I have been a silent reader of this message board but now I feel I have enough experience and knowledge to make my own contributions.
I have noticed some misconceptions with people on this forum about trying to find a cure for their symptoms and I would like to give my advice. Please I am not trying to give a lecture, I just feel if my experience helps another lady get 1 step closer to her cure then I have made a difference. We should try to help each other in our battle against this nasty illness.
A little about me. I am 24yrs old single 5'4" 125lbs woman. My main problem is unwanted hair and acne ( I have managed to cure). I have never missed a period so far. I use only herbal remedies and no prescription medicines.
My case may be different from yours but I still feel my advice may be applicable to others in some way.
Here is a list of misconceptions:
1) Please don't take a cocktail of 10 different herbs all at the same time. Because you will never know which herb is helping you and which herb is harming you. Take 1 herb at a time and note down your experience +ve or -ve in a diary or on this forum so that you wont forget in the future.
2)Herbs don't take 6 months or forever to take effect. If you are keen on your body's symptoms you can notice effects within a matter of days, I would say 2 weeks to be on the safe side. So if you are not noticing the benefits of a herb after a month and someone tells you to be patient and take it for 6 months don't believe them, accept the herb is not working for you and stop taking it.
3) Dont take studies you read online or posts on this forum as bible truths. Studies may not be 100% accurate and if someone else has posted +ve results with a herb she may be taking another herb along with it or her body may just be different from yours. So dont blindly believe any study or post you read, try the herb out for yourself and if it doesnt work for you then it doesnt work for you. Dont take higher and higher doses of it because it might make your symptoms worse.
4)You dont need to take expensive hormone tests to find out if a herb is having a +ve effect. If you be attentive to your body's cues then you can find out for you self. For ex, I pay attention to how many days my leg hair that I shaved or my chin hair that I waxed takes to grow back. I also pay attention to my boob size and my belly fat. Also face acne. All these can tell you if a herb is helping you or harming you.
5) Lastly please write down your experience with a herb in a diary because 1 yr laster you may forget why you stopped taking it and you may have to take it again to find out why. Its also good to share your +ve or -ve experience on this board so that other women can use it as pointers.
6) Please be aware of the things you eat. Normal everyday things like coffee and lemon or orange juice do affect your hormones, so be consious of it.
7) If you are overweight, the best thing you can do to help your symptoms is to lose weight.
I hope this will help someone. And remember PCOS can be cured. I have done it in the past but then I got over ambitious last year and wanted to try a whole cocktail of herbs and my symptoms came back and now I am back to square 1. But I have not lost hope. All you need to do is find out the right combination of herbs that help you and eat healthy and excercise well.
I forgot 1 more thing:
8) Estrogen Dominance doesn't meant you have too much estrogen. It just mean the ratio of estrogen to progesterone is off. So you can still have very little estrogen and still be estrogen dominant. which I think is the case with many PCOSers. You can find out if you have little estrogen if your boobs are small etc. In that case try to find herbs that increase estrogen, it will help your symptoms, dont be misled with the term estrogen dominance.
Some valid points.
I did want to add, with estrogen dominance... increasing your estrogen will not always increase your progesterone accordingly. You still need to watch the ratio. To help with ED, you need to find the cause of the lower progesterone ratio.
Also, just because you have small boobs now does not mean you are ED now. During your maturation (teenage years) you could have suffered from lower estrogen which caused the smaller boobs.
__________________ Me
DSS 5/30/04 (always will be mine)
I have done it in the past but then I got over ambitious last year and wanted to try a whole cocktail of herbs and my symptoms came back and now I am back to square 1.
how did your symptoms come back by taking herbs???? O_O
linz050565 - if your problem is unwanted hair and acne then saw palmetto and apple cider vinegar is the best bet. The acne should disappear in days but the hair will take few months, but if the rate of growth slows down then you know its working.
someone - yes herbs can make your symptoms worse bec all herbs do affect the hormones one way or the other. For ex, I have less of estrogen so after I started taking Evening primrose oil which reduces estrogen my symptoms became worse. Same with Vitex, it made my unwanted hair worse than before I started out. So dont think all herbs will make your condition better, it can make it worse than before you started out. So dont get all excited when you read about a new herb, use caution thats what I want to tell women on this board who take a whole cocktail of a ton of different herbs
Very informative and inspirational post. Seems like far too often most people discount herbal remedies when they may end up being far easier on you and more effective than common prescription options.
Fighting PCOS - My 2 cents 
One more thing 
