PCOS Series (Part 2): The Hormonal Accelerator

In Part 1, we talked about how insulin resistance is the main problem in PCOS. Now let’s look at how that insulin problem messes up your hormones even more.

The Hormone Imbalance: LH and FSH

In a normal cycle, your brain releases hormones in a steady rhythm. This tells your body to make the right amounts of two important hormones: LH (Luteinizing Hormone) and FSH (Follicle-Stimulating Hormone).

In PCOS, this rhythm gets messed up:

• Faster Brain Signals: The hormone environment in PCOS (high testosterone from insulin resistance and low progesterone from not ovulating) makes your brain send signals too fast.
• Too Much LH: These fast signals create more LH than FSH. This is why doctors often see a high LH-to-FSH ratio in PCOS patients.
• Ovaries in Overdrive: The high LH, combined with the high insulin we talked about in Part 1, tells your ovaries to make even more testosterone.

This creates a loop: too much testosterone messes up the brain signals, which creates more LH, which—with high insulin—creates even more testosterone.

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