PCOS meditation – hormonal balance and science behind mindfulness

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a complex condition that affects a female's health in multiple directions, including reproductive, endocrine, and metabolic systems. The origin and a cure for PCOS still remain a mystery, but the symptoms can be managed with medication and lifestyle changes.

PCOS can affect both physical and mental health of a woman, and so it can be beneficial to address the condition in a holistic way, targeting both physical and emotional health. While your health care provider would prescribe certain medicine to manage the physical symptoms, there are some things you can do to support your emotional health and ensure peace of mind. For example, PCOS meditation can be a helpful tool. Let’s dive deeper into what it means and how it works.

PCOS and mental health 

To understand how exactly meditation can help with PCOS and its symptoms, let’s first explore how the condition affects mental health.

PCOS affects reproductive health and causes hormonal imbalance, characterized by an increase of male hormones in a female’s body. Because of these hormonal fluctuations, resulting in irregular cycles and other consequences, women with PCOS are especially susceptible to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression. To put it simply, it can be a challenge to stay peaceful and happy when hormones cause a hurricane in your body.

Studies say that both too low and too high testosterone in women can lead to depressive states. Around 60-80% of females with PCOS have abnormally high testosterone levels, manifesting as hyperandrogenism, acne, excess hair growth, or androgenic alopecia. These symptoms of PCOS, among others, can also cause mental disturbances, affecting self-image and self esteem for some women with PCOS. One study reported curious insights about the mental health state of women affected with PCOS when compared to non-affected women. This is what researchers found:

• Patients with hirsutism (one of the PCOS symptoms) showed lower self-esteem compared to women without this symptom;
• Menstrual irregularities led women to higher dissatisfaction in their body image;
• Higher body mass index (BMI) was also linked to body dissatisfaction. However, BMI didn’t seem to affect self-esteem in this target group;
• Women managing infertility experienced lower self-esteem and body satisfaction. 

Studies showed that women with PCOS have a higher response in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a stress response system. HPA is the system that triggers the fight-or-flight response in a dangerous or stressful situation, releasing stress hormones. Some studies reported that several stress hormones were higher in females with PCOS compared to the overall healthy group when introduced to the same stress factor or a challenging task. However, stress itself does not necessarily cause PCOS.

This means that women with PCOS can be even more vulnerable to stress, and their body response is more intense, so a person can experience anxiety easier and stronger. This is why mental health practices, such as mindfulness and meditation for PCOS, are especially recommended to PCOS patients. 

In short, the mental health struggle for PCOS-affected women, sometimes called an invisible struggle, is real and is something that needs to be addressed. Luckily, there are ways to manage it. Physical exercise as well as mindfulness and meditation are all tools that can help in managing PCOS.

What is PCOS meditation? 

There are at least two ways to address PCOS:

• Medical – managing physical symptoms with medications and treatments. This includes lifestyle changes such as diet and physical exercise.
• Meditation and mindfulness interventions (MMI) – psychological treatment, addressing mental and emotional health. 

The MMI is a therapeutic intervention. Although it is not officially clinically proven, it is currently a focus of interest in scientific studies, shown to be effective in several cases. Meditation was found to be effective in managing psychological symptoms of PCOS, such as low self-esteem, anxiety, and even depression. This management further also improves even the biological manifestations of the symptoms, as it was said in one review paper about PCOS meditation.

Basically, mindfulness and meditation are sessions of "observing" your own process of thought and bodily sensations without thinking about them or judging. This observation and acceptance of physiological signs and symptoms is critical in this practice. Also, they actually help to reduce physiological symptoms like muscular tension and anxiety. PCOS meditation is a meditation practice targeting specifically PCOS symptoms, both physical and emotional manifestations.

Can PCOS meditation improve mental and physical health?

Not that many studies explored mindfulness and meditation effects on the mental state of women with PCOS, although there are some.

One study, for instance, showed that women with PCOS reported better quality of life, less pain, and overall calmness after a 9-week session of meditation, which included breathing techniques, body scanning, “Om” chanting, etc. 

Another study explored how an 8-week mindfulness stress management program influenced the mental state of women with PCOS. Again, positive results were the next:

• Significantly fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms;
• Lower salivary cortisol concentrations;
• An increase in life satisfaction and quality of life scores.

Interestingly, in a study where infertile women with PCOS practiced yoga and meditation for 90 minutes a day for six weeks, some improvements were noticed in hirsutism and anthropometric measurements (abdomen and hip). So, some medical professionals might even recommend using certain yoga practices in combination with a prescribed medical treatment.

Meditation also helped manage psychological issues for patients with other conditions. In general, meditation is proven to promote stress relief as well as make positive changes in several other ways, also related to stress: 

• Changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS), relaxation;
• Changes in brain structure and activity, leading to relief from anxiety;
• Changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, reducing cortisol induced by stress;
• Lower stress hormone cortisol in the blood;
• Increases in grey matter region (it plays a role in regulating emotions, movement, and memory); 
• Regulate sleep quality and lower cortisol level with long-term practice;  
• Improved physical and psychological health in people with type 2 diabetes.

These are only some of the known research. And women with PCOS may also benefit from the use of mindfulness and meditation practices.

The good news about meditation is that there are no side effects or precautions for meditation, so it can be practiced anytime and by anyone. To summarize, why would you do PCOS meditation? Some of the reasons to practice mindfulness and meditation for managing PCOS psychological symptoms are the next:

• No side effects and precautions (however, meditation-related yoga practices might need an expert guidance and medical adviser consultation);
• Easy to practice and free;
• Improving mental health long-term, if practiced consistently;
• Improving physical symptoms, making positive changes in the brain, lowering stress hormones in the blood, etc.

PCOS meditation tips: Science of mindfulness for PCOS

Mindfulness and meditation for managing PCOS mental and even physical symptoms can include several options:

1. Guided meditation with music or a voice guiding what part of the body to focus on;
2. Non-guided meditation (observance in silence);
3. Breathing techniques, such as pranayama;
4. Yoga, similar to exercise, can help in weight management and with overall health. It can also help minimize the risk of PCOS as one of the preventive tools. Certain yoga poses might benefit and strengthen specific areas of the body, for example, pelvic floor muscles.

These are some of the techniques and meditative practices that can be tailored to a specific need of a person, but this is something that shall be consulted with a specialist. Some studies even reported hormonal changes after PCOS meditation.

In one study, they discovered that regular practice of certain asanas (yoga poses) together with pranayama (breathing techniques) can decrease testosterone by almost 29% and improve androgen levels in females. Depression and anxiety were also reduced. However, with a condition that this mindful yoga is practiced regularly. For instance, in this study it was one hour a day, done three times a week for three months.

There is no magic in these techniques, as the muscles work and breathing techniques combined together actually influence blood circulation and pressure, heart rate, and more. Breathing techniques also have a complicated pathway of affecting nerves and brain regions. All this affects hormonal levels in a positive way when practiced correctly. Although the causes of PCOS are not clear, some contributing factors may include excess androgen hormones and insulin production. And these meditative breathing techniques can be helpful in regulating hormonal levels.

It’s worth noting that results won’t come immediately; it takes time and dedication to see the improvement in physical and mental state. At least a couple of weeks of constant practice needed to see the results, as it was said in several studies.

Final verdict

Women with PCOS are at higher risk of experiencing mental health issues. They are also affected by stress at a more severe level than other people. This is why it is important to address PCOS symptoms not only on a physiological level but also on a psychological one.

Several practices for PCOS, such as mindfulness and meditation, were studied and proven to have certain positive effects both on mental state and on some physiological aspects. 

Mindfulness and meditation are not the primary treatment for PCOS but can be great tools used in combination with the medically prescribed treatment. Meditation itself won’t cure PCOS, but can help improve certain symptoms and increase a quality of life in general. Make sure to consult your health care provider to define any special precautions regarding some techniques for your case, if any.

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References

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