I take no medications. My treatment method is 100% nutritional. Birth control is actually horrible for PCOS sufferers. You're at an increased risk of certain cancers from the PCOS alone, adding birth control to that makes your risk factor skyrocket. Personally, I'd get off of them. Metformin can be successfully replaced by Myo-Inositol. Myo actually has been found to work better and is a naturally occurring food substance rather than a man-made chemical. Don't know about you, but I would rather use natural methods instead. I just wrote a blog post with my story and what I'm doing to treat my PCOS. Rather than type back out everything I said there, I'll just point you there since we're MFP friends. (If anyone else reading this wants to read it, friend me!)

Diet has also helped my cycles a great deal. Since I went LCHF/ketogenic my periods have been shorter, less painful and not as heavy. And for me that's huge as they used to last a week, be so painful id be laying on the floor in the fetal position for a couple days and over flow 3-4 overnight pads a day. Now I can take 600mg of motrin for pain, able to do some lightly active things around the house and only overflowed one overnight pad this month. Its progress.

I know exercise has helped a lot also. I also use a high quality fish oil, cinnamon, biotin and a good multi vitamin to help me process the few carbs I eat and balance things out. I've read stores from quite a few people who are able to do it with diet and supplements alone and I've also read quite a few people who are able to do it with diet and supplements and something like metformin, so its what works for you. If you try something, a diet change, a routine change, a supplement change, and give it a few weeks and it doesn't work, try something else.

What works for you might not work for others and vice versa. Welcome to the group and we can beat this PCOS thing together!

In the beginning I did OK with no meds. I was able to lose 42 lbs and then I just hit a wall. The diet and exercise just wasn't enough, and I knew something was going on. After 1.5 years of eating at a defecit, working out 6x a week, and GAINING weight, I finally got my PCOS diagnosis.

I started with just metformin and a keto diet. My doctor has me stay under 50g of carbs a day, but some people like to stay as low as 20. I allow one 'treat' meal a week for my sanity, and I immediately started losing weight again. I was down 13 lbs, and had one normal cycle, and then BAM, last month I was a hormonal mess. My doctor had me add progesterone, and I'm feeling a bit better.

Finding a good doctor who you like and trust is very very important. I was told a lot of BS before I finally saw a specialist. I really like him, and right now he's seeing me monthly. I hope to cut back/eliminate the metformin once I lose some more weight, but the progesterone is probably here to stay. I do not take birth control because my mother had a hormonally induced stroke when she was going through menopause. I'm hoping my body levels itself back out with the progesterone cream and weight loss.

I still lose stupid slow, and I know this will be a struggle for the rest of my life. I lift heavy 3x a week, try to run/HIIT 2x a week, and walk 10,000 steps a day. Consciously being more active overall really helps me fight the fatigue. My hypoglycemia/insulin resistance is pretty severe, and I feel a lot more level and clear-minded with a lower carb diet. It's weird at first, and you feel pretty bad for the first week while you switch from carb-burning to fat-burning, but I've gotten used to it now. You just have to find out what works best for your body, and having a doctor on your side helping you will make a big difference.

My hypoglycemia/insulin resistance is pretty severe, and I feel a lot more level and clear-minded with a lower carb diet. It's weird at first, and you feel pretty bad for the first week while you switch from carb-burning to fat-burning, but I've gotten used to it now.

That happens to pretty much everyone (ie - it's not just you). It's known as "carb flu" or "keto flu," and is a common side effect of dramatically lowering your carbs. It's basically your body "detoxing" from carbs and getting used to burning fat as a primary fuel source. It does suck at first, but it does go away. It's well worth the initial "pain," in my opinion, since it does so much more than just help you lose weight. Killing cravings and not being a slave to the insulin rollercoaster is awesome!