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Written by Sarah Collins · Every article cited · Reviewed on a schedule

How we source
PCOSguides

Evidence-based PCOS guidance

Ten minutes
wasn't enough.

PCOS has four common drivers. Most advice picks one without telling you which.

Every article names its sources, its doses, and the people it will not work for.

Written by Sarah Collins for the appointment you didn't get — not for a search engine.

The premise

Your symptoms are metabolic. Not a willpower problem.

Insulin resistance makes carbohydrate cravings physiological. Raised androgens drive the acne and the hair loss together. Naming the mechanism is the difference between advice you can follow and advice you feel guilty about.

Read the four types →
Original diagram. The same meal, two responses — the spike and the crash below baseline are why the afternoon craving is physiology, not a lapse.

Which one is yours

01

Insulin-resistant

Blood sugar and insulin signalling

Carb cravings, energy crashes, weight that centres on the middle, skin darkening at the neck.

02

Inflammatory

Chronic low-grade inflammation

Joint aches, headaches, gut symptoms, skin flares, unexplained fatigue.

03

Adrenal

Stress axis and DHEA-S

Normal testosterone but raised DHEA-S, symptoms that track your stress, wired-but-tired evenings.

04

Post-pill

Androgen rebound after hormonal birth control

Cycles and skin were fine on the pill, then broke down in the months after stopping.

Take the quiz

Free · no email needed to see your result · many people match more than one

Why you can trust this

The sourcing rules, in public.

Evidence hierarchy — best first

  1. 01Systematic reviews & meta-analysesCochrane, PubMed
  2. 02Randomised controlled trialspopulation and n stated
  3. 03Clinical guidelinesESHRE, ACOG, Endocrine Society, NIH
  4. 04Observational studieslabelled as observational
  5. 05Expert clinical opinionlabelled as opinion

Never cited: Other blogs · Supplement brand pages · Social media · AI summaries

HypothalamusPituitaryOvary
Original diagram — the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian loop. Drawn here rather than licensed, because the drawing is part of the explanation.
enforced

Minimum three primary sources

Every article links to the study itself, never to another blog. The build fails if an article carries fewer than three.

enforced

Every protocol names who it excludes

Interactions, contraindications, and the people who should skip it. That section is mandatory, not a footnote.

enforced

No cure claims, no outcome promises

PCOS is managed, not cured. Nothing here promises weight loss, pregnancy, or a symptom outcome — and no page will ever show a before-and-after photo.

in progress

Named medical review

A registered dietitian and a clinician are being recruited to review this content. Until an article carries a named reviewer, it states which clinical guideline it was checked against.

enforced

Reviewed on a schedule

Anything carrying a dose is re-reviewed every 12 months, and immediately when a guideline changes. Every article shows its last-reviewed date.

enforced

Corrections are published

When we get something wrong we change the article and say what changed. We do not quietly edit.

The sections

Counts are the planned build, not what is published today.