Gluten sensitivity, Hormone Imbalances and PCOS are often interwoven and connected in varying degrees. Dr Hagmeyer explains this connection and other factors that need consideration in woman who suffer with PCOS.

Hey Folks Dr Hagmeyer here and today I want to talk to you about something I see almost daily in practice that affects millions of woman world wide-PCOS or Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome

Most woman when they get diagnosed with PCOS do everything they are recommended by their doctors. They take their medications, they try to eat right, exercise, they try to remain calm and limit stress in their life. Yet no matter what changes they make…….. they still feel lousy! Moody, depressed, everything in your body hurts or is swollen, you can’t sleep, you can’t think straight, your breaking out, your losing you hair, you have headaches and the list goes on and on.

Not only do you feel lousy- but often everyone around you is sucked into your misery and feels like they are walking on egg shells when they are around you. If this sound familiar, your not alone this is how many of my patients and the people around them describe their life.

So the question is how many more months are you willing to suffer like that and put your family through that? Hopefully none……… and by the end of this video you take some of the action steps I am going to share with you.

Well if that sounds like you? The possible culprit and cause could be a… progesterone deficiency and you most likely need a hormone makeover.

Now many many woman with PCOS know that they already have too much testosterone or too much Insulin (this is why many doctors are quick to put you on metformin and spironolactone) but what you might not know is that not every woman with PCOS has Insulin resistance or high blood sugar.

You see PCOS can show up in so many different ways. Some woman may not get a period, others might have a cycle, some ovulate, some don’t, some have visible cysts on their ovaries detected by a transvaginal ultrasound and some don’t.  Some woman have estrogen dominance (too much estrogen and some have too little estrogen). I will talk more about these hormones in other videos but today I want to talk about progesterone.

Now I know that some of you out there are saying, my doctor tested my progesterone levels and they were “normal” but here’s the thing…….there are many things that could have made your progesterone levels seem “normal.”

The time of the month that you took the test, if it was am or pm, if the sample was blood or saliva. There are many others but those are the ones that quickly come to mind.

PCOS can be worsened or caused by a progesterone deficiency. Progesterone is important, not just for implantation and sustaining pregnancy, but also for keeping our immune systems healthy in our gut.

What is the role of progesterone? During the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle (the part between the period and ovulation or everything you see to the left of the pink line), progesterone is pretty low.

Once a woman ovulates, the sack that held the egg called (the corpus luteum) takes over and begins making progesterone. This progesterone levels goes way up, this helps prepare the lining of the uterus to attach a fertilized egg.

It’s also known as the warming hormone because it causes an increase in your basal body temperature (BBT) to increase by about 1 degree after ovulation.

SO this is really important and I want you to pay special attention to this…..

IF YOU have a deficiency in progesterone in that 2^nd part of the cycle (everything to the right of that pink line), you will often experience early miscarriages because you’re not producing enough progesterone to sustain the pregnancy.

Another important aspect to understand is that a problem in the second half of the cycle with progesterone will shorten the luteal phase of the cycle (the phase that begins the day of ovulation until the first day of your period)

When this happens it now throws off the first part of your NEXT cycle. This creates an ongoing hormonal imbalance from month to month to month. Bottom line, a lot can go wrong on the way to pregnancy with progesterone deficiency.

IF YOU SPEND SOME TIME WATCHING MY videos You might notice that sometimes I refer to these problems as estrogen dominance, sometimes I refer to them as luteal phase deficiency, and some times I refer to them as progesterone deficiency.

So, to recap, progesterone deficiency/luteal phase insufficiency can result is any of the following symptoms

1. Moodiness,
2. Anxiety
3. Depression
4. Infertility, Miscarriage
5. Menstrual irregularities including heavy and/or unusually painful periods
6. PMS or PMDD
7. Headaches, Migraines
8. Increased breast issues, including pain, tenderness, especially during luteal phase
9. Endometriosis

So What Do You Do If This Is Happening

1. Rule out Hashimotos- this is an autoimmune disorder and
2. Eliminate Gluten and other offending foods from you diet.
3. Support the other systems of the body that play a role in Hormone Balance ie Liver, Gut, Adrenals,

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