PCOS, Hypothyroidism & Motherhood: My Healing Journey Through It All

I share the real story of living with PCOS from age 16 through two pregnancies, postpartum complications, and the long road back to feeling like myself again. Becoming the best version of me starts with self advocacy, simple daily choices, and rebuilding trust with my body from a place of love. 
• My PCOS diagnosis at 16 after months of bleeding and anemia 
• Why the “lazy ovaries” framing creates fear and confusion 
• What PCOS is, how symptoms vary, and why ovulation can be hard to predict 
• Why birth control felt like a band aid and how I looked for root causes 
• Movement, hot yoga, infrared sauna, and nutrition shifts that supported my cycles 
• Myo inositol and acupuncture as part of my natural fertility support 
• The shock of my first pregnancy and navigating postpartum depression and anxiety 
• A surprise hypothyroidism diagnosis and rebuilding energy and self trust 
• Advocating for induction and the postpartum preeclampsia hospitalization scare 
• Postpartum weight gain, diabetes risk concerns, and resisting quick fix solutions 
• Gut health support, a three day reset, and noticing cravings and bloat change 
• Acupuncture, Chinese herbs, diet changes, and losing 18 pounds since January 
If you’re not already following me, you can find me on Instagram at immarisa.xo. 
And if this episode resonates, spread the love like you would need to by sharing this podcast and tagging me so that I can personally thank you. 
And if you are feeling extra loving, leaving a review helps light up another beautiful soul and supports the growth of this space. 

My personal weblink:
https://links.theinnerpurity.com

Where I hangout the most to connect:
https://www.instagram.com/iammarisa.xo/

&

https://www.instagram.com/theinnerbeaconpodcast/

Don't forget to spread love like you would nutella. 

xoxo, M

Transcript

Welcome And Why We’re Here

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Inner Beacon. I am your host, Marisa. I'm a Canadian girl mama of two business owner, flight attendant, and a certified self-love coach. You are in the right place if you are ready to lead your life from within. To reconnect with your intuition, trust yourself deeply, and reclaim your power. My goal and intention here is to inspire and empower you. And for fun, I might even add some flight attendant content and travel tips. And I'm so glad you're here. So let's dive into today's episode. Alright, guys, today I intend to get real vulnerable and share my journey with my relationship with my body, my health, PCOS, and the journey into motherhood and beyond to where I am now. This particular year I've chosen the word becoming as my word of the year, and I truly feel like it's been a huge part of taking my power back in my health. And I'm gonna start with a little background story. The story starts when I was 16. At one point, I had my period for nine months. Off and on, but mostly on. It got to a point where I had lost so much blood that they were saying I was become I had become anemic. So then the doctor practically forced birth control on me at the time, and I was told I had PCOS. And how the doctor explained this to me was that it meant that I had lazy ovaries. And in order to balance what was going on, I'd have to take birth control to control my cycles. And that one day when I wanted to conceive a baby, that it might be hard, so I may need to get off the birth control and try some other ways and get help basically to conceive. And obviously, at 16, you're not thinking about having kids at that time, but it is something that I wanted, so that did kind of hurt my heart to hear. And he also mentioned that it was a diagnosis that was more common at the ages of like 20, 30, not at the age of 16, which at the time obviously did not comfort me one bit. So at this point, I'm like, oh gee, thanks, Doc. I felt I felt like poop and lost because I didn't understand what any of that meant, just felt like my body was working against me. I like a lot of teenagers at the time, tried several forms of birth control throughout my high school and early 20s and absolutely hated the effects of it. Did it quote unquote control my periods? I guess. But were the side effects of that worth it to me? Nope. I struggled with this and the idea of how you can tell me I'll have a hard time one day conceiving, yet you are telling me that I need to take a preventative for years until then? That made absolutely no sense to me. The more I learned about what PCO PCOS meant, the more I learned that not only is it so different from every for for every every woman who has it, but there's also a lack of education or information or awareness about it, especially back in the early millenniums when I had found out at 16. Not as much now. And I guess I should tell you now what is PCOS. For those who may not know, it stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome. It's a common hormonal condition. It's core being a hormonal imbalance, especially involving higher than typical levels of androgen, which can disrupt ovulation and menstrual cycles. Because ovulation becomes irregular, or sometimes it doesn't happen at all, the ovaries may develop small fluid-filled follicle that contain immature eggs. That's what they will show up on the ultrasounds as like extra cysts around that area. Anyways, BCOS can show up in many different ways: irregular periods, excess hair growth, weight fluctuations, or fertility challenges. It affects each person differently. Now, the doctor wasn't wrong in saying that it could be difficult one day to conceive and that I may need help, but putting that as a fear so early on wasn't cool. Especially since it's not that it is impossible. What makes it harder is just not knowing ever when you are ovulating, when your cycle is all over the place. But if you are having a cycle that means you have eggs and indeed can get pregnant, it just may be challenging not knowing or predict or being able to predict when how your cycle is because it's so, so irregular. Even though the name focuses on the ovaries, though, PCOS is actually a whole body metabolic and hormonal condition, and early understandings was much more limited back then when I was diagnosed. Today, thankfully, there is more research and awareness and support on the subject, which is amazing. My struggles with quick weight fluctuations and either the absence of periods months on end with no period or too many days on it, as I spoke about before, were super real and super frustrating. Feeling out of control was my daily, and with the battles, with those battles for years in my early 20s, I was really done with how crazy birth control brought or like made me feel. I've tried different ones and different alternatives. What I felt more than anything was that it was just putting a band-aid on the situation and potentially actually putting or causing more harm than good. So that inner ping-pinged and I listened and I stopped and I looked for alternative ways. What I did learn that always really did help my cycles was being active. So working out, going on hikes, hot yoga has been a huge thing in my journey. Another thing that was really helpful was infrared sauna time. This I think helped because I was letting my body rid toxins and work properly. Both exercise and heat therapy have actually scientific evidence showing they can improve key drivers of PCOS, especially in insulin resistance, inflammation, stress hormones, and ovulatory function, which in turn can make cycles more regular. And from that, I started making changes in my diet to match, and overall it did help a lot. Now, not saying it was smooth sailing from there as life changes, had me on good terms and not so great routines, and also out of balance with these changes at times. The struggles were always up and down, as per well, life. There were times I was doing really well, and other times where I needed to kick my butt, uh, my own butt, but about all that, stress doesn't always help either. And like I always say, healing and our life path isn't linear. Is there isn't ever a straight path. Routine can be hard to manage with shifts, work, and time zone changes, as well as poor sleep. And well, I ain't perfect. Never will I claim to be, but sharing the real and raw in hopes that it helps someone else here in these kind of struggles is why I'm deciding to be vulnerable today and sharing this. Know that it's normal. Hormones can affect us in so many ways, emotionally and physically. My self-love relationship with my body has come a long way since then, over two decades later. I am happy to say my body has done so much for me. And I was indeed able to have not only one but two beautiful babies naturally without intervention, which is amazing. And I truly feel for the many women who struggle to conceive nowadays and almost wonder if it's because we were all being practically forced on birth control for any and every inconvenience from such a young age. I swear they used to just give it to you for acne. It was like the default solution to more than just preventing pregnancy but painful cramps. Here's a prescription for birth control. Heavy bleed? Oh no. How dare your body do its natural course along with teen hormones? Here's some birth control. Instead of looking at the root cause, the pill was treated like a universal fix, and I won't be surprised if it's still in this case. One of the biggest game changers for me though, and I think two things that may have also helped me potentially get pregnant with my first, was at that time I had started taking inocidyl, especially myoinocidyl or a myosidyl and D chyro blend, is one of the most researched supplements for PCOS. It isn't a hormone, it's a nutrient-involved insulin signal supplement. Since PCOS is deeply tied to insulin resistance, the supplement helps the body respond to insulin more effectively. When insulin insulin levels come down, testesterone also comes down, and therefore ovulation becomes more predictable. The second thing that I was doing to go in a more natural approach to help with having a more regular period or cycle was acupuncture. Acupuncture has been used for reproductive health actually for thousands of years. It can affect the whole hormonal system and help calm the nervous system, as well as improve blood flow to the ovaries, therefore supporting more ovulation. And I truly, truly believe this is why I when I started the acupuncture with at that time and was taking that. I think that's why I ended pregnant, falling pregnant. But, anyways, looking back when I was simply focused on just naturally, natural ways to regulate, I didn't realize how powerful the combination was. Together, they helped, I guess, create the magic of my first pregnancy. I was in literal shock when you when we found out that we were pregnant. I felt all the emotions, happiness, but also disbelief was a big one. And then if the pregnancy hormones isn't enough, on top of all the hormonal imbalances that I had been battling for so many, so many years, as I've shared in previous episodes, I also had postpartum depression and really high new mom anxieties in a pandemic. I had my baby in the beginning in January 2020. And then about I think it was nine months or so postpartum, just when I thought I finally found my rhythm again. Plot twist, thrown by another curveball when I felt like I had finally reconnected with myself. Yay is me. Another hormonal issue, another layer of navigating to navigate as a new mom was hypothyroidism. After my daughter was born, I expected my body to feel different, but I didn't expect a new diagnosis. I had already spent years navigating PCOS, learning my body, and suddenly a new chapter I didn't ask for. So now I was learning to support my thyroid, understanding my energy, and rebuilding trust with my body all over again. Then nearly three years later, we had a pleasant surprise when we found out we were pregnant with baby number two. I can definitely say that postpartum with my first and my delivery was all a very positive one. However, there was a significant weight gain with my second pregnancy and a little bit complications, which I honestly think if I didn't advocate for myself in getting induced when I did, I think that my delivery would have been a little bit scarier because I did fall five days postpartum into a postpartum pre-calamsia situation, which I'm about to talk about. But had that happened during my pregnancy with the baby still in me, I could have had an emergency C-section, and that would have not been good because like it would be a lot of stress for the baby too. So I'm glad that I did advocate advocate when it was going on to be induced when I did at 38 weeks for baby number two, and then I had a natural birth. However, yes, I did have a really scary post five days postpartum. I ended up in the hospital. I was just having this throbbing pain in my head that no matter Tylenol, anything that I took was not going away, and it was like throughout literally throbbing, like I can't explain it. I just knew something was not okay, and I told my husband, I woke him up and I'm like, I think I need to go to the hospital. I got to the hospital and the doctor or like the nurses and stuff were checking me, and they asked me, Is your heart normally really slow? I'm like, not that I know of. So they took me in right away. They had all these wires on me, and basically they said that I what I had was postpartum preclampsia, and it's not very, again, very rare. And had I not gone in when I did, I could have had a heart attack or a seizure. And that was a big like, holy crap, guys, I was scared. It was a yeah, my blood pressure was wee high. I had to stay there for 24 hours, and they had me on IV. And yeah, I for a couple months too after that, I had to take blood pressure meds until it was like regulated. And I honestly think that it could have been a lot worse had I not been taking Happy Juice, Amari's uh supplements. I think that really did help me with my postpartum journey the second time around because I didn't fall into depression, like I it was different, it was a very different like yes, I had this scary, scary thing happen to me, but it was different. However, I was at my heaviest I'd ever been for months and over a year. I did different diets, diet, I spoke to dietricians, I tried different things, working out didn't work. I was told I wasn't eating enough, and then I needed to add more protein in my diet, and like all of that was just working backwards. The scale wasn't moving. If anything, it was either moving forward or just continuously back and forth in the same kind of zone. And it got to a point where with PCOS, it's very common for women to fall into uh diabetes 2, which runs in my family, and with a scare that I had, and at this point, the doctor was ready to give me Ozempic, and it's expensive, guys, but it's also again a band aid to the situation at hand. And the long run is I want to live strong, I want to live in a long enough happy life in order to be able to still see my great-grandchildren one day, you know what I mean? So I was again looking for natural ways, and my mom actually at the time started doing this thing, uh, pink drink with Plexus. So I started taking that first. That is really good for gut health and had a lot of examples, and people stories were about blood pressure and the bloat. I was having a lot of bloat ever since that last pregnancy is like a lot of extra, I don't know, my face was rounder. I was just having like this my hands, you guys, were to the point where I was considering getting my my uh wedding ring and band resized because it felt too tight. And I can now tell you that what I've been doing and how I am now, my ring feels loose again, and it's like I feel like a completely different person. So I want to say that I had been doing my pink drink for about a month, and then I decided to do Plexus' three-day reset, which was really cool. I've done other three-day resets with other brands and things, but what I liked about this one is I didn't have to think about a meal plan or anything because everything came in the kit. It's mostly liquids, but you're still getting all the proper like fibers and things that you need. So I didn't feel hungry. And I honestly think that I one first of all, I have pictures to prove that there was a significant change, but more than that, I stopped craving sweets and things. Like the next day, I remember having an Oreo and not caring for it, and that's a big deal, you guys. I love Oreos, always have, but I just didn't care for it. I like I'm I'm kidding you, not like in my teens and all my 20s, whatever I could sit and like sit there and have a whole thing of Oreos. I do love food, but yeah, my relationship with food has been an another story altogether. But I feel like I finally come to a good place in that with all that, and that three-day reset just happened to be perfectly aligned with how I had this set up. So I had found an acupuncture place on an ad or something on Instagram, and I made my appointment, and it happened to have like I kept on reschedule that appointment, and then the final one where that actually ended up happening turned out to be literally the day after the three-day reset, which was perfect. And this guy, this acupuncturist, he not only like he touched a bunch of points on my hands, and right away he's like, You have a fatty liver, you have this going on, this going on. I can definitely help you. And I left that appointment feeling hope again, and I've done the so what I've been doing is he put me on a carnivore diet. I'm taking some Chinese herbs. I'm still doing my pink drink and my Plexa stuff. He allowed me to keep on doing that because it's working for me. But I have been doing this since January. It's now end well, end-ish of March when I'm recording this, and I have lost as of today 18 pounds in total. Putting me at almost the weight I was before baby number two. I'm feeling less bloated, I'm feeling lighter, more energy, and feeling so, so proud of myself. On a spiritual and physical level, I truly do feel like I'm embodying the word of becoming the best version of me. And I can say that with honesty. It feels so nice to feel more like me postpartum in my well becoming an embodiment journey. Taking care of my body became an act of coming home to myself, but also a form of taking my power back in another way. You don't have to do everything at once, you just have to start choosing yourself in small ways and advocate for yourself. This year isn't about weight loss, but about the real and raw truth and examples of how life challenges us, but how you can show up for yourself. If you can relate to my story here on your own journey right now, I see you, and it is possible for you too. 2026 has been a turning point to say the least. Deciding to take my health into my own hands, committing to that change from a place of love, from the reset to consistency, nutrition shifts, slowing down and listening, discipline from love and not punishment. I think my story is a perfect example that learning never ends. And I hope that in sharing it, if you're somebody who's struggled with hormonal imbalances, PCOS, thyroid, whatever that looks like for you, Hashimoto's I I know that there's a lot of things out there, and it can be really hard to be s feeling frustrated and stuck. And but just take it one step at a time, one day at a time, and just keep listening to your intuition, advocate for yourself, educate yourself, and look because there are options out there, natural options, and I think it's really important to really understand what's going on with our bodies. And yeah, love and light, you guys. This has been a very vulnerable episode, but thanks for uh coming along for the ride. Thank you for spending this time with me here on the inner beacon. If you're not already following me, you can find me on Instagram at immarisa.xo. And if this episode resonates, spread the love like you would need to by sharing this podcast and tagging me so that I can personally thank you. And if you are feeling extra loving, leaving a review helps light up another beautiful soul and supports the growth of this space. I am so glad you're here. I'll meet you on the next episode.