so I've been struggling for the last 6 months with what I'm pretty sure is a big flare up of my PCOS. I think it started when I decreased nursing sessions with my daughter. Pretty chronic tender pelvic area, lower back pain, swollen achy breasts ,abdomen weight gain, 45+ day cycle, and moody as hell. If you have PCOS you know the drill.
I've been stumped, because even though I've had diagnosed PCOS since I was 12, I've never had this many symptoms all at the same time. Well, I had the cysts, hair loss and elevated prolactin and whatnot, but not all of the PMS-y type things. and because I struggle with making a lot of changes at once I thought I would just find one thing to change. I tried to think of something that might have changed at the same time my symptoms came and I thought that maybe I started drinking more coffee when I started weaning the baby. Caffeine is on the no-no list if you are on a PCOS diet. So for the last 1 1\2 weeks I cut my caffeine down to one cup a day.
Ladies, I lost 3 pounds and 1\2 an inch. And it is not due to calories because I drink it black. And my boobs hurt way less.And it has been 5 weeks since last AF, so I should be deep in PMS.
I can hardly believe it but I think it might have been the caffeine!
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That's great! I have PCOS too and cut caffeine out completely for my current IVF cycle (first cycle was a BFN). During my previous cycle, my doctor said I could have 1 cup of coffee per day, which I did, but I did not have a good cycle. None of my embryos made it past day 4 and I had a bfn. This time, no caffeine, 5 day transfer instead of 3, and I had 11 still growing on day 5, so I will have some to freeze! I know it's not completely the elimination of the caffeine that did it, but I really think it helped.
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Thank you for sharing! I should try this.
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@Sunshine1810: @hotchildinthecity: Crazy, right? My boobs have hurt for 4/6 weeks for 6 months a now, and voila, gone! I always knew low sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine for PCOS but I really never researched the caffeine thing because I never really believed, I guess.
But I've been looking into it now and it looks like some women are just way more sensitive to caffeine and it impacts your hormones.
http://www.progressivehealth.com/a-link-between-pms-symptoms-and-caffeine.htm -
@Sunshine1810: and, congrats!
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Oh man, I wonder if I should try this out. I have PCOS and haven't had a natural cycle in a very long time. While I was pregnant I ended up losing a good deal of weight, which I attributed to being on the GD diet (thanks PCOS for insulin resistance :-/). But I wonder if the caffeine thing played a role too. I only ever had one caffeinated drink a day while pregnant, but now I drink like 4 diet cokes a day.
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@ShootingStar: I generally have to work pretty hard to stay at a medium weight. I thought for sure I would struggle with gaining a lot of weight in my pregnancy because I'm an eater, but I didn't and I didn't really wonder why. I guess I just thought I was lucky that I could eat what I want and not get really huge. A pregnancy perk.
And then I lost weight when I was nursing but I thought that was because I was nursing, even though I was eating a lot. So when I started gaining weight 1 1/2 year postpartum (still nursing), I assumed that my luck has run out. I never considered that I had quit caffeine for pregnancy and nursing and went back to it around that time.
Another crazy thing I've never considered is that I started taking caffeine pills in middle school (that's also when I was diagnosed) and have had a long and interesting relationship with caffeine since then.
I definitely don't think this will apply to everyone but I do think there might be some truth in there being a subset of women whose hormones are impacted by caffeine.... But I also have to be realistic and say its only been a couple weeks- here's to hoping! -
just an update to say I ultimately went down 4 pounds and 1 inch on my abdomen. Things haven't changed for a week or so, and I am thinking I have stabilized weight wise- well, unless I actually try to lose it. I also had my first cycle that was under 40 days in a loooooong time.
I know a million things could be happening internally that have nothing to do with my caffeine theory, but I am sticking to it!
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