I was deemed to be a PCOS victim since my school days. I use the word ‘victim’ because that is how society makes you feel about your condition.
I was very healthy and everyone called me chubby. With heavy hair growth all over my face and extra flab on my body as a teenager, it used to get quite frustrating at times. This also included an insane number of visits to the gynecologist and a humongous intake of medicine cocktails, ranging from metformin to hormone balancing pills. In a snapshot, my childhood and teenage years turned out to be a classic case of ‘been there, done that’ to counter PCOS condition.
As if that were not enough, the countless pieces of advice and home remedies suggested by numerous relatives and ‘deemed well-wishers’ added to my frustration. It seemed everyone would invoke their medical knowledge the moment they saw me.
Under such circumstances, you generally consider yourself resigned to fate and start thinking that this is your destiny.
Incidentally, destiny had something else in store for me. After my marriage, my husband and I moved to Bangalore. Since we had to now consult a new doctor in a new city, we got a few recommendations, and finally zeroed in on one.
That was probably the eureka moment of my life. The doctor patiently went through my entire medical history, looked at the huge pile of medical files and suggested that all I needed was a lifestyle change. She told me to stop all the medicines, which was like almost 10 pills a day, at that point of time. I was shocked and had a strong urge to take a second opinion. However, given the fact that she prescribed strong lifestyle changes, I thought I must give it a shot first!
Coming to my lifestyle, earlier my lifestyle was mired with bad food choices, a diet which consisted of a lot of aerated drinks, junk and canned food, hardly any green vegetables, hardly any homemade food as well as very little physical exercise. All this attributed to my market research professional routine which didn’t leave me any time.
For the first time in my life, I started putting conscious efforts to correct my condition without any medicinal intervention. I started reading a lot on health, nutrition, healthy lifestyle and food benefits. My belief on the age old saying of ‘knowledge is power’ really took to a new level.
My lifestyle underwent a sea of change as I consciously started implementing my new found knowledge into practice. Some key changes I made included exercising daily for 30 to 40 minutes, breaking medicine cycle, and eating homemade food. All green vegetables became a big part of my daily diet followed by protein intake, completely omitting all bad carbs, drinking a cup of green tea daily, eating good fats like nuts and seeds and reducing my sugar intake to the bare minimum. I turned my back to all sugary and aerated drinks, gradually started introducing colored fruits and vegetables in my diet, started hydrating myself properly and followed a strict NO approach to all fried food and sweets.
Within a year and a half, along with an exercise regime and a drastic change in my food habits, I had come to a weight frame of 52 kilograms from 62 kilograms which was at the peak of PCOS days. Sonography reports suggested that there was a positive reduction in my PCOS condition, from being severe to mild.
Also, I had never felt more fresh and energetic in my entire life. I conceived naturally within 6 months post that!
From being afflicted to a severe case of extreme PCOS to conceiving and delivering naturally, a full term healthy baby, it was as if my life had undergone a full cycle. I was conveyed many times that PCOS pregnancies are considered to be risky and normally end with C- Section, if at all they last a full term.
However, mine was, in my doctor’s language, an exemplary pregnancy which would be quoted as an example for others to follow. When I conceived I was 49 kilograms. During my entire pregnancy, I only had good fats and nothing that the grannies and elderly people recommend, no ghee laddoos or fried food for me. I did prenatal exercises like walking and yoga consistently for the entire pregnancy period. There was always a binge day, once in a while though. I had put on healthy 11 kilograms of weight which is just when I was pregnant. But, it all came out post delivery because it was all good fats. I just wanted to break all the myths which revolve around eating ghee or a lot of fat and unhealthy stuff for delivering a healthy baby. I delivered a full term healthy baby and I am again back in shape in a weight frame of 49 to 50 kgs.
A loud shout-out to all the ladies suffering from PCOS or trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. All you need to do is alter your lifestyle, eat healthy, exercise for minimum 40 minutes daily, read a lot and be aware. Most importantly, be positive about it. A female body is much more than ‘polycystic ovaries’.
Consume a lot of water, sweat it out as exercises release endorphins! Stay happy and healthy!
