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PCOS and normal hormones? You’ve got hair embarrassingly sprouting from your chin, your belly is gaining weight, you feel exhausted, or your period has gone absent without leave. You head off to your health professional for testing and get the results: “normal.”

I wanted to discuss a common experience associated with PCOS. You suspect you have this syndrome, you’re experiencing uncomfortable, annoying signs and symptoms, but when you have the tests done, you are told the results are ‘within normal limits’. You are “normal.” WHAT! Sometimes, with a normal result, relief will flood in. But in PCOS, often we want to know what’s wrong.

How can your blood work be “normal”?

PCOS and “normal” hormones?

Really, I can hear those words ringing in your head, loud and clear. Now, if you’ve changed your lifestyle and everything has improved, that’s great news! However, if you are struggling, it’s more likely that there are tests that are either commonly misinterpreted or signs and symptoms that are not tested for correctly. Thyroid, insulin, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinising hormone are each key.

Your Thyroid Gland

Hypothyroidism – or a sluggish thyroid – is more common in PCOS. The primary test used to assess thyroid function checks your thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH. This is the hormone that stimulates your thyroid to produce thyroid hormone. It is not the only test that should be performed in PCOS, in my opinion.

You can read more about the correct testing in my article PCOS And Hypothyroidism – The Common, Potentially Devastating Link.

Insulin Resistance

This is often overlooked and is very important for PCOS.

Blood glucose testing is often insufficient.

Sugar is sticky, and sticky in blood vessels is dangerous. So our body does everything it can to maintain our blood sugar levels in a healthy, safe range. How? If there is too much sugar, our pancreas releases more insulin, which brings the sugar from the blood vessels into our body cells. Your insulin levels can be high, but if they’re managing to keep your blood sugar in the normal range, a blood sugar test alone won’t reveal the hidden struggle.

Prefer to read? To discover how to test insulin correctly in PCOS, read How To Correctly Test For Insulin Resistance in PCOS.

Luteinising Hormone (LH) And Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH)

PCOS cysters commonly have higher levels of LH and low levels of FSH, but sometimes this won’t be quite so obvious on your test report. Let’s take a look at a report.

 

Can you see how, in the top picture, if this report is interpreted as being from the luteal phase (which it has been), the individual LH and FSH numbers appear to be within the “normal” range? But look at the actual figures again, without worrying about what they mean. Just look at the figures.

LH:FSH should have a ratio of 1:1. Look at that again. These results show a ratio of 10.4:3.1. This is a giveaway that indicates PCOS. The healthy ratio is 1:1. Commonly, women with PCOS have ratios of 2:1 or, as in this case, 3:1. Can you see now that this is not normal?

I explain this in greater detail in my Amazon bestselling book, Conquer Your PCOS Naturally. However, I wanted to share some essential secrets about PCOS testing so you know what to ask for and what to look out for.

From PCOS to perfect health, with love,

Dr. Rebecca Harwin
The PCOS Expert
Chiropractor & Bestselling Author of
Conquer Your PCOS Naturally
www.ConquerYourPCOSNaturally.com

 

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