If you've been enjoying the PCOS Challenge Radio Show, you'll love Sasha's latest venture! Dr. Van Dyke, Ellen Goldfarb, Gretchen Kubacky, and myself will be presenting more in-depth seminars on our areas of specialty.
Topics to be covered include:
Nutrition Essentials for PCOS--Monika M. Woolsey, MS, RD Tuesday, October 20
Eating Disorders and PCOS--Ellen Reiss Goldfarb, RD Tuesday, October 27
Living Happier and Healthier with PCOS--Gretchen Kubacky, PsyD Tuesday, November 3
Hair Removal Solutions for Women With PCOS--Susan Van Dyke, MD Tuesday, November 10
The Natural Solution to Overcoming PCOS--Julie Walsh, ND Tuesday, November 17
All webinars will be held from 8:00 — 9:00 Eastern Time.
Space is limited for the live sessions, but if you can't make any of the live sessions, they will all be recorded and made available on CD.
Please join us! We've all been working hard on this project and it's all been especially for YOU!
You ever have one of those days where everything just seems to come together in the right way? Your hair looks good, your face is clear and bright, your outfit is colorful and flattering, and people are just responding to you in a good way. You’re looking good, and you know it! You FEEL good.
On the flip side, thought, PCOS is there to drag you down when it comes to appearance. We’ve got moustaches, partial and full beards, hair loss, hair in inappropriate places, excess weight (or sometimes not enough weight), acne, skin darkening, skin tags, and other cosmetic indignities galore. How on earth are you supposed to feel good in this body when it’s presenting you with these problems on a daily basis?! Moustaches and muffin tops, indeed!
And that’s just the external stuff. Inside, there are the imbalances that lead to mood swings, depression, and even thoughts of suicide. Insulin resistance, thyroid problems, and other health concerns lurk in the background. All of this can be physically and emotionally exhausting. And when you’re exhausted, it’s easy to give up on appearance. One thing I’ve learned about PCOS is that, although it threatens your physical appearance with masculinizing and unflattering characteristics, you can use positive attention to your appearance to lift your mood.
Part of what I always focus on with my clients is self-care. This may be emotional, spiritual, or physical in nature. I’ve observed that taking time to tend to your appearance as much as reasonably possible (because we don’t want the opposite problem of busting out your budget on shopping, or spending all of your play time at the salon!) results in feeling better. The American Cancer Society sponsors a program called “Look Good, Feel Better,” for women with cancer – it’s a day of make-up application instruction, wig and other hair tricks, and so on – sounds trivial in the face of cancer, but it’s miraculous in how the women respond.
PCOS isn’t cancer, to be sure, but the principles are the same – look good, feel better! I won’t go so far as to say that I “prescribe” pedicures, but maybe I should, and I have in fact recommended them, along with shopping days and other beauty services. Well-tended toes, a pretty top, or some dangly earrings will spark up the girly-girl in most women. For women with PCOS, this is a place that needs a little extra attention. You deserve it.
If there’s something you’ve been neglecting – a haircut, shopping for new bras (yes, you in the stretched out ultra-comfy bra that you haven’t replaced since last year – the one that isn’t doing your breasts any justice at all — I’m talking to you!), doing a wardrobe clean-out and ditching all the unflattering items – it’s a great time to do it. Right now, this very moment. Call your stylist, grab a bag to be filled and donated to Goodwill, or make a call to find out about laser hair removal in your area. Whatever it is, the action will make you feel better.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She specializes in counseling women and couples who are coping with infertility, PCOS, and related endocrine disorders and chronic illnesses.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. HOUSE or her practice, or obtain referrals in the Los Angeles area, please visit her website at www.drhousemd.com, or e-mail her at Gretchen@drhousemd.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.
I spent some time with Susan Van Dyke, MD, yesterday, a board certified dermatologist interested in PCOS, who will soon be in our network. She demonstrated a new laser hair removal technique, LightSheer DUET, which is quicker and less painful than older laser techniques.
I know virtually nothing about what dermatologists do; in fact, the only thing I knew about laser treatments before yesterday was that people I know who have had them hated them because they were so painful. So I was curious to find out what this new procedure offered to inCYSTERs.
The pain from laser treatments comes from the heat in the laser beams. The earlier machines apparently had small surface areas, meaning quite a few laser shots had to be applied in order to cover a skin area. The newer"gun" is quite a bit larger, meaning far fewer"shots" need to be applied in order to do the job. In addition, the older machines were not as precise at hitting their target (the hair follicle), so a lot of the laser heat didn't hit the target and was wasted on surrounding tissue. The newer, more precise technique zaps pretty much what only needs to be zapped, meaning less skin heat…therefore far less pain.
I actually observed a procedure (which happened to be a man's back), a large surface area. The patient was relaxed and talked to us throughout the entire treatment, and a half hour later, had hardly any red skin. A very different experience than what friends of mine have described with the old technique.
When I tweeted yesterday that I was going to observe this procedure, an inCYSTER responded that laser hair removal was a useless exercise, because the hair grows back. That's likely true, if that's all you do! Laser hair reduction is permanent hair removal for currently existing hair, but there is still a need to work to balance hormones in order to alter the environment that promotes hair growth. What Dr. Van Dyke and I would like to do, is work together in a way that hair that is already there is removed with her DUET procedure, and then help these women learn new lifestyle choices that help to discourage the appearance of future hair.
It's going to be fun to work together, as I know this is a very distressing aspect of PCOS that affects self esteem, mood, etc…and that can lead to binge eating, which can only worsen the hair growth. The possibility that a simple dermatological procedure can help break this vicious cycle and jump start PCOS management in a positive direction, is very exciting.
You can learn more about Dr. Van Dyke at this link.
The last two clients I evaluated are struggling with acne. And recently, we were linked to an acne care website that is bringing in a whole new audience. So I thought it might be a good time to talk a little bit more about this topic.
First of all, thanks to Fran Kerr for linking to Susan Dopart's testimonial about flax and fish oil! It was a great way for our two organizations to become connected. I am going to put Fran's blog (http://www.highonhealth.org/) in our resource list because she has so much great information to offer. Not just on skin, but on living healthy in general.
Secondly, for those of you who are coming to us from Fran's blog/website, I'd like to ask you if you have ever heard about polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). It's the focus of this website, and many women find out they have it when they seek help for their acne. And…many women don't get that assessment. I actually had a dermatologist tell me she'd rather just give her patients birth control pills and end the appointment rather than get into it because it's such a complicated diagnosis.
A very common scenario is just that. A young girl goes to the dermatologist for her acne, gets birth control pills, takes them for 10 years or so, goes off them, tries to get pregnant…and can't. What happened was that the birth control pills treated the symptom…but essentially shoved the problem under the rug…where it continued to fester and create havoc elsewhere in the body.
So I want to take a moment to list the symptoms of PCOS for those of you who might have had this experience but either didn't have a doctor who wanted to deal with it, or who had a doctor who thought if you just"got your act together" you wouldn't have the problem.
Symptoms of PCOS include: A family history of infertility, irregular periods, or diabetes Being of an ethnic heritage that tends to have a high rate of diabetes A history of early puberty (first period at 11 years or younger) A history of taking medication for depression, bipolar disorder, seizure disorder, epilepsy, or migraine? A history of gestational diabetes in any of your pregnancies. An android ("apple shaped") body type (measure your waist to hip ratio; greater than.8) Irregular periods (or none at all) Dark velvety patches of skin on you neck, groin, or in your armpits Hair loss or male balding spots Difficulty losing weight Intense cravings for carbohydrates or sweets Problems conceiving Decreased sex drive Excess hair growth on your face, like a mustache or beard Excess hair on your chest or back Acne on your face, chest or back
If you see yourself painted in this symptom set, please print this out with your symptoms marked and show them to your physician. Ten percent of all women who have this syndrome will be diabetic by age 40, and with diabetes comes a whole other list of problems.
And keep checking back here. There are lots of ways to manage PCOS that do not involve medication, and we'd love to help you learn about them. In fact, the list of practitioners at the right is a list of registered dietitians who have taken the time to complete a 20 hour course in the management of PCOS. They are just waiting to hear from you.
For more information, please visit my web page on the topic: http://www.afterthediet.com/polycystic.htm
Have a wonderful week, it's a short one with the upcoming holiday!
