea, diarrhea. It can give you that metallic taste in your mouth and quite rarely lactic acid doses. Now when it comes to PCOS affecting your fertility and like just a reminder of how this can happen, PCOS can lead to infertility because if you're not ovulating, if those eggs are not leaving your ovaries and they're not available to be fertilized, right, they're just staying in the ovary because the ovaries holding on to them, that can make it pretty hard to get pregnant. So there are a few drugs that doctors will give women who are experiencing this in order to try to help them ovulate and help get them pregnant. So the first one is going to be a drug that is commonly known by the name of Clomid, it is a first line treatment for inducing or encouraging ovulation in women, especially with PCOS related infertility. The side effects of CLOMID can be hot flashes, bloating, mood swings and increased risks of multiple pregnancies like multiple babies in your stomach at the same time clomid encourages the ovaries to isolate. But there's no hard rule that it's going to ovulate one egg at a time so it can ovulate multiple eggs at a time, right? Release several of those eggs during that induced ovulation. And then that's how you can end up with multiple eggs being fertilized, multiple eggs implanting, and that can lead to twins, triplets, so on and so forth. I would dare say that maybe like those really popular sextuplets or octuplets mom's like that's probably what they were on to, but I'll have to fact check myself on that. Another popular fertility treatment is something called Femara, it's also another way to induce ovulation, and it has been shown to be even more effective than Clomid in some cases. the side effects are a little bit different because they can lead to fatigue, dizziness, and if that's something that's continued to be taken throughout pregnancy, it can actually lead to birth defects, which is kind of ironic. That's something that could help you get pregnant, could actually, like, hurt your baby once it's actually developing. finally, we have something called Gonadotropin. So that is also used to treat infertility. Gonadotropin are more of the injectable hormones that will also stimulate ovulation. And this is especially used when those other medications don't really work out. However, it can lead to something called OHSU, which is ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, and as the name suggests, it just means that the ovaries just been overstimulated. Let me know if you guys want an episode on that condition, because I do remember briefly learning about it at an ultrasound school, but I, I just know that it's something that can come from using too much of these medications. Also gonadotropin that can lead to multiple pregnancies because it can make you ovulate multiple eggs at the same time. And of course, since it is an injection drug, you can have injection site reactions. So that could be, I don't know, rash swelling, maybe some sort of weird allergic reaction to it where they injected it into your body along with all of these. Medical clinical treatments. There are also things that patients can do themselves as far as modifying their lifestyle in order to help combat PCOS and help rebalance or hormones. one big thing for that is weight management. weight loss through a healthy diet, a healthy amount of exercise can really impact and improve those unwanted PCOS symptoms. although weight management and weight loss is generally seen as a positive thing, as long as it's not done in an unhealthy or like too fast of a way But if they're doing it in a rapid weight loss kind of way, it can really lead to nutritional deficiencies and other health issues because you are restraining and restricting things that your body really, really needs. Right. We just want to cut away the things that the body doesn't need or has an excess of. that being said, I would say a proper diet to rebalance and regulate hormones is very, very beneficial for PCOS. more whole foods, more nutrients. And if you want to learn more about this as far as food, as medicine. The book Woman Code by Elisa Viti is going to be great because she talks about her own experience of healing herself from PCOS after the doctors told her that she had nothing to look forward to but infertility She ended up really, really studying hormones herself and kind of eating her way to a healthy state. And now she has a son and she works in New York City and helping other women heal themselves from PCOS. So that's a good lifestyle modification, too. It's really changing your relationship with food. some of the more new emerging treatments that have more recently been used, there's something called inositol supplements. these are helpful for improving that insulin sensitivity as well as ovulation. they're actually really well-tolerated with very rare reports of GI discomfort or really any other side effects. So this is a promising one, a promising type of supplement that people can take. And of course, to no surprise, GLP one agonists. the other word for that is going to be O's pick. So even though it was initially used for the management of diabetes, these types of medications will also really help with that weight loss and insulin sensitivity that a lot of obese people struggle with. But it does come with its own set of side effects, like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes it can really affect the pancreas and make it inflamed. And pancreatitis is not a joke. So people who should not be taking a Zen pick probably don't want to be dealing with all of that stuff. But it is very helpful for those who have tried every single other weight loss method and now just can't seem to can't seem to find something to help. So it seems like it'll deal with both insulin resistance and PCOS potentially. So these are more of the emerging treatments that might be newer ways to deal with PCOS now because PCOS can leave women with some really undesirable symptoms and characteristics that can really affect their self-esteem, can sometimes lead to depression and anxiety and take a huge toll on their mental health. There are some cosmetic treatments that women can go for. The main one being laser hair removal and electrolysis. So this is going to be really effective for managing that facial or body hair that's caused by those elevated male hormones and can be really, really annoying to deal with. But side effects of laser can sometimes be skin irritation, redness and in some cases scarring or changes in skin pigmentation. But in general, everyone that I've spoken to that's done, laser hair removal loves it. So just decide for yourself. Never stop. Never. Ah, no. Snoring like a tractor. So finally, medical treatment that is kind of like the, I would say, last resort, maybe because it is the more invasive and more hardcore is going to be surgery. And what they'll do is called ovarian drilling. It's a laparoscopic procedure. And laparoscopic means they go in with a really, really, really tiny incision and they actually induce ovulation or they help your ovaries to release those eggs by drilling really small holes in the ovaries. So as with most surgeries, the side effects of this sort of treatment can include post-surgical pain, infection and potential for adhesions or ovarian damage. So any time we're doing anything invasive into the pelvis that can cause adhesions or these stretchy kind of rubbery bands that can attach from one end to the other of, you know, certain structures and organs. And it's just it's not great because it can really interfere with the processes down there. having said that, having gone over all of these treatments and solutions for PCOS, What is the outlook for women with PCOS? What does the future look like? Well, with the appropriate treatment and lifestyle changes, there's many women with PCOS who can lead healthy and normal lives. But if that PCOS is left untreated or if it's poorly managed, life can look very different for these patients. The number one thing being affected as their reproductive health and fertility is a huge topic of today's conversation. And because the women who have PCOS often experience the difficulty with ovulation and with their with their ovary releasing those eggs, that can often lead to those challenges with conceiving. But like we talked about a little earlier, those fertility treatments like Clomid Letrozole or just assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF, there are still many women with PCOS who are able to achieve pregnancy and have healthy babies. the other thing, too, is not only does it affect your fertility, but it can also affect the pregnancy. women with PCOS, they're just at a higher risk for complications during pregnancy. That could mean they're more prone to developing gestational diabetes, which is a type of diabetes that you can only get during pregnancy. They can also develop pre-eclampsia, which means high blood pressure during pregnancy, and that can really affect the nutrients and the blood flow going to the baby. women with PCOS can sometimes have a preterm birth, so they might give birth earlier than is considered normal. But the proper prenatal care can really help manage these risks for women with PCOS. when it comes to metabolic health, if PCOS is not taken care of, if it's ignored, if it's left untreated there's a huge number of women with PCOS that their insulin resistance worsens. And that, of course, is going to lead to potentially them developing type two diabetes. And this is why it's so important that lifestyle modifications and some medications like metformin can help mitigate this risk for them. another one is obesity. So I feel like so many of these is like, is it the chicken or the egg which came first, PCOS or diabetes, obesity and fertility. Right. So when it comes to obesity, it's often very much associated with weight gain and difficulty losing weight. And the more that obesity is allowed to go on, it's going to exacerbate that insulin resistance as well as increase cardiovascular diseases. And that can be really scary, too, like you can have a heart attack or something. So women who have untreated PCOS and things are just kind of getting worse and worse. They also have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, right. Which is called high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease. it's really important to monitor yourself regularly and lead a healthy lifestyle because those are going to be crucial for managing. These risks. Another one that maybe some of us don't really see coming is endometrial health. So when you have irregular or absent menstrual cycles, that could mean that your endometrium, which is that inner lining of your uterus, it's building up and it doesn't get shed. It doesn't come out on a timely basis every month. when it gets built up like that, that could really increase the risk for something called endometrial hyperplasia. That means like an overgrowth of the endometrium, and potentially that could really create a breeding ground for endometrial cancer to settle there. This is why it's really important if you're offered to take those hormonal treatments that will regulate the menstrual cycles and help you avoid this risk if you have PCOS. that's another reason why it's really important for women to not avoid their periods and not put them off because it is super vital that all of that tissue that needs to come out comes out and gets shed and makes way for new stuff because buildup and overgrowth of that does not lead to anything good like we've talked about a little bit already, PCOS can really affect women's mental health. The psychological impact that it has on women who are dealing with this condition can sometimes be depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, especially due to the physical symptoms and challenges that are associated with the condition, the acne, the obesity, the growing of the facial hair, losing the hair on your head, which I would say for most women, that's has a lot to do with their identity of being a woman. So thankfully in today's world, there's a lot of mental health support and counseling available that could really, really benefit women going through PCOS. a lot of this condition has to do with quality of life. So when we're good at managing these symptoms effectively, whether it be that facial hair, the acne, the menstrual irregularities, if we're kind of attacking those problems, doing the best we can, it can significantly improve the quality of life for women with PCOS. These treatments, could include lifestyle changes like we talked about, diet, exercise could include medications that your doctor decides are right for you. And in today's world, we have plenty of cosmetic procedures that can really help to kind of boost our self-esteem and our mental health. it's really important to regularly follow up to with your health care provider and to monitor any symptoms that you have and manage any potential complications that might come from PCOS, whether it be cardiovascular stuff, GI stuff, metabolic stuff or even infertility. so where can women with PCOS find support? I think Instagram and Tik Tok is a great place to begin searching. But I would caution you to beware of people who use PCOS as a buzzword to gain followers. I do have some good suggestions for you guys, like trusted people and trusted accounts that I've been following for a while, and I even take some inspiration from them with this podcast and I'll list them off for you. One is going to be balanced bears. It's a trio of sisters and they're always pushing really great hormonal health content, especially for women. And they're really creative and really funny and just tons and tons of ideas. So it's going to be all together. One word balanced. Beyers B e y a r s The next one is going to be Dr. Jolene Bright, and this one could be really great for you to follow along with because it's an actual endocrinologist, female hormone doctor who is a wealth of information. And then I have a few practitioners that have been in the space of healing women, healing their cycles, and that's going to be. Marina, right? Wellness Marina w r i g t wellness. And one girl that I had on my podcast already. She's so great. Her name is just so rose. Wellness J SSA Rose. Wellness. those are going to be starting points if you're really wanting to find and look for a good community. But again, beware of people who are only there to push a product. And I think nowadays with our intuition, we can really tell who's there to truly share and to teach and to give people something that they can walk away with or if they're just trying to make a sale. I'd also suggest for you to talk to women around you because you never know what kind of support groups could be meeting in person in your area. And even though the internet is really great and amazing for connecting us with people and giving us so much information, there's really nothing like sitting down with a group of sisters and having that heart to heart, person to person connection in real life. finally, YouTube is also a great way to find community and find information, get that support that you're looking for in knowing that you're not alone if you're experiencing PCOS. what does the future look like for PCOS as a condition? Well, there's still a lot of ongoing research. this continued research into the causes of PCOS, the treatments of PCOS, promises us that we might have better management strategies and therapies, potentially new therapies coming to us in the future. So that's always really exciting. And because medicine is becoming more and more personalized, these sort of advances, could potentially lead to more tailored and effective treatment plans based on the individual patient, their genetic and metabolic background, and not just like a cookie cutter approach for everyone. So that's really hopeful, too. in conclusion, for today's episode, PCOS is a. Complex hormonal disorder. And it affects many women, not just worldwide, but in America. And we've covered several points about this condition, just as a reminder. PCOS is characterized by hormonal imbalance, particularly higher male hormone levels, which can lead to those symptoms such as irregular periods, acne and unwanted hair on the face or body. when it comes to PCOS, in order for it to be diagnosed, it typically requires meeting at least two of the three Rotterdam criteria, which would be irregular periods. Signs of those high male hormones and polycystic ovary is seen on ultrasound with many, many follicles and enlarged ovaries. we know that the causes of PCOS can be multifaceted. They can include genetic factors. They can include insulin resistance, chronic inflammation. Just a lot of enemies, I guess, to the female hormonal system. we have hope because treatment options can range from something that you can do and you can work on, such as lifestyle modifications all the way to medications like those hormonal contraceptives, anti androgens, insulin sensitizes. they all have their own benefits as well as potential side effects we also want to remember that it's really important to search for treatment and management of PCOS, because women who have PCOS, could face some challenges like fertility issues, increased risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and of course have a huge impact on their mental health. But we also know that with proper management, there's lots of women who have PCOS that can lead healthy and fulfilling lives. if you suspect that you have PCOS or if you're struggling with symptoms that we talked about in this episode, it's very crucial to consult with the health care provider to get that proper diagnosis and get your personalized treatment. with all the research that's being done and the advancements that are being made in personalized medicine, the future does look promising to give us better management and a better understanding of PCOS. Thank you for joining me for today's episode. I really hope that you can walk away feeling more informed, more empowered, and just knowing that PCOS isn't the end of the world. And so much of it can lie in your hands. be sure to follow our Instagram at Stellar Cycles pod. please give us a five star rating if you enjoy this podcast and if you are feeling a little extra generous today, I would love to read any reviews that you guys leave behind for me. Till next time. Stellar cycles out.