Today on the podcast, as part of our PCOS Awareness Month Series, I’ve invited Brigitte Warne to the podcast.
We talk all about how the dietary and lifestyle changes she made helped her cure her PCOS and fall pregnant, what PCOS looked like for her, the supplements she took and more!
For Brigitte, the pivotal point was when she came off the contraceptive pill after 10 years and started noticing changes. Tiny pimples all over her face, back, neck and chest became cystic acne, severe migraines caused her to throw up, her hair started to fall out and she started to not look like herself due to all the physical symptoms. In turn, it started to affect her mentally, causing severe anxiety.
After six months, Brigitte went to five different doctors and then it took her another six months before she was diagnosed with PCOS. In the meantime, she hadn’t had a period and wasn’t displaying the typical symptoms.
Brigitte was told she wasn’t able to conceive naturally because she didn’t ovulate, so she was told she had these options; to go back on the pill which meant she couldn’t have children at all or start taking Clomid (and Brigitte didn’t want to do this as it wasn’t natural) or go back onto antibiotics for her skin. Not happy with the three options available to her, Brigitte started researching PCOS, its causes and why and whether there were any natural options to help her.
Key Takeaways and Brigitte’s Tips:
- Start looking at your diet. Already a vegetarian, Brigitte then switched over to a plant-based diet and focussed on eating foods that lower inflammation and cut out foods that cause inflammation including alcohol, caffeine, processed sugars, gluten, yeast and dairy.
- Add supplements and herbs to your diet.
- Stress can affect your hormones so reduce stress where you can. The two ways Brigitte reduced stress in her life:
- In her yoga practice Brigitte focussed on mindfulness and being more present. She says, if you need a moment to yourself, try and find things around you that you’ve never noticed before.
- Use your breath to your advantage, take a moment and take a few breaths.
- Exercise can cause stress on your body. When it comes to exercise, consider breaking up your high intensity workouts with something with low intensity. Brigitte preferred yoga, pilates classes, walking and swimming.
- You have to continue to manage PCOS. You get to a point where it becomes super manageable and it becomes part of your lifestyle, but it doesn’t affect you because you know how to manage it.
Find Brigitte at PCOS to Wellness and on Instagram