Hi, my name is Kate. I'm new to this forum. I joined this one and another trying to get some support for my PCOS stuggle. I was diagnosed in 2005 and as many of you have also experienced, it's been an uphill battle the entire time. I gained 50lbs in a year, which is what prompted me to see my doctor. I've done special diets, exercise, calorie-cutting, taken supplements, medicines (specifically metformin, birth control, and dexamethasone), and nothing keeps me ahead for very long.

Right now I'm struggling with insatiable hunger. The weird thing is, I am NOT IR. In fact, all of my hormone and other blood levels are totally normal with the single exception of my DHEA-S being slightly elevated.

I see my internist on Tuesday and I have a follow-up from a previous appointment with endo the following week. I am going to ask for phentermine to help with my hunger. I'm currently working out a gym doing cardio and strength training.

For some background, I have tried the following diets:

calorie counting
weight watchers
slim-fast
nutrisystem
giving up grains, dairy, and processed foods


as for my hunger, I've tried eating more often, eating more fiber, eating more protein and fat, and drinking more. In fact, I drink so much my endo has asked me to cut back because I'm flushing all the essential nutrients out of my body. :-/ I'm at my wits end with hunger!

Hi Kate,

I am also brand new here and I just wanted to say hello. We are practically neighbors!

Hi Kate! I recognize you from SoulCysters 

I hope you find some answers!

Have you been into the Drs to see if he'll up your Met? Or would you rather not go that way?

Did you have an MRI done of your pituitary gland?

Have you looked into CAH? congenital adrenal hyperplasia

My cortisol deficency has lead me to research a lot, hope something may of comments

Welcome!

As an extra thing to add to your regime and review with your doctors -- have you thought about keeping a journal about when you're feeling hungry and what you've done that day, eaten that day, or happened to you that day that might be causing it?

I think that's a good start to see if the issue is somewhere else. It might not be IR, like you said, but it might be emotional. Or it might be something else -- but keeping track of what's going on over a period of time might help you (or your doctors) to see a pattern.

I have been hungry HUNGRY in the past and recently, adding more fats (through coconut oil) has helped me be less hungry than before. (Well, I am IR, so it all makes sense more or less to me!)

Good luck! And definitely keep pushing your doctors... and keep track of your hunger...!

Oh, and I just wanted to add one thing.

In PCOS women, there studies that have found that for whatever reason, we don't respond to leptin and other satiating hormones because we don't have them in the same quantities as others. They see this in overweight/obese folks too in different ways.

You might have to read more into that to see what the solution is, if that is your case.

I don't see my internist until the 21st and my endo until the 28th. Right now I'm just...waiting.

My endo was looking into that for me. I have a follow up on the 28th to see if he recommends MRI.


My journal would read: woke up hungry. Hungry non-stop all day. Went to bed hungry, had trouble falling asleep because of it. Woke up in middle of night to pee. Had trouble falling back to sleep because of hunger.

I know emotional eating - this isn't it!
Interesting. I will look into that! I still don't understand why there haven't been drugs to up peoples' levels of leptin and ghrelin. Seems like an easy solution to me!

Just because you TEST NORMAL does not mean you do not have IR along with compensating hyperinsulinemia. (ie: I am actually broken! But body can still make up for it so it tests normal. For now!)

Eat a diabetic/low gi/paleo/whole food kinda diet anyway. It could make a difference -- big diff. And if it does nothing there -- it's not gonna kill ya.

I finally had to deal with my crazy hunger thing and ask my endoc for the phentermine to help me SLEEP. The hungries just kept waking me off. Now that I lost the initial bit I can go the rest of the way without it. Thank god.

But it is still hard.

http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=2bpWLux--uwC

was a good read for me -- and it covered the crazy hunger some. Which is more than anything else I've found so far. I keep looking!

HTH!
A.