Yesterday I had the honor and pleasure of speaking to a group of eating disorder professionals in Santa Monica, California, about what happens when an eating disorder and PCOS collide in the same person.
Here are some of the statistics I shared with them:
**Women with PCOS have a higher lifetime incidence of depressive episodes, social phobia, and eating disorders than controls.
**Suicide attempts are seven times more common in women with PCOS than in other women.
**In a sample of women with facial hirsutism, the prevalence of eating disorders is 36.3% (Compared to about 10% in the general female population).
**Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and poor social adjustment are more common in participants suffering from an eating disorder, and the presence of PCOS was universal in eating disordered cases.
Those are some pretty heavy statistics…and the points I was making to the audience were that medical doctors who treat PCOS need to understand its emotional and behavioral components, and professionals who treat eating disorders cannot be effective if they don't understand the hormonal implications of PCOS. You need to know how to treat both.
The good news is, the professionals in the room were interested in helping. And inCYST dietitians happen to be very interested in disordered eating as well as PCOS. So we're ready and very eager to help you negotiate your way to solutions for both. inCYST providers Ellen Reiss Goldfarb, Diane Whelan, and Mary Donkersloot were with me in Santa Monica, putting a friendly face onto PCOS and eating disorder help and networking with capable and sympathetic doctors and psychologists. With the teambuilding that happened, I have to say, anyone in SoCal who needs help, is going to be in very capable hands!
Please check out our referral list and reach out to someone who can help.
If the topic of eating disorders and PCOS interests you, be sure to catch Ellen Reiss Goldfarb, RD, (West Los Angeles) in her interview on the topic on PCOS Challenge, Wednesday, June 24, 6 pm EDT.
REFERENCES
Mansson M, Holte J, Landin-Wilhelmsen K, Dahlgren E, Johansson A, Landen M. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome are often depressed or anxious--a case control study. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2008 Sep;33(8):1132-8. Epub 2008.
Morgan J, Scholtz S, Lacey H, Conway G. The prevalence of eating disorders in women with facial hirsutism: an epidemiological cohort study. Int J Eat Disord. 2008 Jul;41(5):427-31.