QUICK LINKS: PCOS and Eating Disorders (Studies suggest they may be related)
Quote:
PCOS is also associated with a high incidence of eating disorders including binge eating and fasting. Eighty percent of people with PCOS practice binge eating. The first step in weight loss treatment is to learn to be mindful. Katrin Kratina, MA, RD, LD developed a food journal to help identify hunger and satiety cues. The food journal also teaches about your nutrition needs and your eating habits. Brenda Bryan RD, LD/N a nutritionist for PCOS women at the Center for Applied Reproductive Sciences, uses the Food Pyramid and American Diabetes Guidelines of reducing calories by 250-300 per day from saturated fat and carbohydrates to counsel women with PCOS.
SOURCE: Nutrition Intervention for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
Good articles, Kat. However, I'm having a hard time understanding if
1) having an eating disorder (which would surely create some metabolic and hormonal imbalances in the body) creates PCOS in an individual? or
2) if having PCOS (and all of the self-esteem and body image issues associated with it) creates a "breeding ground" for eating diorders in women who may already be somewhat susceptible to it?
Good articles, Kat. However, I'm having a hard time understanding if
1) having an eating disorder (which would surely create some metabolic and hormonal imbalances in the body) creates PCOS in an individual? or
2) if having PCOS (and all of the self-esteem and body image issues associated with it) creates a "breeding ground" for eating diorders in women who may already be somewhat susceptible to it?
It's EXTREMELY chicken or the egg.
In a nutshell - I come from a fat family with IR issues galore. I was a fat kid when at age 8 my pediatrician told my mom to put me on a diet. I was 80 pounds, he wanted me to lose 20. Well there's nothing like having your mom tell all your friends' moms not to feed you when you come over to make you view food as forbidden... So I never lost those 20 pounds, instead started on a life of sneaking food - if my parents left me home alone I'd play "how many twinkies and cookies can I shove in my mouth?" I'd just eat and eat! By 7th grade I was 180 pounds and decided enough was enough, became anorexic, then bulimic... which lasted for years and years and years. I was bulimic through my 1st pregnancy, through my fertility treatments... I'd have better periods and worse periods but it was like it was always THERE, I knew it would be back. It's really only the past year (I am now 31) that I can say "I am not bulimic."
Anyway - I was in treatment a few times as a teenager and back then they'd keep you for MONTHS. Months of very controlled eating a la the diabetic diet - they taught us "exchanges" to help us learn to eat normally. It wasn't low carb, it wasn't anything fancy, it was very balanced and very controlled. Both times I was in treatments 2-3 months, I began having periods again. Then I'd get out and start binge/purge again and they'd stop.
So without the history of IR I doubt I'd have gone down the path of ED... but since better eating brought my periods back... I definately think the ED made the IR/PCOS worse...
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"We've tried to wash our hands of all of this
We never talk of our lacking relationships
And how we're guilt-stricken, sobbing, with our heads on the floor
We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip..."
- the verve pipe
Researchers have investigated whether women with BN are insulin resistant and examined the relationship between insulin and androgen levels, ovarian morphology, and severity of bulimic behavior.4 Although their study did not find that women with BN had insulin resistance, they did find that they were chronically hyperinsulinemic, with 10 of 12 normal weight subjects having polycystic ovaries.4 This leads researchers to speculate that hyperinsulinemia may be one reason why BN and PCOS are connected, with the bulimic pattern of bingeing followed by starvation and/or vomiting perpetuating the insulin response and leading to the development of polycystic ovaries.4 It may also suggest why some women who are overweight or obese develop PCOS through overfeeding.
There is some encouraging news: It appears that when women with PCOS and BN can return to normalized eating patterns with treatment involving cognitive behavioral therapy, it can result in improved ovarian morphology.6 Thus, chronic bingeing can worsen the appearance of polycystic ovaries, but ovarian morphology does seem to resolve when bingeing ceases and normal eating patterns are established.
If bulimia can bring about the cysts and irregular cycles, and recovery can make the ovaries go back to normal and cycles return, it seems to me like someone is suggesting a possible cause. Maybe it's not the cause for everyone, and maybe recovery doesn't make everyone normal, but a link has been seen, and if getting over the bulimia helps things, it doesn't seem far fetched to say that in some, the bulimia causes the PCOS.
One problem with knowing is so many girls develop EDs right around when their periods start, so a lot of women don't even know what normal is for their bodies. They only know their hormonal profiles under the effects of the ED. My ED started about a year after my periods and I hated my periods so I didn't pay much mind to them other than to hope they'd stop for some reason. And hey I got my wish! It's a huge status thing in the ED world to not have periods - you're not REALLY sick if you still have periods. So when my periods stopped altogether, I was glad. I didn't think about what it could have meant. I figured it meant I was doing my eating disorder right.
I do see IR in my family tree - but I know when I am doing well I do have periods and my body behaves normally enough. So had I not gone all-out bulimic, maybe I never wouldn't have gotten full-blown PCOS. Which means, maybe the bulimia caused my PCOS. I don't know for sure that it did, but no one can say for sure that it didn't.
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"We've tried to wash our hands of all of this
We never talk of our lacking relationships
And how we're guilt-stricken, sobbing, with our heads on the floor
We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip..."
- the verve pipe
...it seems to me like someone is suggesting a possible cause.
Polycystic ovaries, and polycystic ovarian syndrome aren't necessarily the same thing.
Women can have polycystic ovaries without having pcos, and not all women with pcos have ovarian cysts.
The article (to me) does not seem to suggest that eating disorders cause pcos (the syndrome). It asks the question...and does, however, point to literature indicating that eating disorders contribute to ovarian cysts in some women.
The presence of cysts is not required for a diagnosis of pcos.
That said: I suppose it's entirely possible that eating disorders might be the root cause of pcos, however, I don't see that in the above article.
__________________
Hey, SoulCysters! Need to eat more veggies, but can't find recipes??
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QUICK LINKS: PCOS and Eating Disorders (Studies suggest they may be related) 
