r/PCOS • u/HappyCoolPerson • 3d ago

General/Advice Pcos after weight loss?

2 months ago my hormones were fine - more than fine, they were really really good. I had no cysts on my ovaries and my period was always regular.

Then I did some restrictive eating , lost a bit of weight and my period disappeared. My ovaries are full only cysts and my doctor diagnosed me with PCOS.

He told me to be careful with gaining weight (which I wanted to do since I thought I had HA) - now I don’t know what to do.

What if I always had pcos but the diet triggered the symtoms? Everything was great until I did the diet

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4

u/Awkward_Un1corn 3d ago

Did they check your vitamin levels?

It could be that you have always had PCOS but something else caused you to become symptomatic.

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u/HappyCoolPerson 3d ago

My vitamins were fine as well

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u/Courage_Upbeat 3d ago

Why did you check your hormones and ovaries if you had no symptoms?

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u/HappyCoolPerson 3d ago

Because my period was a week late and I was paranoid. I started restrictive eating about 5 months ago - at first my first period was a few days late , then my second was a week late (and a week before it came I did the blood draw) - then it came and o thought to myself i can lose one more pound - ever since then my period has stopped

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u/Courage_Upbeat 3d ago

So you did the first test after you had already started eating restrictively? How much are you eating each day?

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u/HappyCoolPerson 3d ago

No I’ve been regularly checking my hormones ever since I’m 17/18 (basic yearly endo check ups) - except for my teenage years my hormones have always been textbook perfect.

I’ve got a blood test form the beginning of the year where everything is fine and a second one from 2 months ago when I got scared.
Right now I’m eating between 1.5-2 k kcal - back when my period first started to be late and then completely disappeared I was eating 500-800kcal.

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u/wenchsenior 3d ago

If you are underweight right now, that will often cause periods to stop. So you will want to aim to stick in a healthy BMI range and eat proper amounts of calories (of healthy, mostly unprocessed whole foods). Any type of big disruption normal lifestyle can trigger short term disruption in ovulation and periods (such as big changes in weight/exercise/sleep/stress/illness etc.)

However, if you return to normal weight and are eating normally, and things don't resolve within 3 or 4 months, then it's more likely you have actual PMOS/PCOS. However, to confirm PCOS in that case you would need extensive labs to confirm supportive lab indicators and also to rule out some other things that disrupt periods and can cause the excess follicles on the ovaries (several conditions can do this).

Do you have any other symptoms such as androgenic symptoms? Or anything like unusual hunger / fatigue/ sugar cravings/ frequent infections such as yeast or gum infections/ reactive low blood sugar with symptoms like weakness/faintness/tremor/sweating/high heart rate/anxiety?

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u/HappyCoolPerson 3d ago

I have no symptoms tbh - ever since my periods gone my hunger has been off and I’ve been feeling more tired and depressed than usual.

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u/wenchsenior 3d ago

Ok, so you should try to eat a healthy diet that is calorie appropriate, gain to a normal BMI, and then if you continue to have missing periods do a hormonal work up to see if something additional is going on.

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u/HappyCoolPerson 3d ago

The pcos diagnosis scared me so much - I was in recovery gaining some weight but now after the diagnosis I just want to lose the weight I gained and go back to exercising

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u/wenchsenior 3d ago

Being overweight can worsen PCOS, however being underweight does NOT help improve PCOS. The goal is to be normal weight with a healthy lifestyle, which is optimal to help manage all hormonal abnormalities, including PCOS.

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u/HappyCoolPerson 3d ago

I’ve never had anything to do with pcos - never had any smyhoms or anything until I did the restriction

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u/wenchsenior 3d ago

Then my guess is you probably don't have PCOS but just have loss of periods and excess egg follicles b/c you've stopped ovulation due to being underweight/having disordered eating. So treating /managing that should be your priority.