How To Reverse PCOS Naturally (The Ultimate Guide)

Written by Martina S. in Health

PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) and its symptoms can have a massive impact on the quality of your life (it definitely had on mine) so it’s only natural to seek and try different things to reduce those symptoms and live a happier life.

In this article, you’ll find the most effective strategies to treat PCOS naturally which are based on the latest scientific evidence as well as my own experience.

What’s the cause of PCOS?

When it comes to PCOS it is important to understand that it is a very complex disorder, which is still relatively new, and up to date, there has been no single cause of PCOS  identified. It is believed that the syndrome is developed from the interaction of multiple different factors including genes, environment, and lifestyle. 

If you have PCOS it means that your endocrine system doesn’t work efficiently causing your hormones to be completely out of balance. Those hormonal abnormalities usually lead to developing multiple different symptoms such as:

  • polycystic ovaries (multiple small cysts on your ovaries),
  • high levels of androgens (‘male’ hormones causing acne, oily skin, hair loss, hirsutism)
  • irregular or completely missing periods

The role of insulin

While the root cause of PCOS is still unknown, there is increasing evidence showing that the hormone insulin plays a significant role in the development of PCOS. High levels of insulin (due to insulin resistance) can make your ovaries overproduce androgens that result in many of the common symptoms such as acne, facial hair, hair loss, oily skin, hirsutism, and irregular periods.

If you want to know more about the link between insulin resistance and PCOS, you can read my previous article ‘PCOS Insulin Resistance Explained & How To Reverse It‘ where I go into more detail.

How is PCOS diagnosed?

Unfortunately, there is no single test to confirm you have PCOS and different professionals will use different diagnostic standards to identify the condition. In most cases, you need to have at least 2 of the symptoms (polycystic ovaries/hyperandrogenism/irregular periods) to be diagnosed with PCOS.

But because those symptoms vary between individuals (based on their unique hormonal profile) there’s no one single treatment for PCOS available. 

Medical treatment of PCOS

Most of the medical treatments for PCOS focus on reducing the individuals’ specific symptoms (e.g. acne, hirsutism, amenorrhea) with the use of different drugs and methods such as:

  • contraceptive pills
  • fertility drugs
  • cosmetic treatments
  • antiandrogen drugs
  • corticosteroids
  • insulin lowering drugs

However, those treatments may not be an effective strategy for everyone as it doesn’t offer a long-term solution.

Natural treatment of PCOS

The good news is that there’s a lot of things you can do on your own that can significantly reduce your PCOS symptoms and improve your overall health and quality of life. Using lifestyle modifications to treat PCOS is actually backed by science and many recommend it to be the primary strategy.

The reason why this strategy is so effective is that lifestyle factors directly impact your hormone regulation and metabolism (which is key in PCOS). Once you’re able to balance your hormones (including insulin and androgens), you’ll be able to reverse PCOS and manage your symptoms for good.

Can PCOS be cured?

Unfortunately, PCOS is a life-long condition and it cannot be cured completely. However, PCOS symptoms can be reduced to such a level that it is possible to live a completely normal and healthy life without experiencing any complications.

However, keep in mind that none of those strategies are ‘quick fixes’ but rather a long-term solution and your body will require some time to adapt. You may not be able to see the results instantly but it’s important to stay consistent, start slow, and take baby steps. 

Healing PCOS naturally

If you want to treat PCOS naturally, the goal should be to create a sustainable lifestyle that you can enjoy and that doesn’t feel like a restriction. But this ‘ideal PCOS-friendly lifestyle’ will look different for everyone as we are all unique and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution, especially when it comes to PCOS.

For this reason, I highly suggest you work with a professional and get appropriate health screening tests so you can better understand your condition and develop an effective strategy tailored to your individual needs. 

There are also some useful tools that can help you track your progress and obtain lots of valuable data. You can find my favorites here: ‘TOP 5 Smart Devices To Monitor & Manage PCOS‘.

If you want to heal PCOS naturally, here are the key modifiable lifestyle aspects you should focus on as they can all affect your hormonal health.

How to reverse PCOS naturally:

  • Make dietary changes
  • Exercise regularly
  • Manage stress
  • Prioritize sleep
  • Include dietary supplements
  • Minimize environmental toxins
  • Quit Smoking

1. Make dietary changes

Focusing on nutrition and making dietary changes should remain at the top of your list if you want to eliminate your PCOS symptoms. The more I study nutrition, the more I appreciate how much power it actually holds.

I personally saw the biggest improvements in my PCOS symptoms after changing my diet which fascinated me so much that I ended up completing my master’s degree in nutritional science.

Why is food important?

Once you understand that food is not just energy for your body but it’s also information, you’ll be able to see how it’s related to PCOS and your overall health. All food is basically made of a bunch of different chemical compounds with different structures and unique characteristics.

So it only makes sense that once they enter your body, they will also act differently and send different signals. This will have a direct effect on all of your body functions and processes (including regulating hormones), hence affecting your overall health and PCOS symptoms.

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

Ann Wigmore

There are foods that will work in your favor and support your health and other foods may have the opposite effect. While I’m not a big fan of labeling food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, there are certainly some types of food that will be much more beneficial for managing your PCOS symptoms than other types.

How to use diet for PCOS

For this reason, it’s important to recognize what types of food to include more of in your everyday diet and what you may want to eliminate. This way you’ll be able to make informed dietary choices that will benefit your condition and overall health.

Because of the complexity of nutrition (with always changing evidence) and huge amounts of information available online, it can become a bit overwhelming to make the right choices. That’s why you may want to consider working with a professional at the beginning or follow a specific nutrition plan.

However, there are some general dietary recommendations you can follow in order to make healthy dietary choices and reduce your PCOS symptoms.

Dietary changes for PCOS:

  • Eat whole foods (vegetable, fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes, eggs, meat, fish)
  • Eliminate processed foods (packaged food, added sugars, trans fats, additives)
  • Eat enough protein (fish, meat, eggs, soy, beans)
  • Eat enough healthy fats (olives, avocado, oily fish, nuts, seeds)
  • Watch your carbohydrate intake (more complex carbs, less simple sugars)
  • Eliminate dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, cream, ice cream)
  • Drink a lot of fluids (plain water, herbal teas, hot beverages)
  • Limit alcohol consumption
  • Include anti-inflammatory foods (turmeric, omega-3, ginger, leafy greens)
  • Include probiotic (fermented) and prebiotic (fiber) foods
  • Consider intermittent fasting
  • Practice mindful eating

I’ve created a detailed but easy-to-follow diet guide for PCOS that you can access here: ‘The Best PCOS Diet (Ultimate Guide)‘

2. Exercise regularly

It is no news that living an active lifestyle can be extremely beneficial to your overall health and wellbeing, but if you have PCOS, regular exercise can become a highly effective strategy to manage your symptoms. This is because exercise has a direct effect on your metabolism and hormone regulation.

Weight loss

One of the common symptoms of PCOS is weight gain and disrupted metabolism which makes it even harder to maintain a healthy weight. However, with regular exercise, you will not only ‘burn more calories’ to support weight loss, but you can also improve your whole metabolism which will work more effectively and you’ll be able to maintain a healthy weight long-term.

Read more: ‘PCOS Belly Fat Explained & How To Reduce It‘.

Studies have found that maintaining a healthy weight can significantly decrease the risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome in PCOS women and reduce the syndrome-related symptoms. And there’s a couple of good reasons why it works.

Insulin resistance

If you have PCOS you may already know that many of the symptoms are due to the elevated levels of insulin in your blood (which make your ovaries overproduce androgens) and a condition called insulin resistance.

Unfortunately, excessive body fat can lead to even higher insulin levels making your condition and symptoms even worse and that’s why exercising for weight loss is highly effective. But, it’s not only about losing fat.

Metabolism

With the right type of exercise (especially strength training) you can also increase the speed of your metabolism by building more muscle mass. The more muscles you have, the more calories you’ll be burning by simply doing nothing because muscles require more energy to function compared to other tissue such as fat. 

Apart from improving your metabolic health and body composition, with regular exercise, you can also significantly improve your insulin sensitivity. This means that your body becomes more efficient in regulating insulin and you’ll be able to lower your insulin levels and reduce insulin resistance (which is key in PCOS).

Stress

But exercise also plays a major role in regulating other important hormones such as cortisol and adrenal (the ‘stress’ hormones). Exercise is a natural ‘stress reliever’ and in women with PCOS, stress is one of the contributing factors to the development of the symptoms. 

Exercise for PCOS:

  • Running
  • Walking
  • Strength-training
  • HIIT
  • Yoga
  • Pilates
  • Dancing
  • Swimming
  • Cycling
  • Boxing
  • Skipping
  • Sports (tennis, badminton, soccer, football, basketball, squash)

If you want to know which exercise is the most beneficial for PCOS make sure to check out my other article ‘What Is The Best Exercise For PCOS & Why?‘.

3. Manage stress

Managing stress is one of the most challenging things to do and I completely agree that it’s much more easily said than done. But if you suffer from PCOS it is important that you don’t ignore this aspect of your life as it has a huge impact on your condition.

Cortisol

Elevated cortisol (the ‘stress hormone’) is very common in women with PCOS and if unregulated, it can lead to other hormonal disruptions causing many of the PCOS-related symptoms (insulin resistance, hyperandrogenism, menstrual irregularities). But stress isn’t just one of the causes of PCOS, it’s also one of the consequences of the disorder.

Mental health

Due to the negative impact of PCOS on the quality of life, there are much higher rates of depression and anxiety amongst women with PCOS. If you find yourself to be one of them it’s important you seek professional help as your mental health should remain your priority.

How to reduce stress

There are also different lifestyle changes that you can implement into your life to reduce stress and improve your health. Unfortunately, there is no single universal method that will work for everyone to manage their stress levels and you’ll need to find the best method that works for you.

But the good news is that there’s plenty of different techniques you can try and see which one is the most suitable for you. You might also find that there’s actually more than one method that you enjoy and that you can include in your life on a regular basis.

Here are some of the methods that are backed by science and that I found to be highly effective.

Stress management strategies for PCOS:

  • Walking (especially in nature)
  • Exercise (jogging/cycling/weight training)
  • Reading (books and audiobooks)
  • Yoga (classes/at home/outside)
  • Breathing exercises (different methods for different situations)
  • Journaling 
  • Listening to music/podcast
  • Dancing
  • Talking to a friend/family 
  • Hobbies (cooking/drawing/crafting/gardening)

Once you find the most effective strategy for you, it’s also important to recognize when you’re stressed (which will look different for everyone) and that you remember to use your personal stress-relieving technique in that situation. This might also take some time, effort, and training but it’s definitely worth working on!

4. Prioritize sleep

Sleep might not be the first thing you think about when you’re trying to treat a chronic condition like PCOS but there’s a number of good reasons why it should be on the top of your list. When you sleep there are actually so many important processes happening in your body that are essential for your health.

There’s a great book ‘Why We Sleep‘ by Matthew Walker on this topic which I highly recommend to read to better understand the importance of sleep. 

Why is sleep important?

While the ideal amount of sleep hours will be different between individuals, you should aim for at least 7-8h/day and this time should not be compensated.

When you sleep you’re basically recharging, repairing, and cleaning your body so it can function effectively. But you need to give your body enough time so it can put everything back in balance including your hormones.

Sleep is especially important for regulating your hormones! Any disturbances in sleep can lead to disturbances in your hormones including cortisol and insulin which are directly linked to PCOS symptoms. 

How to improve sleep

Unfortunately, sleep disturbances are very common in women with PCOS and are oftentimes recognized as one of the symptoms. However, there’s a lot of things you can do to improve your sleep hygiene to regulate your hormones and reduce PCOS symptoms.

The most important thing is that you make high-quality sleep on a daily basis your priority which might require you to try different things and unfamiliar methods at the beginning. Here are some of the tips that can help you improve your sleep.

Sleep hygiene for PCOS:

  • Go to bed and wake at the same time every day (including weekends)
  • Create a nighttime routine 
  • Have a hot shower/bath before going to bed
  • Cool down the temperature in your bedroom
  • Try sleeping in socks
  • Use your bed only for sleeping/sex
  • Drink herbal tea (chamomile) before bed
  • Consider essential oils (lavender)
  • Consider supplements (magnesium)
  • Avoid caffeine 7 hours prior to bed (coffee, dark chocolate)
  • Stop eating 3 hours before bed
  • Exercise regularly (but not before bed)
  • Reduce your exposure to blue light before bed (screens, LED lights)

5. Include dietary supplements

Dietary supplements are not always what people think. When you start taking a supplement you shouldn’t expect that all of your problems and symptoms suddenly disappear. That’s just not how it works. You should always focus on your diet first and get all of your essential nutrients from food.

The role of supplements

While this ‘food first’ approach will benefit most people, when it comes to PCOS, I also believe that dietary supplements have their important role. Because if you have PCOS there’s obviously something not working properly and supplements can be a great tool to support your body in minimizing those dysfunctions. 

You can find a huge number of supplements and herbs recommended for PCOS and that’s because they all have different abilities and effects on different aspects related to PCOS (e.g. lowering testosterone, improving insulin sensitivity, regulating periods). That’s also why some people will benefit from one supplement but the same supplement may not work for you.

Choosing the right supplements

So before you start using any dietary supplement it’s important to know the details about your condition (PCOS is complicated and very individual) which you can get from your health professional and health screening tests. Trust me, you will save yourself a lot of time and a lot of money once you know what you’re actually targeting and what supplements might be more beneficial for you. 

I have a long history of trying all sorts of different herbs, superfoods, and supplements, and some of them really worked. But the truth is that it didn’t happen overnight and that I changed my diet in the first place.

I suggest that if you want to see some results from taking supplements, you should first ensure that you have a solid base (your diet) and include supplements as extra support.

Effective supplements

But there’s actually more and more research being done on different supplements to reduce PCOS symptoms and many of them have already shown their effectiveness. This is great because most of them are very accessible and can be easily implemented into your diet in multiple different forms.

Here are some of the most researched and commonly used supplements.

Supplements for PCOS:

Unfortunately, dietary supplements are currently not being regulated in any way which is oftentimes shown on their poor quality. If you decide to invest in any kind of dietary supplement, I highly suggest you carefully consider your options and choose one from a verified brand, ensuring high-quality products. 

6. Minimize environmental toxins

PCOS is an endocrine disorder which means that anything that can cause hormonal disruptions will have a direct impact on the severity of your condition. There are many factors affecting your hormonal health but one thing that may not be as visible is your environment and the chemical toxins in it.

How do environmental toxins affect hormones?

The impact of environmental toxins on your hormonal system can be massive and that’s because some of the chemicals can actually mimic, block or interfere with the natural human hormones. Women with PCOS should pay especially close attention to toxins classified as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

The link between EDCs & PCOS

There’s strong evidence on the negative effects of EDCs on both female and male fertility in healthy individuals but studies have found that women with PCOS might be at even greater risks due to the toxins exposure.

That’s because EDCs have been linked to increased androgen levels and metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance, which is one of the main causes of PCOS symptoms. So minimizing the exposure to EDCs should remain an essential part of the condition management and PCOS symptoms reduction.

Exposure to EDCs

Unfortunately, those toxins can be found almost everywhere in our environment and their complete elimination may not be possible. The most common EDCs include toxins such as:

  • bisphenol A (BPA),
  • phthalates
  • pesticides
  • polychlorinated biphenyl (PBC)
  • industrial chemicals

You may be surprised by the extent of where all of those chemicals can be found. You’ll commonly find them in plastic bottles and plastic wraps, food packages, and cans, plant additives and herbicides, but also in places like shopping receipts, kids toys, mattresses, and beauty products.

They’re literally everywhere and sadly, some of them are even in the water we drink and in the air we breathe.

Why are EDCs dangerous?

It’s really important to be aware of those disruptors (especially if you have PCOS) because not only they are all around us, but they can be easily absorbed into our body through different ways such as our food, water, air but even our skin.

That’s why I highly suggest having a closer look at your skincare, body and hair products, and especially fragrances (check out my favorite Skincare & Makeup products for PCOS). Avoiding all those toxins in everyday life is extremely difficult but here’s a few tips you can do to minimize your exposure.

Environmental toxins strategy for PCOS:

  • Minimize buying pre-packaged food (cook from fresh or find BPA-free packages)
  • Buy organic produce when possible
  • Consider installing a water filter (or use a water pitcher eg. Brita)
  • Avoid plastics when possible (water bottles, plastic bags, plastic wraps, toys)
  • Don’t store your food in plastic containers (switch to glass, ceramic)
  • Choose fragrance-free products
  • Don’t microwave food in plastic containers 
  • Choose phthalates and sulfate-free hair products and skincare
  • Read the labels & get informed (use ingredient checkers eg. INCIDecoder)

7. Quit smoking

Everyone knows that quitting smoking is a smart choice to make if you’re looking to improve your health. However, if you suffer from PCOS and you want to reduce your symptoms, there are even more reasons to make this important lifestyle change.

Why is quitting smoking important?

While smoking doesn’t do much good to anyone’s health, it’s been shown that women with PCOS might face even worse health consequences of smoking for a number of reasons.

Smoking itself is a risk factor for multiple cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disruptions (including diabetes and insulin resistance). Since PCOS is closely linked to those disorders, it is clear why smoking can make the condition even worse.

How does smoking affect PCOS?

Studies have found that smoking is associated with increased levels of insulin (contributing to insulin resistance) but nicotine has been also linked to increased androgen (male hormones) levels, in particular free testosterone.

If you suffer from PCOS, you may already know that insulin resistance and increased levels of androgens are responsible for many of the common symptoms such as acne, hirsutism, or irregular periods.

That’s why quitting smoking is such an important part of an effective PCOS management strategy and why you should consider it, too.

You can find more information about the effects of smoking on PCOS here: ‘Does Smoking Affect PCOS & How? All You Need To Know‘.

How to quit smoking

However, I understand that smoking is extremely addictive and that quitting is not an easy task to do. While I have never been a smoker myself, I believe that anyone can successfully create new habits and break the old ones with the right strategy (I’ve done it in different areas).

There are different effective methods for building and breaking habits but since we are all different, you must find the best technique for you. There’s a great book ‘Atomic Habits‘ by James Clear which I highly suggest even if you’re not trying to quit smoking as it might help you to make other important changes and live a healthy lifestyle.

Here are some of the tips on how to break a habit such as smoking.

Quitting smoking tips for PCOS:

  • start small and take baby steps
  • find a replacement
  • surround yourself with the right people
  • focus on a healthy diet, exercise and sleep as well
  • identify yourself as a healthy person (non-smoker)
  • find a new strategy to deal with stress/boredom
  • know your triggers and try to eliminate them (alcohol, junk food, parties)
  • be prepared for a failure (and how to get back on track)

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