Poly cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) can be one of the most difficult conditions to have when you are trying to get pregnant. Woman with PCOS have a hormone imbalance where the testosterone levels are too high. The developing egg is trying to grow in this high testosterone, bad environment. Sometimes the eggs don’t develop at all. The egg won’t ovulate (release from the ovaries) and women will not have a menstrual period. Women with PCOS can go months without a period.
Sometimes rather than an egg forming and releasing, a cyst will form. Not all women with PCOS will have cysts on their ovaries but most do. Some will have a row of cysts developed over the months. In the worse cases her ovaries will look like a bunch or grapes with many cysts covering the ovaries. A waxy coating will form over the top of the cysts making it even more difficult for an egg to get through.
So what do we do? How can we get the testosterone levels to normalize so that a good quality egg will form? How do we help clear the cysts? How do we clear this waxy coating?
Traditional Chinese Medicine sees this condition as a problem with a poor transformation and transportation of food function within the body. Maybe we in the west would call it a “slow metabolism”. This is causing stagnation to develop. Phlegm can easily develop with this type of stagnation. Chinese Medicine would call this a “phlegm accumulation” that is strangling the ovaries.
There are Chinese herbs to clear this “phlegm” and also herbs to improve the food transformation function (improve metabolism) of the body so that the PCOS patient does form more “phlegm” (cysts).
Okay so we can clear the cysts and we can treat the underlying cause of the cyst forming but what do we do about the high testosterone levels? This is the part any woman with PCOS is going to absolutely hate. She must change her diet. It is hard for anybody to change their diet but it is worse for women with PCOS because this imbalance will make her crave sugar. She has to fight the intense craving for about 7 days until the cravings stop when she stops eating all sugar.
When a woman with PCOS eats foods that are high in sugars her blood sugar will go up very quickly and then drop just as quickly which makes her crave more sugar. When the blood sugar is doing this it will not allow the body to metabolize testosterone. Doctors have started giving women with PCOS a drug called metformin to try to regulate the blood sugar levels.
In China where the culture is very pragmatic the Chinese medicine practitioners don’t talk about “blood sugar levels” but instead they say, “Eat this and don’t eat that”. When you examine what they have been saying you will see that they have known for thousands of years that the blood sugar must be regulated for these women to get pregnant.
I am going to give you a perfects day’s meal plan to do this. Keep in mind that I am not a dietitian. I am a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine living in a Western world so I will give you my recommendations based on Chinese Medicine but tweek enough that you can go to the grocery store in the west and get the ingredients.
Here are the rules:
- You have to eat all the amounts and types of food I suggest
- You have to eat 3 meals (300 calories per meal) a day
- You have to have 2 snacks a day (150 calories per meal)
- You have to eat breakfast within one hour of waking up in the morning
- You have to have 30% proteins, 30% fats, 40% carbs (Use thedailyplate.com to log your food and keep track of these percentages.
- No more than 50% animal protein (chicken, fish, red meat including pork, veal, turkey, goat. You can only have one egg a day but you can have as many whites as you like)
- All grains are WHOLE GRAINS
- Vegetables are your first choice for carbs followed by fruit then whole grains.
- Fats are best eaten in the form of nuts, seeds followed by olive oil
- Aim for 1200 calories a day but you can go as high as 1500 once in a while.
- Before bed take 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar in ½ cup of water.
Here is an example of what would a day of meals look like?
Breakfast
· 1 egg plus 3 servings (9 tablespoons) egg white
· 1 multi whole grains toast (“Healthy Life Whole Wheat Bread” is low calorie, high protein)
· 1 fruit (med size apple, pair, ½ banana, 6oz berries or melon)
· 1 cup light soy milk
Morning snack
· ½ cup nonfat cottage cheese
· ½ cup cucumber, red bell pepper, onion
Lunch
· ½ cup lentils (other beans are good too but if you get them out of a can rinse them to remove the salt.)
· 2 servings egg white (6 tbsp egg beaters) (high in protein but low in calories and carbs)
· 1 cup cooked vegetables
· 1 whole grain tortilla
· 1 tsp olive oil
Afternoon snack
· 1 oz dry roasted peanuts
Dinner
· 6 oz wild salmon (best choice), other cold water fish, chicken or turkey breast
· 8 oz vegatables
· 1 fruit
There are so many egg whites in this plan because they are high in protein but low in fats which is always the biggest challenge to create in a meal.
Your “blood sugar” will be well regulated with this meal plan. The “food transformational function” of the body will be nourished.
An added benefit of this diet is that a woman with PCOS will lose weight which is almost impossible for with this imbalance. I have seen many young women up to age 26 who find that their cycles regulate and get they pregnant even without herbs.
Okay okay… I know it is hard to make such a big change in your diet but isn’t worth trying before you take drugs with all the side effects. The women who call me have tried the drugs with no results when this diet has helped.
Good Luck,
Chinese Fertility herbalist,
Patricia Karnowski M.S.O.M.
