Dear Robin: “I have 2 daughters with PCOS. My older daughter has a period regularly every month. Her main symptom is thinning hair. Do docs ever prescribe progesterone? Obviously, she must be low but how else can you assist in ovulating if she already has normal body weight, and a regular period? Her testosterone is not terribly high, but it is high, although I do not have a value. Her thyroid blood work is normal.” ~ Terry
Dear Terry: It sounds like there are two issues that are concerning you with your older daughter: 1) thinning hair and 2) anovulation.
Is this correct?
Micronized progesterone, or natural progesterone (not synthetic progestins) can be prescribed by a functional medicine doc, but you can also purchase it yourself now.
It’s not where you want to start, though.
As you’ll see in my video below about hair thinning, progesterone is essential for beautiful hair. But adding in progesterone without fixing the inflammation and insulin resistance issues won’t help too much, because the stress caused by all of this without the proper nutrients will cause hair to continue to fall out.
Stress = low progesterone + high, inflammatory androgens
When you say that her testosterone is not terribly high or that her thyroid numbers are normal, this is according laboratory references ranges, not optimal reference ranges. Her doctor is looking for disease, not health, so start acquainting yourself with optimal reference ranges for all lab markers so you have something to shoot for.
Take a look here at the blood work panel I created and suggest for women with PCOS (and every woman actually!).
Without all of these markers it’s hard to get a good understanding of what her “hormone deal-breakers” are. You can ask her doc to run these. Go here to learn more about the hormone deal-breakers that could be getting in her way.
You truly have to become your own health advocate. When my kids were teenagers I took charge of our families’ health. And now that my boys are grown, they know how to take good care of themselves.
Symptoms are much more important than numbers when it comes to hormonal health.
Here is my video on what’s happening and what to do about female pattern hair loss (thinning hair): Click here to read more and watch the video.
With anovulation (not ovulating), it takes 3 months of taking really good care of yourself for ovulation to start up again. That means knowing how to take really good care of yourself. Your daughter needs to figure this out for herself.
And finally, have your older daughter take the PCOS Assessment to help her to learn more about her condition. The more you empower her around her health, the more she will take ownership of what’s going on with her body.
I applaud you for reaching out to help her figure this out naturally. With the right information and next steps, both of your daughters can learn how to dim the light on PCOS and all of its related symptoms! ~ Robin
Wondering if the symptoms you are suffering with could be PCOS?
If you’re not sure, click here to take the PCOS test
Next Steps
- Take the PCOS Quiz!  Get your score and assess your hormone health risks.
- Join our Facebook Sisterhood Group Pose your questions to this group of like-minded women. Get the answers to your questions and the support you need.
- Checkout the Hormone Reset. Guided Practices to eliminate anxiety, lose weight and boost energy.
We are committed to helping women reverse their symptoms of hormone imbalance – a major cause of excess weight gain, adult acne, unwanted facial hair, depression, anxiety, and heartbreaking female infertility.
©Insulite Health empowers women with hormone imbalance to transform their lives through a process of healing with the Natural Hormone Solution  –a complete solution for helping women reverse the symptoms hormone imbalance..