Alternatives

Birth Control Pills

Bleeding

Cardiovascular Events

Conceiving

Cramps

Female Health

Female Well-being

Fertilized Egg

Fitness

Symptom Spotlight: Menstrual Irregularity

PCOS SOS Summit

So I hope that you will really want to learn more from me, your host because I have so much information to share. Remember, I wrote the book on PCOS, the best seller PCOS SOS and its little offspring, my PCOS SOS Fertility Fast-Track. So for this little presentation right now, I want to tell you about one of the modules that I will be covering. And that module is on periods. And so part of the definition of PCOS is that it typically includes some form of irregular menstrual cycle pattern. So a normal menstrual cycle is 28 days, give or take a couple of days or so. And that includes the follicular phase. That's where you make just estrogen. And the first day of the period is the first day of your cycle. That's day one. And then mid-cycle is when you have a giant spike of estradiol, the estrogen, the ovaries make and that triggers ovulation. And then once ovulation has occurred, the ovaries in addition to estradiol add in the production of progesterone and then progesterone creates what is called the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle. And then if no pregnancy occurs, no fertilized egg appears, then the estradiol and the progesterone decline and stop being the progesterone stops being made in its entirety. The production of estradiol goes very, very low, and then that triggers bleeding known as the period. And that is a normal menstrual cycle, which we will talk about in my module on periods. I'm going to talk about why a menstrual cycle is now officially considered a vital sign of female health during the reproductive years. 

So, ladies, any one of you who has a messed up period, whether it's because it is very irregular, as typical for women with PCOS, you have PMS, which can also occur in women with PCOS, you have cramps which can also occur, or you have some other problems such as very heavy bleeding. Any or all of these problems are signs not just of a menstrual problem, but a sign of an underlying health problem. That's why it's called a vital sign now. And I'm going to talk about ways that you can help restore a normal menstrual cycle because when you take birth control pills, you are not restoring a menstrual cycle. What you're doing is you're stopping the ovaries from making any hormones. If you measure in the blood, estradiol the estrogen made by ovaries on in a woman who's on birth control pills. Do you know what level you'll get? Zero. If you measure the level of progesterone, you'll get zero or the equivalent of zero. Then always say zero, but they'll say like less in five or less and point five things of that sort. But essentially it is zero. The ovaries are making none. Birth control pills completely shut down ovarian function and replace naturally produced hormones from the ovaries with the chemical mimics that are present in birth control pills. And I'm going to talk about the pros and cons of birth control pills in their use in women with PCOS and like I said, pros and cons, because every person who goes on a drug, every person who has a procedure has to have what we call informed consent. That means you need to know the benefits. You need to know the risks because everything that's done in medicine is a weighing of risk-benefit ratio. And you better believe the benefits better outweigh the risk for everything that's done for you or to you. Okay? Because otherwise you don't do it, okay? Everything has pros and cons. You always want to make sure the pros outweigh the cons. Okay. 

And in my world of dealing with PCOS, I have many alternatives to birth control pills and I want to share all of that with you in ways that you cannot really, like I said, restore a menstrual cycle, that this is not a little thing. It's not just about fertility, but of course, it is also about fertility. You can't be on birth control pills and conceive. So even if you're not trying to get pregnant and you go on birth control pills, you and you then you change your mind and now you want to conceive, you got to get off those birth control pills. And I'll tell you, many women when they get off are in worse shape than when they began because, well, I'll talk about it. You have to come in and join me for my course to understand about what happens sometimes when you go off of birth control pills. And if that is what you're doing because you want to get pregnant or you just say, enough is enough, I want to get off of birth control pills and have my own cycle to my own hormones or my own ovaries healed. So I make my own hormones properly because don't think that it doesn't matter. Having natural hormones isn't just about getting pregnant or having periods. Those are life hormones, estradiol and progesterone. Those are vital to every organ system. And I give lectures on the role of those hormones and what they do to benefit every organ system and when you don't have them, I can tell you it's not the same. It just isn't the same. In fact, there have been articles published that show that teens who start birth control pills have a lifetime increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes, which are already increased in women with PCOS. So bottom line is, in my course, I'm going to talk to you about a natural approach to restoring ovarian health and function so that you can restore natural cycles and ovulate. And part of that is just to have a healthy body. And the other part is to optimize fertility for those of you who wish to conceive. But even if not, even if you don't wish to have a baby anytime soon, having natural, healthy menstrual cycles is truly a sign of female well-being. And I want everyone to be able to have that because it's what we as human females evolved to have in our bodies. Those beautiful, vital hormones with the beautiful rhythms of nature. 

Now, every time I give one of these little few-minute talks, I always want to give a really key tip. Okay, so here's my first tip for you, and there will be many more tips in my course. So what's this tip for helping to restore natural menstrual cycles? It is a supplement called N-acetylcysteine, known as NAC. This supplement, which I'll talk more about. I'm not going to go into it right now. This is just a preview. This is just a tip. But NAC, when you take it in about 600 to 900 milligrams, 2 to 3 times a day. So you want to get in about 1800 milligrams a day of NAC can help restore menstrual cycles. Now that's not all you can do or should do. You need to do everything else with sleep and stress and fitness and nutrition. But this is a type of supplement that you can buy over the counter and NAC is amazing. I'll talk more in my course about what it's actually doing in terms of, you know, on a molecular and sort of structural basis in the body. But in terms of just coming away right now with a helpful hint, please know that NAC you could take like 600 milligrams three times a day or 900 milligrams twice a day, that it can help restore menstrual cycles when especially you do other lifestyle great, you know, choices in your life to improve your overall health. So that's my helpful tip. In my course, I will do a deep dive into what you need to know about why menstrual cycles matter, what's happening in a menstrual cycle, and how using an integrative functional medicine approach, you can help restore them to the way women were designed to be and have them. Thank you.

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<h6>Felice Gersh, MD</h6>
Hi. I'm Dr. Felice Gersh, your host for the PCOS SOS Summit. And I want to share with you the very exciting news that I have created a course on PCOS just because of this summit. It really inspired me. It made me realize that I was interviewing all of these amazing guests, but I was interviewing them. They weren't interviewing me. I did not have the opportunity to share my wealth of knowledge with you. So I said to myself, I have to have a course because I have so much to say. You don't really get my take on things. You get amazing people's take. And I love all the information. It's been incredible. But I want to join in. I want to tell you what I know. I want to share my take and my approach to PCOS. So I've created this course. It's six modules and each module is going to focus on a specific problem that the vast majority of women with PCOS must deal with and I'm going to explain it. I am going to then offer amazing solutions that go far beyond just the conventional pharmaceutical ones. That doesn't mean that I say you should never use the pharmaceutical approaches, but they're never enough. I can tell you 100%. They are never enough. And sometimes guess what? We don't need a pharmaceutical at all because you can harness the intrinsic healing properties within your own body to transform yourself from an unhealthy to a healthy woman who has PCOS. But we're transforming to the historic form of PCOS that our ancient ancestors great, great, great, great, etc., that grandmothers had with PCOS. And I'll talk about that too.

https://d1tnc8rqovg0h0.cloudfront.net/2023+Summit/PCOS+SOS+Summit/Transcripts/2023_PCOS_SOS_SUMMIT_Mini+Talk+Day+4+Transcript+File.pdf

Felice Gersh, MD is a multi-award winning physician with dual board certifications in OB-GYN and Integrative Medicine. She is the founder and director of the Integrative Medical Group of Irvine, a practice that provides comprehensive health care for women by combining the best evidence-based therapies from conventional, naturopathic, and holistic medicine. For 12 years, she taught obstetrics and gynecology at Keck USC School of Medicine as an Assistant Clinical Professor, and she now serves as an Affiliate Faculty Member at the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine through the University of Arizona School of Medicine.
Felice is a prolific writer and lecturer who speaks globally on women’s health and regularly publishes in peer-reviewed medical journals. She is the bestselling author of the PCOS SOS series and her latest book, Menopause: 50 Things You Need to Know.

Symptom Spotlight: Menstrual Irregularity

Felice Gersh, MD

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Felice Gersh, MD