PCOS Triggered by Insulin Resistance?

KnitOrMiss

I ran across this article today in researching my insulin resistance, and it appears that this particular doctor indicates that PCOS in people with the genetic predisposition may be triggered by underlying insulin resistance, rather that the other way around, which is what I had always understood and been told.

I do not know if this source is reliable or whether the information has been proven, but I was wondering any of the rest of you hand encountered information like this?

http://goodworkswellness.com/natural-solutions-polycystic-ovarian-syndrome-pcos/

alfiedn

I love how much research you do! Impressive how deep your understanding is growing. I love reading your posts because I pretty much always learn something new!

My doctor told me that many PCOS patients are insulin resistant. The way PCOS was explained to me, and from what I've read (not as much as you!), my understanding was that the insulin problem was the cause of PCOS. Basically, those hormones (testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen) being derived from insulin means that if our insulin levels were completely normal, we would most likely not have an imbalance in our hormones. However, because the insulin levels are off (due to whatever factors, including insulin resistance), it causes the hormone levels to be off as well. It makes sense to me that if someone were insulin resistant, it could show easily as PCOS.

That being said, I do think there could be other reasons that someones insulin levels might spike significantly and show PCOS (poor diet being a definite possibility). However, I don't have such an interesting article to back up my own hypothesis!

Dragonwolf

That's largely been my experience. I know my weight loss greatly coincides with my insulin levels. My new endo ran tests and included fasting insulin. It was down to 13 (of whatever units they use), which corroborates my hypothesis that my limit is about 15. My testosterone is still rather high, though, and my progesterone I think is a bit borderline (I happened to get blood drawn right at the border between phases, it seems, so whether it's "low" depends on which phase I'm considered in). Things start falling into place once I get insulin dealt with.

It does depend on the person, though, since some people never have insulin resistance. All of the hormones are interconnected, though, so all it takes is one to get thrown off and the whole system goes out of whack. I think insulin happens to be one of the most common triggers, and I believe it's because the government guidelines (especially as they're executed in real life) are fundamentally incompatible with human health, and those of us with PCOS, metabolic disorder, autoimmune disorders, etc. probably have some sort of genetic variant that makes us that much more susceptible to the problems caused by the standard American diet.