Candida And Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a condition involving a hormonal imbalance in women.

It leads to excessive amounts of male hormones in the body, to infertility and to the formation of multiple cysts on the ovaries. Women are often overweight and have excess facial hair growth.

One might wonder how this relates to candida yeast, a fungal organism that can become overgrown and infect the body.  As it turns out, the conditions are definitely related to one another. 

Polycystic ovarian syndrome is believed to be caused by insulin resistance, sometimes called the pre-diabetic state.  When the woman takes in sugar, insulin is released in order to process and promote the storage of sugar but, for some reason, the body does not respond normally to the insulin, resulting in an increase in the circulating insulin level.

When insulin circulates in high amounts, it seems to trigger the woman's body to make more male hormones, disrupting ovulation and creating cysts on the ovaries.  In addition, the resistance to insulin means that the relative circulating amounts of glucose (sugar) in the body is higher than average. 

This is exactly the kind of environment that candida yeast likes. Candida lives in small number in the genital tract, on the skin and in the bowels.  When given a sugar nutritional load, it proliferates, overgrows wherever it can and causes its own set of candida symptoms.

Candida in the vagina yields an itchy vaginitis that is difficult to eradicate.  Candida in the intestines can cause symptoms of abdominal pain, cramps, and bowel change related to its local bowel overgrowth. 

Candida also causes the bowels to leak, letting in candida yeast toxins and other toxins that make one feel fatigued, arthritic and generally ill ultimately leading to a more serious systemic yeast infection.

This relationship between polycystic ovarian syndrome and candida overgrowth is important.  If a woman knows she has polycystic ovarian syndrome, it makes sense for her to protect herself from candida as the insulin resistance is not completely treatable.