My Journey to Wellness: PCOS & Hormonal Imbalance
Hello there! My name is Colleen and I am a holistic nutrition and active lifestyle coach.
I thought I would introduce myself and give a more detailed background about my journey to the holistic realm of health and wellness, and my personal struggles with hormonal imbalances and self advocacy in healthcare. I know there are many women out there who may have experienced similar issues as I, and I hope this provides some support to those who can relate.
My passion for nutrition and exercise started over 13 years ago when I was a young college student struggling with years of chronic overuse injuries, stress fractures, irregular periods, fatigue, and general feelings of unwellness. I was 20 years old. Why was I feeling this way and why was I experiencing so many sports related injuries? Shouldn’t I be feeling like 100 bucks at this age?
Well, lets take a step back and start in high school when I was a cross country and track athlete. I was lean (and I mean lean), constantly in an unintentional caloric deficit (I was not fueling my body enough), I had stopped menstruating (for nearly 3 years), and was frequently getting stress fractures in my lower legs. I knew I was over-training, but even with months of rest and taking time away from sports, the injuries would always return and persist. My doctor would end up diagnosing me with the Female Athletic Triad. This triad included 1) amenorrhea (cessation of menstrual cycle), 2) insufficient calorie intake (contributing to very low body fat% and poor muscle/ bone repair), and 3) reduced bone density (potentially leading to stress fractures and other structural injuries). The solution in conventional medicine at the time was hormonal birth control in order to regulate the menstrual cycle and increase estrogen required for bone density maintenance, and resting from high impact activity for 3+ months. However, this would end up being just the beginning of my hormonal imbalances and conditions that would arise later in my life.
Well I did the hormonal birth control route (and would continue to take the pill for nearly 13 years), but the issues still persisted. As I began my life in college, I decided to hang my track and field shoes up. I assumed I was just not meant to be a competitive track runner any longer. This was a devastating realization.… running was my life! But, I threw myself into the fitness world instead, focusing on strength and conditioning, weight training, power lifting, and rock climbing. I knew that I wanted to be a personal trainer and group exercise instructor almost immediately. This was and has always been my passion; training others, teaching people how to become more active, strong, resilient individuals. On the outside I looked the part, muscular, bright eyed and bushy tailed, but on the inside I was feeling unwell.
I tried and followed all the diet trends out there including every sports related supplement you can possibly think of. I was trying to so hard to look a certain way, be a certain size, always focusing on what I looked like on the outside, and I began to lose track of what health and wellness truly meant. I began to see the toxic side of the fitness industry… unobtainable fitness ideals, restrictive dieting, yo-yo dieting, body dysmorphia, negative body image, etc.
It was then that I took a step back and decided I wanted to help others in a more rehabilitative way. After obtaining my bachelors in kinesiology, I transitioned my career towards physical therapy (PT). In general, PT can include a wide range of holistic modalities that aid in treating and healing the whole body. I took these concepts and foundations from my 9 year career in PT and began to apply them to myself. Whether I was training in the gym or out on the trails, I was determined to keep my focus on overall wellbeing and functional movement, not on body image. I began to eat more organic, whole, plant based foods, herbs, ethically sourced proteins, began implementing mindfulness based practices, and stepped away from using sports supplements. My chronic overuse injuries finally began to heal, I could run longer distances without pain or injuries creeping up on me. I was finally able to start training for races, half marathons, and endurance sports once again.
Realizing that holistic wellness could truly provide transformative results, I was dedicated to studying functional medicine and holistic health. This lead me back to school once again in pursuit of my masters degree is human nutrition and functional medicine.
While in grad school I came to the realization that it may be time to transition off the long term hormonal birth control as it may have been causing me more harm than good. I was starting to get severe side effects even after doctors would adjust my dosage. There were also other lingering symptoms that I was experiencing like fatigue, tiredness, acne, and hair loss.
This is when my hormonal imbalances really took off!!
I assumed it would take a few months to get a regular menstrual cycle back after getting off the pill, so I waited 3 months, 4 months, 5 months… still nothing. I was not menstruating and I began to experience other quite debilitating symptoms including chronic fatigue, brain fog, memory issues, extreme sugar cravings, burning in my joints, hair loss, issues concentrating, jawline acne, facial hair growth, etc. It was like my previous symptoms had been amplified. I would go to my doctor once every 2 months asking if they could run tests or labs to check hormone levels, comprehensive blood panels, metabolic panels, anything that may give us an answer. I was frequently brushed off, told it was normal or that I was over reacting, and to return in a few months if my periods did not return. Well the 10 month mark came and past, and still no period. My doctor would then say, “just come back at 12 months and if you still have not menstruated then we will run tests.”
Feeling frustrated, defeated, and unheard, I decided to see a functional medicine (FM) doctor who would listen, take my symptoms seriously, and investigate deeper. I knew my body well and I knew something was not right. After running more in-depth labs, the results came back and I was pre-diabetic, insulin resistant, had cysts on my ovaries, had deficient levels of estrogen and progesterone, elevated levels of dihyrdotestosterone (DHT), and had elevated levels of inflammatory markers. My FM doctor would then diagnose me with poly-cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). I was relieved to have answers, but frustrated that conventional medicine had not listened to my pleas. Could I have prevented the insulin resistance or the pre-diabetic state if I knew this earlier? If someone had just taken the time to listen to my concerns? Also, if they had listened to my concerns my insurance could have covered those labs, but unfortunately I was dismissed again and again.
After getting this diagnosis, I was determined to make necessary lifestyle and nutrition changes to improve the outcomes and symptoms. While I had been eating healthy before and prioritizing primarily a plant based diet or as I like to say “Eating the Rainbow”, I was not eating in a way that support my hormones or my current health condition. Working along side my FM doctor while applying my own knowledge/ experience, I was able to utilize not only personalized nutrition strategies but holistic whole body healing practices. This included mindfulness-based strategies and intuitive eating patterns, meditation for stress management, exercise alterations (lowering exercise intensities and frequencies a bit), and spiritual connectedness through nature.
Today, I am no longer in a pre-diabetic or insulin resistant state, inflammation is nearly gone, acne has subsided, hormone levels are improving, and my energy levels have increased 10 fold. And at long last, I started menstruating again! Yahoooo!! While I will need to continue to manage my PCOS, its under control and I feel my health is at its best. Through these years of hormonal imbalances, reoccurring injuries, changes in careers, and self advocacy, I have been determined to start my own wellness business that encompassed all aspects of this heath journey. Food, exercise, whole body healing, and nature - and with that Mountain Thyme Health & Wellness was born!
My goal from this blog post was to not only to talk about my personal journey through hormonal imbalances and PCOS, but to spread awareness for self advocacy in your health and wellness journey. If something feels off or you are feeling unwell, it is okay to speak up! Advocate for your health! We should not need to wait for symptoms to develop into disease or into a condition to take appropriate steps towards a healthier lifestyle and to take preventive measures. There are amazing practitioners and doctors out there who truly care for their patients and will listen, but sometimes it just takes a little bit of self-advocacy to be heard.
All that to say, I truly believe in the power of food, nature, and nourishing and healing the body as a whole. I will be posting more wellness blogs and articles on a biweekly basis, so check back on our site soon for more.
Thank you!
Written by:
Colleen Milligan MS
Mountain Thyme Health & Wellness LLC
