Episode #193: Why Root Causes Matter

Hi, and welcome back to the PCOS Repair Podcast.

If you’ve ever followed PCOS advice that worked really well for someone else but then felt like it did almost nothing for you, or you’ve tried a protocol that came highly recommended and ended up more confused and frustrated than where you started, or you’ve been to see a doctor, a naturopath, or a nutritionist, and you were really excited to get some advice and help, only to find that what they told you either didn’t work for you or felt like things you’d heard before that weren’t very specific to you, then you’re going to like this episode.

Today, I’m going to walk you through why this experience happens over and over again for women with PCOS. There’s a reason generic PCOS advice often falls flat, and it’s not because the advice is necessarily wrong. It’s because PCOS is not just one condition with one cause. It’s a collection of symptoms driven by different underlying physiological patterns that interact with our environment.

There are several different nuances at play for each person. Until you understand your own pattern, your underlying root causes, and how they interact with your environment, you’re essentially guessing. Most of the time, we guess at least partially wrong, so we don’t get the wonderful results we’re hoping for.

Today we’re going to talk about root causes and begin to understand how knowing what’s really going on is the beginning of changing everything.

Welcome back to the PCOS Repair Podcast. Hi, I’m Ashlene. I’m so glad you’re here. And if you’re new to the podcast, this is a place where we talk about PCOS—or the newer name, PMOS—in a way that’s honest, genuine, practical, and science-based, without impossible protocols, all-or-nothing approaches, cookie-cutter plans, or random tips that send you down rabbit holes that may or may not even be close to what you actually need.

I think this is a conversation that matters so much for women with PCOS because it goes much deeper than what to eat, what not to eat, what supplements to take, or which supplements are useless. It gets into what’s really going on in your body so you can make all of these decisions from a place of being more informed.

It also helps you have more informed conversations with the healthcare professionals in your life. Whether you’re seeing a naturopathic physician, a medical doctor, or a nutritionist, this understanding allows you to have more meaningful conversations and ultimately make choices that are more beneficial to you.

So, let’s talk about why generic advice falls flat over and over again.

Let me start with something I think many of you have experienced firsthand.

You find out you have PCOS, and you immediately start searching for what to do. You find recommendations online. These days, there are lots of people recommending things online, especially in the form of influencers. Sometimes they genuinely have good information. The struggle is figuring out whether it’s actually good information.

First of all, some of it is just plain ridiculous.

Second, even if it is good information, is it good information for you?

That’s the part where there’s usually a mismatch.

You find a protocol online. You hear hundreds of women saying it changed their lives. The reviews are incredible, so you decide to try it.

And… not much happens.

Or things get a little better and then plateau.

Or some symptoms improve while others stay exactly the same—or even get worse.

Then you’re left wondering:

“What am I doing wrong?”

“What am I missing?”

“What’s the missing piece?”

You start asking yourself why it seems to work for everyone else but not for you. Eventually, many women begin believing that they’re the problem.

But in most cases, you didn’t do anything wrong.

The protocol simply wasn’t designed for your specific physiology or your specific body.

It was designed for a generic PCOS population. Within that population, the root causes driving symptoms can be completely different from one woman to another. Some women absolutely will fit that particular protocol, just like many others would fit a completely different one.

The problem is that we’re taking a stab in the dark rather than understanding which approach our body actually needs.

When we understand what our body needs, everything begins to click.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it becomes easy—you still have to do the work and adjust your environment—but suddenly the effort you put in actually pays off.

Think about this for a moment.

Two women both have PCOS.

They’ve both been diagnosed.

They’ve both had very similar workups.

Up to this point, everything appears the same.

Woman A struggles primarily with weight gain. She has intense sugar cravings, fatigue after meals, and irregular cycles.

Woman B is fairly lean, but she struggles mainly with poor sleep, anxiety, hair thinning, and absent periods.

Both have PCOS.

Both have had lab testing.

Both have seen medical professionals.

Both are following a generic protocol.

Is it any wonder that the protocol helps one woman far more than the other?

Here we have two women with completely different symptom patterns, yet they received the same diagnosis. When they left the doctor’s office after hearing they had PCOS, they both searched for the same protocol.

But the physiology behind their symptoms is different.

The environments their bodies are living in are different.

Their symptoms are different.

Their needs are different.

And probably even their ultimate health goals are different.

Those are three major pieces we need to take into consideration.

The first is: What are the underlying drivers of your specific PCOS symptoms?

Irregular cycles can occur in many different root causes, so we have to look beyond the diagnosis itself. We need to understand which symptoms are showing up for you and, ultimately, what root cause is driving them.

The second piece is: What environmental factors are contributing to that root cause?

Some aspects of your environment are supporting your health.

Others are working against you.

And some are fairly neutral—they’re neither helping nor hurting.

We need to sort through those and identify which factors matter most.

The third piece is just as important:

What is your primary health goal?

Are you trying to improve body composition by reducing body fat and building lean muscle?

Are you trying to get pregnant?

Are you trying to recover an absent cycle?

Are you working toward better mental health and emotional stability so you feel more consistent throughout the day?

Those goals are different for every woman.

That combination of your root cause, your environment, and your health goal creates a completely different path forward.