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Frustrated with PCOS

Hello there,
I was diagnosed with PCOS about 2 years ago after close to 10 years telling "Health Professionals" that my hair was falling out and they kept blowing me off, since then being diagnosed by someone who knew what the hell was going on, she put me on on the birth control pills and my 110 lb body skyrocketed to 125 lbs (too much weight for my small frame) in just a few short months. And this weight I can't seem to lose. (It's normally fairly easy for me to lose weight) But what's MOST Upsetting and heartbreaking, and I'm typing this in tears because I can't stop crying, is that I'm losing my hair..

I'm going bald.


I'm 24 years old. I'm a women. in. my. 20's.

This shouldn't be happening to me.  
And nothing seems to help. I was so excited when I was put on the birth control pills thinking that everything is going to be balanced and fine now and my hair is going to stop falling out and regrowing. I know now that isn't true and the only effect I've had from the pills are that my periods are MORE irregular and painful. (I was taking Sprintec but I've just stopped. I was having my 'periods' every two weeks like clockwork but I've now been going on a MONTH AND A HALF. I got it on my Honeymoon, for Christ sake.)

Right before I lost my insurance, I asked a gyno (who wasn't my regular) to put me on spironolactone and she refused. My hair loss for whatever reason has dramatically gotten worse and is now falling out in clumps and my new husband is even more grossed out by it. I hardly ever cry, (probably because of the testosterone, ha.) but this has me crying for two hours uncontrollably to the point I make myself puke -twice.

When the hair does fall out, I've noticed that is has the white bulb still attached to it (the telogen, shedding phase) But what's most upsetting is that I've noticed that... there's no new hair growth from when I dyed my hair for the wedding.

So that means that it's not growing AND falling out.

I've tried N-acetylcysteine, Biotin, Saw Palmetto, Wild Yam Root, B-12, B-50, Prenatal, the hair treatments, castor oil, olive oil, the medications, (thanks to Obamacare they don't make Junel-Fe anymore.) Metaformin, and Sprintec. I've now been trying a DHT-blocker by Shen-Min, but who know's if it'll work. I've also started the Paleo diet and working out TWICE a day.

Anyways, I'm frustrated, but I just need. to. know. if ANYONE have any luck with hair regrowing? Or if you didn't and you're my age (I'm thinking about shaving it off and going punk getting a tattoo. But that's completely unprofessional and most employers won't understand.) How do you cope with this? Where do I go from here?
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Avatar universal
Yes, as I said, cinnamon doesn't cause weight loss.  It improves insulin sensitivity.  But in IR folks, weight loss (short of starvation) is next to impossible.  Eat a healthy diet adequate enough to provide all the nutrients one needs, and the excess insulin produce WILL mean weight gain because some of those vital calories will be needlessly stored as fat, as "instructed" by the excess insulin.

If you have PCOS-related IR, you can workout like an Olympian and eat next to nothing, and not lose weight.  Add some cinnamon, and weight loss can occur.  I only tried it after learning about cinnamon from other PCOS women.  

I exercise strenuously 6 days/week, for an hour/day, and eat 1,000-1,200 cal/day.  That alone still leads to incremental weight gain.  But with cinnamon, it doesn't.  :D
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Avatar universal
That is very true about the cinnamon. My mom is type 2 diabetic and she takes cinnamon capsules. It does help with IR. as for weight loss she has net experienced much of that.
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Avatar universal
Oh, sweetheart...  I'm sorry you have to go through this.  It's not fair.  It really isn't.  I wish, so much, that I could wave a magic wand, and make it all go away for you.  I really do.

We're alike in some ways.  I also don't cry very easily (probably the androgens), and had a tough time taking birth control pills.  (It took years for me to agree to my doctor's suggestion to take them.  I don't take anything.  It immediately made me sick.  I was on the low dose, and my skin broke out, and I felt awful.  I quit after two months.  Here's how bad it was.  My neighbour saw me a few weeks after I quit, and she made some compliment about my appearance, followed by, "You'd been sick, right?"  She didn't know I was taking the pill, as an experiment.  I guess she'd just seen me looking worse and worse, and thought I was ill.  When I stopped taking them, I quickly went back to normal.  That experiment was a failure.)

I've been luckier...and that's all it is: luck.  I only had the irregular periods.  That's my only real PCOS symptom.

However, PCOS is a constellation of symptoms where, depending on who you believe, insulin resistance (IR) is either associated with, or the cause of, PCOS.

I was rail thin most of my adult life...effortlessly.  But in my late 30s, I started to gain weight inexplicably.  I worked out hard, every day, and ate next to nothing, yet continued to gain weight.  I even did that Insanity program... which IS hard!  I gained 2 lbs.  >_<

It was my absolute inability to lose weight that actually led me to a solution.  It was through searching for information about weight loss resistance that I learned IR is an expected part of PCOS, and that some women had even found a solution.

I don't know why IR didn't rear its ugly head until I was almost 40, but the solution suggested by women at a few PCOS forums worked for me.  Cinnamon.  Yup.  Plain, ol' cinnamon.  It's a real thing.  Look it up.  It's an insulin sensitizer.  (If possible, get the cinnamomum verum variety, or true cinnamon, or Ceylon cinnamon.  The cinnamomum cassia or Chinese cinnamon is reported to have potential problems like cancer or liver damage.  I've been taking the cassia variety for 2 years, with no known issue.  That's all I could get, locally.  Bur a few months ago I switched to Ceylon, and just loose cinnamon, instead of capsules.)

You still have to work out hard...6 days a week, and eat really healthy and minimally.  Try low GI/GL foods, too, so you don't spike insulin production.  (Carb's and protein trigger insulin production, whereas fats not so much.)

IR means I'm not as sensitive to insulin as I should be.  After I eat something, I continue producing insulin long after a normal person's body would have stopped.  What does insulin do?  It triggers the body to store calories as fat.  That means even if I eat only 1,000 calories and workout, some of those calories will still be stored as fat.  ...Hence the continued weight gain through diet and exercise.

So, I'd been doing marathon workouts every day and eat next to nothing (literally nothing, many days), but still gaining weight.  I tried cinnamon at the recommended dosage (3g/day), and literally that first day I lost almost a pound and a half.  It took just 2 months to dump the remaining 30 lbs I'd gained.  Daily cinnamon (and careful diet and exercise) has allowed me to keep that weight off for the past 2 years, too.

I used to take capsules, but now I just eat an organic, unsweetened applesauce snack, with some Ceylon cinnamon on it (I eyeball about 3g or less), once a day.  I switched to this after some consideration, incl, a week at my cottage where that was my only source of cinnamon.  Even though I didn't workout all week, I came home 6 lbs lighter.

Now, cinnamon really does affect insulin sensitivity.  So you should definitely consult a doctor if you're taking other med's, esp. those that affect blood sugar.  But I just want you to know about it.  It took me ages to find this information, and I could've saved years of frustration and tears had I tried cinnamon earlier.

Cinnamon does not cause weight loss.  It merely improves the sensitivity to insulin in those who are insulin resistant.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the hair loss issue, and I know that's your most pressing concern.  I'm nearing 50, and aware that menopause can also lead to hair thinning/loss, and hope my PCOS doesn't increase the chance of that happening.

Best of luck to you.  Hang in there.  Eat healthy, and exercise every single day (it's said to improve both PCOS symptoms and IR).  :D
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Avatar universal
I'm sorry to hear about your hair loss. Have they checked your thyroid to see if it's not functioning properly? That can cause hair loss too. Usually with picks its unwanted hair growth so I would look into other reasons why this may be happening. There are shampoos that can help with hair loss too like nioxin. Also PTSD can cause hair loss. Maybe try seeing a dermatologist. A friend of mind did and she got a diagnosis. I wish I knew more of how to direct you. Wishing you the best!!
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