Ep. 128: Healing irregular cycles and reversing PCOS -- Emily's Story

Another great client story for you today, as we hear from Emily about how she reversed the effects of the PCOS that had been plaguing her for years! Emily dealt with unusual bleeding, unpredictably long cycles, chronic fatigue, and more. She shares how she reversed these effects once she realized "healthy eating and exercise" weren't cutting it for her. What an impact this has made on her life, physically, mentally, and spiritually! Enjoy hearing from Emily!

NOTE: This episode is appropriate for all audiences.

EMILY'S BIO:
Emily has been married to Jeremiah for almost 3 years, and they make their home in the beautiful Great Lakes State of Michigan! When not working as a forest school leader, Emily loves to hike, swim in lakes, cross country ski, read novels, and bake pastries for friends and family. 

SHOW NOTES:
Tracy Mann, R.D. -- www.everydaynutritionllc.com
Ep. 46: Nutrition Tips for Every Woman, with Tracy Mann
Ep. 20: Nutrition for PCOS, with Tracy Mann

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Looking for ways to implement fertility awareness into your life and faith? Check out out most helpful resources: 

• Substack Newsletter (free)
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Transcript

Caitlin: 0:06

Welcome to the Woven Well Podcast. I'm your host, Caitlin Estes. I'm a certified fertility care practitioner with a master of divinity degree. Each episode will cover a topic that helps educate and empower you and your fertility while honoring the deep connection your fertility has with your faith. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Woven Well Podcast. I believe that a part of empowering and educating women is connecting them with other women who are on the same journey. That's why we have episodes devoted to hearing the fertility journey of a woman who is a part of Woven whatever your situation or fertility goal, the fertility journey can sometimes feel isolating, but I assure you that there is a whole community out there asking the same questions that you are. Today's guest is a perfect example of that. Emily and I began working together in 2021 when she was dealing with some women's health issues that had gone unresolved for many years. She included Creighton education as a part of her process to restore and heal her reproductive system while loving the added family planning benefit as she became engaged and then married. It's been a pleasure working with her and I'm so happy to be able to introduce you to her. Emily, welcome to the show.

Emily: 1:26

Thanks, Caitlin. I'm so excited to be here.

Caitlin: 1:29

I'm really glad for listeners to be able to meet you and get to know you a little bit. So why don't you share a little bit about yourself to get us started?

Emily: 1:36

Awesome. So I'm Emily. I've been married to Jeremiah for almost three years. We make our home in beautiful Michigan. I love hiking, being outside, cross country skiing, baking, and reading . And I work with a bunch of rambunctious three-year-olds as a forest school leader.

Caitlin: 1:55

I love that. I love . . . being a forest school leader is probably the coolest job, you know, to put on your resume there. I think that sounds really cool.

Emily: 2:03

It's amazing

Caitlin: 2:05

Well, as I mentioned in the intro, you became interested in working with Woven because you were dealing with some women's health issues. So would you mind sharing a bit about what those issues were and how they'd been treated by providers before?

Emily: 2:19

Yeah. I was diagnosed with PCOS in 2018 following a season of about six months where I had had unexplained bleeding every single day and a lot of unexplained weight gain. So my OBGYN did some testing, said you have PCOS, left the room. And I said, hold on, bring them back in here because what does that mean? Basically I was told to eat healthy and exercise, and I was put on birth control for about a year and then got off because it , I noticed that it wasn't doing much for my cycles. And then for about two years after that, I was just chilling, having a period maybe every three months, wasn't super concerned about it, was just enjoying my young twenties. And then in 2021, I felt like all of a sudden my health spiraled out of control. So I began to have unexplained bleeding once again, I think about four times in a period of a year and a half where it would last for up to four months, as well as that PCOS weight gain that I feel like is famous once again. Feeling super exhausted, low motivation, couldn't get off the couch, either was bleeding or wasn't ovulating at all and just felt super disempowered and like I didn't understand what was happening to my body. And I did have a surgery to remove some uterine polyps in that time, which I thought would stop the bleeding. And it actually did for a bit and then it came back. So that's kind of where I was.

Caitlin: 4:02

Yeah. And what a hard place to be. I hate that your initial provider just said, oh, you have PCOS and then walked out the door. And I love that you said , wait a minute, I have some follow up questions about this. Obviously you weren't given a lot of options. You were only given one option and that option didn't do anything for you . Like you said, it wasn't really treating your issue . So when did things start to change? You know, if you weren't getting that help that you needed, what was it that you started to do differently?

Emily: 4:36

So what really changed the situation for me was building a team. And so I found an amazing registered dietician who specializes in PCOS, Tracy , who's been on here before, as well as you and your work at Woven. And then I also partnered with an OBGYN, who has the NaPro training. And so , they were able to help me interpret my Creighton charting.

Caitlin: 5:07

Yes, having a team that is on your side and is knowledgeable about what the underlying root cause issues are and how to treat those, man , it can be a game changer, but good for you for taking the time to say, Hey, I'm not getting the support that I need from my provider, so I'm going to look into what my options are, and I'm going to find the resources that I need to feel better. I think that's amazing, and really, really important. By the way, I will have Tracy Mann's contact information in the show notes. So if anyone's like, what a registered dietician who focuses specifically on PCOS, I'll make sure to have her info there and link the previous episodes that she was on too . So, okay. So you started working with these different providers. What happened? What changes did you experience?

Emily: 6:03

Yeah, I feel like this team has been so wonderful to have as partners in my health. So working with my dietician, I feel that I learned more about PCOS from her than my previous OBGYNs had ever taught me. I learned how to nourish my body in a way that was going to help balance my PCOS. She also helped me uncover insulin resistance that I had no idea I was dealing with in the past year. And so we were able to then make a game plan for that. With you, Caitlin, I feel like I am so empowered; I understand a cycle and how to know what signs my body is telling me how to interpret them in a small way. And it has just been so amazing. And then my NaPro doctor just being able to take things that we have talked about together to her and then she has all sorts of steps for how to optimize my health and helps make a game plan for that. It's been absolutely incredible and transformative to have to have the three of you working with me.

Caitlin: 7:14

And it sounds like such a multifaceted approach. It's not just one thing that you're doing, but you're really looking at your whole life and how to make the changes that you need, but also how to understand so much more of what's going on and why it's happening. You know, your original provider telling you, hey, exercise, eat healthy. Okay, what do those things actually mean? Because that has to be individualized, that has to be tailored for each person. And so for instance, knowing that you have insulin resistance is going to change how you prioritize what eating healthy looks like and means for you. So that's fantastic that you have that full holistic multifaceted approach there. And I would imagine that in addition to having physical changes and benefits, maybe you've experienced some mental or emotional or spiritual benefits from those changes too.

Emily: 8:16

Yeah, so it's been amazing. I would love to start with my physical changes that I've experienced because I feel like I'm experiencing night and day for how I was feeling, especially two years ago, the summer of 2022. So to start physically it's May in 2024. I have had five periods so far this year. So a cycle every single month. That is unbelievable. I think the last time that happened to me was probably in 2017. Wow. So if that doesn't speak to, to what I've been able to accomplish with my team, I feel like that is the thing, is that my body is cycling in a way that that feels much more "normal" to me. So that's one wonderful thing. Through discovering insulin resistance with my dietician, we've been able to get rid of some of that extra PCOS weight that can be notoriously hard to, to deal with. And that's not everything, but that has been huge for my energy. So those are two of the huge physical things that I've seen recently. It's been incredible. I can hardly even believe still that that's, that I'm experiencing having a normal period. Like I just felt like the rest of my life was going to be maybe a cycle every three months and we'll see what happens. So that's the first physical part.

Caitlin: 9:43

And let me say, I'm so glad that you are on today talking and sharing your story because do you know how many other women are listening right now or out there thinking that that's going to be true for them too? That, well, I don't really have an option. The rest of my life I'm just going to cycle three or four times a year and that's the best I can hope for. You are giving them a glimpse into the reality that there is another path forward. There is a way to figure out why that's happening and not just, oh, this blanket term of PCOS, but really getting to the why underneath that and listening to it nourishing your body, paying attention to what has a positive effect and what doesn't, and really experiencing that change. So thank you for sharing all of that. Okay. Keep going, keep going.

Emily: 10:34

Yeah. So next has been kind of the mental emotional aspect of it. I mean, bleeding every day for extended periods is exhausting and so is undiagnosed insulin resistance as well as just having PCOS in general. There can be so many unknowns. It's a lot to carry. It's a lot to deal with. And so I felt like during this time, about two years ago, like I couldn't get off the couch and I struggled with motivation and I struggled with this feeling of being out of control of what was happening in my body and not having the knowledge to, to do anything about it. And now I'm in a spot where I feel this joy and hope about my future and my cycle. And it's incredible. It's such an amazing place to be. And just to have the knowledge and be empowered to understand what's going on to me has been just absolutely huge for my mental health. It's been beautiful. And then spiritually, I really feel like God has met me in this season. He kind of showed me the story of Jesus healing, the bleeding woman in Mark 5. And I just think it's so wild that God sees me and like Jesus healed a woman dealing with the same thing 2000 years ago, like what on Earth? And it made it into the Bible. So it can encourage anyone who's dealing with a similar thing. That story never really stuck out to me until I went through this season. And now that I have, it's incredible just to know that that's there and it's there for all of us that are struggling. And so I feel like God has taught me how to trust in him and hope in him in a new way through this season of both feeling really broken and then healing and continuing to heal from that brokenness.

Caitlin: 12:28

Wow. How beautiful. Like, just so beautifully said, honestly, because you're giving us a picture of, as you said, not just the physical healing, but the overall change and the overall impact that all of this has had on your life. I love that you can see and experience God's goodness in the midst of this journey that's been really hard and really long, but you're at a place where you feel so seen and known by God and healed in that way. You know, even in, in internal ways, not just external ways, but healed by God. I think that's a, a really beautiful thing. I appreciate you sharing. So obviously working with this curated support team that's been there for you and your needs has been, in your words, a transformative experience. So what has been so meaningful about it? How has it been truly transformative since that was your word, your terminology?

Emily: 13:27

I think having a team of, for me it's three trusted providers, really makes a difference when you're dealing with different health issues. So for me, there were times where I felt so alone in my health journey and my journey to find healing in my cycle. And I would tell my husband, like, I feel like no one out there cares and knows what's going on, but I know that Caitlin and Tracy understand me. They know my history, they know my story, and when I talk to them, they will truly listen and we can make game plans together. And even just knowing that you have that support is so helpful and it's just such a beautiful thing.

Caitlin: 14:16

Well, thank you for saying that. That speaks to me. That makes me, you know , almost feel a little bit emotional , because that is the goal, that is the intention is to meet women exactly where they are and let them know, one, there is hope. Two, they are seen. Three, they deserve respect and dignity and true care for the struggles that they deal with in fertility, in the world of fertility, in women's health in general. Like they deserve that unique care and for someone to really honor them and how they were created in the image of God. So thank you so much for saying that.

Emily: 15:00

Yeah, my husband has said so many times that he feels like as soon as a girl gets her period, they need to learn Creighton because there's so much knowledge that it makes me sad that women don't know about how their bodies were created to work. And so he's always like, it should be a class in high school. I cannot believe that you weren't taught this thing until you started working with Woven.

Caitlin: 15:24

Yes. Oh, listen, hey, I completely agree. So anybody out there who wants to get together a group of their friends and learn about this, I'm there. I'll meet you. We'll do it. No, I completely agree that we deserve to understand how we were created because it is with a purpose and it is a beautiful thing. And when it's not going the way that we expect it to, we know it, we feel it, and it really affects our lives. Like you were just saying, it's not just physical, but mental, emotional, spiritual side effects from that. And so , I love that your husband was saying that too, and that he's on board with all this as well, which of course I know that he is, but that's really great. Okay. So what advice would you have for other women who are out there listening, maybe they have PCOS or long cycles or unusual bleeding or symptoms that they can't pinpoint and they're dealing with this and they feel hopeless. What advice would you have for them ?

Emily: 16:24

Yeah. I have been there and if you're feeling hopeless, I see you. It's a hard spot to be . And having PCOS is very hard, and there's so much in info about it that it's hard to sift through on your own. So my huge advice would be take the time and build a team of providers that you really trust and that really will take the time to care for you, where you're not just a 10 minute in and out appointment that, but that will set aside their time to work with you and dig for answers. It's not hopeless. There is hope for you, there's hope for your story. There is healing. It does take sometimes time and money to find that, but it's a, it's a worthwhile investment and it can really create beautiful change that might feel like it will never come, but it can, it is possible. And so my, my biggest thing would be don't do it alone. Find people to work with you on the medical side and on the on the health side. And also find a support group of friends and family that will walk with you too, and cheer for your healing and for the answers that you do find.

Caitlin: 17:39

Absolutely agree 100%. Everything you just said couldn't have said it better myself. Emily, thank you so much for being on, for being willing to share your experience and the transformative experience that you've had.

Emily: 17:52

Thank you for having me. It's been a joy.

Caitlin: 17:56

Our Woven community. It is made up of some pretty incredible people. We ask honest questions of our fertility and our faith . We believe that our bodies were made with beauty and purpose, that we are intimately designed and loved by our creator, and that fertility plays a meaningful role in our lives. We believe this matters for all of us, regardless of our marital status or pregnancy intentions. And I would love for you to be a part of that community. You can learn the Creighton system just like Emily did by attending an upcoming introductory session. So this online group class, it's offered each month, and you can register online and see all of our available dates at wovenfertility.com/joinus. And there will also be a link in the show notes there. And if you want to learn more about investing in your reproductive health, you can certainly keep checking out this podcast. We have previous episodes posted that will cover almost any topic you can imagine in the natural fertility world, or look at our free resources available at wovenfertility.com/resources. As always, thanks for listening as we continue to explore together what it means to be woven well.