More than 9 per cent women suffer from PCOS, the disorder can be cured with proper lifestyle changes, say DEVYANI VERMA and JAHANVI MANCHANDA
Her head is not held high, yet she is confident and stubborn. She refuses to change her response even though her voice wavers. She is a little too tired, a little too upset. The turmoil inside this young adult never seems to rest; too hopeful or too hopeless? The 19-year-old has repeatedly asked a question — Can I defeat this problem before it defeats me? Resounding yes is the answer.
Muskan Rastogi is everything her name demands her to be; empathetic, bubbly and always smiling. Even though she is now embracing adulthood, the young woman still reflects the energy of a happy child. “I absolutely love children, their eyes are always twinkling with wonder and they are ever-curious. A child is so pure and so oblivious to the greys of this world, so free from mindless worries. Maybe we should learn a thing or two from these little ones,” she shares as her eyes soften with a fond look.
One ponders on how she smiles all the time. “It is the rule of the smile, to not crumble and to not twist,’ Rastogi says who at the age of 16 was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS, a hormonal disease which risks the fertility in women.
Poly translates to many and cysts are membranous sacs which contain fluids. This disorder, seen in females, causes multiple, small pearl-sized cysts to appear on the ovaries, which are fluid filled and contain immature eggs. They hinder the 21-day-cycle of periods due to interference in the fertility process, owing to the poly cysts. The tell-tale signs of the disorder can be seen through abnormal change in weight — which is mostly a drastic increase, abnormal growth of facial hair, thicker hair on the belly and thighs — owing to the increased level of male hormones like testosterone, in the body and acne breakouts. The biggest symptom, however, is irregular, heavy or lack of menstruation.
More than 9.13 per cent of women in India have this hormonal disorder. The result — if not corrected can turn into a disease — Polycystic Ovarian Disease or PCOD. About 2.2 per cent to 26 per cent women worldwide have to deal with PCOD or a prolonged case of the syndrome.
“If you observe her when she speaks of children, my daughter’s face brightens and her eyes twinkle with excitement and awe. She does not share her fears often, but I remember the day when she had asked me what seemed to be a thought that had nagged her: ‘Ma’, she had said: ‘I will be able to have children of my own, won’t I?’ It would seem foolish to any mother if their teenage daughter asked them such a thing, but I knew what was going on in her head, and for the first time in the six months after she had been diagnosed with PCOS, my child was scared,” confides Muskan’s mother Priya Rastogi.
Dr Geeta Dwivedi, obstetrician-gynaecologist explains: “It is understandable that PCOS has become a bother for today’s generation. What must be realised is that even though the cure isn’t a piece of cake, the reason it happens may be analysed and simplified. PCOS is simply a lifestyle problem. Correct your lifestyle, balance out your insulin and exercise regularly, it will make it easier to go away. We must do away with the couch potato attitude that the generation has adopted.”
There are multiple treatments to this hormonal disorder but the most frequent one is observed to be one suggested by fertility doctors, otherwise known as reproductive endocrinologists.
“The first and best medicine to prescribe to patients having PCOS is Diane 35 tablets. It covers all aspects that need to be tended to,” Das says who specialises in treating menstrual-related problems.
“The medicines helped me get my monthly bleed, but they weren’t helping my condition. Missing a single dose of Diane 35 meant risking not getting my periods. I started having regular headaches, mood swings, occasional indigestion, and suffered from unstable weight. Of all these, the mood swings were the worst. I’ve had depression in the past but I hit a new low because of the medicine; it fed my insecurities, gave me anxiety and left me mentally baffled. The other medicines I was taking only compounded the problem,” Muskan recalls.
It turned out, that the problems were in fact the side-effects of the hormonal pill: Nausea, stomach pain, changes in weight, headaches or migraine, mood swings and even depression.
Frustrated with the lack of results, she decided to look for an alternative cure. “I knew there was another way. These medicines were suppressing the symptoms rather than curing the ailment. So, I used the most accessible and insightful tool of our times,” Muskan tells you.
Here mother stood by her all the way. Priya guided her daughter through a detoxifying therapy involving exercise, yoga, natural foods and drinks. “I had had enough of the medicines. Now, I was all in for treating this the natural way,” Muskan says. Her mother introduced her to the concept of intermittent fasting, which would not only cure her body internally — healing her insulin intolerance and ovaries — but also help her become fit and naturally healthy.
Dr Gin Stephens, in her book Delay, Don’t Deny, talks about the importance of insulin for one’s metabolism. “To oversimplify for the sake of basic understanding, every time you eat or drink certain things, your body releases insulin in response. When you have a lot of insulin circulating throughout your body, your body is not going to be able to easily access your stored fat. It is a fat storing hormone, after all,” her book says.
Gin explains how excess insulin in the body leads to efficient fat storage and minimal fat burning. “In order to lose weight successfully, you need to figure out how to lower your insulin levels so that your body can access your stored fat effectively. We need to access our stored fat and keep our metabolism working at high speed so that we can maintain our weight loss permanently. So how do we do that? Intermittent fasting!” the books says.
In The Complete Guide to Fasting, Dr Jason Fung, the world-leading expert on Intermittent Fasting or IF, explains what it is. “The term intermittent fasting simply means that periods of fasting occur regularly between periods of normal eating,” says Dr Fung in the book.
Gin has taken her fasting beliefs to social platforms, forming a world-wide community of IFs, with over 74,000 active members. The Facebook page of this support group not only has success stories of IF followers, but also shares the stories of many women with PCOS or PCOD and of how they are curing themselves. Gin makes the support group more accessible and the ideology more believable.
Muskan, who now follows IF religiously with the support of her family, has also engaged herself in exercise and other natural, herbal medicines. She shares that after over two years, she is finally hopeful that she will recover. “I finally got my first natural monthly bleed after over two years, sans medication! I am losing weight, I no longer feel constantly hungry, and my health is much better overall. I am not denying that it is still tough; there are times when I have panic attacks or hit sudden lows, times when I just have to eat, eat and eat. Tears are not foreign, but I am learning to embrace myself. I will endure and I will win,” she says.