Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Undetected

I was recently consulted by a 36 year old lady who had tried IVF on 2 occasions without success. She had been diagnosed with the autoimmune thyroid condition Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. This was being successfully treated with porcine thyroid hormone (Armour) and her thyroid function was normal on blood tests. She felt reasonably well apart from fatigue; however she did have a very stressful and demanding office job. She came to see me to check her thyroid function and was disappointed that the blood level of her thyroid antibodies had not come down over several years. These antibodies are produced by the immune system in high amounts in those with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. High levels of these antibodies are bad news – this is because they attack the thyroid gland causing damage to it. The thyroid gland then becomes under active because of this damage. She was disappointed because she was really trying to follow a healthy diet and lifestyle and was avoiding all gluten. She asked me “So why are my antibodies not coming down? After taking a full history, my answers were as follows –

1. You are not ovulating regularly, as evidenced by your irregular menstrual bleeding, and this makes you deficient in progesterone. Her menstrual periods came every 6 to 8 weeks. Lack of progesterone will make autoimmune disease worse; in other words it keeps those nasty antibodies high.
2. Your blood test shows that you are deficient in vitamin D and this will make autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis worse; in other words it keeps those nasty antibodies high.

This woman had previously been using a progesterone cream but had stopped using it after her failed IVF attempts. She stopped using progesterone because she mistakenly believed that she did not have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) because her previous pelvic ultrasound scan had showed normal ovaries. I explained that you can still have PCOS, even if the pelvic ultrasound scan is perfectly normal, which she found hard to believe! PCOS often shows itself as infrequent or prolonged menstrual cycles, as it is fundamentally a hormonal imbalance. We discovered that her blood vitamin D level was below the normal range and gave her a vitamin D 3 supplement. Being low in vitamin D can inhibit ovulation. I also prescribed a supplement called Thyroid Health capsules, which contain vitamin D 3, iodine, zinc and selenium to help lower the thyroid antibodies and support healthy thyroid gland tissue. I gave her a prescription for progesterone cream to be used in a dose of 50 to 100mg daily and I knew this would restore a healthy regular monthly menstrual cycle. This would reduce her risk of future osteoporosis and improve fertility. This lady experienced a great deal of sugar and carbohydrate cravings, which made it extremely difficult for her to stick to a healthy eating plan. I asked her to take one Glicemic Balance capsule with each meal to stabilize her blood sugar and reduce the cravings. There is a great deal of information about all thyroid conditions in our book Your Thyroid Problems Solved. As she left I said “be careful, your fertility will gradually increase and you may conceive naturally!” For more information on fertility see our book “INFERTILITY – THE HIDDEN CAUSES” – How to overcome them naturally The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.