Why is PCOS on the rise?
PCOS is a disease that has been on the rise, and I hypothesise alongside Andrew Huberman as to why this could be.
I just listened to a Andrew Huberman podcast with Dr Sara Gottfried about female hormonal health. One of the topics they touched upon is PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) - a great interest of mine. The reason I’m so interested in this condition is that it has become so much more prevalent recently, and we aren’t very clued up on how to fully treat it.
For those who don’t know PCOS is when a syndrome where a woman has:
Cysts on her ovaries
Hirsutism (hair growth in unwanted places such as chest, chin)
High level of testosterone.
This results in irregular periods, difficulty conceiving and sometimes putting on weight, amongst other symptoms.
There are many different types of PCOS, but the one that gets the most attention is the insulin-resistant PCOS. This is where the body produces too much insulin (the hormone that keeps your blood sugar low), and this stimulates the ovaries to go into overdrive and start producing a lot of testosterone.
The reason I’m writing this is because Andrew Huberman proposed an interesting hypothesis as to why this is on the rise, one that I have thought of myself before too. I’m interested to hear your take on this:
The increased level of testosterone presented in females in PCOS is a result of the psychosocial conditions that are biasing the need for females to think, behave, react in certain ways to survive, let alone thrive, in a world where essentially females have to act like males in order to compete.
I mixed his words and my own in that hypothesis, but what do we all think? The level of hormones in the female body changes each day, whilst for males, the level of testosterone is the same each day, with the same rise in the morning, and fall in the evening.
I hope that we can find a way to cure this disease together, and I am currently working on a project with my friend Bridie where we’d like to empower people with chronic health issues with the knowledge and community to help them through their journeys.
Quote of the week:
“The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of the world but those who fight and win battles that others do not know anything about.”
Jonathan Harnisch