PCOS doesn’t have to be a four-letter word. Learn how you can start to expose the lies and half-truths around PCOS in this easy-to-read roadmap.
Download nowAssuming that PCOS can be fixed by reducing carbs, intermittent fasting, keto, or other diets neglects key research insight—and it treats people with PCOS as a math problem that can be “solved.” Long-term dieting worsens insulin and inflammation and also predicts binge eating. Even more, diet recommendations prevent access to health care and contribute to the oppression of fat people with PCOS. People with PCOS should not have to practice an eating disorder like anorexia nervosa to earn health provider attention, praise, and care. We fight to end the normalization of disordered eating to treat PCOS.
Everyone with PCOS matters, not just women with PCOS. Nonbinary people and transmen live with PCOS too. We use inclusive language like “people with PCOS” rather than “cyster” or “women with PCOS” because everyone deserves to have a place to tend to their PCOS and feel welcome there.
We do not assume that all people with PCOS want to increase fertility or decrease androgens. Typical PCOS recommendations—such as “come back when you’re trying to get pregnant”—reinforce misogynistic and transphobic beliefs that people with ovaries are valued just for reproductive purposes. People with PCOS are valuable because of their humanity, not their ability to reproduce.
Everyone deserves access to reproductive medicine, gender-affirming surgery, and other health care interventions. Making weight-based decisions about who gets care is common health care practice… But it’s discriminatory and harms health.
People with PCOS often explain they’re trying to exercise more or cut back on food—only to be faced with disbelief from their health care provider. We believe people with PCOS when they say they’ve tried. We lift up their concerns even if we don’t see them or understand them. We need to stop dismissing people with PCOS and stop minimizing their pain, fatigue, and other experiences.
While Instagram influencers may have “fixed” certain PCOS symptoms by eliminating a food group or using a special supplement, this is the exception, not the rule. Promoting these fixes minimizes the fact that PCOS is a chronic, lifelong condition that worsens with age. These supposed remedies also cause shame in those “still” suffering after following the directions. While some interventions can improve symptoms—such as increasing access, decreasing oppression, nutrition therapy, stress management, and movement—they do not cure PCOS. We do not promise a cure. Instead, we provide a safe space to explore options to make living with PCOS symptoms easier.
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What if you could write a letter to Food—put pen to paper and hash out the love/hate relationship you have with Food and its undeserving power? What would you say? How would things change?
If you have a complicated relationship with Food and you’d like to explore it, here’s your chance to write to Food—and have Food “write” you back. Submit your letter here. Some may be read on-air.