What is it-
Your body starts to keep follicles that are supposed to mature and create eggs in the body and then these can turn into cysts. This then inhibits the ovulation process. The amount of follicles can be linked to how fertile you are.
What is a follicle?
Found on the outside layer of the ovaries they are small sacs of fluid that contain eggs, these eggs are immature and are called oocytes. With maturity and growth a rupture occurs and a mature egg released ready for fertilization. In a cycle usually just one follicle will release an egg the rest will disintegrate.
Hormones, Estradiol and normal growth
A type of estrogen (Estradiol), the major sex hormone for woman. The ovarian follicles secrete estradiol to ensure growth and development. A test for this can determine the health and the amount of follicles.
Symptoms include irregular menstruation (or frequently missed called oligomenorrhea) or no menstruation (amenorrhea), heavy bleeding or bleeding but no ovulation referred to as anovulatory.
Infirtility is one of the symptoms that often alerts to investigation into PCOS but more milder symptoms include, excess hair growth on the face, chest , belly, upper thighs (hirsutism), severe late onset acne. Weight gain around the waist or trouble losing weight, Pelvic pain, oily skin and a condition called acanthosis nigricans which is patches of velvety skin.
Hormonal balance
Signs and symptoms are mediated by hormonal disorder including elevated androgens and fasting insulin, and abnormal relative ratio of the gonadotropins luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) (REF). Endocrine imbalances occur within the framework of disordered ovarian folliculogenesis, chronic anovulation, clinical signs of hyperandrogenism and metabolic syndrome (REF).
Emotional root consideration of PCOS.
Most/all ailments come with an attached emotional route and I like to try to build up a picture in clinic so we can potentially get to a deeper root that may be causing this manifestation on the patient.
First of all the feedback I receive from woman is that they feel let down by their body (if related to fertility) and other woman see it as a loss or confusion within their feminine power or sense of self. The medical way of looking at this usually refers to a hormonal imbalance or something immune or auto immune related or that this was bought on by the patient through lifestyle. Theres a hormonal element here as an imbalance can cause insulin resistance,
(which can cause weight gain as more insulin is needed for fat and muscle cells to store glucose and for the liver to store it for energy later, over time cells become insulin resistant and more insulin means more storage of blood sugar in the muscles and liver. When the muscles and liver become full this leads to the liver sending excess to fat cells to be stored as body fat)
So its not always as straight forward as assuming the patient gained the weight through lifestyle that caused the hormonal imbalance. Orthodox medicine will often give the contraceptive pill to shut down the menstrual cycle (consider the emotional effects of this), whereas a herbalist will look for balance.
Motherly instinct.
The creation of an egg is the will of the body to be a mother, the suppression of this creative process may indicate some form of motherly loss, a loss of perceived safety, the confidence in ones self to care for others (if not feeling stable in self), or a trauma linked to some phase of child hood linked to the mother. You could look at a potential link between what we tell ourselves and our ability to create and protect life. How does our sub conscious perceive the day to day things we tell ourself. Is there a denial of the motherly archetype within ones self on some level? Why is the body holding on to follicles without manifestation, why is the process being halted? Some times theres a link or some old argument with the mother of the patient. Or an un supportive past partner, unresolved conflict around child birth. Even fear of losing a stable family unit through ones own experience of split family or from experience of trauma in past relationships, this brings us to the feminine archetype
Feminine archetype
Some cases of PCOS it may be that the patient can identify with a time that they denied the feminine within themselves or were embarrassed about themselves, this can come from sexual trauma or negative sexual attention, lack of understanding about one’s own femininity or body issues relating to lack of development or too much early development and a feeling of embarrassment or feelings of being self-conscious. The main cause here is hormonal imbalance; sometimes it can be beneficial for a woman to look for why the body could be reacting this way, from lifestyle (diet, exercise etc, stress) and emotional sense of self and our place in the world. Often the question of ‘do you feel attractive’ can bring a deeper investigation into why and where this began and can potentially be linked to the onset of the PCOS diagnosis. Often patients want to feel more empowered in this regard, more attractive, confident and creative. Creativity is what woman are by nature when they ovulate it doesn’t get more creative than that. Feeling stuck or in a rut can suppress creativity on all levels, so this also is a potential suppression on an emotional level manifesting in the physical.
Herbal treatment
Herbs can help here on all levels, from aiding creativity, feelings of moving forward, hormonal balance, clearing and cleansing the system (leading to emotional clearing), Increase in blood flow, focus, clarity, stress regulation etc. It really comes down again to holistic treatment. Working on the physical symptoms (hormonal imbalance, liver tonics and stress regulation (including sleep quality) and working deeper, often asking , ‘how would you like to feel’ really helps the practitioner select herbs to work on this level also.
Hormonal balance and assimilation
The approach is fist to look at hormonal balance, a few ways to do this is to look at potential lifestyle factors, stress, diet, medication and to also look at what tissue state (organs and fluid around them , cells and cell state, movement of fluids around the body) is present. What is this person displaying as a mini universe and then look at how you can bring this into balance with herbs. A congested state can often relate to lack of assimilation and transport of hormones (liver) (REF) .So it can be wise to sometimes look at herbs that will target the liver (usually bitter) and also provide hormonal balance via phyto estrogen activity. Also we can look at herbs that will work on the pituitary gland, but this isn’t always the first go to for me personally, I usually start smaller with the pituitary herbs as to monitor response (Vitex and Black Cohosh). The pituitary controls and regulates all the other glands in the body along with regulating and normalizing hormone production by releasing follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). This, in turn, signals the ovaries to produce more of the hormone progesterone which may explain its benefits in PCOS. Balance is the mechanism here, re-regulation of the pituitary encouraging balance and re-regulation in life and within our emotional center. Also indicated for dissolving fibroids and cysts.
Some herbs that are popular for PCOS treatment are Vitex agnus castus, Black Cohosh, Peony, Yarrow and Tribulis terrestris.