These are the 3 things your doctor looks for to potentially diagnose pcos:

Irregular periods. Women with pcos usually don’t ovulate on a schedule so their periods can be all over the place.

Hyperandrogensim. This means excessive male hormones like testosterone..  this can look like hair thinning, facial and body hair, or even just out of range on bloodwork.

Cysts on the ovaries. A vaginal ultrasound tells us if your ovaries are actually polycystic, which often looks like a string of pearls on ultrasound.

Women with pcos usually have insulin abnormalities so docs are also looking for signs of that like excess body fat in the middle (common in pcos women of all bmi), acne, blood sugar swings, difficulty losing weight and more.

Does this sound like you?

Lately I’ve been working on videos about pcos. These are mostly on tik tok and thank you to all the people who have come from over there!

I remember how scary it was when I was first diagnosed, wondering what the future would hold.  Would I get diabetes? Would my bmi be out of my control? And even more, would I ever be able to have children?

At 20 years old I wasn’t really wanting to think that far ahead but I began my research because I knew that above all, I wanted to be informed.

Anxiety is very common in pcos or any chronic health condition.  In part, it’s because there’s a deep health component, but in part it’s because having a chronic condition makes you think about the future in a way you wouldn’t have before.

One of the best cures for anxiety for me is information.  So I began my adulthood on a search which led me to eventually finding my career.  That initial passion to help women who were suffering from strangely a lack of information and information overload still drives me.

PCOS is a basket diagnosis.  There’s no end to the confusion and misinformation you can encounter when you stumble down this rabbit hole.

But over the next few weeks I’m going to attempt to condense it as best I can.

If you are struggling with pcos and want to hear deeper discussions on this, my podcast (An Amber a Day: The Functional Nutrition Podcast) is a good place to start.  I also specialize in working with PCOS one on one.  You can apply for a discovery session with me here.

You can also join my PCOS community (here) where we do weekly meal plans and special videos to help you understand more!