What is PCOS?

Polycystic ovarian syndrome, often referred to as PCOS, is a hormone-related condition where a person’s ovaries produce an abnormal amount of androgens-the ‘male sex hormone’. While it’s normal to have small amounts present for people with a uterus, too much can cause complications.

The name, polycystic ovarian syndrome, refers to the small cysts that typically form in the ovaries due to the hormone imbalance. However, it’s important to note that not all people with the disorder experience cysts, while some women who don’t have the disorder can develop cysts.

For someone living with PCOS, the abnormal amount of androgens can cause a range of symptoms, including:

📌 Missed or irregular periods

📌 Increased bleeding and/or pains

📌 Excess body hair, including on the back, chest, and stomach

📌 Male-pattern baldness or thinning hair

📌 Infertility

📌 Dark or thick skin patches on the back of the neck, armpits, or under the breasts

📌 Insulin resistance

The exact cause of PCOS isn’t clear, but research is being done to better understand the condition. Findings include that it may run in the family, and there are also links to childhood trauma.

While there is no ‘cure’ for PCOS, treatment does exist to lower the impact of symptoms. This includes medication, like birth control pills to regulate hormones and diabetes medication which can help with PCOS-related insulin resistance and lowering androgens.

PCOS is a common condition, and affects around 7-10% of women of childbearing age, and is the most common cause of infertility. It’s approximated that there are 5-6 million people in the United States living with PCOS.

Understanding the types of childhood adversity

Adverse childhood experiences, known as the acronym ACEs, is a general term referring to any form of abuse or mistreatment experienced during childhood. Childhood adversity can come in many forms, including:

📌 Emotional neglect

📌 Physical and sexual abuse

📌 Alcohol or substance abuse within the household

📌 Mental illness within a household

📌 Parental abuse due to divorce/separation or incarceration

📌 Parental death

In a study researching specifically the relationship between childhood maltreatment and PCOS, it was found emotional and physical abuse were significantly associated.

Childhood adversity and the impact on health

From infancy through to adolescence, the body’s biology is constantly growing, changing, and adapting. A person’s biological function is partly determined by the environment they grew up in, and adverse environments can have a significant, negative impact.

For instance, if a child grows up in a condition where they’re constantly extremely stressed or afraid, this can result in their immune system and body’s stress response system developing abnormally.

So, later on, when the child is an adult-even if they’re in a situation that is an ordinary level of stress, their body will react as if they were under extreme stress. This could manifest in extreme physiological reactions, like rapid breathing, or fast heart pounding.

This is just one example of how an adverse childhood experience can have a lifelong impact on a person’s body and brain development. Childhood traumatic experiences can also lead to other debilitating psychological and mental health issues.

For example, research has shown that complexly traumatized children are more likely to engage in high-risk behavior later in life. This can include unsafe sexual practices, alcohol or substance abuse, and smoking, which increase the likelihood of health problems associated with them.

The link between trauma and PCOS

According to Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, the current Surgeon General of California at the time of writing, childhood trauma affects brain development, the immune system, hormonal systems, and cardiovascular/metabolic health. These are all systems that are impacted by PCOS.

If a child grows up in a high-stress environment, it can cause their body’s stress systems to react negatively, impacting their development. For example, a 2015 study found that children growing up in stressful environments had higher levels of cortisol, even long after the event.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the same adrenal glands as androgens. So, it’s not too hard to draw a link between how trauma and stress can also impact the production of androgens as well as cortisol, leading to PCOS-related symptoms.

Research has found that conditions, like chronic stress, which can be the result of a traumatic or adverse event from childhood, can also cause elevated androgens-contributing to PCOS symptoms.

Further research needs to be done, but some scholars speculate that elevated androgens-causing PCOS-may be the body’s way of protecting the brain from the harmful effects of chronic stress and increased cortisol levels. Unfortunately, it results in an array of debilitating symptoms through PCOS.

Further reading

As the importance of mental health has been growing around the globe, so has the study researching the impacts it can have on our physical health and overall well-being. PCOS is one of the various conditions that can be caused by childhood trauma.

If you’re interested in reading about the lifelong impact childhood trauma can carry through to adulthood and the risks it brings, we recommend the following books:

📌 The Body Keeps The Score (2014)-Written by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., the founder and medical director of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. It covers how traumatic stress can rearrange the brain’s wiring and our physical body.

📌 The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity (2018)-Dr. Nadine Burke Harris discusses adverse childhood experiences (ACE), how they can impact our growth, show up as physical ailments later in life, and how to heal them.

📌 It Didn’t Start with You (2016)-Mark Wolynn discusses how trauma can be passed through generations and even through genes.