HOW TO HEAL PCOS
TESTIMONIES OF THE DAY
How to Heal PCOS
1. “My PCOS is gone! after a month and a half eating grain free and sugar free (in addition to gluten and mostly dairy) my blood work came back with 0 markers of PCOS! :)” – Elise 
2. “Hi Maria, I’ve been a follower of your blog for awhile now, and have been following a ketogenic diet for 1.5 years now (because of your valuable books and blog), which has helped me recover from significant adrenal fatigue problems, and also manage my PCOS and thyroid disease, allowing me to get pregnant at age 35. I had a healthy ketogenic pregnancy and found your blog and cookbooks a staple in my new diet and health journey. Thanks for your input and for all the work you do!”- Leah
3. “I am so thankful to have found this site. I was diagnosed with PCOS when I was 21. At the time I had only the absence of menses as a symptom. I was 120lbs. No extra hair. Thyroid was fine. GTT was great. It was a sonogram for pelvic pain that spurred the blood work and diagnosis.Fast forward 11 years, my husband and I had been trying for over a year to conceive. He got checked out and came back normal. When I went to see my GYN she mentioned I might want to “cut back on carbs” which at the time I thought that was nuts. (Calorie is a calorie school of thought) I had recently gained up to 196lbs, really quickly and the calorie counting wasn’t working. So I decided to do some research about low carb and fertility. After finding some studies on the national institute of health I thought I would give it a go. I have now had 4 consecutive cycles under 40 days. (That has NEVER happened to me before) I have lost 22lbs. And I tell everyone about these recipes!!! I could never do it without this site. I have photos of my attempts at your recipes all over my facebook. My husband (who eats nothing but junk) even raves about them.Thank you!” – Paolina
4. “Hello, I had recently purchased one of your meal-plans, my goal being to get pregnant (I have pco-syndrome) because of my work schedule (anesthesiologist, on-call nights, ect) it was a little tough to completely adhere to the keto-diet. But I managed to cut my carbs to about 50-80 grams/day and i left out all gluten and about 60-70% of my calories were fat-based (good fats) even though i was eating at least 2500 kcal a day (weight loss not being my goal) i lost 5 pounds within a week (i am 5 feet 9 inches and now weigh 130 pounds). I lost my food cravings and feel a nice satiety most of the day, and no more issues with gas or bloating and I am pregnant! Only 3 weeks into changing my diet.
Thank you so much for your advice. sincerely, Serife from Frankfurt, Germany”
5. “I just thought I would send you a note and say THANK YOU! Between you and several others, especially my naturopath, I took the road to health and eat a high fat, low carb, grain and sugar free diet, and have HEALED my PCOS! My doctor told me today that there is not one hint of anything indicating I even had it! 55 days of grain free and sugar free, going strong!” E-
6. “I had it before I conceived my daughter (2011); I went to the doctor because no matter how little I ate and exercised, I couldn’t lose weight. I was holding steady at 150 lbs. I was prescribed metformin after an exam of my ovaries, which didn’t do anything except make me EXTREMELY fertile. Well, after my daughter was born I was back to my weight loss quest. My symptoms were still there- painful and heavy sporadic periods (along with a terribly placed IUD-evil thing!) and I was still around the same weight after around 3 months postpartum. I even went to a “weight loss clinic” to get some help and they handed me these pills that are essentially legal meth. I was so frustrated with not being able to lose weight; I googled a diet for PCOS. Many pages later, I read an article about a woman who healed her PCOS with a high fat, extremely low carbohydrate diet. I figured that I was desperate and willing to try anything, so it couldn’t hurt. I did research on Keto and began immediately. I began losing weight instantly, had more energy, and after getting the IUD removed and several trial and errors with hormonal birth control (I can’t have estrogens apparently) I’m right as rain. I’ve since been diagnosed with low testosterone and hypothyroidism this year, taking TSH daily and getting hormonal pellets implanted every 5 or so months. I’ve had great success with Keto; minimal migraines, loads of energy, muscle building, clear head and no more weird and extremely painful menstruation! Best of all, I’m the fittest I’ve ever been in my life!” Amy
Get started on your path to healthy healing today!
I have a fantastic package for fertility! On SALE today!
HOW KETO HEALED ME!
I love this photo. It shows how my love for baking started at an early age. On the other hand it also shows my early age of sugar addiction.
I grew up loving sugar! I also had a lot of ear infections, which means a lot of antibiotics. I often wonder if the ear aches and antibiotics caused my love of sugar at a young age since I now understand the connection between low good gut bacteria and sugar cravings!
I never really talk about it, I am a very private person, but when I was a teenager I didn’t have a period until I was 16. All of my 
friends would have conversations about it and I just acted like I too didn’t like having a period, but I knew I was different.
Once I did have my first period, the second one didn’t come like it should, they were very very sporadic and painful. I also had dark facial hair and I was on antibiotics for excessive acne. All the classic signs of PCOS, also known as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.
Hormones are chemical messengers that activate numerous diverse processes in your body, including energy production, often one hormone signals the release of another hormone.
When a woman has PCOS the hormones get out of balance. One hormone triggers another, which changes another and the sex hormones get out of balance.
In a healthy body, the ovaries make a tiny amount of male sex hormones (androgens). In PCOS, they start making too much androgens. This often causes you to stop ovulating, grow excessive facial and body hair, and acne.
Someone with PCOS is known to have too much insulin, and are insulin resistant. When the body doesn’t use insulin well, blood sugar levels go up. Over time, this increases your risk of type 2 diabetes.
So what causes too much insulin? Carbohydrates and sugar! Yep, even when I started to diet and lose weight at first, I was doing it the wrong way and my PCOS wasn’t going away. I lived off of Special K and skim milk, carrots dipped in mustard (gross, I know!), and and salads with fat-free French dressing. Sugar sugar and more sugar!
As I studied nutrition in college, I started to eat lower carb which helped me in many ways, but it wasn’t until I started to add more and more saturated fat and cholesterol… yes, I said “saturated fat and cholesterol”, is when I started to heal. Too many people go low carb, but are still eating low fat; for example I would eat egg white omelets, chicken breasts with steamed broccoli. Healthy right??? Nope!
Cholesterol is what makes healthy hormones! We know this by studying breast-fed babies. Breast milk is primarily made up of cholesterol which is essential for the baby to develop gonads, thyroid and other hormones. I get so frustrated when I hear dietitians recommend cutting all cholesterol and saturated fats. At what point does it change from being a crucial nutrient to a demonized nutrient???
Cholesterol is so important to the human body that nature has devised a backup plan in the event your diet falls short. When that happens, your liver steps in to make cholesterol to give your body a baseline level. If your liver gets over used and tired, thyroid issues also show up. Why? The thyroid hormone T4 is converted into the activated T3 in the liver, not in the thyroid! So taking care of your liver is extra important!
A ketogenic diet for PCOS leads to significant reductions in weight, lowers percent free testosterone, LH/FSH ratio, and fasting serum insulin in women with PCOS over a short six-month period!
It may take time to heal decades of abusing your cells. But you WILL heal.
Caffeine also aggravates and increases androgens. This too had to go!
Estrogen dominance is a huge factor of PCOS. Alcohol is a huge estrogenic toxin. It increases estrogen by 300%. The infamous “beer belly” is really just an “estrogen belly.” Biochemically, the higher your level of estrogen is, the more readily you absorb alcohol, but the slower you break it down (click HERE to read more on that). I no longer drink alcohol but I did in my past. I actually drank a lot. I have an addictive personality and it showed with food and alcohol. A Ketogenic diet also healed my addiction and anxiety around food as well as alcohol. Our cells are primarily made up of saturated fats so many people heal issues such as depression and anxiety when they begin the ketogenic lifestyle. Estrogen dominance causes low progesterone which increases anxiety and sleep issues…it is a sad snowball effect.
Another thing that causes estrogen dominance is topical chemicals and make-up! In THIS study, in only 3 days of changing their toxic makeup their estrogenic levels went down by 45%!!!! Is your make-up filled with “Obesogens?” I highly suggest switching!
You also do not have to be overweight to have PCOS or diabetes. I’ve had numerous clients with type 2 diabetes who were underweight. Ketosis isn’t just about weight loss. You can and will gain weight if you eat excessive amounts of calories even if you are in Ketosis.
Don’t wait so long for help like I did. I’m a very private person and I suffered quietly. Don’t suffer through this alone! I’ve also had people wait too long to get help. One client in India waited too long to seek help for her type 2 diabetes that she also became type 1.
You may read that someone with PCOS needs to eliminate red meat. What studies don’t tell you is that they used conventional meat filled with hormones. Please avoid that. Hormones in food is not a good idea for anyone, but especially those who already have hormonal imbalances. Skip those giant chicken breasts from SAMs club and get organically raised chicken thighs. They taste better anyway!
Even primitive people gave the prized red meat and organ meat to the fertile tribesmen and women to ensure survival of the tribe. They knew that to have a healthy reproduction, the men and women needed quality protein and fats.
SUMMARY
Things that can increase PCOS and/or hormones:
1. Alcohol
2. Caffeine
3. Carbs and sugar
4. Hormones in foods
5. Trans fats (form crust around cells causing an increase in insulin resistance)
6. Topical products and other Obesogens.
-If you want to watch a helpful Webinar, click HERE.
7. Lack of cholesterol consumption
8. Excess stress and adrenal hormones
Anyway, my testimony is to help you feel encouraged and empowered to take control and understand that you deserve this and you do not have to live off of salads or live at the gym. If you are willing to take the time to prepare meals, even if they are slow cooker meals, you CAN do this! You deserve to feel amazing too!
I also believe that everything happens for a reason. My past brought me to my future. I have a wonderful job where I can help educate you all about the truth! But more than anything, my past brought me my 2 precious boys.
I look forward to seeing all of your “after” photos” with your babies! – Maria
Hey Maria, what about other types of Amenorrhea? Like hypothalamus-induced ones? How would you go about curing that?
I recommend FemEstroplex.
Maria, thank u for sharing your story. I’m so thankful for you. Your books, blogs and recipes have been so helpful. My kids and I feel so much better. I’m so sorry that u had PCOS. My sister was diagnosed w/ PCOS about 24 yrs ago ( she was 16). The doc told her to go on low carb AND low fat b/c her cholesterol was so high. She couldn’t stay on diet b/c of the insane cravings for sugar and carbs. Her symptoms got worse:( I’m going to to pass your story on . I’m worried my daughter is on the path to PCOS so we are all eating the Maria way/Keto. Thank u for your help Maria! Love and Blessings
You are sooooo kind😍
Thank you for your openness and for sharing your story!
Do you think, keto can also help women with PCOS whose LH and FSH ratio is normal and who are not insulin resistant? (But have high dheas, amenorrhea and the ovarian cysts along with high AMH)
It would be great to know what you think..
Greetings
Monica
Yes! Cholesterol will help make healthy cholesterol levels. BUT I also have other things I would recommend.
I’m hoping that the Gyn that I just visited can help with my thyroid and female hormones. [He is known to treat “female issues” with BHRT, so he may be sufficient for my needs.] My previous Gyn (who retired a few years ago) agreed with me that I may have had PCOS all along.
Actually, I think the sugar addiction causes the ear infections, then the antibiotics kill off normal gut fauna, starting a cascade of chemical/sugar reactions that leads to eating more sugar and getting sick more often.
I used to get sinus infections, pretty much non stop from Feb to June and again from Sept-Dec. (allergy induced, when the temp was above 50 degrees and below 95), but since going completely Keto in 2013, I’ve had only 1 sinus infection, and I healed it by flushing and drinking water and increasing VitC. In 2014-2015 school year I didn’t have allergies, AT ALL! I’ve never been diagnosed with PCOS, and now that I’m 50, none of my drs care if I don’t have menses or painful cramps anymore, but my health is so much improved in that area, that I became more worried that I might get pregnant and had the man take steps to ensure it didn’t happen.
lol, Thanks a lot!
k
This is not about this subject, but I am in process of ordering some items from beautycounter and can’t find the shave cream. Do they still make it?
They don’t make it anymore. They weren’t happy with the performance and felt they could do better. The men’s line next year will include one and I hope they make one for us ladies.
I am introducing solids to my infant right now and I would like to start giving her bone broth. I read in one of your books you would dilute it for Kai. I was wondering what your ratio for bone broth/ water was? Thanks.
Well… It is really dependent on how thick your broth is. I had to water it down in order for it to get through the nipple on the bottle otherwise I wouldn’t have watered it down.
Hi Maria! Thank you for sharing your story – I can relate to much of it. I have PCOS, am on Metformin, and have been following a ketogenic diet for a few months now. I was losing weight and feeling more energetic than I had for a long time until I had surgery on my sinuses in June. It has been an absolute struggle to wake up and stay awake no matter how much (or little) sleep I get. I am still losing weight (30+ lbs so far) but just can’t seem to get the energy back that I had before June. Any idea what’s going on? Thanks!
It could be a lot of things. Are you adding more salt?
Do you know your ferritin?
I probably haven’t added as much salt as I should, but it’s been a difficult concept to grasp considering how little I’ve used over the last 10-12 years. I’ll definitely work on that.
As far as ferritin, I’m afraid I don’t know what that is.
My ferritins rly low and when i took iron for three months, it went down. I just can’t get it up.
Ferritin is the storage form of iron, ur hemotocrit can be fine and u can be exhausted still becuz hematocrit or hemoglobin dont show anemia often.
Metformin caused my Vit D levels to be low and I also had severe lack of energy issues until I started with a supplement.
Hi Maria
I too have been diagnosed with PCOS and your healing story inspired me to get on a keto diet. I have been on the diet for a month so far and feel great. I have been trying to get pregnant too but have the obvious PCOS problem. Would like to buy one of your fertility packages and have a consultation with you. Please could you recommend the right plan. Ps I live in Norway
Thanks
Ally
The best package is the phone consult as it gives us a month to work together to get you on the right track, a phone consultation, a health assessment and everything in the meal plan packages. Otherwise, the Keto-30 Advanced package is great. It gives you all the tools to reach your goals and makes it really easy to follow all the way down to a weekly grocery list. You might want to add a health assessment with that to get on the right supplements to help heal (one is included in the phone consultation package).
Nutrition packages and Phone Consult (at bottom):
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/my-services/
Supplement plans and assessment:
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/supplement-plans/
Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I feel like I am reading about myself. I can relate to so much of what you have shared. I have been on Metformin and even Adderal to help with weight, focusing and energy issues. I have a quick question. I have a food intolerance to eggs and all dairy. Is the Keto diet doable when you can’t have eggs and cheese?
Absolutely!!!! You can!!!!
Hi Maria,
My best friend just gifted me your cookbook and my partner and I are so excited to get started! I have “thin” PCOS and he has systemic inflammation and elevated A1c levels. I was wondering if you have any thoughts about Synthroid and Spironolactone as I begin eating ketogenic. I am on only small doses of each but I would like to be able to stop taking them altogether. Do these have any interactions with the diet, and is there any benefit to stopping them earlier rather than later? Or would it be better to stop once I have healed more?
Thank you!
Sarah
I would have to see your labs to give a recommendation.
I’d be honored to help with a consult.
I’m so happy you are enjoying the book!!!
The best option would be a health assessment to see what deficiencies her body has and get on some supplements to balance it back out.
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/supplement-plans/
Hey Maria, Any thoughts for women with endometriosis. I was diagnosed with PCOS, but after following a low carb lifestyle for a couple years, but with several slip ups, I was now diagnosed with endometrosis and was wondering if Keto could possible reverse any endometriosis or PCOS that is left lingering. Wondering if you have heard anyone have success with Keto and these two conditions.
Thanks,
Laura
Hi Maria,
I have only just began a keto diet (8 days ago!) and I am really happy with this new direction in my life/health, and already have seen positive changes. I became convinced of the benefits of a LCHF diet a few years back, but I gave up after a few days of feeling horrible. This time I am a lot more educated and it is going well. There is something I have not been able to find the answer too, yet, on the internet. Have women with PCOS seen their facial hair diminish on a keto diet? How I would love to not have so much on my jaw/chin/neck. I am a woman in her twenties and I am extremely active and about 5-10 pounds overweight. Let me know what your experience has been from the women you coach. Thank you, and thank you for a great website which I love! I made your almond bran muffins today and they were awesome. Ang
Yes! But supplements help faster!
What supplements would help reduce dark facial hair, please? I believe I’ve had PCOS for decades now, and the hair situation is getting desperate… Please advise!
following
Hey Maria,
I first want to say that i love your website, so much information and beautifull recipes! I love that you share your story with us, thank you for that!
I have also PCOS and doing ketogenic way of eating for 3 months now, i lost 8 kg so far and have other healthbenefits, like headaches are away, feel better….
We have had fertillity treatments few years ago with no succes and have had 3 miscarriages since then, i like to know what is the best supplement plan to choose from, the one for Fertility and pregnancy or the one for Estrogen Dominance plan?
Thank you!
Ann
ThanksAnn!
I highly suggest the fertility plan;)
Thank you very much for your answer Maria!
Have a nice weekend!
Ann!
Hey Maria,
I forget to say that my first priority with this way of eating of becoming healthy.
Thank you!
I wish I had known this information when I was in my 20’s. I was not able to have children and didn’t realize why. All those symptoms you mentioned I had or most of them. Thank you for this information on PCOS. I
Hey Mariah, I love your website and been following you for years! i bought all your books and they were very helpful!
I am on a keto diet for almost 4 years now, very healthy, im usually a 98 pounds 5’8 (very skinny) all is good.
before I started keto i had bad pcos, high levels of testosterone, no period for years and all the classic symptoms.
in the last few months i started gaining weight, though i barely eat, and never step out of my keto.
i run some tests, and apparently my testosterone levels are extremely low! so yes, keto lowered it, but with the years it lowered it too much!
what would you recommend doing now? i gain almost 20 pounds in 4-5 months, i added more working out, but im a professional model and this is really scary, loosing control like this. should i restrict my food more? (i eat once a day, an omelette or some meat, thats it)
Would love your help with this one! so hard not to fall into depression 🙁
Thanks
Hmm, that sounds like a complicated issue and there are probably other factors involved. I would recommend a Phone consultation or at least a healthy assessment to get your body on the right track.
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/phone-consult/
http://mariamindbodyhealth.com/supplement-plans/