Newbie looking for support

[LouiseJohn]

Hi, I was diagnosed with PCOS about 6 years ago. I've suffer badly from hirtuism and am very overweight. Me and my partner recently decided that we'd like to try to have a baby. I'm just looking for any advice on how I can finally lose some weight and try control my PCOS naturally (and hopefully conceive). I've struggled with my weight all my life and really feel that now is the time that i need to make the effort.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Ukbusybee]

Hi Louise, I've got PCOS and suffered with very irregular periods etc for 20 years. When I was diagnosed with T2 Diabetes 10 years ago I obviously changed my diet to cut out added sugar. Strangely, my periods gradually got back on track and I now have a pretty regular cycle of about 32 days! I lost a couple of stone just by doing that as well. I'm still very overweight but was surprised at the big difference it made. You aldo mention hirsutism but not whether that bothers you... I had pretty much a full on beard until I had laser hair removal. If you are considering it, I used Cristianos Laser Clinic. The nurses are all lovely and deal mainly eith PCOS women and the transgender community so they know what they're doing! The Chromos Ruby laser is very effective and gave me my confidence back! Www.cristianos.co.uk Regards, Sarah

[Honchy]

Hi, I was in the same position as you a few years ago, no diets worked and I was getting bigger and more depressed. Then I did Lighterlife and it changed my life. Its the only thing that worked for me. I lost 4 stone in 3 months, then I continued to lose another 2 stone in the next 4 months. I went from 16 stone to 10 stone and it changed my life. Just over a year later I fell naturally pregnant. If you can put your head and mindset in the right place you can lose the weight with a very low calorie diet. Good luck x

[Hols969]

I like the 5:2 diet, once you get your head around it totally changes how you feel about hunger, its strange, I also sometimes used to get a bit lightheaded but dont any more (I think because I generally eat more complex carbs), I do watch what I eat all week so dont go too OTT otherwise I dont lose anything.

One thing also to remember is if a PCOS lady ate the recommended daily amount we would gain 2lb a month so over a stone a year so we do need to eat less just to maintain our weight.

BMI needs to be below 30 to qualify for fertility treatment on the NHS

Good luck, find a diet that suits you as that will help. Sadly the hair is a tricky one as any herbal time remedies that can potentially help the hair have not been researched on pregnant ladies so there is not much that really can be taken, just in case you do get pregnant.

I have had laser on my beard and it was the best thing ever (you do need to maintain as it is not permanent for pcos ladies) but do not do it before you have your babies as when pregnant you can either slow down growth wise or increase - I was so looking forward to a bit of good luck but no I turned into a yeti when I was pregnant LOL

I used SK:N clinic as they do discount for pcos ladies, but have heard good things about Cristianos clinic as UKbusybee says. Do not do IPL as it is not as effective, it may be cheaper but I tried it on my armpits and was very disappointed.

[DanielleMCx]

I'm currently doing Slimming World, I find it such a good plan to follow as you can still have some of the 'bad' things but it completely changes your mindset about eating and educates you into cooking better meals etc.

If you don't want to go to thr groups (which I would reccomend going to as they are really supportive) you can join it online and do it through there.

Worth a shot, I've been doing it since Monday and lost 6lbs!