While dealing with poly cystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is definitely a multi-faceted issue, and each woman has their own symptoms and causes, there are a few things that may help get it under control. It took me many months to finally figure out what my body needed (and what it didn’t want!) but I’m now able to better balance my hormones and I know what some of my specific symptoms require to get rid of them. Since going from ovulating once, maybe twice, each year to regular cycles, let’s just say I’m a bit enthusiastic about changing our diets and how we treat our bodies!
10 Ways to Deal with PCOS Naturally
1. Consume good fats
The consumption of good fats is pivotal in your body producing and balancing hormones. Did you know that your body can’t produce progesterone without cholesterol? And yes, while our bodies do produce a small amount of cholesterol on their own, the consumption of it is important for proper balance. When we talk about good fats, we’re talking about those that aren’t highly processed:
- Butter – best if found raw from pasture fed cows as it’s higher in the fat soluble vitamins so pivotal for fertility. Next best is going to be pastured butter from pastured cows, then organic butter, then regular butter (though toxins remain in the fat of animals so I prefer to always choose organic when it comes to animal fats) If raw, butter is best uncooked.
- Lard/tallow – the fat from pork or cows is another natural fat that is both high in nutrients and easy for our body to use. (best for frying/baking/cooking)
- Coconut Oil – another good fat, made of medium chain fatty acids, is used primarily for energy and not for storing. It also lends a pleasant flavor and slight sweetness to dishes. Best used only lightly heated for the most health benefits, though it also has a high smoke point and can be useful for sauteing and frying.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil – from the first pressing of the olives, this oil has a stronger flavor yet is full of heart healthy benefits and well suited to dressings and dips. Best when used uncooked.
Be sure to stay away from processed vegetable oils: canola, soybean oil, corn oil, vegetable oil, etc.
2. Avoid factory meat and animal products
Because estrogen dominance is very often associated with PCOS, it’s best to stick with organic animal products as conventional animals are often given hormone shots and the excess estrogens are stored in the fat and meat. Ingesting hormones is causing major issues with our bodies, whether it be PMS, infertility, or menopause. The more organic/grassfed meat we can buy the better of we’ll be. Organic isn’t always the answer as many large organic farms just feed organic grain instead of allowing them to eat their natural diet, but if that’s all you can find – it’s better than conventional!
3. Avoid refined sugars and grains
Sugars are the thorn in the side of any woman who is dealing with PCOS. It’s basically a double whammy – it depletes the body of nutrients and it causes insulin resistance which causes unbalanced hormones. Cutting out all refined sugars and flours is extremely important!! Cutting back on your consumption of even unrefined (or natural) sugars is also important as any type of sugar affects the body’s insulin production. Some women, especially those with moderate to severe PCOS find that eating a primal diet is needed to reduce and even eliminate symptoms.
4. Choose natural women’s products
Used by women every month, conventional pads and tampons are actually not great for the body. Tampons contain something known as dioxin which is both carcinogenic (causing cancer) and inhibiting to fertility. Disposable pads prohibit air flow and can cause the area to be a breeding ground for bacteria, though they are better than using tampons. The best options for menstrual products are going to be reusable, fabric pads, natural tampons, or something like the Diva or Moon cup.
5. Be aware of xeno-hormones
Mimicing estrogen in our bodies, xeno-estrogens are found in plastics, many beauty supplies, cleaning products, and pesticides. Once in the body they disrupt the hormone balance causing our bodies to be confused on how many natural hormones to make. And the higher the estrogen in the body, the lower the progesterone, causing major problems with fertility. Choosing organic produce, making your own cleaners and beauty supplies, and using glass instead of plastic will go a long way in reducing your exposure to these chemical hormones.
6. Avoid soy
While the jury is still out on how soy affects hormones production due to the phyto-estrogens in it, it’s still on my do not eat list. What happens in the body is this: your natural estrogens go floating around the body, produced by organs and fat cells. Once they come across an estrogen receptor, they fit into it like a specific key fits into a lock – no other hormone will fit in that receptor. Plant based estrogens are basically the same shape as natural estrogens and they fit in these receptors. Some people/nutritionists/doctors say that these plant based estrogens cause excess estrogen in the body since they take up the space the natural estrogens should, causing the natural ones to move around the body looking for a place to go. others say that plant based estrogens can reduce the amount of estrogen your body produces over time as the body gets signaled that there is enough.
But most holistic health professionals I’ve spoken with say that the plant based estrogen particles in soy (isoflavones) are different than other plant based estrogens and they recommend no one consume unfermented soy. I’ve also heard way to many stories of damage caused to peoples health from moderate soy consumption, infertility being one of them.
7. Take care of your liver
Your liver is responsible for taking excess and old hormones out of the body. If it’s overworked because of over consumption of processed and sugary foods, it won’t be able to keep up and do all of it’s work – so the excess and old hormones stay. taking time a few times a year to gently cleanse the body is very beneficial as well as increasing your consumption of liver friendly foods like lemon, beets, and garlic.
8. Avoid food preservatives
Chemicals placed in food to preserve or enhance flavor are harmful to anyone, but especially those who deal with some sort of health issue. They cause issue with insulin production and also slow down the liver, giving it more to do. Cutting out processed foods is the easiest way to lower consumption of chemicals like MSG, Aspartame, and the multitude of colorings and chemical flavorings used.
9. Use herbs/natural supplements to regulate ovulation/menstruation
Herbs and whole foods based supplements can be very effective when regulating the menstrual cycle. Drinking a fertility tea everyday will nourish your body with nutrients as well as naturally balance hormones. Supplements like vitamin B complex can increase progesterone production and lengthen the luteal phase. Medications aren’t always needed to do the job, when natural products can do it just as effectively!
10. Practice Lunaception
One thing we haven’t talked much about yet is lunaception – the practice of sleeping in complete darkness except for 3 nights out of your cycle/month. Darkness is closely tied to hormone production and when we sleep in a room with light pollution from street lamps, nightlight, and alarm clocks, it can disrupt the natural production of hormones while we sleep.
To practice lunaception, you need to sleep in complete (read: cover the windows with heavy curtains, cover your alarm clock, etc) darkness from the beginning of your cycle until day 13 when you would use a dim night-light on days 13, 14, and 15, then sleep in darkness until your next months day 13.
Of course with PCOS, cycles aren’t always regular! But lunaception can actually help regulate them over the course of a few months. The easiest way I found to do this was google the moon cycles and base my “nightlight” nights on the day before, the day of, and the day after the full moon. The rest of the time I sleep in darkness. After awhile, more quickly if you take some of the above advice as well, you should find that you ovulate at the full moon and experience menstruation at the new moon.
If you have PCOS, how have you treated it naturally?
Want to learn more about how to nourish your body to overcome PCOS?
Fertility Diet:
- Traditional Diets and Essential Nutrients
- Super Foods for Fertility part one
- Super Foods for Fertility part two
- Other Key Nutrients for fertility
- Foods to Avoid
- A Preconception Diet
Interested in the supplements, herbs, books, or products I like? I recently set up an Amazon store so that I could easily share them with you.
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Thank you so much for this informative list!!
What type of lard do you buy? I’m aware of the other fats as having health benefits, but always thought lard was on the naughty list. Is Tallow the same thing? Thanks so much!
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donielle Reply:
October 25th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
@Annie @ Naturally Sweet Recipes, I would look for organic when buying it – the farm where we have a milk share raises meat and every once in awhile I can buy lard from them. you can buy it online from a place like US Wellness Meats too.
and yes – tallow is basically the same thing, just from cows instead of pigs. It also seems to be a bit more solid.
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Thank you for the tips, Donielle. Always interested to read from others with PCOS.
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I suffer from pcos as well. We didn’t have any problems conceiving our son but are having problems the second time around. We tried for a little over two years with no luck. We decided to take a break for awhile so I could take care of myself and to get my cycle regulated. I changed to eating a paleo diet(esciencially doing everything you say here) and have done this for four months now. Starting the first month my cycle was a normal length( before it was around 40 days) and it completely regulated itself. I also stopped suffering from very severe pms symptoms. I feel so much better. Not sure yet but think we might have gotten pregnant this month! If not I’m confident it’s going to happen soon! Thanks for the great post!
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As always, this is a wonderful post. Thank you.
To help me regulate, I’ve also used “fertility smoothies” which are basically, fruit, water or raw milk, coconut oil, raw honey or agave or maple syrup (if sweetener is needed, depends on fruit), maca powder and a few drops of Chaste Tree Berry.
I should be more disciplined about making them since I see a drastic difference when I do!
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I work 12 hour shifts 3 days one week and 4 days the next. I rarely get to sleep in the dark. Any other suggestions for getting the “dark” sleep I need:)
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donielle Reply:
November 4th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
@Tarah, Very dark curtains? I guess it depends on *when* you work. but cutting out as much light as you can when you do sleep is important!
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Tarah Reply:
November 4th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
@donielle, I work 7:30p to 7:30a. I also watch a little girl from 8 to Noon. After I take her to school I usually can sleep from about 2 to 5 and then I head back to work. The nights that I would and don’t turn right around and go back, I stay up all day until I sleep that night. I feel like I am never sleeping…. Ugh!
I have also cut out everything white and sugar. I still eat 100% whole wheat stuff. He has me on 2000 mg of metformin and boy does it make me sick. I am also taking femara. I go to acupuncture once a week and thats my saving grace. Its the only time I feel relaxed:(
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donielle Reply:
November 4th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
@Tarah, That type of schedule is a killer! At this point it would take a career change huh? But you do need more sleep than that, so i guess I’ll be the person that has no idea how to tell you to do it, but to still recommend you try and figure out a way…..sorry – I wish I had more advice because sleep is so pivotal to hormone production.
I do know many girls who have gotten off of Met after going on the “primal” diet though, so there is hope to kick that.
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I eat very little refined sugar (for 9 months, it was none). I mostly use Stevia, raw honey and maple syrup. I also eat gluten, soy, corn and dairy free. This is mostly for my digestion issues, but it also keeps me away from processed, refined. gmo grains. I used to take Chromium Picolinate when I ate more sugar to help with imbalance, but now that I rarely have sugar and eat more protein, I don’t seem to need it. I do take inositol. I’m hoping that it will take care of the hirsutism and hair loss on my head. I also take Iodine since I don’t get much in my diet. (I use sea salt) I am looking for a good fish oil that doesn’t cost more than I can afford. My cycles are long, but they have become fairly regular. I also have a decent luteal phase now. I can read my temp. charts and they actually make sense! I get headaches just before my period but they’re usually not bad. Many times, I don’t even need medicine for them. I used to get severe sinus headaches almost everyday and migraines just before my period.
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Thank you for this. I just picked up a prescription for Metformin since my numbers put me on the borderline for PCOS. So far nothing including eating a clean diet has stopped the late-cycle spotting I’m having, although I do ovulate regularly and my charts are fairly sensible. We do a good portion of what’s on this list- the exception being meat. Type 1 diabetes runs strongly in my family so I’m thinking this is related to that.
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donielle Reply:
November 4th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Late cycle spotting often indicates low progesterone. Have you ever thought of using a natural progesterone cream to see if it helps?
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Stacy Reply:
November 4th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
@donielle,
I tried several different brands of progesterone cream including an organic one and it didn’t help at all. I was practically taking a bath in the stuff. I also tried taking vitex/chasteberry for a while and no luck there either even when I combined the two. Progesterone levels were also normal when I had a blood test done.
DH and I are doing a 1 week juice fast next week. My plan is to wait out this cycle to see if that helps and if not start at 1 500mg of Metformin/day. I’ve also thought of taking a cinnamon supplement. I show some other mild symptoms of insulin resistance/pcos even though I’m at a healthy weight, eat fairly cleanly and exercise regularly (I’m a runner).
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donielle Reply:
November 5th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
@Stacy, Keep me updated and let me know if you find anything to help the late spotting!
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hey donielle,
Thanks for posting this small but very essential information. I am struggling with PCOS and trying to conceive. we are trying for a baby for over a year now. but the wait is really depressing. I am going to make small lifestyle changes to enhance the chances of conception. Going to fertility doc is very depressing and then putting the body under so much stress is unimaginable. I had been their once and its quite nightmarish. Wish me luck dear and pray for us.
Love
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I am new to the whole PCOS diagnosis. I was actually just diagnosed Monday! I had breast cancer 5 years ago and I have a pituitary tumor, the docs all say this is nonfunctioning and has nothing to do with the PCOS. As I have been seeing more “specialists” for my PCOS they keep shoving more PILLS at me! I am currently taking Metformin, that is the only pill I will agree to take so far. My endocrinologist actually told me to lose 30lbs and that there is no question of what will kill me it is when… I am 25 years old I desperately want children sooner than later, and I am a holistic virgin! I am considering dropping my specialists and going with a holistic MD in my area. Since I am so new to this diagnosis I am hoping for any suggestions to coping with the diagnosis and how I should be taking care of myself without shoving 10 pills a day in my mouth! I do not cycle at all as of now, the last 2 cycles I had were due to ovarian cysts rupturing. I greatly appreciate any feedback I can get! Thank you all so much in advance!!!
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donielle Reply:
April 10th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
@Alicia Marriott, Well – most of the info on my blog is helpful for PCOS and I’d also highly recommend reading the book “What Your Doctor may Not Tell You About Premenopause”. The book is full of information on balancing hormones and he also talks a bit about cancer. he also has a book, same basic title, but About Cancer, that would also be really good.
I hope you find what works best for your body!
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