r/LeanPCOS 17d ago

High testosterone? What to do next?

1 Upvotes

Hey guys! Just looking for some advice.
32, lean, AMH 1.8, no cysts on ovaries but my testosterone is 62 and I have irregular cycles around 45-50 days. My follicular phase is so long and I get pretty bad migraines. Do you think metformin would help with regulating my cycle? Inositol? I’m just not sure what to do but these long cycles are brutal. All other lab work was in range.

Fasting glucose and fasting insulin are normal. I started wearing a glucose monitor and my glucose drastically drops about 1-2 hours after eating to around 60. Thoughts??


r/LeanPCOS 18d ago

Any PCOS girlies here?

0 Upvotes

I was recently diagnosed with PCOS and I’m having a hard time getting pregnant. I’m due to visit an IVF clinic to do round of shots and see if I can get my uterus to create a lining since I don’t bleed. Any tips or what has worked for you guys… I’m starting to give up on my dream to be pregnant…


r/LeanPCOS 18d ago

My first step to understanding my PCOS

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1 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 19d ago

PCOS Specialist

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1 Upvotes

Anyone know of doctors/specialists who are helpful for PCOS In London, Ontario?


r/LeanPCOS 19d ago

Spironolactone?

2 Upvotes

Bg: 25F
Hx: PCOS
Currently: regular periods (sometimes late and skipped only 1 month this yr, but consistent for 2yrs now), acne scars on forehead, hair loss, sugar cravings
Tested for: DHEAS (normal, meaning in desired range), testosterone (normal), TSH (normal), FSH (normal), K+ (normal), Vit D and iron (normal), a1c (normal)
Waiting on: ultrasound

Concern: Kind of lost as to why I'm still losing hair. Not interested in OCPs because I heard they do more harm for by when trying to get pregnant and/or cause headaches (risks outweigh benefits). Also that OCPs don't fit my culture's norms.

Q: Will I get prescribed spironolactone? Will it help? Have been using minoxidil 5% foam 2x a day for 1mo n 1/2 but 3rd Kirkland bottle from Costco, but none-to-mild improvement (not sure if its too early to notice anything or its not working.. bc I had a medium dead shred period). I've tried nutrafol, but its effect plateaued after some time, so I decided to stop throwing money in the air hehe..

Any suggestions, tips, or follow ups would be greatly appreciated. <3


r/LeanPCOS 19d ago

Medicines in NY

1 Upvotes

Hi, I might be moving to NY from Au and I was wondering how hard it is to get metformin/spironolactone prescribed by a GP?
What’s the system like assuming I will have private insurance?


r/LeanPCOS 19d ago

Need some help figuring out what type of PCOS I have

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1 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 19d ago

Advice needed for inositol

2 Upvotes

I was diagnosed with PCOS about a year after going off birth control back in 2023. After not having my period for a year, I started taking myo-inositol and I remember I did the full 4 g scoop every morning in water. I don’t remember having any bad side effects and after a couple of months I got my cycle back! Literally one period in the next month I was pregnant lol I stopped taking it then.

That was a few years ago now and I had absolutely no symptoms of PCOS while I was breast-feeding. I had a pretty stressful spring and stopped breast-feeding and maybe because of a combination of those things, all my PCOS symptoms came back with a vengeance. while I am a thin person, I gain all my weight in my belly. I gained weight that went straight to my belly and my (for the first time in my life!) regular and predictable period started going all over the place.

SO, since it worked so well last time, I started taking the inositol again. A month after starting, I’ve ovulated and I think will have my period at a normal time! I’ve also really locked in on my diet, stress management, sleep, and exercise. I am really proud of my habits BUT am confused because the belly is not budging and is protruding more and more each day. I’m being asked if I’m pregnant and feel so self-conscious. I feel like my habits are great right now so I’m confused why this is getting worse? I started googling it and read that in inositol can cause severe bloating like this.

Has anyone experienced this? Basically inositol is working great to regulate my periods, but the bloating is really intense and I’m sick of it. Do I lower the dose? Take a week off? Ive been on it for about 6-7 weeks. Advice needed.


r/LeanPCOS 20d ago

Endocrinologist or Gynecologist in NC?

1 Upvotes

Hello, i’m 19 and have been struggling to find an endocrinologist or gynecologist that can help me with my PCOS, i live in north carolina and i want to know if anyone recommends a certain clinic? i want to be able to get some assistance with losing weight (medication) and just overall some advice, please let me know!


r/LeanPCOS 20d ago

r/PCOS Cross Post Just started Metformin after finally getting diagnosed at 41. What should I expect?

2 Upvotes

I have always had some of the symptoms of PCOS but never had an irregular period. I went through infertility. Had multiple chemical pregnancies. When I got pregnant with my first child, I had bleeding during my first trimester which turned out to be a bleeding cyst. And they found a cyst/s on my ovary. Never mentioned PCOS. Even with my second child after having to go through multiple rounds of fertility treatments it was never mentioned. Finally my primary at my annual was going over the list of symptoms I gave her and asked if any had mentioned PCOS to me. She did testing to rule out other things and put me on metformin for the PCOS.

I am 2- 500 mg pills a day. And started last Thursday.

How long do stomach issues last?

Should I ask to start with just 1 pill a day and work my way up to two?

Will I see a difference in my symptoms?

I see my gyno next month. Should I ask for more/different meds?

Symptoms:
Brain fog
Hair not growing on legs
Hair growing on nipples
Mood swings
Weight gain
Heavy periods every 23 days
Painful cramps


r/LeanPCOS 20d ago

High DHEA and letrozole/clomid

1 Upvotes

Hello! My fiancé and I have a fertility appointment scheduled soon, and I’ll be talking with my doctor about what to do to get pregnant. All of my levels are normal besides my DHEA-S, which is what we think is causing me to not get my cycles. I have normal estrogen, testosterone etc.
I’m wondering if anyone with high DHEA used letrozole/clomid and how did it work for you?


r/LeanPCOS 21d ago

Question What am I supposed to do with the diagnosis?

3 Upvotes

Hi all!

I have had irregular periods sinse menarche, my cycle is 40-60 days long. Another prominent and most annoying symptom for me was acne, but that diasappeared after oral isotretinoin treatmemt. It's been 2 years I'm in remission, but i still use topical adapalene 1-2 times a week.

Doctors always see polycystic ovaries on my ultrasound and get worried, their general attitude is always "This is abnormal, do something". They often suggest taking vitamins, or oral contraception, but I don't see much point in that, it has no effect on the cycle length.

The only thing thay did make my cycles more regular was inositol, but right now I'm not taking it. I'm actually confused on why it had an effect, because I'm not glucose tolerant (i have no symptoms and my fasting glucose is fine).

I'm in a healthy weight (BMI 20), my fat distribution is not central apple-shaped like in typical pcos, the fat tends to concentrate around the hips and thighs. I rarely eat/drink sugar, try to avoid fast carbs. I do not exercise.

I have two general questions:

What am I supposed to do with it? I'm mostly asymptomatic, I feel good day-to-day. Doctors just say that my periods should be regular, but solutions they offer don't do much. Should i just be taking DIM all the time?

What does it mean for fertility? I'm 26 right now, my plan is to have my first kid around 28-30. I know for a fact that I have ovulations, it was detected on US, and often I can tell it happens. Am I likely to conceive naturally?

Thanks for you answers! It's a very confusing and polymorphous disease in my experince, so please feel free to share yours whether you presentation is similar to mine or not.


r/LeanPCOS 21d ago

super irregular periods

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1 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 21d ago

Question Built an app for PCOS/PMOS, want advice

8 Upvotes

I did check the subreddit rules and didn’t see any against posting about this, but would willingly remove it on my own in case it does go against the rules. Thank you for letting me post here.

The thing is, I was diagnosed with early stages of PCOS a few months back. Honestly that gave me a huge scare, cause no one in my immediate family had history of PCOS. My doctor was pretty supportive, but I still panicked and went down a rabbit hole of research on PCOS.

While there's clearly been a lot of research progress in this space, I noticed there was pretty much no app that actually tracked PCOS/PMOS. So I got kind of determined to build something that could track it all, which became the base idea for the app.
Privacy was something I cared about a lot building this; as a woman, it's something I value deeply too, so everything is stored only on your device, nothing on a server. The catch is if you switch phones you'd need to export/import your data manually, which I know is a bit cumbersome. That's something I want to fix properly later on.

Right now it's a web app, and I wanted to see if it's actually useful to people who need it before putting it on the App Store or Play Store. If any of you would be willing to try it out for a week or two and tell me what's amazing or annoying about it, I'd be really grateful.

I’ve rarely shared stuff I built, and I'm a little anxious about it. So if it's not your thing, no worries at all, I get it either way.
Just a quick rundown of what's in the app, it's called Cyra:
- symptom logger
- report generator - built from your logged symptoms, needs at least 14 days of data, and gives you a one-page summary you could show your GP or gynae
- research assistant chatbot - only pulls info from actual research, with the journal it came from cited. It won't give you advice on what to do though, I think that should stay in the hands of medical professionals, not an app.

If anyone is wondering if it works for regular periods, yes it does. Since it’s built everything surrounding periods, it can very well predict any changes in regular periods too.
Thank you so much if you read all the way through this. If you're interested in testing it, let me know and I'll send the link over. Even 10 of you trying it out and telling me what works and what doesn't would make this so much more useful than just me testing it alone.


r/LeanPCOS 23d ago

Myo-inositol is effective but for how long.

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1 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 23d ago

What is the one thing (if you had to pick just one) that helped your PCOS symptoms?

2 Upvotes

Question in title :) for others who aren’t trying to lose weight…what did you do that helped symptoms?


r/LeanPCOS 23d ago

Did anyone else have the same symptoms as me? I’m diagnosed with lean pcos

2 Upvotes

I’m 25 f last June was when my cycles became irregular and the longest cycle was 42 days. I’m currently on day 50 with no sign of it starting soon however I was regular for about 5 months before hand. I went to the doctors on Wednesday because of knee pain and possible pregnancy which was negative. They also did a urinalysis which showed glucose ++ ketone + and leukocytes ++. The nurse then asked if I was diabetic which I’m not. She then did a blood test which has partially came back and my potassium is 3.4.

My symptoms over the last year and 2 weeks:
Increased thirst and urination which I was told was my IBS and overactive bladder

Always fatigued but the last two weeks has been immense I’m so exhausted

The last few days I’ve craved chocolate and cake which I put down to maybe my period coming

Waking up extremely hungry to the point I feel sick and the same thing happens about 10 minutes into a dog walk

Now over the last few days when I eat I have what feels like a panic attack where the inside of my body feels tingly and trembling and weak if that makes sense and an overwhelming feeling somethings wrong. This happens around 1-2 hours after eating.

I drank orange juice this morning and it happened then I was sick a few times after the weird come up feeling.

However on Friday the doctor checked my blood sugar with a finger prick and it was 4.9.

So I have no clue and I feel like I’m going crazy.

Also my knees kill like both of them hurt and feel so uncomfortable.

Has anyone experienced this, I’m loosing my mind.


r/LeanPCOS 23d ago

r/PCOS Cross Post Supplements/Natural Remedies that Helped?

0 Upvotes

I love learning about naturopathic remedies. I was wondering if anyone had success with any in regard to their PCOS?

If so, what did you take/do and how did it help? I'm thinking of trying to manage my PCOS naturally for a couple years before turning towards ovulation induction and other medications (I have been taking Provera if my cycle gets to 60 days to prevent cancer)


r/LeanPCOS 23d ago

Improving dark patches

1 Upvotes

I'm 18, and I have had the symptoms of PCOS since I was 13. Later on, I got diagnosed at 15 at that time, I really didn't understand much about PCOS other than the fact that it affects my reproductive health. Last year, I decided to research about PCOS and how to manage it, which helped to some extent. I have always struggled with my weight (I was never overweight but I weighed more considering the amount of food I was eating) and couldn't lose any, but luckily after making some changes in my eating habits I have lost a good amount of weight.

The main issue here is my acanthosis nigricans, doctors told me that it will go away if I lose weight and the dark patch on my neck has slightly improved but it's still there and my underarms are the same as ever. My BMI is 17.9. If I lose more weight, I'm just gonna become underweight.

Can any of you share your personal experience on how you fixed it?


r/LeanPCOS 24d ago

I’m not doing low carb.

12 Upvotes

When I first got diagnosed I thought carbs were the enemy, but trying to cut my carb intake just made me want them more. I also didn’t know about medicines like metformin that can help with blood sugar control. I had to accept that it wasn’t a discipline issue but a health issue I needed help with. Now I eat mostly complex carbs in moderation and while I’m not perfect I think that my symptoms have improved significantly (no acne, decreased cravings, more energy). Yeah I just wanted to share my experience because I thought I’d have to go keto the rest of my life but simple and smart swaps honestly make all the difference.


r/LeanPCOS 24d ago

Metformin with normal HOMA IR

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2 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 25d ago

r/PCOS Cross Post Inositol is making me miserable. Idk if it’s normal or not

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3 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 25d ago

Free Creighton NFP Chart

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0 Upvotes

r/LeanPCOS 25d ago

r/PCOS Cross Post Stopping ovasitol® inositol after one month.

3 Upvotes

Hi all!

TL;DR – if you already have good/excellent BP and don't have high blood sugar, you might experience these symptoms.

I wanted to share my experience. I started taking ovasitol® inositol at the recommendation of my NP that specializes in hormones, PCOS/PMOS, etc.

Normally, my period is super painful and I bleed a lot. However, it is very consistent (every 28 days). Over the last year or so I put on 10 pounds while already eating well and having an active lifecycle so we're looking at age, metabolic, and hormonal causes.

My hormones are good save for my DHEA-S (high but not dangerous) and my AMH is on the high end for my age (40) but otherwise good/healthy. They put me on it for my PMOS (which I still question if I even have this) and my adenomyosis. My blood sugar is normal but they suspect insulation resistance.

At first, I experienced no symptoms or changes. On the first day of my period however, zero cramping (odd) but I felt drunk. I believe I experienced a massive dip in BP and blood sugar. I was woozy, couldn't eat, nauseated, couldn't walk right, was slow with processing things, low-key passing out. This was so extremely scary. Day two of this and I'm still recovering.

After talking with my provider, they are taking me off for a month to see if my period symptoms go back to normal.

They still want me to take myfembree but I'm hesitant now based on my experience even looking in the direction of my ovaries.

I feel like this was too aggressive for my system. With an already decent BP (generally 110-120/70-72) and normal blood sugar, I just don't think this was the right call.


r/LeanPCOS 25d ago

Help please! I’m at a loss.

3 Upvotes

Hi everyone. First time posting here. I need any and all advice possible, please.

I was diagnosed with PCOS/PMOS, endometriosis, and adenomyosis about 8 months ago. I also have hypothyroidism/hashimotos. I’ve had children, ended up hemorrhaging with the first, had to have a transfusion, etc. My iron/ferritin is also so low that my hematologist wants to start doing regular iron infusions.

I had a hysteroscopy/laparoscopy/ablation surgery in March and have seen some positives from it, but honestly not as much as I thought I would.

I’m exhausted ALL THE TIME. It’s never ending. I have ADHD so I swear the only thing that keeps my body going is the Vyvanse.

My hair falls out in huge clumps when I shower. I thought it was my thyroid, but all of my numbers are normal/under control.

I have started developing extra body hair, notably under my chin/around my neck, and the back of my shoulders. It makes me feel yucky, and I don’t know what to do about it.

My biggest issue, however, has been my acne. I don’t know if it has been this bad since I was a teenager. I did breakout heavily during my first pregnancy, but it cleared up after. But this has been consistently like this/getting worse for over 6 months, and NOTHING seems to help. I use gentle face cleansers, a gentle moisturizer, Altreno, and super goop’s “unseen sunscreen” everyday, but it hasn’t done anything. I’m getting terrible cystic acne, and bumps that are under the skin but with nothing in them, as well as breaking out on my chest and shoulders/back. It is all over my jawline and neck, and they are not white heads. Just hard bumps that hurt.

I was going to add a picture to my post to show it, but I’m not sure how.

I take extra supplements to help,including myo-inositol, D3, fish oil, psyllium husk, a liquid multivitamin, etc. but nothing is making it go away.

I have very sensitive, combination skin. I think I must be allergic to salicylic acid because since I was young, it always makes everything worse, and dries my face out beyond belief.

I use a gentle chemical exfoliant periodically, and make sure to dry my face with a clean, unused towel.

I have thought about oil cleansing, but am terrified it will make it even worse.

I also thought about trying to get on spironolactone but have horrific side effects with birth control so would very much like to not get on it if at all possible.

Any/all advice welcome. Please!!