That's great!  I remember before surgery on 2000mg of Glucophage my fasting glucoses were in the 120-130s and now glucophage free they are in the 70s.  My fasting insulin (way different than the glucose test) went from 95 to normal (which should be <5 I think).

Insulin is the hormone that reduces blood glucose levels.  Many times with PCOS we'll have normal glucose levels but still have abnormal elevated insulin levels which is the Insulin Resistance because our bodies are resistant to the insulin that's being produced which results in the build up in the bloodstream.  Most doc's don't test for elevated insulin.  I was tested for years but they only tested my glucose and said it was normal.  Then finally I saw an endo who was familiar with PCOS and she did a fasting insulin & glucose which resulted in a fasting insulin of 95 and a normal glucose (I don't remember the exact #).


Anyway...GL!

My question is does obesity in an way cause PCOS??  Just wondering as I hopefully will have lap banding and I have had some severe pain episodes over the last couple of years and now they say my insulin and lipids are high which I have never had before and that I may possible have PCOS. I have to see an infertilty specialist now as I can not get pregnant, but now that I am quite over weight/obese I figured it would be healthier for me to loose weight prior to even if I do further my trying of getting pregnant?? I know that obesity can cause infertility, but can it cause PCOS??  Thank You!!!

Hi Kelly,

How interesting to know that the book you mentioned takes issue with so-called "normal" ranges of certain labs that are related to PCOS. Glad to know my NUT isn't alone in her thinking (though she definitely is outside of the box and progressive in her approach.).

To answer your question, to the best of my knowledge as a layperson, I believe that fasting insulin levels and fasting glucose levels are not the same thing. I say this for two reasons--my labs had values for both glucose and insulin. Also, glucose numbers are such a different measurement (yours was 103) whereas my insulin was in the single digits, teens and twenty's. So I am pretty sure they are different. I don't recall what my fasting glucose level was, or I would check it and post it here.

Good for you that your glucose is getting better.

If you have your book handy, could you post what the author of Living with PCOS had said about "normal" ranges for fasting glucose and fasting insulin? I would be very curious to see!

Thanks,

Sab

Just wanted to share some good news. I have been seeing a NUT named Bonnie  for a few years who specializes in PCOS and IR (she has both of them herself). I see her regularly (she is a differen person than the NUT who works at my surgeon's office).

Anyway, one of Bonnie's pet peeves is that she feels the lab values for "normal" fastin insulin levels are way too wide. A few years pre-op she took a look at my so called "normal" fasting insulin levels and told me "you are VERY insulin resistant."

Well, I had blood work done in September at my internist's office and I took a copy of the results to Bonnie. These were my fasting insulin levels:

21 in Dec 07 my fasting insulin was 21
15 in Jun 08 (pre-op)
2 in Sept 08

Bonnie was so pleased with my awesome insulin levels! She said that in terms of insulin resistance, it seemed like my whole system was quieting down. Yay!

Also, my cholesterol and triglycerides ALSO went down. My triglycerides were actually normal for the first time in years. My cholesterol is still high, but it is MUCH better than it was before.

Yay! I am so glad that I had WLS!

First, visit Kaye Bailey's website and learn about the 5 day pouch test. (www.5daypouchtest.com) 0r (livingafterwlscom) ..you need to go on it to break the carb addiciton cycle.  This is very important, you need to really concentrate on losing your wieght before you to get to 12 months out, it slows down considerably after 6 months, but is almost nonexistant after 12, so do it now! 

I have always had hunger, mostly head hunger, but am stille not as satisfied as I need and want to be, the 5 day pouch test has helped me tremendously by getting off of carbs and feeling full, when I still feel like I am hungry, I drink coffee with sweet-n-lo and sugar free creamer...I have never liked coffee before, and am still not a huge fun, but it really fills up my pouch and makes me feel full and satisifed.  Try it...it has successfully helped me to get off of carbs and back to a healthy way of eating 3 meals consisting of 2/3 lean protein and 1/3 helathy carbs in the form of low-glycemic veggies and fruits (soemthing I learned from Kaye and her website).

The website is another helpful forum of other weight loss surgery grads, who just want to support one another.

Good Luck and remember, you can do this, we just have to relearn how and what to eat! :)

Karen