The Hemp Connection [Search results for insurance] 

Ringing in the New Year with visions, dreams and intentions is part of our contemporary culture. The ball drops in New York; the sun rises wherever you are, and we all seem to sense change is in the air. January 1 marks the time when many people decide to make a change and transform some aspect of their lives in ways they believe will make their lives better. Often resolutions are related to health and well-being. Here’s a new resolution: recognize health insurance is not heathcare; and vow to seek healthcare, not a payment system.
For the approximately 45% of Americans with health insurance through their employers, January 1 is also the start of the year for most health insurance policy annual contracts. The same holds true for the approximately 11% of Americans have some other type of insurance, and the 25% with a government plan. Whatever the type of insurance, it’s likely the insurance company changed the rules as of 12:01 January 1. And their changes may have a substantial impact on the care of your health, impacting what you envision as a means to have a better life in 2012.
The insurance company didn’t consult you on the policy changes. They didn’t ask you want you need or want to feel and be healthy. In the paradigm of the 80% of insured Americans, insurance companies are in the driver’s seat to decide what healthcare is and who can provide it. It could mean different types of treatments are covered or not covered; different types of allowable “doctors” are considered acceptable or not acceptable; and of course it all revolves around a method to parse the dollars between providers, patients and insurance companies – the power triad of today’s “healthcare system.”
Making money in the healthcare system: insurance & pharmaceutical companies

Insurance is a contractual payment system. It’s a method to pay to certain people what the company determines is allowable care, under the terms of the policy. The payment system has very little to do with actual care that relieves suffering and improves well-being. When you let a payment system determine what care or well-being is, that substantially limits your options to make your life better in any way that resembles your personal concept of well-being.

Stephan A. Schwartz, a regular contributor to Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing has coined our current healthcare system as the “illness profit system.” And there seems to be plenty of profit to go around. Insurance companies, by their very nature of being corporations, have as their number one job to return shareholder value – to make money. CEO’s get paid a lot of money to do this. The heads of health insurance companies, healthcare consulting firms and other health related companies are among the highest paid executives in any industry. According to the LA Times, McKesson CEO John Hammergren received $145.3 million in compensation in 2010. Fierce HealthCare reports Omnicare CEO John Figueroa was compensated 98 million last year; and Aetna’s Ronald Williams took home $57.8 million before retiring in April 2010.

Pharmaceutical companies are also big winners in the power triad. In 2009-2010, seven of the big pharmaceutical companies paid 17,700 presenters a total of $281.9 million to promote their products. These presentations to physicians were instrumental in a"combined prescription drug sales amounting to 36 percent of the $300 billion U.S. market in 2009." Only 10% of what big pharma makes is spent on research to cure diseases and save lives.

The losers in this system: patients and physicians

According to Bloomberg.com, “Forty-nine million Americans reported spending 10 percent or more of their income on insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs last year, according to the Commonwealth Fund study.” Patients spend more and more. As of 2008, 38% of adults used some sort of “complementary alternative medicine” (CAM). Anything labeled CAM is generally not covered by insurance, with rare exceptions of some limited use of acupuncture or chiropractic. Not only do people spend money on insurance premiums, they’re paying providers directly for health care that actually works for them. No wonder we have the most expensive health care system in the world.

Many M.D.s are also struggling with this current power triad. Holistic physicians who want to spend more than 7 – 10 minutes with their patients, and want to provide CAM care that works are seeking ways walk away from the insurance model, and serve patients in ways that help patients fundamentally heal. While they’re reluctant to talk about it, a recent CNN article discusses the economic challenges for M.D.s trying to operate in this system, and how many of them are going broke. http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/smallbusiness/doctors_broke/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3&hpt=hp_c1

Your resolution for the care of your health

The month of January didn’t even exist until about 700 B.C. when the Romans adjusted the calendar and move the “new year” from March to the new January. Julius Caesar introduced the Roman calendar, a solar-based system, in 46 B.C., and decreed the new year would be January 1. During the middle ages the new year was celebrated on various days in December, January and March. Even today, cultures around the world celebrate the new year on dozens of different days.

So, while January 1 has passed, any day can be the start of a new year. What will you resolve about the care of your health? There is an opportunity for transformation just as significant, if not more significant, than the common “eat right and exercise” resolution. At the core of your being, what’s your vision for the well-being of yourself, your family, or even the planet? Bring your vision, your resolution, to fruition by really knowing what you mean by “health” and “care” and spend your money accordingly. Resolve to not confuse health insurance with healthcare. Those two terms mean vastly different things.

About the author:

Deb Andelt is co-owner of Experience In Motion, which equips organizations with tools to curate meaningful experiences for customers and employees. Deb’s personal journey from decay to wellbeing inspired an emphasis in improving healthcare experiences for patients and practitioners by focusing on experiences that heal and self-caring as a way of organizational being. www.experienceinmotion.net.

Over the last week, the women in our Facebook group have been commiserating about the hard time they have achieving reimbursement from their insurance companies for their health care. I'm starting to sense that for many, they've defined their journey to health as beginning, if and only if…when and only when…insurance will pick up the tab for it. And until that day comes, they sit, feeling paralyzed, defeated, and invalidated.

So I thought I'd share a few of my professional insurance stories with you to give you an idea of how insurance really works. It's not really what you think.

One physician told me several years ago, she knows there is a lot of PCOS in her practice. But since it is a complex disease, she doesn't make the diagnosis. Why? It's not a profitable position. Her exact words to me were,"I make more money writing scripts for runny noses. PCOS is a Pandora's box. And I have medical school loans to pay."

Another physician invited me to lunch awhile back, she'd started a weight management program and she wanted to partner with a dietitian. Excited, I brought all of my PCOS literature along. The lunch was nice, but as it progressed, she explained to me that she was leaving her family practice specialty and moving into cash pay, because there was far more money in the latter. I could tell, she didn't really want to take on PCOS because it would cut into her profit margin. She wrote me after the lunch, saying she decided I'd have to drive too far for the arrangement to work. (I responded by saying I thought that whether or not a job gig was too far should have been MY call…but that's another story for another post.)

Several years ago, I had a meeting with a reproductive specialist in Beverly Hills. He came to the meeting, and like the other physician, explained that he felt he was working way too hard for the money he was earning, and was looking for revenue streams that would fix that. He was hoping I'd do work for him for which he'd keep the majority of the income. He was also writing a screenplay and once he ascertained in a very roundabout way that I didn't know anyone to get it to…the enthusiasm seemed to wane. I never heard from him again.

For 3 1/2 years I was the director of dietary services in a well-known eating disorder treatment center. Twice a week we had staff meetings where we discussed patient progress, and the reports were shared with insurance companies to negotiate for longer stays. We never got what we wanted. The owner of the treatment center taught us that the most successful case managers in insurance companies are the ones who decline the most claims, because they save the most money. It came to a head one time when a woman had been approved by her insurance company, traveled all the way to Arizona, only to find that they reversed the decision while she was en route. She knew the system, however…and she went to check in to a local hotel, called her admissions counselor, and threatened to commit suicide. She was admitted.

The point I'm trying to make here, is that insurance companies, no matter how touchy-feely, warm-and-fuzzy they may sound around enrollment time, don't think of you as women needing help with medical problems. They view each of you as a cost center. PCOS is an expensive diagnosis to treat. And since one in five women has it, if they started approving PCOS claims, they'd put themselves out of business. So they don't like to recognize it.

If you're feeling angry right now, you have a right to. The system is set up to not serve well, women with PCOS. It's not going to change any time soon.

You have a choice about how you're going to deal with this reality.

You can let it defeat you. You can sit on the sofa, watch television, and eat that box of donuts you brought home, out of anger at your situation. It's not really going to help you get better, though. And it doesn't come close to hurting the corporations who have hurt you.

Or…

you can prioritize self-care. You can make a choice to eat better. Exercise a little more. Manage your stress. Sleep more. Take control. You can buy Hillary Wright's book and implement her recommendations. Watch Sasha Ottey's PCOS Challenge TV Show. Join our Facebook group and share ideas. Walk in the upcoming Walk-a-Thon. You can do everything you possibly can to move yourself toward health. You just might lose weight. You just might improve your fertility. You just might feel better.

I honestly don't see the system changing much during my lifetime. There are too many companies with income to lose if true reform occurs. The most I can do, is raise money for research to put information into journals that pressures insurance companies to let you get acupuncture, or take a nutrition supplement, or get mental health counseling. So that is what I do.

It's not fair. It really sucks. So? Are you going to let it disable you, or turn it into the fire underneath you that prompts you to value self-care? We hope you join us in the choice that has a chance of making a difference.

First of all…it's great to be back! I was traveling, and while it's kind of fun to say I saw both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the period of a week, I do like my base camp and I really missed reading research. I'm looking forward to getting back into my daily groove.

Last week, I read an article in the New York Times about insurance companies, and how they are starting to ask consumers to absorb the cost of medications by asking that these medications be paid for not by flat copayment, but proportionate to the cost of the medication.

Nice. First we're convinced that we absolutely need all these drugs, and that we can get them for cheap, then once we're dependent on them…we're thrown under the financial bus.

Right now, the medications that are being sold under this new proportionate plan are not any of the medications that I focus on with this blog. However…since several of the medications you readers are on, are some of the most popular medications out there, I suspect it won't be long before these insurance companies start to see dollar signs in terms of the quantity of people they can expect to help finance this venture. Categories of medications like antidepressants…and insulin sensitizers and statins, which are commonly prescribed when the antidepressants start to mess with hormone balance.

That's the bad news.

The GOOD news is, I finally felt vindicated for having sat through this scenario for the last 25 years, wishing people would see what I have always seen…that when you take responsibility for your own health, and don't depend on people who make money off of you to help you, you have a good chance of getting better results. Think about it. Why would a drug company spend millions and millions of dollars to develop a product that you eventually wouldn't need once you started using it?

My goal, ever since I started what I do, is to put myself out of business. I started learning to play golf last year and it has been very frustrating to have to put it aside to attend to the demands of my growing business. I have a children's story I'd like to publish. And there are a couple of screenplays roaming around in my head that I'd love to get into theaters.

But the drug and insurance industries don't have that goal. Their goal, as is the goal of most corporations, is to increase market share and return on investment. Which means you can (1) increase the dosages of medications you sell to already existing customers, (2) find new customers for your medications by either creating new diagnoses or finding off-label uses for your already developed products, and/or (3) increase the price you charge for the product. Hmmmmm…nowhere in there do I see"helping the patient feel better".

Of course, I'm not naive. I know some medications are entirely necessary and even life-saving. But I also see so many conditions that could drastically improve with a few judicious lifestyle choices.

Last week I listened to the husband of a friend tell me what it was like to go through an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure with his wife. He was near tears as he spoke about the trauma, the callousness of the providers, the emotional stress…the expense, and the feeling of failure as a human being when the entire investment of time, emotions and money did not produce the desired result.

He drove me to the bus stop, and I headed to the airport. As I was standing in line to board my plane, a colleague phoned me. She'd gone through my professional training and had been using my protocol on women with infertility. And she told me, that with just a few nutritional tweaks, these women were getting pregnant! Not only that, their depression was responding with equal profundity. Even the women who'd failed with the same IVF procedure as my other friend and who had given up on ever having children, were seeing results.

There's something very wrong with a system that promotes a $20,000 emotional and financial (mis)adventure over a $12 bottle of Coscto fish oil…but we as consumers need to shift our expectations for help from those who stand to make money off of our misfortunes and invest in choices, behaviors, and financial purchases that are empowering and affirming. You'll never get a company making money off of you to change how they do things if it means less money. But we can certainly get their attention if, collectively, we start to say"no" to some of their answers to our problems and"yes" to options that make more sense.

You bet the power of where you pull out your wallet is tremendous. And when groups of thousands of wallets get together…well, that's the vision I have that will finally get these screenplays out of my head!

Eating well. Physical activity. Adequate sleep. Less stress. It's that simple. It's incredible what prioritizing these four areas can do to your overall health. Not to mention your budget.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/opinion/15tues1.html?hp

This past week I was watching The Biggest Loser. Not because I endorse their methods for weight loss, but because so many of you watch that show, it's almost required viewing for my job, to know what's being said and how to address it should it come up in our Facebook group.

I was appalled to watch one of the trainers, while a participant was doing situps, dropping a medicine ball on the poor guy's stomach. Nothing about that segment modeled respect for self or others, in my opinion, and it could have done serious damage to the participant. But that is what seems to happen in the world of weight loss. Once your weight exceeds what is deemed medically and culturally acceptable, the rest of the world seems to act as if they automatically have a license to decide how to"fix" you. The behaviors can range from looks into your grocery basket when you're shopping, suggestions that you're somehow not"doing enough" if your weight loss is not linear and predictable (as illustrated by the closeups of the shocked looks of the Biggest Loser trainers when someone does not lose, or…God forbid…gains weight, the assumption that if things are not going the way the trainer needs them to go in order to be the"good trainer"), that the participant must be the one to blame.

PCOS creates an even more frustrating scenario for physicians, dietitians, trainers, family members, everyone watching on as a woman decides she's going to lose weight. We've learned over the years that in many ways PCOS is counterintuitive. When you diet too strictly, weight goes on. When you exercise too much, weight goes on. It seems to be the"canary in the coalmine," so to speak, of imbalances in your life that need to be addressed. And, unfortunately, if you're a person of extremes, and you resort to fixing one extreme with another extreme, you're likely going to find yourself in a place where you plateau, gain weight, etc., with at least a half-dozen people looking on, with a million suggestions for"fixing" the problem.

Years ago I was a dietitian in an eating disorder treatment center. I was literally responsible for the weight gains of anorexics, the weight loss of women with binge eating disorder, and to be sure that bulimics who had been abusing laxatives did not gain too much weight during their withdrawal from those drugs.

Take the scenario I described above and multiply it by 36, which was the census of the treatment center. I absolutely hated Monday and Thursday mornings because those were staff meetings. I had to meet for three hours each morning with all of the therapists, physicians, etc., and discuss the progress of all of the women we were helping. If, God forbid, the weight of one person was not EXACTLY what I'd projected, I was put on the spot to (1) explain why and (2) come up with a remedy. Suggesting that healing from dietary imbalances of any kind was complex and that we were not in charge of all of the parts of the solution was not an option. Much of the rest of the week was spent with patients, family members, and insurance case managers, having the same conversations. In one case it was an attorney of a beauty queen who insisted she'd been promised prior to admission that she would not gain weight despite needing to withdraw from her box-a-day laxative habit and since her temporary fluid gain was in the double digits, I was to blame.

Can you tell how much I thought this job sucked?

The piece de resistance came during one stretch, when we had an overload of laxative abusers in the house (no pun intended) and my boss, desperate to be able to show good weight progress to insurance companies and keep her own"success" record high, asked me to come up with a solution. This was in the days before the Internet, and so I asked to be able to take a day in the local medical library researching intestinal health and dietary strategies. My request was denied. Instead, I was asked to create some type of"cocktail" that would"clean out or speed up the 'progress'" of the constipated individuals.

I looked at my boss and said,"I am a dietitian. I am not a plumber."

As you can guess, it was the beginning of the end of that job, which I actually eventually walked off of, because that particular situation was merely one of many I was expected to endorse that in good conscience I could not.

I learned humility in that job. An Ivy League degree and a master's degree plus stints at Stanford, Apple Computer, and the professional sports world, could not fix what was broken in these women. Only time, self-nurturing, and patience. Every single time I watch The Biggest Loser, I am reminded of that job. And how so many people I worked with based their own success on a patient's numbers recorded in a medical chart. Not on how well she was asserting herself, or sleeping, or challenging herself to eat salad dressing. It was all about the number. That it wasn't about the healers at all, but about empowering our patients to have the confidence to take care of themselves so well that they could fire us because they didn't need us anymore, was completely forgotten.

I guess I was inspired to write this piece because ever since I saw that medicine ball, I've been thinking how badly I wanted the poor guy on the floor to just stand up, tell the trainer to bite it, and walk off the ranch. Because he was being taught that somehow, because of the position he'd found himself in, needing to lose weight, he deserved to be punished and humiliated in the process of regaining his self-esteem. Yup, he had to be humiliated in order to develop self-esteem.

Don't ever let anyone, and I mean ANYONE — a medical professional, coach, or loved one, cause you to believe that they know better than you, what you need for yourself. Or that because your weight is not changing at a rate that THEY have determined is appropriate, that you're somehow doing something wrong. Or that what they have to say about your health supercedes what you believe about your health.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said,"No one can take away your self-respect, unless you allow them to."

Most people don’t love going to the doctor. It’s right up there with changing the cat litter, and dinner with your mother-in-law. Yet, we all have to do it, and for those of us with PCOS, we have to do it more than usual.

The first thing to do when you’re in major dread mode about visiting your physician is to ask yourself WHY? Is s/he always running late? Is the staff rude? Parking expensive? There’s always some issue with your insurance? The office is kind of funky? You aren’t treated with respect? You just know you’re in for bad news? You’re afraid of pain? You didn’t drink enough water, so there’s no way you can generate a urine sample, and someone’s going to make you feel like a failure because of it? The phlebotomist should be sent to remedial phlebotomy class?

What’s going on? Is it something you can do something about? If so, fix it. Change your appointment time to one where the doctor’s less likely to be late. Tell the doctor her receptionist treats you like dirt. Call in advance and speak to someone about your insurance. Drink the water. Wear the right clothes, so you don’t have to get undressed just to get a blood pressure reading.

Or is the problem so minor that, if you’re honest, you know it’s just an excuse? If all the medical offices are in one plaza, you’re going to be stuck with the extortion (oops, I mean, standard parking fees). So you hate modern, plastic offices and prefer antiques. Does this really affect the quality of medical care? Yes, paper gowns are ill-fitting and awkward. Are you going to change doctors so you can find one who uses cloth? Sometimes the things we focus on are just not the real problem.

Or perhaps there’s something more serious. If you want an hour with your doctor, and they only schedule 20 minute appointments for your type of problem, are you setting yourself up for irritation? Or you’ve had some medical trauma, and anything in a medical setting just makes you anxious and irritable. Quite often, it’s bad news we fear, being chastised for failure to lose weight, improve our blood pressure levels, or getting our fasting glucose numbers under control. If this is more along the lines of the real issue, it’s time to give it some attention, and see what else is going on that prevents you from taking the best possible care of yourself. Remember that doctors aren’t magicians – they can only work with the material you give them.

Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. 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 AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.

As women with PCOS, you've likely had troubles getting our health care system to work in your favor.

The information in this post was sent to me by inCYST provider Karen Siegel, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Specific issues are highlighted in the text below, and you can review the bill yourself at this link.

You may wish to go through this and consider how each of these stipulations would play out in your own personal PCOS situation. If you have suggestions for better ways to do things…get proactive and contact those who represent you in Washington!

I do my best to be nonbiased in this blog, but there are aspects of this legislation that disturb me.

Here are a few highlights of some problems with the healthcare bill.

These problems highlight the reason every bill must be read by the American people before they are signed. (if these points don't get you upset, please check your pulse and call 911):

Disclaimer: This summary was sent from a colleague. We encourage you to conduct additional research on your own.

• Page 16: Eliminates the choice to purchase private health insurance!
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The"Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans.
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No"judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesnt' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.

• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected."
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Goverment provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

Talk to Your Family, Friends, Neighbors & Co-Workers

You must talk to people about this. We need to get as many people informed about this as possible. Here are a few key points:

This issue is not Republican vs. Democrat. It is government vs. individual rights.
"What's the proper role of Government in our lives?"
"Do we really want the government making decisions for us that should be between me and my doctor?"
"Should the government be eliminating personal health insurance plans?"
"Should the government be requiring seniors to attend 'end of life counseling'?"

I consider myself to be"reasonably athletic", in better shape than most people. I walk an average of 2 miles a day, I swim a mile regularly, in the winter I run 4 1/2 miles or rollerblad 6 miles 4 to 5 times a week. One reason I swim so much is to balance training upper and lower body.

But in Craig Ramsay's fundraiser boot camp a couple of weeks ago, I was made painfully aware of something I was neglecting — my core muscles. These muscles, in the abdomen area, connect upper and lower body; when strong, stablize your movements and make other exercises easier to participate in.

Kettlebells are popular for core work. I was struggling after just a few sets with a little 5 lb.'er! Not to be defeated, I came home and started working on strengthening my weak spot. I don't yet have my own kettlebell, but I do have a 5 lb. barbell. So I'm using that to get started. When I'm easily doing 5 lbs., I'll reward myself by buying the 10 lb. kettlebell.

The great thing about this training is it doesn't take that long at all, 15-20 minutes at the most, 3 times a week at the most. I simply have my weight on the edge of the rug near the TV as a visual reminder that this is what I will now be doing when I watch the news. Here is the simple workout I'm starting with:

I tell you, it's pushing my muscles in ways they don't like, but that's the point. They're not used to moving this way and it's going to take awhile for them to be down with the new gig. But the reward is worth it for me. Standing a little stronger, being in better condition for those tennis lessons I'm planning to take, maybe strengthening the bones in my spine.

I told Craig I'm pumped to show up at one of his boot camps on a future trip to LA, pumping a lot more weight, with a whole lot more ease, than I did on the beach. Putting here publicly on the blog…is my insurance that I'll keep that promise!

OK, I watched the interview. I've also been talking to women seeking infertility treatment for going on 10 years. I've heard the same story coming from Atlanta, Columbus, and Sacramento. In that time, I've also worked to create a program that serves as an alternative for those who could benefit. I think I've got enough observations under my belt to contribute an informed opinion about what goes on in the incredibly emotional, expensive, and at times, dangerous, world of reproductive endocrinology.

First and foremost, the fact that we can create babies in so many ways other than the one Mother Nature originally designed…is pretty much a miracle. It is a gift that we as medical professionals can provide this help. That's right, it's a gift. We should accept it with humility and treat it with respect. I never forget that. Every single time I have a new appointment, in person or on the phone, I pause to say a prayer,"God, your will, not mine." I take this work that seriously.

There are some incredible practitioners out there who do their work with respect and humility. However, because infertility treatment is, much of the time, not a medical issue that insurance will pay for…it is a huge money maker for those who practice it. Which means it also attracts individuals with reasons other than altruism for being in the business.

And it is those practitioners who, unfortunately, have pushed the science of reproductive endocrinology ahead much more quickly than those with a conscience have been able to formulate and communicate appropriate codes of ethics by which that science would best be used.

Let's look at how the dynamic develops.

1. You've got a woman who believes she's 100% normal in the reproductive department, who assumes that when the time comes, she'll marry, have children, and happily continue the cycle of life. She may go to the doctor for a routine physical or go because she's not been able to conceive after 6 months of trying. She's told she may have trouble having children. She may be told that she may not be able to have children. Or…as many of my own clients have shared, she may be told that there is no way she will have children without paying thousands of dollars to the man in front of her to make it happen. She has been told that, instead of creating a life with her significant other, in a loving and intimate environment, she must consent to an expensive, invasive, very sterile, and potentially humiliating procedure which can leave her feeling more like a laboratory rat than a beautiful woman and loving-mother-in-the-works. And the person who will be making this happen is not only not someone who loves her, but someone who's going to hand her a huge invoice at the end of the encounter.

2. The combination of desperation on one side of the room and greed on the other…is highly likely to not play out in a way that prioritizes honesty and integrity.

3. A very high percentage of the women I encounter in this work are intelligent and high achieving; everything they've ever wanted in life, from an education, a career, a home of their own, has been attainable with focus and hard work. So being told that one of life's most basic functions, fertility, may not be yours for the taking, becomes one of the most frustrating, confining, maddening, esteem-assaulting things they've ever been forced to ask to accept. The only thing left to throw at the situation is…you guessed it…money.

4. And because this population is so high-achieving and intelligent, they often have that money. Money that can pay for procedures they may not necessarily need. But that they are highly likely to spend because their desperation is being viewed as a profit center for the person sitting on the stool next to their examination table.

5. It just goes downhill from there. On almost a daily basis at this point, I have a conversation with someone who's been through this wringer who finds this blog, who wants help and has been so brainwashed into believing that her problem is so bad that only tens of thousands of dollars and a person with a certain diploma on the wall can fix it. Even when we put solutions and testimonials and support on this blog, completely for free, the sales job these women have been given is so complete and so convincing, dozens and dozens and dozens of women do not even give any other kindler, gentler, less invasive and dangerous option an iota of consideration. So they empty out their bank accounts. Sometimes they get a baby. Sometimes they don't.

When I do my PCOS trainings, I always invite women with the syndrome to come in and share their stories to those who want to help women who have this diagnosis. I do it because I want those who have no experience with the infertility world to understand just how much anxiety and depression their future clients have. They need to understand just how much compassion we owe them when they come to us for help.

Sometimes I sit and listen to the spiels these women have been given about what they must do (which invariably includes making a monthly payment on their physician's mountain home) in order to have a family. And I wonder why this guy bothered spending all the money to get a medical degree when he could simply have left high school and made much bigger fortune selling used cars at the parking lot down the street.

I reiterate, I have had the good fortune of meeting and working with many kind, compassionate, intelligent, and ethical reproductive endocrinologists. I am happy to support their work and the miracles they have been given the talents and power to create.

But I also have a lot of trouble with physicians who forget that they are not God. They are not even one step away from God. They're preying on insecurity and desperation that risks the lives of the women asking for help and the babies who didn't even ask to be part of the situation.

I'm not at all happy to hear this story coming out of California. But…maybe the fact that this happened will encourage more scrutiny of the entire reproductive industry as a whole. Maybe we'll finally work on a code of ethics to protect all of the lives involved. Those who do this work for the right reason deserve to shine and be rewarded. And those who would be better off selling Yugos…can be nudged into the polyester suits and those dusty, moldy offices on America's seediest of car lots.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve written extensively about the grief process, and how it applies to PCOS. There is so much to grieve – loss of health, femininity, children, old unhealthy lifestyle choices, even perhaps one’s obesity or body shape. If you missed any of the posts about the grief process, discussing the DABDA model (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance), you can find them archived on the inCYST.com site.

Here are my thoughts on what comes after the grief. When you have a death in your life, there’s typically a funeral, or sometimes a life celebration. This celebration occurs while you’re in the depths of your grief, not when you’ve finished grieving. Grieving can be a lengthy and recurrent process, depending upon the circumstances of your life. Events like a new diagnosis, a miscarriage, or simply the arrival of your period if you’re trying to conceive might all feel like losses. Interspersed with the grief, there are still moments of happiness, humor, and even full-blown joy.

If you’ve started to grieve the losses associated with PCOS, I encourage you to also start your own private life celebration, in concurrence with your grieving. Capitalizing on the bright moments is part of an overall strategy of improving your mood by focusing on the positive. Life celebrations usually include music, food, and the company of people that you love. My life celebration is a constantly evolving practice that focuses on the things I’m grateful for, that support my health and give me deep pleasure. For example, today is my day of rest. I got to sleep in, have a cup of chai with my honey, enjoy some lap time with my cat, practice yoga under my favorite tree, enjoy a delicious, healthy and satisfying breakfast of homemade huevos rancheros and mixed berries, and even get in a short walk at the beach. To cap off the decadence, I’m going for a mani/pedi, and will indulge in my one pointless and naughty hour of serious television watching this evening. Swwwwweeeeeeeet! I feel GOOD, and even though I still have some minor pain due to an ankle injury, I’m celebrating my life. It’s rich and satisfying in many ways. Making this list makes me appreciate it even more.

When I focus on the fabulousness of this list, I’m not focusing on the fact that every day can’t be Sunday, that I need to get up to an alarm clock tomorrow, or that I have to make some unpleasant calls to an insurance company, plus go straighten out something at the bank. I’m just focused on enjoying and celebrating my life – my life with PCOS!

Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. 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 AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.

Not a whole lot, unfortunately. There is no board certification for the disease, no school, nothing. It's the whole reason I started inCYST. I was appalled at the things I was hearing women say they had been taught by specialists. When I looked on the Internet, I saw a lot of supplement companies filling in the gap. And, of course, using the gap as a way to line their own pockets. Many of the health professionals people turn to in order to get help don't accept insurance. I realized that women with PCOS are very easily taken advantage of without getting much in return for their investment. And now that PCOS is gaining attention, and the economy is struggling, I'm seeing a lot more colleagues advertise that this is a specialty service they provide.

If you've found someone on the Internet who is advertising that they are a specialist, don't assume that means much at all. Take the time to ask them what they did to become specialized.

You can be assured that anyone whose name appears on this blog has worked hard to be informed. The dietitians you see, have taken courses on sleep disorders, dermatology, and biochemistry, not just nutrition. The psychologists and even our dermatologist, Dr. Van Dyke, have taken the time to understand nutrition for PCOS.

We have all committed to that, because we collectively wanted to raise the bar, and we wanted you to know, for sure, if you asked someone in California, Virginia, New York, or Chicago, for help, you'd get a well-informed person who is passionate about understanding what can best help you.

Of course, there are people who do not belong to inCYST who are very good at what they do, with lots of great credentials and training. I can't speak for them. What I can say is, that they should be able to, without hesitation, when asked, provide you with a description of the qualifications they have that allow them to make the claims that they do. And women with PCOS should not be afraid to ask that question before making their first appointment.

So by now I'm sure you've heard the news about the new mammography recommendations. I wasn't on the panel and I'm not a breast cancer specialist, but I do have some thoughts pertaining to what these findings and the potential implications mean, to women reading this blog.

It's a mixed bag.

1. First of all, it's not the scientists, it's not the government, and it's not your doctor who is in charge of your health. YOU are in charge of your health. If you're using this situation as an excuse to be paralyzed about self-care, you've been defeated and you've turned your health over to someone else.

2. Keep in mind, many women with PCOS have high estrogen levels, meaning they have extra estrogen that can find its way to estrogen-sensitive tissues and cause problems such as cancer. You are potentially an at-risk population that needs earlier mammograms than the average American woman. It is important when discussing your personal need for earlier mammograms, that this health issue be included in the decision making. If your physician does not acknowledge or understand the relationship between PCOS and cancer, it is your right to find a physician who does.
Sticking with the same physician and allowing that attitude to guide your health choices is turning your health fate over to someone who doesn't deserve it.

3. The good news is, women with PCOS are already used to advocating for themselves so doing so with the mammogram issue is not something they're likely unaccustomed to doing. Be assertive!

4. The bad news is, women with weight issues tend to avoid doctor visits because they don't want to be chided about losing weight. If you don't go to the doctor, all of the above don't even matter. Find a physician who will treat you respectfully…AND MAKE A COMMITMENT TO REGULAR PHYSICALS.

5. Remember, getting a mammogram is not the only thing you can do to reduce your risk of breast cancer. Breast self-exams are very important. Women with poor body image are not the best at conducting breast self-exams. If you're having trouble with the idea of looking at and feeling your breasts, the consequences could be as serious as not getting that mammogram. Ask for support.

6. A local television station sends out a monthly self-exam reminder, which I'll forward to all of you as well. If that helps you to remember to do them, then it's our pleasure to be a part of that. Here is information on how to perform a breast self exam.

7. All of the dietary recommendations you see here are made taking into consideration the implications for risk of other diseases, including cancer. Taking care of yourself in ways that benefit your PCOS, also reduce your risk of breast cancer. So eat well, be active, manage your stress…and get some sleep!

Remember, your health is YOURS. Not the government's, not your doctor's, not your insurance company's. Care for it like it's your most valuable possession. Because it is.

Even though this blog is primarily devoted to the kind of infertility found in women, it's important to not forget the men. And…to remember that even if you are a male and aren't interested in having children, the same factors that can cause infertility in men who want to have children can be attributed to low testosterone and its associated symptoms: less strength and endurance when working out, fatigue, low sex drive, feeling sad or grumpy, memory issues, trouble concentrating, and trouble enjoying activities you used to find pleasurable. Reversing andropause is, essentially, restoring your fertility.

And, not surprisingly, all of the factors that exacerbate PCOS, are the same ones that exacerbate male infertility and low testosterone. Everything you read in this blog has pertinence to men as well as women.

The top issues I have seen affect testosterone include:

1. Being a night owl. Not sleeping well interferes with insulin function and can cause weight gain.
2. Not enough exercise.
3. Not managing stress. By this I mean ignoring it or leaning too heavily on things like exercise to manage it. With regards to exercise, it's important to find that place of balance, rather than swing between extremes of too much and too little.
4. Eating too much of the pro-inflammatory fats: safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, cottonseed
5. Drinking too much alcohol, which interferes with sleep patterns.

Because obesity, overexercising and focus on being"buff", stress, and poor sleep habits are common issues in our culture, men are rendered susceptible to more problems with testosterone levels. And to service this population, clinics offering testosterone replacement are becoming more common. While this is certainly an option, I am struck when reading many of the advertisements for these clinics how they tend to play on mens' insecurities in order to motivate them to come in for treatment. This type of treatment is commonly not reimbursed by insurance. You can see where I'm going here.

"Natural" or bioidentical hormone replacement is truly a buyer beware choice. These therapies are not currently FDA approved, which means adverse effects are not even being reported. That means, no one really knows what the long term consequences of such treatments are. Clinics making money off of this issue certainly aren't going to report problems with their product if they're not required to!

It is worth your time to work with a skilled inCYST practitioner to evaluate your diet, sleep, and stress patterns to see if a few tweaks can pull you back into balance, before taking the next, bigger step.

I'm pasting a link to a nice story done by the Today Show yesterday about male menopause to provide some more information.

This past week I've been in Santa Fe, New Mexico with our sponsor Beauty Foods, getting the word out about her product at the Green Spa Network Buyer's Conference. While we were there I had the opportunity to meet some companies with great hormone-friendly products. I came home with samples, but felt they would be best used by some of our readers. So I told our Facebook fans they would go to the first person who would share her pregnancy journey if she felt our support had played a part in her success. Here is what we received from"S", who will be getting a fun package with samples from two great companies. Mayron's Goods is an organic skin care and baby product line created by actress Melanie Mayron, and Mama Mio is a phthalate/paraben/xenoestrogen-free skin care line designed for pregnant women. Thank you for taking the time to share and inspire with your story…and enjoy the samples!

About two years ago my husband and I sat down and decided we were ready to start a family. So like most couples I didn’t imagine it would be too hard. In school they practically tell you if you think about having sex you will for sure get pregnant! So I stopped my birth control and sat back and waited and waited. No period for about 3 months. So I took myself to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests and then they told me. You have PCOS… here is the pamphlet. Gee, Thanks?

In the mean time I decided I wanted to try to get healthy so I joined the gym and signed myself up for Boot camp for a year. If someone told me back then that I would begin to enjoy exercise and I would willingly go to the gym 4 days a week because it was fun, I would probably suggested they get their heads checked! But I for me signing up for a whole year really made a difference. I was able to meet a great group of ladies and found an excellent support network at the gym.

Getting a little pamphlet off the wall telling me the basics of PCOS wasn’t quite enough information. I got online and started doing some research and came across the very helpful book called The PCOS Workbook. That book gave me the lead to the Incyst network. I often go to the website and read the blog of the day and find some of the information really helpful so I start implementing that into my routine. The consistent information I gathered from these resources was to focus on eating whole grains, high protein and lower carbs, trying to find the Balance. And of course don’t forget the fish oil!

I found a fertility doctor in my area and we started working together. I did about 6 rounds of Clomid. 2 Rounds of Letrozole and then 2 rounds of Letrozole with IUI. I also did Accupuncture with several of the treatments as well. With another negative I was tired of trying so hard. So I decided to take a month off and just keep up with my exercise and eating well and my spoonfuls of fish oil and other vitamins. My doctor and I had a plan for the next month of doing the HSG test and another one which of course insurance will not cover. I was really not looking forward to that so I was dreading the arrival of my period. Somewhere along the line my period started to get normal and almost predictable. So the end of Februarys was arriving quickly my life was really hectic with some family medical issues, but no period. So finally I dug out a pregnancy test figuring I would just get this over with so I could go on with my life. HOLY SMOKES it was positive.

So after all that I am delighted to be expecting our bundle of Joy this December. And now a new journey begins… Pregnancy!

~ Sandra D ~

From: Monika Woolsey [mailto:marika@google.com]

I have had a handful of inquiries in the last week about an inCYST fertility consultation. I thought I would lay out, honestly, what it is we do and what we do not do, in order that you know exactly what it is you are contacting us for when you do, and to prevent disappointment by hoping we might be something we are not.

1. We do not make babies. We are not fertility clinics. If what you are looking for, is someone to give you a baby, a fertility clinic is where you should be asking for help.

2. We DO, if there is anything about your lifestyle that has the potential to interfere with fertility…be it sleep, nutrition, activity, stress management…have a strong ability to identify what it is and to help you replace the behavior in question with a more fertility-friendly option.

3. We DO assume that you are willing to make changes in your behavior and that this is an active partnership. We cannot live those lifestyle changes for you. We cannot become pregnant for you.

4. We DO NOT consider ourselves to be an"either — or" issue, in competition with the fertility industry. In fact, I am quite surprised at how few of our fans do not invest in a proactive inCYST consultation on deciding to go with IVF. If anything, we can help to be sure you are in the absolute best physical and mental condition to be in upon engaging in a physically and mentally challenging procedure. Just as an Olympic athlete would want to be nutritionally and physically ready for the big event, we believe partnering with us is good insurance that all of the money and stress you are about to encounter is worth the investment.

5. We DO NOT believe that there is a high success rate among women who do have lifestyle issues interfering with their fertility, who believe they can bypass the effort and inconvenience of changing that lifestyle with a medical procedure. You cannot fool Mother Nature.

6. We DO NOT provide false hope. That would be cruel.

7. We DO NOT pressure potential clients. Women with infertility are stressed enough as it is.

8. We DO NOT hang our celebrity clients out on a shingle as marketing tools. Celebrities need their privacy too.

9. We DO believe enough in what we do to be willing to work to create a research foundation to pursue our findings in a scientific fashion.

10. We have seen miracles, but we do not promise them.

We'd like to think we have a whole lot to offer you, but we won't chase it down. That is because the clients most likely to succeed with our program are not the ones we have to chase down and convince of our value. It's the ones who already believe in us.

We hope that this describes you, but if it is not, we respect the differences and truly wish you the best.

Going to the doctor after some lab work and being told that you’re pre-diabetic is enough to cause a major freak-out in most patients. For some, though, it comes as no surprise, because they’re been on the edge of diabetes or pre-diabetes for a long time. Regardless of whether you were expecting it or not, it’s kind of scary. Visions of diabetics who have gone blind or had amputations may pop into your head. But you’re not there yet – and hopefully, never will be!
Getting scared can send you into a tailspin, or it can send you into ostrich mode, where you’re hiding your head in the sand. Or, you could express your distress, and then get into fighting mode. By getting proactive, you take some power back in a situation that feels kind of powerless (the numbers are just getting worse and worse, and it feels like you can’t control it).
How do you become proactive about addressing pre-diabetes?
· Take some time to absorb the diagnosis. · Do a little research on the subject, from reputable sources like the Mayo Clinic or WebMD. · Don’t spend too much time on chat boards; reading about symptoms of long-term poorly treated diabetes can be discouraging and fear-inducing. · Go back to your doctor armed with questions. · Ask your doctor for a blood glucose monitor, and learn how to use it. It’s simple, and typically free. What can be costly are the test strips. If you have insurance, they may be covered. If not, use the strips judiciously – but do you use them to periodically track on your blood sugars. That way you can see the impact of what you’re doing with your food and exercise. · Make a plan to step-up your exercise. This may mean getting help such as an accountability buddy, a walking group, a personal trainer, or physical therapy to fix the injury that’s keeping you from becoming active. Or you may need to join a gym, so that the weather is no longer an excuse. · Commit to reducing your intake of unhealthy carbs, processed foods, and most sugars. Get help from a dietician, a weight loss group, or tech gadgets like the FitBit so that you can monitor your progress. · Enlist the support of friends and family members in embracing a healthier lifestyle; you can do this alone, but it’s so much easier if you have cooperation and support. · Seek the services of a psychologist who can help you address poor self-care habits, lack of sleep that may be contributing to blood sugar increases, eating disordered behavior, or self-destructive behaviors and beliefs. · Go back to your doctor when you’re supposed to go back, and make sure you have your lab work done before you go, so that the appointment is productive. · Thoughtfully consider prescription medication such as metformin, the most common prescription for PCOS without diabetes or pre-diabetes. · Research selected supplements, such as chromium or cinnamon, and discuss them with your dietician and/or doctor. · Be patient, as lifestyle changes take time to implement. Results take time too, especially when you have PCOS.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. 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 AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.

I received a message from a fan today, with a story it is important to share. She had a lot of symptoms of PCOS, and for a long time was treated as if she had this diagnosis. Only after pursuing it with her physicians did she find out she had Cushing's disease caused by a tumor that needed to be removed.

PCOS is a rule-out diagnosis, meaning if you have a certain cluster of symptoms, and testing does not reveal a tumor or other hormone disorder like hyperprolactinemia or Cushing's disease, then and only then do you officially have PCOS. I cannot reinforce this enough! Many of you have had experiences at the doctor's office that were not pleasant. Others of you are living without health insurance and are trying to minimize your expenses. Others avoid going because you don't want to hear that you need to lose weight. Still others are simply feeling too overwhelmed and depressed to think about an afternoon in a medical clinic.

Do it anyway!

The advice we provide here is not appropriate for a tumor, malignant or benign. There may be a medication for other issues you might have that works to fix the problem. And it may not be the complete answer even if you DO have PCOS. Please take the time to get a thorough assessment so you are absolutely sure that the problem you are working to resolve, is really the one you have.

This site is all about PCOS, and the Mental Health Monday column is all about coping with PCOS, and yet there’s a whole different yet related realm that we don’t discuss at all – and that’s all the OTHER medical stuff we have to deal with on a regular basis:

• Family member’s appointments – you may have to make the appointment, drive someone to the appointment, pay for the appointment, or actually sit through the appointment or treatment. This is magnified when dealing with someone else’s chronic illness, such as an asthmatic child, or a parent with cancer;

• Medication management for children or elderly family members, which can be complex and confusing, especially when you’re managing your own medication and supplements;

• Dental care – ranging from minimally bothersome to all-consuming, depending upon what you start life with, and how you take care of it;

• Routine check-ups (Oh… yeah… right?! We’re supposed to go the doctor, theoretically, once a year, just because) with someone who is supposed to “know” you so that they can help when you’re having an issue;

• Cosmetic dermatology/plastic surgery (if one chooses to indulge in such things, which can be addictive, time-consuming, expensive, painful, and require a fair amount of discretion or story-telling to disguise);

• Coordinating care between physicians, hospitals, and pharmacies, because it seems like lab results and x-rays always go missing, the mail order pharmacy refuses to fill your prescription as currently written, and you are quite certain that the blood draw you had last week will suffice to answer ALL of THIS doctor’s questions so no, thank you, you do NOT wish to have another blood draw.

• Tending to non-PCOS medical conditions (allergies, asthma, broken bones, etc.), all of which require another set of doctors, treatment protocols, diagnostic procedures, and medications or support aids (glasses, hearing aids, orthotics, and so on), and all of which take far too much time and energy to implement effectively and routinely; and

• Even the veterinarian! Yes, dealing with your pet’s medical issues so closely parallels dealing with your own medical issues that it can be quite stressful for many PCOS patients, as it brings up feelings of loss of control, challenges in understanding the choices, and frustration about not being able to adequately or appropriately resolve a problem. Plus, veterinary clinics smell medicinal, which can trigger some bad memories.
Amidst all of this, you’re expected to work, and take care of your PCOS, which already makes you a little high maintenance if you’re doing it “right.” And, oh yeah — look good, be socially, politically, and spiritually engaged, and perhaps even be creative, philanthropically inclined, and a good and present friend. WOW. I’m exhausted just thinking about it – yet this is our reality.

After years and years of dealing with the medical roller-coaster, for myself and alongside others, I’ve come to realize:

• Doctors think their time is more important than yours; plan for it.

• Pharmacies are really, really picky – know the basics, and check your prescriptions before you leave the doctor’s office.

• Your insurance company definitely doesn’t care, no matter what they say in the nice ads that run during open enrollment time. Be polite, but treat them accordingly.

• At some point, someone (a doctor, a nurse, an x-ray technician, etc.) will say something insensitive, stupid, or cruel. Viewing this as an opportunity for spiritual and character growth is far more productive than engaging in rage.

• Doctors often have no real idea what their colleagues are doing to/with your body, so keep your own medical records, do your research, ask a lot of questions, remind them pointedly, and take all the time you need.

And if you’re still feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of medical information, advice, procedures, and protocols, ask for some help. Poet Mary Oliver writes of “your one wild and precious life.” I say, this is your one precious body, and it merits your full, loving, and respectful attention, even in the midst of a medical storm.

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.

We can be so caught up in the symptoms and issues related to our PCOS that we forget about the other people in our lives, especially the men. We don’t really think of men as being impacted by PCOS – after all, they can’t actually have the condition, and they certainly don’t have ovaries. But think about all the men in your life, including your partner/spouse, siblings, fathers, other relatives, coaches and teachers, colleagues and bosses, and you’ll realize that there are quite a few of them who may be impacted by your PCOS.

Some of the myriad ways in which men may be impacted:

• Going through the emotionally challenging path of infertility diagnosis and treatment;

• Worrying about the short-term and long-term impacts of PCOS on your health;

• Being the victims of some particularly strong mood swings;

• Having to cope with our unpredictable and intense food cravings;

• Non-existent libido or excessively high libido (how’s a man to know which way is up?!);

• Experiencing powerlessness to “fix” the problem;

• Being frustrated because there’s so little they can actually do to help with PCOS; and

• Feeling financial stress because of costly or alternative treatments that aren’t covered by insurance, but go so far to improve quality of life.

You may want to consider including the men in your life in your PCOS care in more proactive ways. They can get involved in fund-raising for PCOS research (this is something they can DO, and men like concrete action). They can go to doctor’s appointments with you. They can study PCOS nutrition and learn how to cook with you in healthier ways. They can read this blog to get further education.

Just like you, when a man knows something about what he’s dealing with, he feels empowered and more motivated to help. He may also develop a better understanding of how there are many things that aren’t his fault, or anyone else’s fault really, and that you just have more challenging days than some other women, because of your PCOS. He may also develop a better understanding of your fears and worries, which may lead to improved communication and a deepening intimacy between you. He may even learn enough to help diagnose another woman who doesn’t know she has PCOS yet. There are many benefits to including the men in your life in your PCOS, and most of them will improve your own quality of life with PCOS.

Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. 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 AskDrHouseMD@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Twitter @askdrhousemd.