A fairly common cause of infertility in women is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which effects about 10% of women in the UK. It is often characterised by ovarian dysfunction and associated with the following symptoms:

• Many women (about 66%) with PCOS have irregular periods (oligomenorrhoea). Periods may be every 5-8 weeks, or just once or twice year.
• Increased facial and body hair (hirsutism) and acne are fairly common in PCOS and occur because of increases in androgenic hormones, such as testosterone.
• About 40% of women with PCOS are obese because  of abnormalities in their sugar metabolism (insulin resisitance) which prevents cells from using sugar in the blood as a fuel and means sugar is stored as fat instead. The more overweight a women becomes, the greater the problems with sugar metabolism.
• Miscarriage can occur due to high levels of  lutenising hormone (LH), which is a hormone produced in the brain to regulate ovarian function. Raised LH is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage and structural damage to the ovaries.
• Insulin resistance (resulting in raised blood sugar levels) is common in PCOS, as is other features of metabolic syndrome such as glucose intolerance and hyperlipidaemia (raised levels of circulating fats in the blood).

If you are wanting to have a baby it’s a really good idea to prepare  your body for pregnancy and this is particularly important for those women that have PCOS. The symptoms of PCOS can be improved enormously through food and lifestyle changes. Attaining a healthy body weight helps to improve hormonal imbalances in women with PCOS and improves conception and pregancy outcome.

Key Lifestyle and Dietary Changes for the Treatment of PCOS

• Lose weight if you need to, try to achieve a BMI of between 22-25. Our article on Achieving a Healthy Body Weight for Fertility will give you more information and advice on how to lose weight.
• Increase your fibre, and compex carbohydrate intake. Try eating carbohydrates that have a low to moderate Glycaemic Index to help minimalise blood sugar abnormalities. In time this will also  help to reduce the amount of sugar that is stored in your body as fat, as well as improve your hormonal balance.
• Eat plenty of ‘anti-inflammatory foods’. This will also improve your hormonal balance and reduce any damage to the cells involved in reproduction. 
• Supplement with a omega-3 fish oils as they are known to help reduce inflammation, improve insulin sensitivity and correct abnormalities in sugar metabolism.
• Take a good Antenatal supplementto correct any deficiencies and to help meet additional requirements for key nutrients.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 12th, 2004 at 2:17 PM and is filed under Fertility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.