If you’ve read my first blog post on my experiences trying to get off of hormonal birth control, you might have noticed that my first attempt was unsuccessful. After getting one period, I went another couple months without a period, and, with my symptoms getting out of control, I threw in the towel and waited another few years before trying to quit hormonal birth control again. While I used a broader set of tools the second time around, which was successful, I think the primary driver of success the second time was stress management.
the stress response
Prehistoric humans relied heavily on the stress response for survival. Their main sources of stress were situations where they were in immediate physical danger from things like attacks by wild animals. In response to the threat, their bodies readied them to fight or flee. This response included the release of stress hormones like cortisol that triggered various physical responses in the body like increasing blood sugar levels so that their muscles had enough fuel to handle the physical threat, increasing heart rate and blood pressure so that their muscles could get all of the fuel and oxygen they needed, etc. Their bodies also de-prioritized things like digestion, recovery, and reproduction. It assumed those things were not important in the moment; saving their life was the first and only priority.
Unfortunately, in our modern worlds where our main sources of threats are not actually physical threats, our bodies still respond with the exact same flood of physical responses that our ancestors experienced long ago. And many of us live with low grade stress all the time, such that we don’t realize our bodies are chronically in this fight or flight state. It’s not until we go on a restful vacation or finally get some sort of a break from our stressors that we realize just how much our nervous system had been in overdrive.
I know I went about 24 years of my life carrying mountains of stress in my body, and I had no idea until I started going to yoga. I learned that what I was experiencing in my body from stress did not have to be my normal. I could feel calm and light. I could be less reactive. I could manage how situations impacted me mentally. It was an amazing tool to learn.
sources of stress are inevitable; how you respond to stressors is up to you
While stressful triggers abound, learning how to calm your nervous system when something arises can get you out of the fight or flight mode and stop the cascade of physical responses to the stressful trigger. You can shift your nervous system from being in sympathetic overdrive (that fight or flight response) to having the parasympathetic nervous system kick in (the rest, digest, and breed side of the nervous system).
And this is fully within your control with the right tools!
How does Stress affect women with PCOS?
Stress as an underlying cause of PCOS will be its own post at a later date, but in a nutshell, stress plays two main roles in PCOS. First, part of the stress response triggers the release of androgens from the adrenals, contributing to menstrual cycle disruption, acne, hirsutism, and male pattern baldness. Second, it increases blood sugar levels, decreases insulin sensitivity, and worsens insulin resistance. High levels of insulin triggers the release of androgens by the ovaries, with the same impacts listed above as androgens released by the adrenals.
While everyone should be proactively managing stress in their lives, I think it is especially important if you have PCOS. I’ve found that I can “get away” with more in terms of having a less than ideal diet and/or less sleep during times of either less sources of stress or more proactive management of stress.
I’ve listed some of my favorite stress management tools below. I hope you will consider giving some of them a try!
Yoga is a great tool for lowering stress levels and can be helpful for females with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Yoga
I am a HUGE fan of yoga for stress management. As part of my career floundering, I created a YouTube Channel with some yoga, meditation, and breathwork practices which you might find helpful. You can access it HERE. I have no idea if I will add to it much in the future, but it’s got some options to get you started. And I might be biased, but I think the classes are good!
While I love local yoga studios, when you’re stressed out, making it to a class can sometimes only add stress. I’ve loved using Yoga Glo, a large online library of yoga classes of every duration and style that you can imagine. It makes it very easy to sneak a class into a little window of time you happen to find. I’ve really been enjoying classes by Gustavo Padron. He feels like a ray of sunshine, and his flows are creative and fun. If he’s not your style though, you’ll have plenty of other options from which to choose. You can access a 7-day free trial for Glo HERE.
Meditation has been show to lower anxiety levels and improve mental health. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at higher risk of experiencing anxiety and depression, so meditation is a great tool for females with PCOS.
meditation
While I’d like to say I practice yoga every day, I don’t. But I do sit down to meditate every single morning. It is the very first thing I do to make sure it actually happens. I’ve been using the Ten Percent Happier App for years now. It has two beginner courses (Basics I and Basics II) and then courses that focus on different topics (anxiety, focus, relationships, etc.). My favorite course might have been Meditation and the Brain, for all the nerdy facts you learn about what meditation actually does. I also really enjoyed Performance. In addition to courses, the app also has a ton of single session options as well as a library of meditations designed to help you fall asleep faster and/or improve sleep quality. While my sleep is usually pretty good, I’ve used the sleep meditations on occasion when I’ve been really wound up, and they help tremendously. You can get 30-days of free access to the app HERE.
Massage
While I originally started seeing a massage therapist to treat a torn labrum in my hip, I now get a massage every few weeks for both mental and physical upkeep. We often store stress and trauma in our muscles, so massage can be a much needed physical relief from your stress. If you are local to Gainesville, Diana at House of Yin is amazing! I think just being in her presence lowers my stress levels. And of course, she gives great massages as well, using a wide variety of tools and techniques depending on what you need and how you’re feeling. Her background music DJ skills are legit as well. Her booking info is HERE.
Nature therapy is a quickly becoming recognized as a powerful tool for reducing stress and improving mental health. Females with PCOS should consider spending more time in nature.
spending time in nature
I love hiking, and I am fortunate enough to live in a town with many trail options right in town. The trails are lined with towering pines, sweeping oaks, and shrubby understory. I feel like my pulse slows down just a notch or two, my breathing gets just a bit fuller and slower, and I can take time to set aside all of the other things that are trying to distract me. Some of my favorite local trails include Alfred Ring Park, San Fellasco State Park, and when there’s cooler weather, Turkey Creek Preserve.
Self-hypnosis
Lastly, if you’re really up for some tactics that might seem just a tad woo-woo, I’ve found self-hypnosis to be really helpful to rewire limiting beliefs that are often the underlying source of my stress (e.g., in my current circumstances, I am looping over thoughts of not being good enough to be successful in my new career and this causes major anxiety).
From hearing the creator on a podcast, I found To Be Magnetic. It’s a manifestation process that uses rewiring limiting beliefs to make manifestation practices more successful. While I fully believe that how you show up in the world impacts how people respond to you and the opportunities that open up for you, my mind is still not made up on manifestation as it is traditionally used.
But despite my skepticism of the larger manifestation idea, the “deep imaginings” (or DI’s for short) that are part of the process have been tremendously helpful at working with limiting beliefs and lowering stress and anxiety levels.
I have felt bigger shifts in my nervous system from a single DI than anything else I have tried.
And my physical stats demonstrate just how impactful it can be. My Whoop often thinks I have gone back to sleep while doing a DI because my heart rate slows down so much. This has never happened to me while doing traditional meditation, despite being a pretty experienced and dedicated meditation practitioner.
I’ve recently been working through their inner child DI, picking a different stage of my life each time, and I feel so much lighter inside. It’s truly amazing. If you’re interested in checking it out, you can sign up HERE and use code KELLY5047 for 15% off.
take some time to find the right tool for you
If you haven’t proactively been managing your stress, I think you might be surprised at just how good you can feel when you find the right stress management tool for you. And your body will surely thank you for taking time to give it the care it needs.
If you have other tools you love, please add them in the comments below!
About the author
Kelly Grogan, Ph.D., NTM, is a holistic nutrition therapist who is passionate about helping females with PCOS. She currently manages her own PCOS with nutrition and lifestyle tools that she developed through extensive review of the scientific literature on PCOS interventions.