Supplements

[IshaAmbade]

Hi all,

I'm struggling to find budget-friendly supplements to take.

I don't want to take too many pills.

Will anyone advice me of any good product?

Thank you

[J_Poly]

Hi Isha,

I take Solgar’s Omega 3, 6, 9 and Fairhaven Health’s FH-Pro (women). The second one is fairly pricey though.

I’m yet to find an all inclusive multivitamin/supplement support which includes extra useful ingredients for those with PCOS which is why I invest in the FH-Pro.

[IshaAmbade in reply to J_Poly]

Hi Poly,

Thank you so much that is helpful 😀

[Str0ppy]

It depends on what your goals are, but I've found you'll need at least the following to help manage PCOS: Vitamin D3, Omega 3 and myoinositol. Free soul do a myoinositol supplement that has folate, maca and chromium-which are good for balancing blood sugar and hormones. It's £21 on Amazon at the moment (usially £25) and quite good value compared to the more well-known brands like inofolic alpha and replenitol. You can just buy myoinositol on its own, and powder tends to be cheaper than capsules. I've tried one from Lamberts on Medino for £14 previously. I'll however, have found I felt better on the Free Soul one, but everyone's different so you may need to experiment. You could see if your GP will prescribe metformin, which has similar benefits to myoinositol but would only cost your prescription charge-though you may notice more side effects.

If you're trying to conceive you'll need to add a prenatal, or at least additional folate as there's not enough in the Free Soul supplement. Egg quality can be an issue with PCOS so you may also want to add COQ10, NAC and ALA.

[IshaAmbade]

Thank you so much. I have been to my GP she advised me to manage it with a healthy lifestyle and supplements. I'm not looking for getting pregnant but that reduces my other vitamin intake. I will try the free soul. but to improve the egg quality is it necessary to take those supplements?

[Str0ppy]

No, if you not looking to conceive then you won't need the supplements to improve egg quality. I found reducing my carb intake and brisk walking, plus some resistance training with light weights and own body weight, helped me. I couldn't face joining or spending money on a gym membership.

[Str0ppy]

Also, if you're a good fish eater of the oily kind, like salmon, you may not need omega 3. I'm not, so I take a supplement. You could also ask your gp to check your vit D level, to see if you're deficient. If not you may not need that either, but most people are deficient-especially in the winter months-and you may feel better having more if your levels aren't in the 'optimal' range (>75-200nmol/L). It's quite cheap to buy if you do need it, I got one from Amazon and it's lasted me ages.

[IshaAmbade]

Hi,

I have ordered Free Soul PCOS Supplement, Vitabiotics Ultra Iron Tablets and Solgar Omega 3-6-9 Softgels. I hope for now this will be enough for me. One other question, should I take multivitamins as well?

After reducing carbs and exercises did you got your periods to be a regular?

or what kind of changes did you notice and I should except?

[Str0ppy]

I didn't have an issue with my periods, and didn't have any other symptoms of PCOS. I only found out after a pelvic ultrasound during fertility investigations following a history of miscarriage and difficulties getting pregnant afterwards. I queried if I actually had the syndrome but they weren't interested in checking my androgens/testosterone but were still pushing metformin on me. Perhaps if I'd gone down the gynaecology route rather than the fertility route I may have had more investigations and got a definitive diagnosis but I guess it wasn't critical for IVF. They knew from the scan that I'd most likely over respond to treatment-which I did. After a lot of research, I decided to try myoinositol as was worried about taking metformin. After taking it for a few weeks I found I wasn't craving sugar as much as I used to, so although I wasn't overweight I think I must have had some degree of insulin resistance as getting 'hangry' and craving sugar are symptoms apparently. I also lost a stone in weight. I was taking a good prenatal too and I found it seemed to give me more energy and helped stabilisers mood. I was also reducing carbs and walking a lot, so it was probably a combination of everything really that made me feel better. You could see how you feel with the supplements you've ordered and add a multivitamin later. I noticed free soul do a women's multivitamin which I may have considered had I not been trying to conceive as it seems to be reasonably priced and has a good ingredient profile which may help to balance hormones and thus, PCOS symptoms. It has iron in it, so you probably wouldn't need extra unless you had a significant deficiency.

[IshaAmbade in reply to Str0ppy]

ohh.. Thank you for sharing your story with me.

[IshaAmbade]

Thank you for your reply. Can you please be a little more specific on which supplements? I looked into the webiste but I'm not sure which is the best option for me.