“You don’t need to lose weight, so there’s nothing we can advise you do. Take the birth control pill and come back and see us when you want to get pregnant.”
Heard this before? If so, you’re one of the millions of frustrated women with ‘Lean PCOS’
But the above statement is completely inaccurate. There is so much that you can do to help your PCOS and the exact same principle applies as women who gain weight with PCOS- find the root cause of why your hormones are out of balance.
Highlights, takeaways and quick wins:
- 30% of women with PCOS are categorized as ‘lean PCOS’
- ‘Lean PCOS’ is an (almost) useless categorization- it doesn’t tell us anything about what’s driving your PCOS.
- I often see Lean PCOS being misdiagnosed when the correct diagnosis should actually be Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (these are completely different conditions).
- Non- congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia is another big PCOS ‘mimicker’
- Weight gain is just one symptom of the PCOS ‘root causes’ i.e. insulin
- Being lean doesn’t mean that your insulin is working perfectly- many women with ‘lean PCOS’ also have problems with their insulin
- High stress hormones or adrenals is one of the most common drivers of ‘Lean’ PCOS
- High stress hormones isn’t just caused by too much work- it can also be over exercising, infections etc.
- Environmental toxins are another common driver of ‘Lean PCOS’
Episode download: I’ve created a special download for this episode with the tests for Lean PCOS. You can find the download here.