Reddit mentions of Peony & Licorice Teapills (Shao Yao Gan Cao Wan), 200 ct, Plum Flower

Hey, this is possibly unpopular advice, but my cysts actually shrunk so it's worth sharing. I live in California where medicinal marijuana is legal. I was diagnosed two years ago, when I was twenty. My doctor put me on birth control and I lost about 10 pounds as my hormones got regular (I'm 5'3" (i like to believe and a half) and was 165 at my heaviest. The biggest thing that helped me lose weight was a semester I spent in Paris---I wasn't actually on any sort of diet, but the French just don't eat that much processed food and I lost about another 10-15 pounds from spending four months walking around everywhere and eating real food. When I returned from Paris back to LA, I went back to my regular college life, which includes quite a bit of smoking. That's actually when I started losing the most weight (this was in January 2015). I lost another 10 pounds just from trying to cook more like my host mom, but was still living a pretty sedentary, unhealthy american life. In fall the biggest change happened when I went vegan and stopped eating out. This actually made me lose like 15 or 20 pounds since November. I'm now about 115 and no one can even believe when I tell them I used to be 50 pounds heavier.

I went back in for an ultrasound a few months ago and my cysts have actually shrunk. The doctor told me that would be the THC. If you live in a state where you can use THC medically, it really helped. And it does wonders for nasty cramps and anxiety often associated with PCOS

If that's not your thing/not a possibility, I would avoid the counting calories and low carb diet-y things. Eating a natural, mostly plant-based diet with minimal animal products (I still sometimes cheat and eat chick-fil-a and pork ramen and definitely ice cream) that will make a huge difference in your overall health.

Lastly, if you are trying to regulate your period, or if you have skin problems, I would recommend using traditional chinese medicine--the herbs white peony root and licorice are wonderful for PCOS and menstrual health in general (actually licorice is good for everything!!) You can actually buy the herbs and make teas or tinctures, or you can just buy capsules online.


There's some advice! you can message me though if you want to know anything else...I had a very very bad time with birth control (it made me crazy and gave me actual morning sickness) so I spent the past year or so studying alternatives to western medicine). Best of luck with your journey, soul cyster!

These are the herbs I use. Sometimes it's nice to pretend to be an alchemist and make your own tinctures, but this is cheapest and easiest

http://www.amazon.com/Peony-Licorice-Teapills-Plum-Flower/dp/B004ZH5SKQ/ref=sr_1_1_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1464900352&sr=1-1&keywords=gan+cao+shao+yao'

oh and it says to take 8 a day i think...i did not because 1. they look like little lead bullets and thought putting 8 in my mouth at once was silly. But mainly because three is enough and I didn't want to re-purchase so frequently