Episode #160: Rachel’s Fertility Breakthrough: A True PCOS Story

Hi, and welcome back to the PCOS Repair Podcast. Today I’m excited because I get to share one of my favorite kinds of episodes, and that’s a real-life PCOS story. Today I get to share about one of my former patients, Rachel. Her story is especially powerful because it highlights one of the areas of PCOS that often gets overlooked—chronic inflammation. I specifically like her story because it deals with a very generalized type of chronic inflammation, and as you’ll see, it’s the type that most women probably encounter. We addressed it in a way that’s both accessible and effective, and probably the best fit for many people dealing with chronic inflammation.

When we think about root causes, we all have all of them to some extent. It’s just a matter of which ones are currently engaged and causing our PCOS to show up in disruptive ways. We all can have stress responses, increased inflammation, insulin dysregulation, and hormonal or nutritional deficiencies. The question is which of these are the most prominent in our current lifestyle.

All right, let’s get into Rachel’s story. Like all PCOS stories, hers includes a lot of frustration, but the key difference that really led to Rachel’s eventual success was her resilience and her patience with trying and fine-tuning what was going to work for her. She came to me when she was about 35 years old—just about to turn 35—and she had been trying to conceive for over a year without any success. She was beginning to really feel the stress and pressure of, “I’m 35, I waited to have kids thinking I could when I wanted to, and now I’m struggling.”

When she talked to her OB-GYN, they told her she needed to lose a little weight. She was about 50 pounds overweight, so they told her, “Lose around 30 pounds and you should be good to go.” There was no urgency, no real support offered. They didn’t take into account her age, even though she brought it up. The information was vague at best, and there was absolutely zero guidance on how to lose the weight or what ways might work best for her—just some vague reassurance that it was going to happen, that this was normal and she’d be fine.

After a few more months, Rachel just had this strong feeling that something wasn’t right and that she needed to get to the bottom of it. That’s when she and I started working together. She was having irregular cycles and felt like her digestion was a total mess. It was unpredictable—some days she was massively bloated, other days she seemed okay, but she still felt tired and bloated most of the time. In her words, she said, “I feel tired, but I’m not sleepy.” It wasn’t something a good night’s rest would fix. She said she slept fine, but still felt sluggish and weighed down every day.

She’d had some skin issues when she was younger, but they’d mostly calmed down. She mentioned that at certain times of year she would get eczema—usually around her cycle or during extreme stress—but other than that, she didn’t really have many symptoms of inflammation besides the bloating and fatigue. She was eating relatively clean. She said, “I’ve Googled everything, I’ve researched, I’ve watched people talk about how to eat clean.” She exercised daily—some days were better than others—but she always went for a walk or did stretching or yoga. She lifted weights three times a week and tried to get in some strenuous cardio twice a week. Despite all of this, she felt like nothing was working. And you could tell by everything she was trying that she was highly committed and motivated.

So our first step was to look beyond surface symptoms. We ordered some functional labs and reviewed her symptoms in more detail. What we found was interesting. She had elevated inflammatory markers. She didn’t show any food sensitivities, but she had a lot of gut imbalances. So we looked at ways to improve her digestion and reduce her low-grade inflammation. She had some chronic stress—who doesn’t, right?—and she had ongoing immune responses. She experienced seasonal allergies and caught every bug she came across. These things pointed to areas we needed to address.

Like with most root causes, the takeaway here was that her body was not thriving in her environment. Something was inflaming it. And when the body is inflamed and not thriving, it tends to shut down reproduction. Plus, when you’re a little overweight and dealing with insulin resistance just from that alone, it adds to the hormone imbalance and increased androgens. So it wasn’t just about fertility—it was an entire web of inflammation, stress, and weight that was keeping her stuck.

Because she was already doing a great job with her movement, we focused first on food. Based on her inflammatory markers, we did some elimination testing. I guided her through my PCOS Detox protocol, which you can find at pcosdetox.com. It helps you identify what foods support your body and which ones don’t. She didn’t find any foods she needed to cut out completely, but we definitely found ones to minimize. That can be harder to spot since the reaction is subtle—it’s not like lactose intolerance where the symptoms are obvious. It was more like, “When that food crept back in, I just didn’t feel as good.”

We focused on a very anti-inflammatory diet—making sure the foods she ate helped fight inflammation and didn’t contribute to it. Then we worked on gut repair. If you’ve been on birth control or antibiotics, even just once a year, and you’ve never worked to repair your gut, it’s time to address that. So we focused on probiotics, gut-healing foods, and supporting her microbiome. When the gut starts functioning better, everything else improves—nutrient absorption, energy levels, bloating—all of it starts to fall into place.

We also made sure not to overlook sleep and stress. Rachel began making time to quiet her mind and manage her stress. To give you a sense of timeline, we spent about a month assessing everything. Labs, food exploration, and some habit adjustments all happened pretty early on. Then we created a lifestyle outline tailored to her—what she liked to eat, how her day flowed, what she had time for—and implemented it gradually.

Once she was fully implementing her plan, it took a couple of months for her body to really settle in and start recovering. Around four months in, her cycle became regular, and at eight months, she became pregnant naturally. That’s a fairly typical path for this kind of approach.

What stood out to me about Rachel’s story—and why I’m so grateful she let me share it—is that she didn’t have any glaring food sensitivities or unusual test results. Her microbiome was simply off, likely due to birth control and a few courses of antibiotics, and her body was inflamed. Once we addressed that, she began tolerating foods much better, and as her body became less inflamed, she was able to start losing weight.

Around the two-month mark, we carefully reduced her calorie intake—nothing drastic. You don’t want to overhaul everything all at once. From months two to eight, she lost 25 pounds. That’s about four pounds a month—roughly one pound per week—which is a great, steady rate. Of course, it wasn’t linear. Some weeks she lost three pounds, some weeks none. That’s totally normal. But by the time she got pregnant, she’d lost between 20 and 25 pounds.

And the weight loss didn’t feel forced. She told me, “Once the inflammation was addressed, the weight just came off. Yes, I had to be mindful, but my body wanted to lose the weight.” That’s the shift we’re looking for—when your body is working with you instead of against you.

When I asked Rachel what her biggest takeaways were, she said, “Don’t ignore gut health.” For her, healing her gut made her feel like a different person. She also said she was surprised she didn’t have to be perfect. She didn’t have to cut out entire food groups forever. She just had to create balance—more anti-inflammatory foods, fewer inflammatory ones. Consistency mattered more than perfection.

And finally, she said food became something to enjoy again. Before, she felt like food punished her—it made her bloated and uncomfortable. But after healing, food became a way to feel better, to support her health and her body. That mindset shift was huge.

So as we wrap up, if you’ve been feeling discouraged—like all the things that taste good are “bad” for your PCOS—I hope Rachel’s story inspires you. Food can actually make you feel good. It can be healing, nourishing, and empowering. Whether you’re working on fertility or managing your PCOS symptoms, understanding what your body needs and giving it that support can feel like a massage from the inside. You can finally feel good in your skin.

Rachel’s story is proof that healing from the inside out is possible—and it doesn’t have to take forever. In just a few short months, she completely transformed her health. Every journey is different, but I hope this episode helps you feel supported and inspired.

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