Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or PCOS can cause harsh changes to a woman’s body, as it’s caused by an imbalance of hormones and small cysts that form on the ovaries.
While the cysts are ultimately harmless, it’s their existence that leads to the imbalance, which causes drastic symptoms such as irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, diabetes, acne, weight gain, excessive facial hair or hair loss, decreased breast size and depression. While there isn’t a cure for PCOS, there are a few things that can be done to make life a little bit easier. Learn about living with PCOS.
While it’s important to stay active regardless of where your health is these days, it becomes essential for women who suffer from PCOS. While this can be difficult since the syndrome often causes women to gain weight, doing your best to stay active can help reduce androgen levels. If you aren’t familiar with what androgen is, it’s a hormone found in males, which is produced in unnatural levels in women with PCOS. It’s this hormone that causes so many of the symptoms that make this such a difficult condition for women to deal with. Simply taking a walk each day or investing in a gym membership can be enough to reduce androgen levels so that you won’t have to worry as much about having acne or losing your hair.
In addition to helping balance out hormone levels, focusing on staying active will also reduce your risk for getting diabetes. This condition also affects a woman’s insulin, which is a hormone that controls the amount of sugar released into the bloodstream. Having PCOS can cause your body to misuse your body’s insulin, increasing your risk for diabetes. Keeping your weight down and staying active will reduce insulin resistance and keep your weight down so that you’ll be less likely to be diagnosed with the disease.
Alongside staying active, many women who suffer from PCOS need to drastically change their diets. It’s recommended that you eat heart-healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and beans and to avoid eating anything high in saturated fat like fried food, cheese, and meats. Basically all the good stuff. Including foods that are high in fiber will help to slow down your digestion, which ultimately keeps your blood sugar levels down. If after a while you find that you’re still experiencing unwanted symptoms, it’s recommended that women with PCOS try to lose weight, as losing even just ten pounds can mean the difference between having clear skin or a face full of acne and chin hairs.
Studies have shown that women who smoke have higher androgen levels, so quitting can drastically decrease any symptoms caused by excessive amounts of this hormone in your system. Additionally, quitting will benefit you on your journey to getting healthier and staying active. It will become easier to squeeze in some cardio and keep those hormone levels in check.
It might seem like it would be impossible to get through your day without your morning, afternoon, and late afternoon coffee breaks, but you might be doing some serious damage while getting your caffeine fix. Stimulants like coffee, energy drinks, and some prescription drugs have been known to increase insulin levels, which as you’ve read above, often causes problems for women with PCOS and can increase your chances of getting diabetes.
Some doctors can prescribe medication that will reduce the symptoms caused by PCOS, one of the most popular being birth control. The level of estrogen in birth control will help balance out your hormones so the androgen hormone doesn’t wreak so much havoc on your appearance and emotions.
Women who suffer from PCOS often also suffer from Hirsutism, which is a condition where women experience extreme amounts of body hair. Not only does the body hair grow in thick and coarse, which is atypical of the peach fuzz women usually have to deal with, but it also grows in abnormal places. Women with hirsutism will grow hair on their chin, upper lip, chest, back, and even on their stomach. Nearly 5% of women in the world suffer from this condition, and while it’s not always caused by PCOS, it can do some serious damage to a woman’s confidence.
Shaving and waxing might help temporarily, but women with this condition often find that their hair will begin to grow back in less than a day. The only proven cure for hirsutism is laser hair removal. While medications containing hormones, such as birth control, and living a healthy lifestyle might help to reduce excessive hair growth, most women want to use more permanent solutions to rid themselves of this kind of body hair.
Laser hair removal targets the pigment of each hair follicle in order to destroy them and prevent regrowth. Since hirsutism causes extreme dark and coarse hair, women with this condition are often ideal candidates for this laser procedure. If you’ve tried dozens of other hair removal methods with little or no success, you’ll find that you could have saved a ton of time and money if you had simply gone for laser hair removal treatments at the start.
Even though laser hair removal is the best method for women with this condition, lasers will only permanently reduce the hair for those who are being treated for their condition with medication and reducing symptoms by making healthy decisions. Laser hair removal treatments will certainly get rid of the unwanted hair you have now. However, without proper attention, your condition will continue to produce androgen hormones that encourage new hair follicles to grow.
The combination of laser treatments with medication and healthy habits will provide you with the best results, and help you kick your symptoms in the butt! If you’re ready to get rid of your unsightly body hair, get a jump start on your laser treatments and find a laser clinic near you. If you’re located in the South Florida area, be sure to check us out at Body Details True Laser Hair and Tattoo Removal. We offer all of our clients a free lifetime guarantee to ensure they never have to put up with their body hair again. Our several locations and convenient night and weekend hours suit even our clients with the busiest schedules, so don’t be shy and set up your free consultation today by calling 866-708-8645 or submit the form on this page.