u/lewcidreader

I’m sharing my experience to hopefully help raise a discussion around what environmental and lifestyle factors might aggravate or improve PMOS/PCOS symptoms. I am fully aware that this pesky (at best) and debilitating (at worst) syndrome exists everywhere - I’m just excited to share what’s felt miraculous in my own symptom management, and curious to hear what major differences in environments have done for others with PMOS.

I’m a 30-year-old woman, born and raised in the U.S., and I moved to France nearly 5 years ago. My mom is French, so I’ve been coming to Europe every summer since I was a kid. Since the onset of puberty and throughout my teenage years, I always noticed feeling better in my body when I was here: less bloating, losing weight without making any major lifestyle changes, and feeling like I could eat and drink anything (the cheese! the milk! the wine! the pastries!!!!) without feeling like I was completely upending my system.

I was diagnosed with PCOS/PMOS at 16, and was immediately put on the pill after my OBGYN said there was no other way to manage or cure my symptoms. I stopped birth control around age 22 because of all the nasty side effects, and got a Mirena IUD around 24.

Throughout my twenties, I tried pretty much everything I could find to manage my symptoms “naturally”: strict diet management (low FODMAP, keto, Mediterranean, low carb, calorie-restrictive, name any diet under the sun I’ve tried it), regular exercise and weight lifting, walking over 10K steps a day, supplement regimens, acupuncture… My weight was NOT budging - if anything, I was constantly gaining more pounds, thick hair on my chin and neck, adult acne, and my period was simply nonexistent for many years. Constantly dealing with major anxiety and depressive disorders. I was hopeless and never found a single bit of relief until I moved out of the country.

Within a year of moving to France, my period started coming back! It was light, but the sight of it nearly made me cry. Even though this can be related to hormones from the Mirena starting to wear off, I hadn’t had a period in the years before the IUD, so seeing my body start doing something normal for the first time in my adult life was just incredible.

I maintained a consistent exercise schedule, mainly focusing on weightlifting, and finally saw pounds just shedding off for the first time in my life. I was still eating a relatively balanced diet, but I wasn’t depriving myself of the food and drink around me. I was eating bread, cheese, dairy, pastries, drinking wine …. bless up, foods I had spent years needing to restrict because of PMOS. 

My skin cleared, and even my hair became less brittle. A few years on, and my period is regular, I’ve lost 40 lbs and stabilized my weight around 140, my recent ultrasounds no longer show polycystic ovarian morphology, and my hormone/metabolic labs have also normalized. I know that having normal ultrasound/bloodwork doesn't mean my PMOS is “cured”, which is why I steer towards calling this symptom improvement or remission. I still deal with anxiety and depressive episodes, and have felt bloating/GI problems and acne come back during stressful periods. 

So I’m curious about others’ experiences. Anyone else with PMOS experienced significant changes in their symptoms after moving to another country or radically changing their environment? For those who’ve spent time in the U.S. and abroad, did you notice differences in your PMOS symptoms, weight, insulin sensitivity, periods, mental health, acne, etc.?

I’d love to know whether people think this could be related to ultra-processed food, environmental exposures, endocrine disruptors, stress levels, or any other ideas…..