I love you all. Still have a few questions.

momof13yoCYSTER · 03-03-2003, 12:26 PM

I can not say thank you enough for your messages, questions and experiences that you post. I am so encouraged right now. My daughter, 13, was recently diagnosed with PCOS and for the last year she has been having a hard time because of the symptoms and just not knowing what's going on with her body.

Anyway, I was wondering how much donq quai and vitex should I give her. I decided not to follow the endo. dr. advice, which was put her on bcp, but start with diet and alternative supplements. Today, I started her (along with myself) on the sugar busters diet. My goal for her is to start af on a regular basis. She started af at 10 years old, but has been without for about a year.

One other question, we told her grandmothers and an aunt about her condition and surprisingly, one of the first questions that came from two of them is, "Is she going to be gay?" When telling someone about pcos, how can I better explain it without that being an issue. I usually say her body is not producing enough female hormones to regulate her cycles, so in turn the male hormones that we all have is more dominate right now.(Reason for the excess body hair and loss of hair on the head). I also tell them that the basis of this is high insulin levels, which causes obesity. Please correct me if I am wrong. I don't plan on telling too many more people, but I do want to be informed. Thanks.

scarlet · 03-03-2003, 03:20 PM

Hi Mom

Doing SugarBusters is a good start. However, beware the low fat advice in the book. More and more evidence is indicating that it's hydrogenated and trans fat that are dangerous rather than saturated fat. Also, I'd reccomend reading "The SchwartzBein Principle" and "The Diet Cure" for nutrition rather than diet per se information.

I am not sure about dosage because I always take my herbs in tincture form which is measured by drops. The important thing is to take them in the morning if possible.

Your explanation of PCOS seems pretty good, and make sure to tell them that there is no evidence that this condition effects sexual orientation. Finally, the insulin impacts on the sex hormones also, not just causing obesity which is why there can be thin cysters with I.R.

Scarlet

soaperMOM · 03-04-2003, 03:30 AM

My advice on the dosage would be to follow the dosage on the bottle. Being 13 I would assume that she is able to take a full adult dose. If you are concerned with it being too much then take a slightly lower dose. Often there is a dose range listed like 1 capsule 3x daily, so she could take it 2x instead. I am not saying this for anything specific just as an example. Try to keep the vitex under 1000mg per day and the dong quai about the same. Make sure she doesn't use the dong quai while menstruating as it can increase bleeding and if she needs surgery for any reason it should be mentioned to the dr as it is a blood thinner.
I applaud you for trying early to help her deal with this. You may not be able to keep it totally under control but the sooner you deal with it the better the chances. And staying away from the BCP is definately a good idea.
I would strongly recommend you get ahold of the book Herbal Healing for Women by Rosemary Gladstar. It has wonderful suggestions for teenage girls, for ovarian cysts, infertility, irregular cycles and also explains what many of the herbs do.
I would also suggest that she take something for her liver which will help her body deal with the excess hormones. Some choices are burdock root, dandelion root, milk thistle. Rosemary Gladstar recommends a lot of combo formulas, tea formulas etc but I just used those as a guide and personally take most of my herbs in capsule form.
Some other herbs I take are kelp- this helps with the thyroid and can also aid in weight loss and Siberian Ginseng which helps the adrenal glands deal with stress which in turn lessens the testosterone which is released during stress situations. If she is dealing with anxiety/insomnia/depression which are all common with PCOS then you may want to add this. Chamomile tea can also help with stress.
Best to you with your weight loss and health control.

Sheri

Maureen77 · 03-07-2003, 04:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by momof13yoCYSTER
...we told her grandmothers and an aunt about her condition and surprisingly, one of the first questions that came from two of them is, "Is she going to be gay?" When telling someone about pcos, how can I better explain it without that being an issue. I usually say her body is not producing enough female hormones to regulate her cycles, so in turn the male hormones that we all have is more dominate right now.(Reason for the excess body hair and loss of hair on the head). I also tell them that the basis of this is high insulin levels, which causes obesity. Please correct me if I am wrong. I don't plan on telling too many more people, but I do want to be informed. Thanks.

Oh for goodness sakes I just have to comment on this --

You have a perfect understanding of PCOS, but maybe you need not explain the female/male hormone thing to people who are kind of old fashioned in their thinking! Maybe just say an imbalance of hormones due to high insulin causes irregular periods and skin and hair problems.

What a good mama you are

I know every cyster that reads this wishes you were theirs

Tas · 03-07-2003, 06:16 AM

I totally agree with Maureen - just say a hormone imbalance instead of specifying male/female.

Keep up the good work

BTW, I know from personal experience that it can be very difficult to change a 13 y.o.'s diet, especially if she's rather moody with the hormones being out of whack

If you have a good relationship and she is understanding about the reasons for doing it, that is great. If not, it could be really difficult. Very small, gradual, almost unnoticeable changes would be the way to go in that case.

All the best.