Lara Briden - The Period Revolutionary
Leading the change to better periods and hormones
Chronic inflammation plays a role in many women’s health conditions including PCOS, PMDD, and endometriosis.
There can be a strong hormonal component to abdominal weight gain. And in most people, that hormone is insulin.
In episode six of my podcast/YouTube video (released in May 2022), I discuss insulin resistance, including why you could have insulin resistance even if your blood sugar is normal, the role of mitochondria, and all the ways to lower insulin and improve metabolism.
Endometriosis is not a hormonal condition. It’s affected by estrogen but is not caused by estrogen or “estrogen dominance.”
Instead, endometriosis is a whole-body inflammatory and immune disease, and possibly a microbial disease.
What does that mean for treatment?
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is not one disease. Instead, it’s “a heterogeneous disorder with different underlying biological mechanisms.” In other words, it’s a set of symptoms (androgen excess and anovulatory cycles) caused or driven by several underlying factors. To successfully treat PCOS, you need to identify which factor (or factors) is driving the symptoms. In other words, you need to know your functional type of PCOS.
The four functional types of PCOS include insulin-resistant PCOS, post-pill PCOS (which is temporary), inflammatory PCOS, and the far less common adrenal PCOS.
If you suffer hair loss, facial hair (hirsutism), or acne, then you know all about androgen excess or high male hormones.
You may have been given the diagnosis of PCOS, but there are actually several different reasons for androgen excess in women, including androgen hypersensitivity, adrenal androgen excess, high prolactin, menopause, and hormonal birth control with a high androgen index.