How Candida Caused My PCOS

"Caused" is a big word. I don't use it lightly, but I feel strongly about this.

Your experience and root cause of PCOS may be different, but I want to share what I have learned, because I have no doubt it's true for others as well, and I hope someone can benefit.

Science is putting a heavy correlation between gut dysbiosis and PCOS. If you have PCOS, you have some sort of dysbiosis of the gut. How your gut came to be in such a bad state could be many reasons, but there's no doubt that working on your gut health will help your PCOS.

My gut came to be in a bad state from the years of multiple antibiotic use for acne as a teenager. But I didn't realize the effects of this until 20 years later.

I was diagnosed with PCOS at 20 years old. I delved into a world of "trying to fix my hormones". For 18 years, I took all the supplements, prescriptions, saw doctors, did acupuncture, kinesiology, weird foot things, you name it. Nothing worked. No. thing. My health just continued to decline and my PCOS symptoms went from simply anovulation (string of pearls by ultrasound), with "perfect bloodwork", to all the full blown commonly known typical symptoms years down the road.

I never understood why I would have PCOS. It didn't run in my family, my bloodwork was always totally normal, I exercised, ate well enough (and increasingly better over the years). I just accepted it as something I was "blessed" to deal with. I also never understood why nothing worked to help it. No diet, no supplement, no workout, no prescription. But I worked on my "insulin resistance" and tried to "balance my hormones" for 18 years straight. That was all people with PCOS were told we could do.

It wasn't until I started researching gut health and putting some of what I was learning into practice that I started seeing results of any kind. My research into gut health led me to the only supplement company I could find that had products with the right combination of ingredients.

That company was Plexus. And their products provided all the right ingredients for what I had been extensively researching. I was thrilled to find something, but hesitant to try. One of their products is known to help breakdown candida, which is something I knew a lot about.

I always knew I had a candida problem. Sixteen years of chronic yeast infections from the time I was 15 years old wouldn't let me forget. But it was a battle I had already been fighting for years and I thought I had taken care of it. But the more I learned about how candida grows, the more I wish I knew then what I know now. I can't get that 20 years back.

During one of my reseaching deep dives, I stumbled upon some information which led me to a study about how (in simple terms) candida blocks estrogen reception. My world suddenly made sense.

For me, I was suffering with chronic yeast infections that no doctor could touch (the 4th doctor I saw finally found an ointment that relieved my anguish, but never took the infection away completely). It makes all the sense in the world to me that my bloodwork was perfect. I was producing all the estrogen I needed, but my body couldn't "see" it, thanks to the candida. My follicles never matured, I never ovulated, the vicious cycle continued for years, creating estrogen dominance, which then really starts you down the path towards full blown PCOS.

I dealt with 15 years of infertility. Clomid and similar drugs never worked for me.... because they work by masking your estrogen production and causing you to simply make more. Candida just got in the way. Gonal-f worked like a charm for me (I have two gonal-f babies) because it bypassed the whole estrogen situation and went straight for the follicles.

My blood sugar was never off back then. I didn't have insulin resistance, and my hormones were totally fine for those first 10 years.

But thanks to persistent candida, my gut health deteriorated, and my PCOS symptoms increased. I'm so grateful for Plexus Probio 5, which took care of my candida problem once and for all. It didn't come easily and took about a year before I stopped detoxing and really started to feel better.

Every woman dealing with PCOS should not take gut health lightly. Working on my gut health was the first thing that started changing my health for the better. When I was first learning about gut health (10 years ago now), it was a very new science. My doctor backed me up but emphasized that anything I did was experimental. I'm so grateful I took that new path.

Maybe your gut didn't get messed up by antibiotics like mine did. Maybe your PCOS didn't start out in the same way mine did. But I have a feeling it's pretty likely that it does have something to do with the health of your gut. With how common the use of antibiotics are, as well as all the antibiotics we injest coming from our food sources, our guts need a lot of attention to stay in tip top shape. Antibiotics can be life saving, but they need to be used very carefully in many situations.

When it comes to candida, it isn't always bad, but if it's left unchecked (you need loads of happy gut bugs to keep it in check), it grows out of control and wreaks serious havoc on your entire system.

Did you know that every AIDS, IBS, and UC patient has candida overgrowth? Did you know that dysbiosis and candida are linked to MS, Parkinson's, and more? It's a big problem.

This is where science has taken us so far. I can't wait to see where else we go, but for now, GUT HEALTH is key.