Polycystic ovary syndrome, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, (PCOS), is a common endocrine disorder affecting women in their reproductive years. The name of the syndrome comes from accompanying cysts formed on the ovaries, though the cysts are not the cause of the disorder and aren’t always present.
Lifestyle choices that improve diet, sleep, mindfulness and exercise are the best ways to address PCOS naturally. Symptoms can be alleviated through eating differently, sleeping better, regulating the nervous system through meditation, and in general aligning more to nature’s cycles.
Diet includes beverages, such as alcohol. Women with PCOS might be wondering, does drinking alcohol affect my PCOS?
Does drinking alcohol make PCOS symptoms worse?
One factor to consider is weight. The majority of women suffering with PCOS also struggle with weight, and find that their symptoms are helped by losing 5 to 10% of their body weight. Eliminating alcohol is one way to lose weight without having to eat a lot less.
Alcohol also affects blood sugar levels, which has an impact on insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is correlated to PCOS.
Insulin resistance means that a person’s body resists the effects of insulin. The body’s mechanism for lowering blood sugar levels works poorly, leading to the body producing extra insulin.
Increased insulin levels leads to an increase in androgen production, a hormone which all bodies need but which can exacerbate PCOS symptoms when in found in the body in excess. The increase in painful PCOS symptoms in turn can lead to cravings and affect healthy food choices, leading to excess food intake, therefore weight gain.
Women with PCOS tend to experience more depression, anxiety and stress. Alcohol contributes to depression, anxiety and stress, too, acutely during hangovers and also as a longer term effect.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is correlated with PCOS. Women with PCOS have an increased prevalence of NAFLD. Although this condition isn’t caused by alcohol – it comes from high blood sugar levels, insulin resistance, obesity, and high levels of fats in the blood – alcohol makes NAFLD worse and people with NAFLD are advised not to drink alcohol at all, because of the potential for further liver damage.
Sleep disturbances are also linked to PCOS, as is alcohol. Given the critical importance of sleep to restoring all body systems, poor sleep caused by alcohol use is a risk factor for worsening PCOS symptoms, as well. Healthy patterns of sufficient sleep are a key way to reduce PCOS pain.
In sum, alcohol consumption can be said to affect PCOS negatively, making symptoms worse, through worsening insulin levels, sleep, mood, NAFLD and body weight.
Does alcohol affect insulin levels?
Insulin levels are impacted adversely by alcohol, because of the way that alcohol effects blood sugar.
Moderate alcohol intake causes blood sugar to rise, while excessive alcohol intake can cause blood sugar levels to crash, both of which further trigger imbalances which the body struggles to correct through manufacturing hormones in excess.
The hormone insulin helps regulate blood sugar in the body, keeping levels in the range of what is healthy for the body’s many complex and subtle operations.
In about half of women with PCOS, insulin resistance is a problem that’s contributing to painful symptoms. This means the body doesn’t respond to insulin as well as it could and therefore is producing an overabundance of the hormone in order to process sugar, resulting in exceptionally high levels of insulin in the blood.
When we drink alcohol and change our blood sugar levels, this triggers impacts in insulin production, especially when we already have an insulin response problem, as women with PCOS do.
Does alcohol affect hormone levels?
Alcohol consumption affects hormones negatively. It increases estrogen levels and causes progesterone levels to sink.
Since hormone levels are already a factor with PCOS, leading to menstrual irregularities and other painful symptoms, many women decide that these alcohol risks are not worth it.
Does alcohol affect fertility for women with PCOS?
Anyone hoping to have a baby soon or someday should be aware that alcohol can affect fertility in anyone, including women with PCOS.
Alcohol use in general makes it harder to get pregnant, and even after stopping alcohol use, some women’s fertility may be impacted in the longer term by having used alcohol in excess.
Alcohol is believed to reduce the number of eggs a woman has in her ovarian reserve, and also affects menstrual cycle and ovulation. Alcohol also disturbs estrogen and progesterone levels.
Should you stop drinking alcohol if you have PCOS?
We here at Villa Kali Ma favor sobriety highly. In our opinion, life sober is better for a million reasons. Physical health and taking good care of our precious bodies is only one of them. We also count brighter minds, more loving hearts, connected spirits, and meaningful lives (all things considered!) as privileges we earn through protecting our sobriety first and foremost.
For women with PCOS, there seem to be many advantages to taking alcohol out of your diet if you can. Alcohol’s effects on blood sugar levels, liver, hormones, and mood alone are good enough reasons to boot it out of your body. An extra consideration for your decision process, if you do have PCOS, is that many mainstream Western medications, including the diabetes medication Metformin, are rendered essentially ineffective by alcohol, or may have negative interactions.
All in all, each woman must decide for herself what her relationship to alcohol will be. Life is designed to be challenging no matter what, with or without alcohol. But we have many choices that can strengthen or weaken us, including the option to limit known negative factors that just make everything worse.
Villa Kali Ma Can Assist Women With Alcohol Addiction
At Villa Kali Ma, we specialize in helping women to recover from trauma, addiction and mental and emotional pain, freeing them up to live happy, wakeful lives in sobriety.
We offer addiction and mental health recovery programs to treat substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders, as well as trauma, in dedicated holistic facilities that unite the best of Western approaches with ancient practices like Yoga and Ayurveda.