# The Truth About PCOS, TikTok Myths, and The Pill with Dietician Sara Widdowson

An episode of [The Cyclist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1799823350), 21 Oct 2025, 53 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/101bd2764/podcast/play/109826386/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-9-17%2F2bd61ddf-3be2-e7b4-c7a0-2e6365585430.mp3

From PCOS to the pill - we’re diving into the topics that TikTok loves to oversimplify. In this week’s episode, we’re joined by Sara Widdowson, dietitian and founder of Your Monthly, to unpack the real science (and the real-life experience) behind PCOS, hormone balance, and contraception. We tackle the big questions: ✨ What actually is PCOS - and can you cure it? ✨ Why do so many TikTok “hormone hacks” miss the mark? ✨ How can you best support your body when coming on or off the pill? This one’s for anyone who’s ever been confused, overwhelmed, or misled by the noise online. Sara helps us bring it back to evidence, empathy, and what’s actually within your control. Follow & Connect@wearethecyclist wearethecyclist.com Hit play and join the conversation, because understanding your hormones shouldn’t be this hard.

## Transcript

[0:06] This is The Cyclist, the podcast that finally talks about your
[0:10] reproductive health the way your group chat does.
[0:12] No awkward silence, no sugarcoating, just the real
[0:15] messy. Holy shit why did nobody tell me
[0:18] this convos about your body? I'm Jess Quinn.
[0:21] And I'm Catherine Douglas. We've been where you are,
[0:24] confused, dismissed and left figuring it all out on our own.
[0:28] So we're gathering the information we wish we had.
[0:31] We are the cyclist, your cycle. Decoded Hello everyone, welcome
[0:41] back to The Cyclist. Hope you've all had a great
[0:43] week. I am so excited for today's
[0:46] episode, especially for you PCs, girlies, and also those who are
[0:51] confused about the pill because there's so much out there.
[0:54] Those are the 2 main topics we we chat today, but we also
[0:57] debunk a whole lot of things and Sarah's just got so much
[1:00] information. So you're going to love this
[1:02] episode, but I did promise you a little catch up on my own
[1:06] personal life. Let's dive into that.
[1:08] Basically, as most of you know, trigger warning, we are going to
[1:11] speak about miscarriage. I had my miscarriage.
[1:14] Gosh, when was that now? I think two months ago, well two
[1:17] cycles ago. So was that three months ago?
[1:19] I think that's three months ago, maybe 4.
[1:21] Anyway, recently slash a while. Ago and it wasn't.
[1:26] A good time as you can imagine, but I must say I can't remember
[1:30] how much I spoke about then that deep dive I did.
[1:32] If you haven't listened to that episode a little while back, I
[1:35] did a full sit down FaceTime chat.
[1:37] It wasn't FaceTime, but it felt like a FaceTime with your friend
[1:40] all around my miscarriage. So you're welcome to go listen
[1:42] to that if you want to hear all about it.
[1:44] We also chatted a bit more about it in Cat's birth story.
[1:46] But I did say I was going to update you on how I was feeling.
[1:48] So that miscarriage a lot easier to manage than my first one.
[1:52] I don't know why but it kinda just felt like a really heavy
[1:55] period. But then afterwards I.
[1:58] Just. Felt off for the whole next
[2:01] cycle and my cycle ended up being 50 days, which I don't
[2:05] think helped because, you know, in your period just takes a
[2:08] while to come or it's running late.
[2:09] It's like you can feel that build up in your body.
[2:12] I've just like hormonal haywire. It was exactly like that but
[2:16] even worse because it was post miscarriage and just, yeah, it
[2:19] was a horrific feeling. And I remember I took photos.
[2:22] I was so bloated. I would say the most bloated I'd
[2:25] been in my life and that was post miscarriage recovery.
[2:30] And I thought that that was just my normal state for now because
[2:33] it lasted that long. And, and I looked in the mirror
[2:36] and I literally looked the same level of pregnancy that I was
[2:40] supposed to be. I think it was like 12 weeks at
[2:42] the time I would have been pregnant.
[2:43] I looked at which I was like, that is so not cool and so
[2:47] triggering that I felt like I had a little baby belly.
[2:50] So that was really tough. But I spoke about it on social
[2:52] media and so many people said that when they had a
[2:55] miscarriage, they also experienced that kind of
[2:57] bloating. And I must say, the second my
[2:58] period came, it completely went away.
[3:00] So that's been amazing. I was a little bit.
[3:03] About it because I had had so many messages and if you were
[3:06] someone who messaged me please don't feel bad but I had so many
[3:08] messages when people being like I got pregnant as soon as they
[3:10] had a miscarriage today you're so much more fertile than so I
[3:13] said okay cool. This is our hope.
[3:15] Like I'm really excited we'll get pregnant straight away.
[3:17] We keep trying because we felt OK to do so.
[3:20] And then that month went by and I really thought I was pregnant
[3:23] and I wasn't and then this month has gone by and I really really
[3:27] thought I was pregnant. Like I've gone through
[3:28] knowledgeable pregnancy test. In fact the last pregnancy test
[3:32] I did I paid on the stick and then I got my period on that
[3:35] same pay cycle. So I was waiting for the
[3:38] negative test while having my period stopped, which was just
[3:42] like a humbling experience. And so yeah, that was
[3:46] frustrating. But I don't know like I feel
[3:49] really frustrated about it. I'm talking to talk about it all
[3:51] the time because the thing that I think it's getting me the most
[3:54] is just how much it's consuming my mind and I didn't have that
[3:57] the first time round and I think I don't get me wrong.
[3:59] I had a consumer mind that we wanted a baby.
[4:01] But at the moment it's like the second I'm ovulating I'm like go
[4:05] down and then as soon as I ovulate I'm like waiting for the
[4:08] pregnancy signs and that's like a good two weeks of feeling like
[4:11] you're pregnant and the unfortunate.
[4:13] Thing is that pregnancy signs and period signs are really
[4:16] similar. So I keep getting my hopes up
[4:19] for them to get let down. And it's getting quite
[4:21] frustrating because the first time prior to having Marla, we
[4:26] didn't have why didn't experience that as much.
[4:28] I had the desperation of wanting to fall pregnant, but I wasn't
[4:31] body checking in pregnancy testing as much because I kind
[4:34] of think I'd come to terms with the idea that maybe we just
[4:37] wouldn't fall pregnant. Whereas this time it happened so
[4:40] quickly that now I'm like, ohh, it can happen, I'm fertile,
[4:42] let's go. As then every month that it
[4:44] doesn't happen, I think I just feel really deflated.
[4:47] I also am going to be mindful to not talk about it too much
[4:49] because I know there's other women have things that we want
[4:51] to talk about here. And I also want to like hold
[4:53] space our privacy around like when we decide to fall pregnant
[4:56] and then when we share the news. But we're still in the thick of
[4:59] it. We're still in the early days.
[5:01] So there's no like infertility stuff going on right now.
[5:03] We're still in the early days of trying.
[5:04] It's just obviously been a turbulent time with the
[5:07] miscarriage. But my periods have been
[5:09] completely normal, which is really great.
[5:10] So it hasn't caused any heavy apart from that last long cycle.
[5:13] The second cycle has been completely back on track.
[5:16] In fact, this cycle I ovulated 6 days earlier than I ever have in
[5:20] probably about two years. And without doing a shameless
[5:23] plug, the only thing I've changed is adding cadence
[5:25] product, which is really interesting.
[5:26] I've been taking cycle System which is our product is SOS for
[5:29] wonky cycles. That is the only thing I've
[5:31] added. Plus obviously they're hospital
[5:33] which is also supportive of milk healthy menstrual cycles.
[5:36] That was the only two products I've added and I've never had.
[5:40] I've never ovulated before day 20 in my life.
[5:42] Normally I ovulate around kind of day 26 upwards.
[5:45] This was day 20. Which was wild.
[5:47] So. Actually, it was 19, like super
[5:49] short for me. So that was really interesting.
[5:51] I'm keen to see if that continues.
[5:53] But yeah, that's a little update on where I'm at.
[5:55] Everything else is going really good.
[5:56] Mentally, I feel really good, apart from just the constant
[5:59] body checking. And I just wanted to share all
[6:01] of this because I know there were so many women who reached
[6:03] out to me saying they were having a miscarriage at the same
[6:05] time or had been through 1. And I know how lonely it is and
[6:08] I'm sorry for anyone who hasn't gone through this.
[6:10] You can just skip ahead anyone who's just here for the episode
[6:13] and just listen to my rambling for no apparent reason.
[6:15] Hopefully it will still interesting and hopefully not
[6:17] triggering for you. But I just wanted to update on
[6:19] my life and where I'm at. So let's jump into today's
[6:22] episode. We are chatting with Sarah from
[6:24] your monthly. We've had her on the podcast
[6:25] before and you will have read her blogs.
[6:27] We've got downloadable guides on the cyclist website with her.
[6:30] She's absolutely incredible. And we're focusing largely on
[6:32] PCs and the pills. So I hope you.
[6:34] Enjoy. Hi Sarah, welcome back to The
[6:37] Cyclist. Thank you.
[6:38] How are you? I'm good.
[6:40] It's so good to have you back. It's your first episode was so
[6:43] loved by everybody. And then we had the live event
[6:46] for the launch of Cadence and your conversation was so loved
[6:49] by everybody. So I was like, we need to get
[6:50] you back on the podcast, so. Here we are, yay.
[6:54] We did it. I thought I would just start
[6:56] with you just really briefly reintroducing yourself.
[6:58] And I am going to throw you the same question in case you have
[7:01] changed your answer. But what have you do, mystified
[7:03] about your body as an adult, that you wish you knew when you
[7:06] were younger? Business have first and then
[7:09] you've asked me this a few Times Now because as you say, you're
[7:11] kind of done recording podcasts and loved ones today actually
[7:14] like to answer differently every time because I feel like there's
[7:16] so many different things that we're constantly learning about
[7:19] our body which should be sharing and reflecting on.
[7:21] And so for those of you who haven't heard my voice before,
[7:24] my name's Sarah. I'm a New Zealand registered
[7:26] dietitian and nutritionist and my gig is woman's house.
[7:30] So I live and work in Christchurch.
[7:31] I've got 2 little boys and I hold clinics here at a
[7:36] gynaecological clinic in my online brand as your monthly and
[7:39] I'm very lucky to work alongside brands like.
[7:41] Cyclist. And as one of the Health
[7:44] advisors, so supporting kind of the further education for women
[7:47] doing connect to bigger platforms.
[7:49] So my bread and butter is things like P series, endometriosis,
[7:53] adenomyosis, supporting women's referentiality journeys,
[7:56] conception, pregnancy and the aftermath of bringing a baby
[7:59] into the world as well. And in terms of something that
[8:04] I've learned about my body, and this is kind of an probably not
[8:08] new and surprising, but I think understanding how early puree
[8:12] menopause can start or something that's in my brain a lot at the
[8:15] moment. So a New Zealand, the average
[8:17] age of menopause is 50 or 51, depending on where you read and
[8:22] what data you're looking at. And we know that perimenopause
[8:24] concerned as much as 10 years beforehand.
[8:26] So I'm 34, I'm not perimenopausal yet, but I've
[8:29] finished my family and that's differently kind of the space
[8:33] that my body will be heading into, which is biologically.
[8:35] Normal SO. Kind of looking out for those
[8:37] signs and symptoms or something. I'm really.
[8:39] Interested in no. I'm saying so much about it
[8:42] online and it's so interesting just to see the conversation
[8:45] shift, which is a welcome range, but also does make you be like,
[8:49] whoa. You might just get through a
[8:51] pregnancy, baby. Oh my God, the next thing's
[8:54] coming for me. Yeah, during menopause is not
[8:56] like a it's not a problem. Like it's like I said, it's
[8:59] biologically normal. But I think it's hard to see the
[9:01] words for the trees or whatever they're saying is 0 and that.
[9:04] So just having a little bit of awareness of what could be
[9:06] happening. Powerful.
[9:08] Differently, Sarah and I were just talking just before we
[9:11] jumped online about how those podcast was going to run and I,
[9:14] I was honest with her that I haven't really planned to
[9:16] structure for today because we're just rivalling.
[9:19] We've just talked so many times that I thought and I, I
[9:22] personally like listening to those podcasts that just kind of
[9:24] feel like I FaceTime catch up and he might be having a face
[9:28] and catch up with the, with an expert.
[9:29] So I figured we will just see where the conversation goes, but
[9:33] I think we will land in some pretty epic places.
[9:35] I did wanna just kind of start by asking you what you're saying
[9:39] in clinic a lot at the moment, Cause I find that really
[9:41] interesting to hear about because then you're like, ohh, I
[9:42] have that problem too. Like what's really interesting
[9:45] you that's showing up a lot or what's common?
[9:47] What are you saying? Really interesting how things
[9:50] come in waves, like themes like all have anticlimax of the same
[9:55] kind of presentation between individual woman.
[9:58] And I mean a lot of obviously endometriosis, but particularly
[10:03] power pains and not just the guts symptom issues.
[10:06] There's a lot of obviously elimination around irritable
[10:09] bowel syndrome as an example of women with endometriosis, but
[10:12] kind of pain outside of those balcony plants, bladder issues
[10:15] and endometriosis comes through lots as well.
[10:19] A lot of PCs demystifying which I love.
[10:22] I'm really protective of my clients at PCs because I think
[10:26] historically the care they've gotten and the education they've
[10:30] received around their condition and how to manage symptoms and
[10:32] nutrition is being pretty poor actually.
[10:36] And so helping them to understand, you know, you don't
[10:38] have to do teacher was an example, but you might ask me a
[10:40] little bit more about that later.
[10:42] But yeah, a lot of kind of debunking with PCs.
[10:45] I think tech talk has she don't have TikTok, which makes you
[10:48] sound really old, but like the amount of information that women
[10:52] are consuming on their house through those kind of apps,
[10:55] people bring them to clinic and, you know, to chat with me about
[10:59] as well, which is obviously awesome.
[11:01] And I think just saying more of, you know, thanks to things like
[11:05] these podcasts is much more awareness out there about
[11:08] things, which is great. And that concern neck in terms
[11:11] of people not just going to their gynaecologist in terms of
[11:14] endo and they wanna come and see how it feel physio.
[11:17] They wanna see a dietician and they wanna see a psychologist
[11:19] kind of learn about the brain's relationship with pain.
[11:22] There's a lot more what we call MDT.
[11:25] So that multidisciplinary team approach to care, which I
[11:28] think's really amazing. And kind of one last thing that
[11:32] I'm reading more about and seeing a lot more about in
[11:34] clinic is histamine tolerance issues.
[11:36] I don't know if you've kind of. My eyes just jumped out of my
[11:39] face. It's different in a new concept
[11:44] by any means, but actually look yesterday there Westerners in
[11:47] neurotransmitter which I had no idea it was transmitter and a
[11:50] lot of people will know about histamine in relation to
[11:53] hayfever and take my histamine tablet that we make histamines
[11:57] through our marshals, which is an immune system response.
[12:01] Our 611 oestrogen can influence not only the production of
[12:04] histamine by these mad sounds, but also the enzymes in our guts
[12:07] they have to clear stemming from our body.
[12:10] And so like a lot of women, particularly through phases like
[12:12] perimenopause with Israel, turbulent oestrogen levels, they
[12:15] can struggle with histamine issues, migraines and almost
[12:20] like allergy symptoms like rashes.
[12:22] I give a lot of clients with like oral allergy syndrome or
[12:25] something, they like food allergy issues, really poor
[12:28] tolerance to wine. I don't know if you heard people
[12:30] say they're just fat. Loss.
[12:31] And they get older, they like Oh my And it's because it's a high
[12:36] swimming Ferb so. Yeah, my mum's one of those.
[12:39] Yeah, same with mine. So I know the second area that
[12:42] I'm just fascinated by, the correlation between our
[12:46] reproductive hormone systems and our immune system systems is
[12:49] just like so interesting to me. I'm just thinking the problem
[12:53] with having no structure is like 4010 different directions they
[12:56] wanna go. Sorry no no, this is a good
[12:58] thing. I'm like.
[12:58] Where do I go again? Yeah, we might be.
[13:00] Here for hours. No, not at all.
[13:03] I think it's really effect. I'm just like, what order do I
[13:05] go in? Because I think that has so many
[13:07] things really interesting and something that jumped into my
[13:09] head and looks and with what you were saying around.
[13:11] We learned so much of this on social media, which speaking
[13:14] from the mouth of an influencer is often coming from influences,
[13:18] just experience. It's not often from experts or
[13:21] it is from experts sometimes, but then it's like an
[13:23] overwhelming amount of different information and I find as
[13:26] someone, I don't know how to word this, but I feel like a lot
[13:29] of people can relate. I find as someone with a chronic
[13:31] health issue, eye clinging thing, I go, ohh, I see myself
[13:35] as sort of that histamine soup and I'm hearing about like,
[13:37] what's that term? Are you mentioned it?
[13:39] But like Marcel, something that question, yeah, there's like all
[13:42] of us there. And like, and then maybe I have
[13:44] posters order just sort of like you, just you just like that to
[13:47] identify. And I think again, people
[13:49] listening, which is so many of the cyclist community will
[13:51] probably relate because once you have a chronic health issue, I
[13:54] think you just want to cling to anything that could maybe be an
[13:57] answer or solution or a path towards a solution.
[14:02] So I'm like how do you not let that consume your whole life
[14:06] thinking ohh I have all of these different disorders and how do
[14:08] you follow a path that might be a clue?
[14:12] You know, cause I'm like, if you only have like 1 symptom of
[14:16] Marcel excavation, for example, it's probably not there, right?
[14:19] But then yeah, it can just be so convincing when you're looking
[14:21] online. Like ohh I finally figured out
[14:23] that I had POTS and now my whole life was bitter.
[14:25] Yeah, yeah, and validation for your experience, though they
[14:29] okay, my man, I'm in a a privilege of house.
[14:32] So it's you know, you saying, you know, influences will give
[14:36] lots of information online and like obviously it's about
[14:38] understanding the scope of their information, but also people
[14:41] sharing their lived experience and learning through
[14:44] storytelling is really valuable. So it don't diminish lived
[14:47] experience. It's angry really, really
[14:49] important to talk about and in terms of like, you know, how do
[14:53] you kind of rain in or kind of create boundaries with are you
[14:57] absorb it and to mention what you do with it.
[14:59] I do think kind of zooming out is an approach I often talk
[15:02] about with clients like zoom out, zoom out.
[15:04] So zoom out in dietary patterns, zoom out on symptoms, treating
[15:07] the person. And it's really, really
[15:09] important. And I think a lot of the time in
[15:11] healthcare, like I can't tell you how many clients I meet who
[15:14] are going to a colorectal surgeon about the power shows
[15:17] and the oncologist about the puree that shows.
[15:20] Then they're going to the rheumatoid ologist about the
[15:23] immune system. But they're one person.
[15:25] And so I think understanding how those systems relate to each
[15:28] other is really important, but also like, you know, yeah, just
[15:32] kind of inviting yourself to make small tweaks and changes
[15:35] and not get kind of caught up in the, the minor details cause I
[15:38] think helps or something. And obviously if you've got
[15:41] fragility around your house and it really impacts your quality
[15:43] of life, of course you want change, but it can become
[15:46] something we can obsess about. And that's also not healthy.
[15:49] No, because the human experience is really varied, right?
[15:52] Like, you know, before we jumped onto this recording, do you know
[15:54] which kind of sharing more stories around sleep
[15:56] deprivation, you know, like you kids that are second And yeah,
[16:02] like, things happens to us all the time and life and we can't
[16:05] get, you know, caught up on perfection when it comes to any
[16:08] change. I was talking about with clients
[16:10] this idea of living in the grey. So I think with healthcare, we
[16:13] get really black and white. So, you know, if we think about,
[16:16] you know, endometriosis, you're right.
[16:18] And completely gluten free, dairy free for meat free,
[16:21] whatever it is. And then we'll go away for a
[16:24] girls weekend and have all the yummy things and then kind of
[16:26] slip can fight you towards the other stage.
[16:28] And they think that kind of drive space is more around,
[16:31] well, how can I have some curiosity around my eating
[16:35] behaviours and curiosity around my food choices?
[16:37] What would happen if I applied for producing then illuminating
[16:40] and kind of being really cautious around?
[16:41] Labels. I've actually found the huge
[16:44] shift in myself. I actually struggled with what I
[16:47] haven't realised was this until I had got kind of gotten through
[16:51] it, but I had really disordered eating for a long time.
[16:53] And mine was driven from health and constantly trying to find
[16:57] these answers. And maybe it's this and maybe
[16:58] it's that. When I tried this diet and I'm
[16:59] gonna try that and God forbid I ever touch a pastry or pie, you
[17:03] know, it's like, and then I just got so obsessed with eating so
[17:06] healthy because I thought it was gonna fix all of my conditions.
[17:09] And actually, and this is not medical advice, but actually
[17:13] when I let go, I actually felt so much better.
[17:15] And it was almost like the stress of holding on to all of
[17:18] these things I found detrimental for me.
[17:20] And that's just my experience. But, and I have had to recently
[17:25] go through it again because I started again going, I'm going
[17:27] to go completely gluten free and completely this spring,
[17:29] completely that free. And then I just find it
[17:31] stressful because I've got no enjoyment in my life and I'm
[17:33] having to be the pain at the dinner parties and all of that
[17:36] and stuff. And I understand for a lot of
[17:37] people, they do have to be extreme in some of these things
[17:39] if they're celiac or whatever. But for me, I was like, I don't
[17:42] actually know if it's making a difference or not.
[17:44] So I've just kind of landed, which I like how you talk about
[17:46] grey areas. I've just landed in this kind of
[17:50] 8020 kind of situation, which I don't math at all, but I'm like,
[17:53] if I'm out and about and I really like the look of that
[17:56] muffin, like I'm gonna grab it kind of thing.
[17:57] And then that's really helped kind of lift the loads off me, I
[18:02] think. There's also science behind your
[18:04] experience blank and often talk about with clients.
[18:07] You know if I'm doing the life of MET diet as an example, I use
[18:10] a simplified version which doesn't talk about like weighing
[18:13] or measuring info and I'll often reference the study where so
[18:17] this was not paper was a disease.
[18:18] This is people with irritable bowel syndrome.
[18:20] So we're they gave them a piece of gluten free bridge and told
[18:25] them it was gluten containing and they had symptoms, even
[18:29] though there was nothing in that bridge that could have caused
[18:31] their symptoms. So it wasn't a format containing
[18:33] forge. So that power of mental state,
[18:36] it's not about telling people they're imagining like symptoms.
[18:39] It's not helpful, but understanding the power of your
[18:41] brain and how it could kind of talk just systems in your body
[18:44] is really important. Another example, though,
[18:46] sometimes talk about is I get clients to like really imagine
[18:49] that I've got a really sour lemon on a plate in front of
[18:51] them or a really sour gummy worm.
[18:54] And we kind of do this mindful exercise and imagine the smell
[18:57] of the gummy worm. My mouth's doing it now.
[18:59] That tingling feeling in your mouth.
[19:01] There's no gummy worm on the call with us, but my brain told
[19:04] my body to create a symptom, which was that tingling
[19:07] anticipation of sour. So I think like, our mindset and
[19:11] our approach to how and how we're gonna look at our
[19:13] psychology around nutrition makes actually really big
[19:16] difference. It's not just about what we ate,
[19:18] but our relationship with her as well.
[19:20] So I think there's such a nice promotion, especially people who
[19:22] are kind of just in this not sure what's going on kind of
[19:25] area going extreme can often not always be helpful.
[19:29] And I think again, that's where that multidisciplinary approach
[19:32] comes in because that was a huge game changer for me.
[19:34] And yes, something that isn't always affordable and is quite
[19:38] expensive to see a lot of different people, but seeing a
[19:40] psychologist, which I never thought would Lincoln with
[19:43] endometriosis or within my gut health issues, but really helps,
[19:47] which is really interesting. That's not something I thought
[19:48] of a while ago. I wanted to jump into PCs
[19:52] because you kind of lit up when you spoke about the injustice of
[19:55] woman with PCOS. And I know we have so many woman
[19:58] PCs in the community. And I have actually been
[20:01] diagnosed with PCs, but I'm pretty sure I don't have Cos.
[20:04] It was during around the time of my miscarriage.
[20:06] So I think I just ticked a few of the criteria for that.
[20:09] Reason and I didn't. I don't think I actually have
[20:11] it, but I'm very fascinated PCs cause I do think there's a lot
[20:16] of confusion online about there. Where will we start when we're
[20:20] talking about these guys? It's a good question.
[20:22] So I mean, with polycystic ovarian syndrome, woman will fit
[20:26] into difference Kemps in terms of their symptoms and what
[20:29] they're dealing with. And so I listened to their
[20:32] symptoms before I decide what we did with nutrition.
[20:34] But as some examples, a client might come to me with what we
[20:37] call amenorrhea. So she's not having a cycle at
[20:39] all. And that's been defined that
[20:41] she's got physio we have through blood work and the public
[20:44] ultrasound ideally or they might be, they have what we call
[20:48] oligomenorrhea. So they do ovulate, but it's
[20:51] quite irregular. So really long cycles, you know,
[20:54] maybe only 6 periods a year, something like that.
[20:56] Hmm. And often there's like different
[20:58] drivers around PCs which funnel back to the nutrition stuff that
[21:01] we can recommend. So somethings you might find
[21:04] interesting is it's estimated between 70 to 90% of women with
[21:08] PCs will have something called insulin resistance.
[21:12] And insulin resistance is basically where you're making
[21:15] more of the hormone insulin to control and correct your blood
[21:18] sugar levels and response to glucose spikes from what you
[21:21] eat. And, and those high levels of
[21:24] circulating insulin, Dr. ovaries to favour testosterone
[21:27] production versus oestrogen production.
[21:29] So often women with PC we're still make oestrogen, but
[21:32] slightly too much of the androgen testosterone, which
[21:36] will cause the irregular ovulation and lead to the really
[21:39] long cycles and kind of that fear around fertility problems.
[21:42] Let me get them ovulating. Them being women with PCs and
[21:46] their chance of conception is just the same as anybody else's.
[21:49] Something I'm really passionate about educating about the
[21:51] insulin resistance will also drive other symptoms associated
[21:55] with PC aware. So things like acne is a big one
[21:58] that one walked in present life, not just facial acne, but like
[22:01] back acnes often quite common in younger women with PCs and
[22:06] injustice with their weight is kind of like, I don't know,
[22:09] that's a term that they use in clients into sale that validates
[22:12] their story. But that whole effect of, you
[22:15] know, like a lot of these girls, they understand that nutrition
[22:17] will make a difference to their symptoms.
[22:18] So they're doing their best with healthy eating.
[22:20] They kind of exercising daily, looking after things like sleep
[22:23] and not really seeing the weight loss.
[22:25] And you know that someone else doing the same things might
[22:28] experience. That's what I mean by the
[22:30] injustice. Often women with insulin
[22:32] resistance will also make feel quite hungry in the day and they
[22:35] tend to crave carbohydrates. So you kind of see this dietary
[22:38] pattern where they're returning to food quite frequently or in
[22:41] those periods of the day where we often can feel quite tired,
[22:44] they're craving really sweet foods.
[22:45] So like between 2:00 and 5:00 and again before bed.
[22:48] So I do a lot of education around there and resistance
[22:50] pace, but also understanding that to get them ovulating as a
[22:54] woman of reproductive age, I don't want to cut out
[22:56] carbohydrates altogether. So I think people think that,
[22:59] you know, okay, well, if carbohydrates cause my blood
[23:02] sugar levels to rise and that will cause an insulin spike to
[23:05] correct that blood sugar level wave and I'm making lots of
[23:07] insulin, they don't sell in this driving my symptoms app
[23:10] awareness. If I just cut out the
[23:12] carbohydrate, then Bob's your uncle.
[23:14] Like that's what I should be doing.
[23:17] But actually we know that carbohydrates play into society.
[23:20] So, you know, 60% of women with PC, we used to meet the criteria
[23:23] for binge eating disorder. So feeling out of control with
[23:25] food and it's not probably true. Been getting disorder, but more
[23:29] of that like anabolic insulin driving excite like I talked
[23:33] about before. But also the weight stigma they
[23:35] often experience in clinic means that they are, you know, just
[23:38] trying to lose weight and getting really, really strict in
[23:41] terms of maybe carbohydrate and calories.
[23:43] And then they come get breakdown to eating later on in the day.
[23:46] Yeah. So carbohydrates is really
[23:47] important for society. We also know that carbohydrates
[23:50] and take place into London rising hormone production and
[23:53] that's one of the hormones required almost like a trigger
[23:55] shot to help you to make oestrogen in order to operate.
[23:58] So we don't want to cut out carbohydrates altogether.
[24:00] But I definitely help women to understand this idea of
[24:03] carbohydrate today. So things like Austin, use a
[24:07] piece of bread as an example. So a piece of bread has about 15
[24:10] grammes of carbs. I'm not saying that's good or
[24:12] bad. It's just a vigil.
[24:13] And but a bagel has 45 grammes of carbs.
[24:17] You know a two pieces of sushi is 15 grammes of carbs.
[24:20] I'm an 8 pack feel like. I'm not sure.
[24:22] If I was gonna get sushi and so you can kind of see how they can
[24:25] be this inconsistency of intake. Like, you know, one day for
[24:28] breakfast you might have one piece of toast, one day for
[24:31] lunch you might have a piece of toast with chillies and the next
[24:33] day you have an apex sushi. There's just a big difference in
[24:36] that carbon tank and we want to keep some carbohydrates there,
[24:39] but I also want to make sure that we kind of consistent with
[24:42] kind of moderate carbohydrate portion to help with those until
[24:46] on spikes and at the same time chasing women around were things
[24:49] that will reduce the advice semic loads.
[24:51] Have you heard much about glycemic load?
[24:53] Is it something you'd find interesting?
[24:54] And their insulin? Yeah, I think a lot of people,
[24:56] please. I would definitely find that
[24:58] interesting. Yeah, so this idea of we don't
[25:01] want to cut out carbohydrates altogether, but we can also
[25:03] manipulate how quickly they've become glucose in your system
[25:06] and therefore how much insulin you'll make to correct them by
[25:10] choosing how you plate your food.
[25:12] So as an example, if you just had, let's use the bank as an
[25:15] example, if you just had Bago and then one, boring, but two,
[25:19] you will have, you know, this big wave of Burgos.
[25:23] If I add protein to that plate, here comes some cottage cheese
[25:26] or some eggs. That carbohydrate portion didn't
[25:28] change, but you're getting a much lower and slower rates yet
[25:32] if I add 5 to that plate, so it might be nuts and seeds and
[25:35] might be like some veggies, some herbs from the garden or
[25:38] something, you lower that wave even further.
[25:40] And if you add acidity to that plate like a volcanic glaze or
[25:43] like a lemon gift squeeze on your brains, you lower the
[25:46] glycemic load through there. It's all to do with how long
[25:49] food stays in your stomach and has been dropped into your small
[25:52] intestine. And your small intestine is
[25:54] where you digest carbohydrates into glucose.
[25:56] So annoying. And things like fibre, protein,
[25:59] acidic foods and also fat can help to reduce their glucose
[26:02] spike rather than thinking about planning to cut out
[26:04] carbohydrates. And so yeah, I would look at
[26:07] carbohydrate awareness, kind of protecting them in the diet, but
[26:09] changing how you collect them. And I always, always, always
[26:13] talk about inositol because the evidence is just like
[26:17] snowballing in a good way. The impact of a nasatil in
[26:22] insulin signalling in the body. I use a lot with plants who have
[26:26] insulin resistance and pay their wages.
[26:28] But also clients was just insulin resistance symptoms in
[26:30] general use and kinds of teary men was yeah as well.
[26:33] Yes, and also was obviously a product that we love given we
[26:37] launched their incadence, which this wasn't meant to be a plug,
[26:40] but I with one us at all doll. I remember when I told you the
[26:44] very launch products that we were launching with and you were
[26:46] super excited about the Nostell doll formulation, which is.
[26:51] Effect. Do you know what I mean?
[26:52] I feel like I'm allowed to say this because it just tasted
[26:55] amazing and I was thinking about it morning when I was drinking
[26:59] it. I'm like the worst person with
[27:01] supplement compliance is actually laughable.
[27:03] Like I just really struggle to commit to that.
[27:07] And I think I had quite bad nausea and vomiting and
[27:09] pregnancy and like taking supplements in the morning was
[27:12] like water is still like a big mental battle for me because I'm
[27:15] not drinking address is so. Young, I know I'm having it with
[27:21] lunch and dinner and I now crave it.
[27:22] And I'm not someone who normally has a beverage with animals, but
[27:25] now I'm like this. Is Lucious, so make this the
[27:27] most compliant I've ever been with supplement and I think it
[27:30] tastes good. Ohh my gosh, who knew we could
[27:32] convert the dietitian? I know when you're going to make
[27:35] all these different supplements. It has no.
[27:36] Choice. Yeah, sure on it.
[27:38] Let me get right onto it. While we're here, I did want to
[27:42] ask you what what is it? What is why Inositol?
[27:46] Why is it so great? And how is that helping to
[27:48] support women with PC always, I know also supports woman in
[27:51] general, but why? How?
[27:53] Why? How?
[27:53] Yeah, so inositol is not new, but it's kind of only been
[27:57] around in New Zealand. I would say for the last maybe
[28:00] it'll push to news. I remember when I first started
[28:02] working kind of on the woman's house sitting the only clients
[28:05] are either head on an asshole like buying it in from America
[28:08] and it was kind of it was like the melatonin of the time it
[28:11] would come back from the states were there enough Sotile, so
[28:14] mayonnaise Sotile. It's kind of similar to eBay van
[28:17] that we find in our body and it's thought to influence until
[28:20] and self signalling. So remember we're talking about
[28:23] insulin being responsible for blood sugar correction, but also
[28:27] it's involved in the regulation of fat storage in our body as
[28:30] well. So if you're resistant to
[28:31] insulin, what that means is you make a lot of it to have an
[28:34] effect in your body versus if you're sensitive to insulin, you
[28:36] would make a small amount to have the same effect.
[28:39] So if you think about your cells and what happens in your cells,
[28:42] you've got mitochondria who can convert the globe proves that we
[28:44] eat into a nutrition source that we can actually use as energy.
[28:48] And we need those cells to open to be receptive to glucose to
[28:51] get their blood sugar clearing effect.
[28:53] Yeah. So and you basically think about
[28:55] until like a key unlocking the door in the nose atoll is
[28:58] thought to think about like CRC or lubrication that makes those
[29:03] cells more receptive to their insolence and signalling,
[29:06] meaning you get that bit of correction glucose they go in
[29:09] lower until levels across the day as well.
[29:11] Interesting. Well, I mean, we've had some
[29:14] pretty wild reviews and we've only been around for a very
[29:16] short space of time, so it's awesome to see that it can help
[29:19] a lot of people, which is cool and it takes delicious.
[29:21] I wanted to throw some statements at you around PCs and
[29:25] see if we can kind of debunk something.
[29:27] You may have answered a couple, but I'm going to throw them at
[29:29] you. OK, statement number one, you
[29:32] can cure PCOS. I'm going to be so annoying and
[29:37] like answer everything really long overrated.
[29:39] You can definitely. Want it doesn't need to be
[29:42] quick, but I'm just. Thinking what you think your
[29:44] piece, you can definitely manage your symptoms of PCOS and I've
[29:49] had many clients who reverse their biochemistry.
[29:52] So they might have things like an elevated HBA 1C, which is
[29:56] like basically means lots of sugar stuck to your red blood
[29:59] cells and they might have like deranged hyperlipidemia or like
[30:03] high cholesterol levels. They might have like no
[30:06] ovulation going on, a really irregular ovulation and through
[30:09] a combination, every client's difference, but usually a
[30:12] combination of like nutrition, movement, supplements, for some
[30:16] people, medication. They can correct their
[30:18] biochemistry so much so that if you were going to a doctor for
[30:20] the first time and they did that same blood work, it would be
[30:23] like, ohh, you don't hit PCs. Wow.
[30:26] But if you kind of reverted back to changing that diet and
[30:30] lifestyle stuff, then you would have the symptoms of PCs would
[30:33] come back online. Interesting.
[30:35] Yeah. Statement #2 Just lose weight,
[30:38] your PCOS will go away. I could like music visualizer,
[30:43] the like eye rolling and the you know, from the people listening
[30:46] to this you just. Clarify these aren't my thoughts
[30:48] and statements. This is no I know.
[30:50] And I think the fact that you're raising them as almost like.
[30:54] Yeah, they're just. Such silly and hurtful
[30:56] statements, Barry with that as a small amount of weight loss can
[31:00] improve insulin resistance. Hmm.
[31:03] And that can help correct symptoms of PCs, right?
[31:06] But I think when we make weight loss the compass that we work on
[31:09] together, it creates the only idea in our here to run success,
[31:14] which I think is really young hopeful for clients.
[31:16] So I always focus on, you know, what other symptoms are you
[31:19] noticing like fatigue, bloating with PCs, the regular cycle
[31:23] staff, the cravings, the acne. If we kind of build nutrition
[31:27] around managing those symptoms, if weight loss needs to happen,
[31:30] it's like a side effect or a consequence, as opposed to
[31:33] everything we do is going to be about how much weight we can get
[31:36] to those. Makes a lot of sense.
[31:39] Say my number 3 is if you don't have cyst on your ovaries you
[31:42] can't have PCOS. I mean that would depend on when
[31:49] you need what do you think about like the Rodham at criteria,
[31:53] which is how we diagnose PCs. So the Pavic ultrasound and the
[31:57] blood work should be kind of used in combination, although
[32:00] they are often not. If you had corrected your
[32:03] symptoms of PC, whereas you wouldn't have cystic ovaries.
[32:05] But it doesn't mean that you don't have PCs, it just means
[32:07] you have well managed PC. Okay, great answer.
[32:12] What is my next lunch? Everyone would take the OS has
[32:16] insulin. Resistance.
[32:18] No differently. Not true.
[32:19] And not everybody with insulin resistance has PCs.
[32:24] With Cryptic. I know.
[32:27] So that's control fixes PCOS. No, it doesn't fix.
[32:31] It helps manage symptoms for sure, but it doesn't fix it.
[32:35] It's still there. So if you think about answer
[32:39] that one better and if you think about like the hormone driving
[32:43] PCs, so that elevated androgen levels of testosterone, if we
[32:46] think about that when you go on the birth control pill at
[32:50] downregulates those hormones as well as oestrogen and petrone.
[32:54] So you'll often see an improvement in symptoms of
[32:57] things like acne for a lot of women.
[32:59] And obviously, if you're having issues with the regular periods,
[33:02] that kind of mimicking of a period with a Pele blade will
[33:06] make you think that you've got this lovely regular period.
[33:08] The pills not bad. It's just a toll.
[33:10] But I think kind of looking at it as a treatment for PCs is not
[33:13] particularly helpful. Sometimes it'll be used in a
[33:17] clinical setting, like definitely not a doctor, but
[33:19] there's also like a slight increase of endometrial cancer.
[33:22] If you're not, if you're getting that build up like that, Peter
[33:25] enlightening because of high oestrogen and not getting a
[33:27] blade, sometimes doctors will talk about it for a like a
[33:30] cancer reducing effect. But this, the PC always is still
[33:33] there. There's just a toll that's being
[33:35] used. And I think I, I made a lot of
[33:36] women, although it is changing, but you know, women in their 30s
[33:39] have been on the pill since I've been diagnosed with PCs like,
[33:43] you know, 16 or 17 and they're like, I wanted to start a
[33:46] family, you know, I want to come off this thing and learn more
[33:49] about it. And unfortunately when you come
[33:51] off the pill, there's often there's that real turbulence, 6
[33:53] months of really intense symptoms, like there's ovaries
[33:56] come back online and you know, acne, gaining weight, suddenly
[34:01] getting used to hormonal fluctuations again can be really
[34:03] hard. Anything going in that was a bit
[34:05] of a game plan can be really helpful for people.
[34:08] Hmm. I wanna actually take our
[34:09] conversation in that direction once I ask one more statement,
[34:12] which is kind of touched on, but I just think it's so commonly
[34:15] heard and it's something that I even see my inbox around PCs
[34:18] endo. But in terms of PCs, you can't
[34:20] get pregnant if you have PCOS. Are in so heart breaking.
[34:25] I can't tell you how many women I make like 2 last week came to
[34:29] see me in their 30s. They get diagnosed with PCs
[34:32] really young like at 1516 and this kind of differing opinion
[34:36] around this. But you know our cycles can
[34:38] often be quite Hubie quite a regular in our early enlisting
[34:42] years kind of like you think about perimenopause at the tail
[34:45] end of our period life. This kind of see the same thing
[34:47] so often these really young girls are diagnosed with PCs and
[34:50] I do wonder sometimes if it was the correct diagnosis or if it
[34:53] was just innocent cycles and they get told or their memories
[34:57] of their consultation. As you know, you're not going to
[34:59] be able to have children, you're gonna struggle with your
[35:01] fatality and it becomes the narrative around piecewise is
[35:04] that you know, I'm infertile or it's gonna be really hard for me
[35:07] to have children and it's just not true.
[35:10] There's for some woman with PCs they might need ovulation
[35:12] induction medication, which is really well researched and used
[35:16] quite widely in New Zealand facility clinics.
[35:18] But there's so much we can do with nutrition and lifestyle,
[35:21] you know, supplementation that can make a really big
[35:23] difference. I think this statements are so
[35:26] dangerous. I think about that a lot with
[35:28] endometriosis as well, because a lot of one make well, it's not a
[35:30] lot of them, but some women get diagnosed with that quite early.
[35:33] And I think how much that might impact your life.
[35:37] If you hear that when you're younger and then you even go
[35:39] into like dating with this mindset that you're never gonna
[35:41] have children, like how that might just change like your
[35:43] career decisions, like, which is just so unfair, especially when
[35:47] it is so inaccurate. I mean, I'm a endometriosis
[35:50] scale with a top running around. You know, it's like there's so
[35:54] many women out there having children and people who have
[35:56] children and then find out they have endometriosis, like swap PC
[36:00] always like it's just such a toxic thing to toxic statement
[36:04] to make it as a blanket statement.
[36:06] Now what I wanted to jump into just as you were talking, and we
[36:09] haven't even talked about this at the beginning, but I just we
[36:11] get so many questions around perceptive and around coming off
[36:15] the pill and going on the pill and all of these kind of things.
[36:19] What is your view on contraceptive in general?
[36:23] For obviously the contraceptive reasons is amazing.
[36:26] But I'm gonna say very grateful. Yeah, really awesome.
[36:29] Should use them. What?
[36:33] We're both in the midst of a sleep regression, so we are pro.
[36:35] Constitutional right. My husband actually had a
[36:37] vasectomy so. Ohh I also made that statement
[36:40] as a girl trying to have a baby. So it's dramatically incorrect.
[36:43] But I, I know it gets a bad rap in terms of the management of
[36:48] things like PCOS and hormonal. Ohh sorry and endometriosis.
[36:53] What's your view like if if I came to you as one of your
[36:57] clients and was like, I need to get off the pill cause I've
[37:00] heard it so bad. I've heard all about it on
[37:02] social media. How bad it?
[37:03] Is your views on that? Yeah.
[37:06] I think what's the trouble was like house information.
[37:10] I mean, we all come to house for existing worldviews, right and
[37:13] and value systems and these kind of like the spectrum of
[37:17] experience. So, you know, there might be the
[37:19] experience of like heavily medicalized treatment and then
[37:22] there might be other clients who are kind of like heavily into
[37:25] what we call like complementary therapies like natural packet,
[37:28] naturopathic work, acupuncture, nutrition, Summit camp, which I
[37:33] found really interesting, you know, the science behind it.
[37:35] And I think somewhere in the middle as we are clients will
[37:38] often find lots of success. So it's kind of up to the
[37:41] client. And I think informed decision
[37:43] making is always what I'm after. And so, you know, you ask women
[37:46] who you know, might have been put on the pill, it's exchange
[37:48] for her being painful periods, you know, like in the coming to
[37:51] me, you know, 2630, maybe even, you know, do you know what the
[37:55] pill does? Do you know why you were given
[37:57] the pill? Why were your periods heavy and
[37:59] painful? And I think my problem with that
[38:01] is that that gets given as like a treatment as opposed to
[38:04] looking at what this is going on for this person.
[38:07] What was the education around her being offered that as a
[38:10] choice? I think there's a big inequality
[38:12] in New Zealand and I'm sure this is a global experience.
[38:15] But if I think about endometriosis, right, So we know
[38:18] that that's A cause of heavy and painful periods in Christchurch.
[38:21] And I can speak to this because this is where I live and work.
[38:24] You know, Christchurch Women's Hospital isn't seeing any new
[38:27] groseros for suspected endometriosis because we just
[38:30] don't have the medical staffing to support that diagnosis at the
[38:36] moment. So, you know, if you don't have
[38:37] health insurance, you're either falling out 20K for a surgery or
[38:41] you need other management options.
[38:43] For some woman, you know, their periods are so debilitating that
[38:47] done regulating their ovulation and being put on the pill gives
[38:49] them a quality of life back. I can live, work, mother,
[38:52] whatever it is that they're doing.
[38:53] So I think kind of creating this narrative around like the
[38:56] pillars able is really unhelpful.
[38:58] In the same brief, I also think they're kind of plastering the
[39:01] pillar around as a treatment for things There's also unhelpful.
[39:04] And everyone's experience is really, really different and the
[39:07] values that they bring to healthcare.
[39:08] And like I said before, it's all about informed choice.
[39:10] Do you understand why that was presented to you as an option?
[39:13] You understand that there's lots of different versions of
[39:15] hormonal contraception used to treat things like heavy and
[39:18] painful periods. Do you understand that nothing
[39:20] is permanent like you can get in Marina placed or you can take
[39:24] the iron contraceptive pill and if you have side effects that
[39:27] you don't like, you can change things.
[39:29] We can. Definitely, I think that's such
[39:33] a really, that was put in such a great way because again, it kind
[39:35] of plays into that grey area, right?
[39:37] It's I think social media often plays so loudly in the black and
[39:41] white of this is right and this is wrong.
[39:43] And I think it's really important because I didn't even
[39:45] know that about Christchurch. That's really scary.
[39:48] And I think for a lot of people, like I was someone who was put
[39:50] on the pill that are really underage to manage my period
[39:53] pain. And in hindsight, it let me live
[39:56] my life for a good ten years. The problem I have with the is
[39:59] that I was, if I was just told, hey, we think you might have
[40:01] endometriosis, this is what endometriosis is.
[40:03] This how the pills gonna support you.
[40:05] You'll get to go on and live the next 10 years of your partying
[40:08] and dating lives and travelling lives kind of pain free.
[40:11] Then I would have been cool. That's an informed choice.
[40:13] I will now know what I need to do when I want to save children
[40:15] or whatever that is. Whereas I got put on it without
[40:17] any mention of intermediaries. And that's the problem I have
[40:19] with that, that it was kind of a Band-Aid.
[40:21] And then it kind of came back and I was like, what is going on
[40:24] in my body? Whereas had I had an informed
[40:26] choice, then it would have been a different conversation.
[40:28] So I think sometimes it's less about the pill, right?
[40:30] It's about giving people an informed choice and explaining
[40:33] what the bill does. And how it's going to help the
[40:35] symptoms or the condition that is suspected?
[40:39] Counselling around the prescription, I think.
[40:41] Yeah, yeah. And like understanding that you
[40:44] mentioned just about, you know, going on the pill at a young age
[40:47] to manage the symptoms you're experiencing.
[40:49] Again, like there's no keep referring to woman at the age of
[40:52] 30, but kind of that kind of older, you know, like period.
[40:55] The older no. I just feel like I'm period
[40:58] menopause. Ohh, no, I'm joking.
[40:59] I mean like, you know, beyond teenage years is what I mean.
[41:02] And you know, the brain that you have and the value of your
[41:05] health is so different to what it was when you were staying.
[41:08] You know, like I don't what I'm definitely not saying that 15
[41:10] and 16. You know that you have the the
[41:14] forms prefrontal lobe to understand how to make, you
[41:18] know, take charge of the scanner logical appointment and
[41:21] navigates. But yeah, so if you've you know,
[41:24] we're on the power at young age to manage symptoms and then
[41:26] you're 13. You wanted to come for you to do
[41:28] anything wrong either. Like I think woman takes so much
[41:31] burden and responsibility around like ohh, I wish I hadn't done
[41:34] that. Maybe I would have an answer
[41:35] sooner. But you made the best choice
[41:37] with the information you were given at the time in the
[41:39] situation you had at the time, which was a 15 year old brain,
[41:43] you know, often in a rush GP appointment.
[41:45] I wanted to talk about if you are someone who's coming off the
[41:48] pill for whatever reason, whether it's because you want to
[41:51] start a family or you just wanting to see what your body
[41:53] does off the pill or whatever, what are some ways we can
[41:55] support our body and coming off the pill?
[41:57] For me, I came off the pill at about it cost. 2526 was because
[42:00] I wanted, I was kind of exploring the more natural water
[42:03] birth time and I wasn't needing contraceptive and I was just
[42:06] wanting to see what my body did. And it took me a year to get my
[42:08] period back and then my period pain came back with vengeance,
[42:11] which is where I probably six years later, eventually realised
[42:14] I had endo. But how can we support our
[42:16] bodies? Or can we support our bodies?
[42:18] Or is it good to support our bodies when we're coming off the
[42:20] pill? Definitely.
[42:22] So some of the main symptoms that women will experience is
[42:25] sometimes it's kind of like puberty to point OHH.
[42:28] So with that down regulation of ovulation hormones and and women
[42:32] make testosterone normally, I should also say so and PCs, we
[42:36] often talk about elevated testosterone, but if you look at
[42:38] all my no cascades across the cycle, even in a woman without
[42:41] PCs week also make testosterone. So when you're on the pill, for
[42:45] whatever reason, that suppression of hormones happens,
[42:47] you come off the pill and there's suddenly this
[42:49] upregulation of sex hormones. You can sometimes end up with
[42:52] this elevated testosterone, kind of a big stack of oestrogen and
[42:56] that can funnel into symptoms like acne, which you might have
[42:58] heard of postal acne before. And so one of the side effects
[43:02] of the pill, which was kind of seen as is a positive thing, is
[43:05] the pill also downregulates something called sebum
[43:07] production, which is the oil on your skin that maintains it
[43:10] Liberia. So your skin protects us from
[43:13] the outside world. You need that oil and your skin
[43:15] to kind of make sure bacteria doesn't get in the pulled down
[43:18] regulated that oil production. So it will have that effect of
[43:21] giving you better skin. Basically, you come off the pill
[43:24] and your body is still up regulating their oil production.
[43:27] So you get this big spike of sebum oil production, which can
[43:30] lead to high school acne that alongside their testosterone
[43:32] spike. So I'll often talk about zinc
[43:35] supplementation and women who are wanting to come off the
[43:37] pill, usually like 3 months before coming off the pill and
[43:40] for the six months after coming off the pill to support state
[43:44] hospital acne. Zenker's thought to help with
[43:47] won't tailings or increases that speed of hailing reduces the
[43:50] readiness of the economy, but it also helps with insulin
[43:53] sensitivity as well. So it's like supplementation.
[43:55] I'll often talk about about 20 milligrammes per day is nice and
[43:58] safe. You have to take it with huge.
[44:00] So if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, we want to
[44:03] try this. So zinc nausea, it's not very
[44:05] nice. It only usually asks that he
[44:07] turned 16 minutes. But if you can take it with
[44:10] soda, you won't get this out of bed.
[44:11] So zinc supplementation and also often look at things like
[44:14] magnesium and omega-3 supplementation as well because
[44:18] of again, the skin health benefits from Mega 3, in
[44:21] particular the magnesium to help support home introduction to
[44:24] looking at their oestrogen and produce strong coming back
[44:26] online. Magnesium is also used in the
[44:29] body in the production of stress hormones, which is really
[44:32] natural for us to make. But a lot of women are looking
[44:35] around with that kind of chronic overload of fight inflamed.
[44:39] And so magnesium supplementation for them can be really helpful
[44:42] for that kind of anxiety, mental health stuff, but also really
[44:45] helpful for that six in one production.
[44:47] I think understanding what's normal when you come off the
[44:50] pills or so a really good idea. So you mentioned just 12 months
[44:53] and to get a cycle back after coming off the pill, and that's
[44:56] a bloody long time, but it's actually can sort of normal for
[44:59] 12 to 18. That's when you're coming on
[45:01] Minecraft reception for things to come back online.
[45:03] And it's different depending on the contraception time.
[45:06] So my understanding is that like the Marina is an example, if you
[45:09] were a minority Marina and once you remove the Marina, you
[45:13] should get your period back really quickly.
[45:15] And that's because the Marina wasn't suppressing ovulation.
[45:18] But hormonal contraception is like the pill, whether it's the
[45:21] combined or the producer and only depot injection is another
[45:25] one. And the Jadau rods is another
[45:28] one. They suppress ovulation.
[45:29] So it can take 12 to 18 months unfortunately to get your period
[45:33] back. Well.
[45:34] Interesting Kimley, support ourselves through nutrition.
[45:38] Definitely, it's really hard to give you making me say this all
[45:42] the time, but this ways that people use in so many different
[45:47] behaviours that come into sodas, really hard to give their
[45:49] sweeping education around it. And I mean good kind of habits
[45:53] of health nutrition is that regulating.
[45:55] So making sure that you've got, you know, 3 anchors of good high
[46:00] protein, high fibre, you know, adequate carbohydrate meals
[46:03] across the day. If you were doing stuff like
[46:06] skipping breakfast cause you've got that narrative, you don't
[46:08] have time to eat in the morning, you're dabbling and fasting or
[46:10] something like that, then I think that's something you need
[46:12] to get back in. Making sure you're eating before
[46:15] exercise is another one. So it doesn't have to be a lot
[46:17] of food, but there is evidence 10 to 15 grammes of carbs before
[46:21] training can help with form and pathways and women.
[46:23] So that might look like, you know, a couple of US balls or a
[46:26] small banana before you go IF 45 class.
[46:28] So it doesn't have to be a lot of food, but eating before
[46:31] training, making sure you've got a good balance of food across
[46:34] the day. And I always say to clients,
[46:37] like it's really hard to answer the question in these kind of
[46:39] podcast formats around are you eating enough?
[46:41] But there's often lots of signs of underrating that people might
[46:46] resonate with. Obviously the purpose of talking
[46:49] about adequate eating in this case is ovulation controlled by
[46:52] your brain and that brain needs to know that you've got adequate
[46:55] resource basically in order to let ovulation take place and you
[46:58] need to ovulate before you get a period.
[47:00] So kind of chronic underrating what low energy availability can
[47:04] cause issues with your cycle coming back online.
[47:07] I see that a lot in postpartum women trying to hurry back and
[47:11] finishing breastfeeding. You look at diet and it's just
[47:13] like chaos and not much food going on.
[47:15] And but other signs of underrating can be like really
[47:18] just regular appetite patterns. So kind of not feeling really
[47:21] hungry during the day because you're like in work, you in the
[47:23] zone you've, you know, taken a really small lunch and you get
[47:26] home from work and you're like, and the pantry that's mental
[47:29] dinner. So you've got that just
[47:31] regulation of appetite across the day.
[47:33] If you're someone who's active, like noticing poor recovery
[47:36] time, more soreness with training than normal and poor
[47:39] coordination during training. Lack of motivation we're
[47:41] training is another really big one.
[47:43] Troubles were sleep can sometimes be underrating as
[47:45] well. And there's lots of correlation
[47:48] between irritable bowel syndrome or I BS and disordered eating
[47:51] patterns. So what I'm trying to say is our
[47:54] cycle coming back is a great sign of nutritional adequacy,
[47:57] But there's lots of other kind of clues might be happening for
[48:00] us that there might be something happening with those.
[48:02] You can also ask yourself, like, imagine everything you do on the
[48:05] day. So like, just, you know, you
[48:06] imagine running a business times two.
[48:09] Yeah. And managing all the
[48:11] appointments at your chronic health conditions require.
[48:14] You've got a toddler in the middle of a sleep regression.
[48:17] You know, You know, the question I might ask you is, are you
[48:19] happy with everything that you do on a day, mentally,
[48:23] physically, emotionally on a nutrition that you're currently
[48:26] taking on board? And if there is someone else
[48:28] that you really love to care for, like your sister or
[48:30] something, would you be happy if they ate the same and had the
[48:33] same responsibilities that you have to work in your day?
[48:36] And I think a lot of women can answer that question really
[48:38] intuitively, Like, Nope, wouldn't be happy.
[48:40] Absolutely not. You know, like if you you know,
[48:44] it's 10:00 at the time of this recording and if you don't feed
[48:47] your daughter, I got the dog food and walked, but you haven't
[48:49] heard anything yourself. Like when those little habits
[48:52] can add up overtime. I did have a smoothie, but Marla
[48:55] is also obsessed with my smoothie so I now get half.
[48:57] Share it. Yeah.
[48:59] Share it and like yes, the obvious answer for anyone
[49:01] listening would be double the smoothie.
[49:03] I agree. But everyday I actually double
[49:04] the smoothie as the day she doesn't want it.
[49:07] So I'm like I'm not wasting a banana or my flax seeds or all
[49:10] of my body fancy protein causes. Yeah, so I go hungry.
[49:13] I need to start adding links and boiled eggs that I will just eat
[49:15] or something. Okay, I want to jump into it
[49:18] really quick, quick via they should be hopefully quick
[49:20] fairies and then that will be right, which is epic.
[49:24] I feel like we've focused on PCs and hormonal contraceptive,
[49:27] which I think is 2 things that people are really interested by.
[49:29] So I think that is just shifts cus if you ask me, okay coffee
[49:34] before breakfast, yeah, you'll know.
[49:36] Do you know what? I actually think it's fine, I
[49:40] know it. Stay tuned for the whole podcast
[49:42] episode on that. As long as you're eating
[49:45] breakfast. OK, was Food Train just saying
[49:49] on social media this year? Ohh carnivore diet, Graham.
[49:56] One food Jewish woman would eat more of.
[49:59] Hmm, eggs. Favourite snack for stable
[50:05] energy? Oh, oh, cottage cheese and that
[50:11] grainy cracker wet. Well, you don't like my stand.
[50:16] No, sorry. No, that was it.
[50:17] That was a young. You're like.
[50:19] Ohh, no, no, I would never. Yeah, you're young.
[50:22] And cheese Granny cracker. Something Yum.
[50:24] I actually told Todd that we still haven't done the viral
[50:27] cottage cheese mince bowl. Have you done that yet?
[50:29] The hot honey. Ah yes, Yum delish.
[50:32] Really, because my head cannot get around cottage cheese with
[50:35] mince and honey. I'm like, I'm going to give it a
[50:38] go because everyone raves about it.
[50:39] It's on my list if you could ban one piece of PCOS advice
[50:45] forever. What would it be?
[50:48] I just want to do a whole forecast with you on on.
[50:50] Debunking was fun. Do you believe in cheat meals?
[50:54] Ohh I hate that word. Shape implies you doing
[50:57] something wrong. No, I don't like it.
[51:00] Smoothies for breakfast, supportive or sugar bottom.
[51:03] Ohh, such a harsh word. Fine, fine.
[51:07] Good cause I just said well. Yeah.
[51:09] Protein powder worth it or not needed?
[51:12] I think worth it for a lot of people.
[51:15] If someone could only change one habit to support their hormones,
[51:18] what should it be? Ohh I'm just with thousand ideas
[51:23] in my head. One habit.
[51:25] You eat before exercise. Like that?
[51:30] Lemon water helpful or hype? Helpful, but Whitford.
[51:35] Favourite gut loving food? Anything that fermented
[51:39] sauerkraut, Kimche, Kenshire, everything's problem.
[51:44] Yum, I love that. Is Granny.
[51:47] Cracker. Yay.
[51:49] Yum. I need to.
[51:51] I need a snack more. I'm not a snacker, but I need to
[51:53] get some more snacks in my life. Still, Lush.
[51:56] Thanks, Sarah. That was Yeah, for that.
[51:58] I think we are next time, literally going to do a whole
[52:00] debunking episode because I just think it's so fun.
[52:02] And I'm someone who gets so overwhelmed by these bloody
[52:05] carnival diets and lemon water, so it's so helpful.
[52:08] To have people. Debunk it.
[52:10] And hopefully this was really helpful, people with PCs and
[52:12] those coming on or off the hormonal contraceptive, because
[52:16] I know there's a lot of questions that go unanswered
[52:18] around that. So I know this will be very
[52:19] helpful. Thanks, Sarah.
[52:21] Thank you for having me. Long live the coffee woo.
[52:32] Thanks for listening to The Cyclist.
[52:34] To join the community. Follow us at We Are the Cyclist,
[52:38] Your cycle decoded.

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